24th Sunday after Pentecost - Afterfeast of the Entry of the Thetotokos - 11/23/25
On Sunday, November 23rd, we commemorate the Afterfeast of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos Into the Temple and also the following saints:
Repose of Rt. Blv. Great Prince Alexander Nevsky, in schema Aleksy (1263)
St Amphilokhios, Bishop of Iconium (394)
St. Gregory, Bishop of Agrigentum (6th-7th c.)
St. Metrophán, in schema Makáry, Bishop of Vorónezh (1703)
Sisinius the Confessor, Bishop of Cyzicus (3rd c.)
Martyr Theodore of Antioch (4th c.)
Read more here about the lives of the Most Holy Theotokos and the other saints we commemorate this day.
Readings for Sunday, November 23rd:
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14
For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation,
15
having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace,
16
and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.
17
And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near.
18
For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
19
Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
20
having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,
21
in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord,
22
in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
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16
Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.
17
And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’
18
So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods.
19
‘And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”’
20
But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’
21
So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
(Today is also the day the pilgrim in the Russian spiritual classic, The Way of the Pilgrim, began his quest: “On the twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost I went to church to worship at the Liturgy. During the reading of the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Thessalonians, I heard the following words: ‘Pray without ceasing.’ This verse especially fixed itself in my mind, and I began to wonder how one could pray unceasingly, since each man must occupy himself with other matters as well, in order to make a living.”)
The Holy Scriptures are part of the Church’s Holy Tradition. Metropolitan Kallistos Ware of blessed memory wrote:
In the words of Father Alexander Schmemann, “A Christian is the one who, wherever he looks, finds everywhere Christ, and rejoices in Him.” This is true in particular of the biblical Christian. Wherever he looks, on every page, he finds everywhere Christ.
See Metropolitan Ware’s article How to Read the Bible for more on an Orthodox approach to scripture.