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Tuesday, October 20, 2026

Readings for October 20, 2026: Tuesday of the 21st week after Pentecost

Tone 3

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

New Calendar Old Calendar

Commemorated today: Greatmartyr Artemius at Antioch

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

Epistle Colossians 1:1–2, 7–11 WEB

Colossians 1

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

7 even as you learned from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on your behalf, 8 who also declared to us your love in the Spirit. 9 For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, don’t cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, 11 strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, for all endurance and perseverance with joy,

Read the whole chapter →

Gospel Luke 9:23–27 WEB

23 He said to all, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. 24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever will lose his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits his own self? 26 For whoever will be ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory, and the glory of the Father, and of the holy angels. 27 But I tell you the truth: There are some of those who stand here who will in no way taste of death until they see God’s Kingdom.”

Read the whole chapter →

All readings of the day

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

Divine Liturgy

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.