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Wednesday, March 31, 2027

Readings for March 31, 2027: Wednesday of the 3rd week of Great Lent

Tone 2

The Scripture readings appointed for the Divine Liturgy, following the practice of the Orthodox Church in America.

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Commemorated today: Repose St Innocent, Metr. Moscow and Apostle to Americas

A prayer before reading the Scriptures

The priest says this prayer quietly before the Gospel at the Divine Liturgy. Many Orthodox Christians also say it before reading the Bible at home.

Illumine our hearts, O God who lovest mankind, with the pure light of thy divine knowledge, and open the eyes of our understanding to the comprehension of the proclamation of thy Gospel. Implant in us, likewise, the fear of thy blessed commandments; that, trampling down all carnal desires, we may pursue a godly life, both thinking and performing such things as are well-pleasing unto thee. For thou art the light of our souls, and of our bodies, O Christ our God, and unto thee do we ascribe glory, together with thy Father who is from everlasting, and thy holy, and blessed, and life-giving Spirit, now, and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

From the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, in Isabel F. Hapgood's translation (Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic (Greco-Russian) Church, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1906, pp. 88–89; public domain). See the scan

At the Divine Liturgy

For Repose St Innocent, Metr. Moscow and Apostle to Americas

Epistle Hebrews 7:26–8:2 WEB

Hebrews 7

26 For such a high priest was fitting for us: holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; 27 who doesn’t need, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices daily, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. For he did this once for all, when he offered up himself. 28 For the law appoints men as high priests who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints a Son forever who has been perfected.

Hebrews 8

1 Now in the things which we are saying, the main point is this: we have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a servant of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, not man.

Read the whole chapter →

Gospel John 10:9–16 WEB

9 I am the door. If anyone enters in by me, he will be saved, and will go in and go out and will find pasture. 10 The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly. 11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who doesn’t own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and flees. The wolf snatches the sheep and scatters them. 13 The hired hand flees because he is a hired hand and doesn’t care for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and I’m known by my own; 15 even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep which are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. They will become one flock with one shepherd.

Read the whole chapter →

Great Lent: Old Testament readings

On the weekdays of Great Lent the Church reads the Old Testament: Isaiah at the Sixth Hour, Genesis and Proverbs at Vespers. When the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is served (usually on Wednesdays and Fridays), it begins with Vespers, so its readings are the Genesis and Proverbs ones. Today a Divine Liturgy is also served (above); the Lenten readings of the weekday are still appointed:

Old Testament Isaiah 10:12–20 · Sixth Hour Brenton

12 And it shall come to pass, when the Lord shall have finished doing all things on mount Sion and Jerusalem, [that] I will visit upon the proud heart, [even] upon the ruler of the Assyrians, and upon the boastful haughtiness of his eyes. 13 For he said, I will act in strength, and in the wisdom of [my] understanding I will remove the boundaries of nations, and will spoil their strength. 14 And I will shake the inhabited cities: and I will take with my hand all the world as a nest: and I will even take them as eggs that have been left; and there is none that shall escape me, or contradict me. 15 Shall the axe glorify itself without him that hews with it? or shall the saw lift up itself without him that uses it, as if one should lift a rod or staff? but it shall not be so; 16 but the Lord of hosts shall send dishonour upon thine honour, and burning fire shall be kindled upon thy glory. 17 And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and he shall sanctify him with burning fire, and it shall devour the wood as grass. 18 In that day the mountains shall be consumed, and the hills, and the forests, and [fire] shall devour [both] soul and body: and he that flees shall be as one fleeing from burning flame. 19 And they that are left of them shall be a [small] number, and a child shall write them. 20 And it shall come to pass in that day [that] the remnant of Israel shall no more join themselves with, and the saved of Jacob shall no more trust in, them that injured them; but they shall trust in the Holy God of Israel, in truth.

Read the whole chapter →

Old Testament Genesis 7:6–9 · Vespers Brenton

6 And Noe was six hundred years old when the flood of water was upon the earth. 7 And then went in Noe and his sons and his wife, and his sons' wives with him into the ark, because of the water of the flood. 8 And of clean flying creatures and of unclean flying creatures, and of clean cattle and of unclean cattle, and of all things that creep upon the earth, 9 pairs went in to Noe into the ark, male and female, as God commanded Noe.

Read the whole chapter →

Old Testament Proverbs 9:12–18 · Vespers Brenton

12 Son, if thou be wise for thyself, thou shalt also be wise for thy neighbours; and if thou shouldest prove wicked, thou alone wilt bear the evil. 12a He that stays himself upon falsehoods, attempts to rule the winds, and the same will pursue birds in their flight: 12b for he has forsaken the ways of his own vineyard, and he has caused the axles of his own husbandry to go astray; 12c and he goes through a dry desert, and a [land] appointed to drought, and he gathers barrenness with his hands. 13 A foolish and bold woman, who knows not modesty, comes to want a morsel. 14 She sits at the doors of her house, on a seat openly in the streets, 15 calling to passers by, and to those that are going right on their ways; 16 [saying], Whoso is most senseless of you, let him turn aside to me; and I exhort those that want prudence, saying, 17 Take and enjoy secret bread, and the sweet water of theft. 18 But he knows that mighty men die by her, and he falls in with a snare of hell. 18a But hasten away, delay not in the place, neither fix thine eye upon her: 18b for thus shalt thou go through strange water; 18c but do thou abstain from strange water, and drink not of a strange fountain, 18d that thou mayest live long, and years of life may be added to thee.

Read the whole chapter →

All readings of the day

Vespers, Matins, the Hours and the Liturgy, as listed in our tables.

Matins

  • Gospel John 10:1–9 (Repose St Innocent, Metr. Moscow and Apostle to Americas)

Sixth Hour

Vespers

Divine Liturgy

  • Epistle Hebrews 7:26–8:2 (Repose St Innocent, Metr. Moscow and Apostle to Americas)
  • Gospel John 10:9–16 (Repose St Innocent, Metr. Moscow and Apostle to Americas)

About these readings

The readings follow the usage of the Orthodox Church in America (Slavic practice) and are calculated from the MIT-licensed tables of Paul Kachur's orthodox_calendar, checked day by day against the OCA's published readings for 2023 to 2027. Greek practice differs on many days and is not offered yet, because no openly licensed table of it exists. Your parish calendar always comes first.

Psalms are numbered as in the Septuagint, with the Hebrew numbering in brackets.