Orthodox Calendar

Tuesday, September 19, 2079
Tuesday of the 15th week after Pentecost

No Fast

Scripture Readings

Commemorations

Scripture Readings

Galatians 2.21-3.7 (Epistle)

21I don’t reject the grace of God. For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing!”

1Foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you not to obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly portrayed among you as crucified? 2I just want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith? 3Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now completed in the flesh? 4Did you suffer so many things in vain, if it is indeed in vain? 5He therefore who supplies the Spirit to you and does miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith? 6Even so, Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.” 7Know therefore that those who are of faith are children of Abraham.

Mark 6.1-7 (Gospel)

1He went out from there. He came into his own country, and his disciples followed him. 2When the Sabbath had come, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many hearing him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things?” and, “What is the wisdom that is given to this man, that such mighty works come about by his hands? 3Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James, Joses, Judah, and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” So they were offended at him.

4Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and among his own relatives, and in his own house.” 5He could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.

6He marveled because of their unbelief. He went around the villages teaching. 7He called to himself the twelve, and began to send them out two by two; and he gave them authority over the unclean spirits.

Commemorations

Miracle of Archangel Michael at Colossae

In Colossae in Phrygia there were a church and a holy spring dedicated to the Archangel Michael. Malicious pagans diverted the course of two rivers so that they would inundate the church. But the Archangel appeared, bringing with him an earthquake that shook the whole area and opened a fissure into which the waters plunged, sparing the church. The place was thereafter called “Chonae” Greek for “funnels” instead of Colossae.

Holy Prophet Zacharias and Righteous Elizabeth (1st c.), parents of St John the Forerunner.

The story of the holy parents of the Forerunner is told in the first chapters of Luke’s Gospel. Several of the Fathers say that Zacharias is the one who, the Lord said, was slain between the temple and the altar (Matthew 23:35); because he continued to call the Mary the Mother of God a virgin even after she bore Christ; and because his son had escaped the slaughter of the innocents ordered by Herod. St Elizabeth had hidden him in a cave in the desert; he remained in the wilderness from that time until he began to preach by the Jordan.