Katameros
The Coptic Orthodox Church readings follow a structured daily cycle of Psalms, Gospel, Pauline, Catholic, Acts, and Synaxarium readings for prayer, reflection, and worship.
Today's Readings
Vespers
Psalm & Gospel
Stand in the fear of God and listen to the Holy Gospel. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to our teacher Saint Matthew the Evangelist. May His Blessings be with us all. Amen.
Psalms 40:2-3
2 He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps.
3 He has put a new song in my mouth--Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the LORD.
Matthew 7:22-25
22 Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'
23 And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'
24 "Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:
25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
Matins
Psalm & Gospel
Stand in the fear of God and listen to the Holy Gospel. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to our teacher Saint Luke the Evangelist. May His Blessings be with us all. Amen.
Psalms 89:24,19
24 "But My faithfulness and My mercy shall be with him, And in My name his horn shall be exalted.
19 Then You spoke in a vision to Your holy one, And said: "I have given help to one who is mighty; I have exalted one chosen from the people.
Luke 13:23-30
23 Then one said to Him, "Lord, are there few who are saved?" And He said to them,
24 "Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.
25 When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open for us,' and He will answer and say to you, 'I do not know you, where you are from,'
26 then you will begin to say, 'We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.'
27 But He will say, 'I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.'
28 There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out.
29 They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God.
30 And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last."
Liturgy
Pauline Epistle
1 Corinthians 3:1-8
1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.
2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able;
3 for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?
4 For when one says, "I am of Paul," and another, "I am of Apollos," are you not carnal?
5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one?
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.
8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
Catholic Epistle
2 Peter 1:1-11
1 Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,
3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,
6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness,
7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;
11 for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Acts of the Apostles
Acts 15:13-29
13 And after they had become silent, James answered, saying, "Men and brethren, listen to me:
14 Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name.
15 And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written:
16 'After this I will return And will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, And I will set it up;
17 So that the rest of mankind may seek the LORD, Even all the Gentiles who are called by My name, Says the LORD who does all these things.'
18 "Known to God from eternity are all His works.
19 Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God,
20 but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood.
21 For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath."
22 Then it pleased the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely, Judas who was also named Barsabas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren.
23 They wrote this letter by them: The apostles, the elders, and the brethren, To the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia: Greetings.
24 Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, "You must be circumcised and keep the law"--to whom we gave no such commandment--
25 it seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,
26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
27 We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who will also report the same things by word of mouth.
28 For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things:
29 that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.
Synaxarium
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit One God. Amen Day 24th of the Blessed Coptic Month of Baounah. May God end it in goodness and renew it for us in peace and tranquility, while our sins and iniquities are forgiven through the tender mercies of our Lord, O my fathers and my brethren. Amen.
On this day of the 123 of the martyrs (407 A.D.), the venerable and mighty saint Abba Moses the Ethiopian was martyred.
Moses was an Ethiopian who lived in Egypt during the 4th century. In his young age, Moses was a slave to a person who worshipped the sun. He was a mighty man who ate and drank excessively. He was of vicious character; he killed, robbed, and committed fornication. No one could stand up before him for his might. He escaped from his master and became a ringleader for a band of robbers.
His journey to repentance began when one day he lifted up his eyes to the sun, saying, “O sun! If you are God, let me know it. And you, O God, whom I do not know, let me know who You are.”
One day, he heard a voice saying to him, “The monks of the wilderness of Shiheet (Scetis) know the real God. Go to them and they will inform you.” Immediately, he rose up, girded his sword, and went to the wilderness. He met Abba Isidore, the priest of Scetis, who was frightened when he saw his appearance. Moses comforted him, saying, “Do not be afraid. I have come to you to hear about the true God.” Abba Isidore took him to Abba Macarius the Great who talked to him about the Lord Christ, the incarnation, and the redemption. Moses believed and accepted the faith. Abba Macarius baptized him and accepted him as a monk.
