Orthodox Calendar

Wednesday, May 18, 2016
Wednesday of the 3rd Sunday of Pascha

Fast — Wine and Oil are Allowed — Abstain from meat, fish, dairy, and eggs

Scripture Readings

Commemorations

Scripture Readings

Acts 8.18-25 (Epistle)

18Now when Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, 19saying, “Give me also this power, that whomever I lay my hands on may receive the Holy Spirit.” 20But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! 21You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart isn’t right before God. 22Repent therefore of this, your wickedness, and ask God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. 23For I see that you are in the poison of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity.”

24Simon answered, “Pray for me to the Lord, that none of the things which you have spoken happen to me.”

25They therefore, when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached the Good News to many villages of the Samaritans.

John 6.35-39 (Gospel)

35Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will not be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36But I told you that you have seen me, and yet you don’t believe. 37All those whom the Father gives me will come to me. He who comes to me I will in no way throw out. 38For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. 39This is the will of my Father who sent me, that of all he has given to me I should lose nothing, but should raise him up at the last day.

Commemorations

Great Martyr Irene of Thessalonica

“Saint Irene was the daughter of a princelet called Licinius; named Penelope by her parents, through a divine revelation she was brought to faith in Christ and at Baptism was renamed Irene. In her zeal for piety she broke in pieces all the idols of her father, who commanded that she be trampled underfoot by horses. But while she remained unharmed, one of the horses rose up and cast down her father, killing him. By her prayer she raised him to life again, and he believed and was baptized. Afterwards, in many journeyings, Saint Irene suffered torments and punishments for her faith, but was preserved by the power of God, while working dread miracles and converting many thousands of souls. At last she came to Ephesus, where she fell asleep in peace, in the first half of the fourth century. Two days after her death, her gravestone was found lifted off, and her grave empty. At least two churches were dedicated to St Irene in Constantinople, and she is the patroness of the Aegean island of Thera, which is commonly called Santorini, a corruption of “Saint Irene.” (Great Horologion)

Note: The most famous Agia Irene church in Constantinople is not named after her, but for the Holy Peace (Greek Irene) of God, which is Christ.

The Prologue’s account differs in several details. St Nikolai places St Irene in the Balkans in the town of Magedon, in apostolic times rather than the 3rd-4th century. In his account Irene learned the Christian faith from her teacher, Appelianus, and was baptised by the Apostle Timothy himself. He attributes the anger of Irene’s father to her refusal to marry rather than her smashing the family idols (though of course she might have done both).