Abba Moses lived an austere spiritual life. The devil fought him intensively with his former iniquities and sins. He often came to Abba Isidore, his teacher, to reveal to him all the artifices of the enemy. Abba Isidore comforted, strengthened and taught him how to overcome the snares of the devil. Abba Moses loved serving others. When the elders of the monastery went to sleep, he would pass by their cells, take their water pots, and fill them with water from a well far from the monastery.
After many years in spiritual struggle, the devil envied him and struck him with sores on his foot, leaving him ailing and unable to move. When he knew that this was a temptation from the devil, he increased in his asceticism and worship until his body became as burnt wood. God looked upon his patience and toil. He relieved him of his pain and the grace of God dwelt upon him.
After a while, he became the spiritual guide of 500 brothers who elected him to be ordained to the priesthood. When he came before the Patriarch to be ordained, the Patriarch wanted to test him, so he bade the clergy to cast him out, reviling him as an unworthy Ethiopian. In all humility, the monk obeyed and left, saying to himself, “It is good what they have done to you, O black colored one.” When the Patriarch, however, saw his humility and endurance, he called Abba Moses back and ordained him to the priesthood and said to him, “Moses, you have now become entirely white.”
One day, he went with the elders to Abba Macarius the Great who said to them, “I see among you one to whom belongs the crown of martyrdom.” Abba Moses answered him, “It is probably me for it is written: `For all who take the sword will perish by the sword’” (Matthew 26:52).
Shortly after he returned to the monastery, the Berbers attacked the monastery in their first raid in the year 407 A.D. He told the brethren, “Whoever of you wants to escape, let him escape.” They asked him, “And you, O father, why not also escape?” He replied, “I have waited for this day for a long time.” The Berbers entered the monastery and killed him along with seven other brothers. One of the brethren was hiding behind straw mats and saw the angel of the Lord placing crowns over the heads of the martyrs and with a crown in his hand waiting for him. He went out from his hiding place. The Berbers killed him and he received the crown of martyrdom.
Beloved ones, let us contemplate the power of repentance and what it did. It changed a heathen slave who was a murderer, fornicator, and robber into a monk, teacher, priest, saint, and great martyr. His pure body is present along with the body of his teacher the saint Abba Isidore in a shrine in St. Mary El-Baramos Monastery in Wadi El-Natroun in Egypt.
The blessing of his prayers be with us all. Amen.
On this day also of the year 113 of the martyrs (397 A.D.) St. Isidore, the priest of Scetis, departed. At first he became a monk in the region of Nitria and was ordained a priest to serve the hermits in the area of Celia. Then he came to St. Macarius the Great in Scetis and became one of his early disciples. He was his fellow companion in establishing St. Macarius’ monastic community. He was known as the priest of Scetis for he was the one to celebrate the divine liturgies for the monks.
He was characterized by many virtues the most important of which was his gentleness and his interest in the salvation of others. If any monk was to be expelled after repeated attempt to reform him, he accepted him. He would embrace, care for, tolerate and strengthen him with his gentleness, patience and a heart that was full of love.
He was a man of prayers and never ceased praying while working with his hands. He said, “Let us struggle in prayer for the enemy to flee away and earnestly contemplate upon God to gain victory.” Because of his great love for prayer, he worked much even after he advanced in age. God had granted him the gift of casting out unclean spirits, because of his longsuffering and overcoming anger. They asked him once, “Why do the devils exceedingly fear you?” He replied, saying, “Ever since I became monk I have not allowed anger to move from my throat to my head.”
When he completed his good endeavor, he departed in peace.
The blessing of his prayers be with us all and glory be to our God forever. Amen.
Psalm & Gospel
Stand in the fear of God and listen to the Holy Gospel. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to our teacher Saint Luke the Evangelist. May His Blessings be with us all. Amen.
Psalms 61:1-3
1 Hear my cry, O God; Attend to my prayer.
2 From the end of the earth I will cry to You, When my heart is overwhelmed; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
3 For You have been a shelter for me, A strong tower from the enemy.
Luke 14:25-35
25 Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them,
26 "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.
27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it--
29 lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,
30 saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish'?
31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?
32 Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace.
33 So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.
34 "Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?
35 It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"
Browse a different day using the arrows or date picker.