Sunday of the Publican & the Pharisee - 2/1/26
Sunday, February 1st, is the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee. On this second of the five Sundays of pre-Lenten preparation, we focus on the theme of humility. And at Vespers the night before, we begin to use the Lenten Triodion (the liturgical book used in the services of Great Lent).
On this day, the Church remembers:
Forefeast of the Meeting. Martyr Tryphon of Lampsacus near Apamea in Syria (250)
Martyrs Perpetua, a woman of Carthage, and the Catechumens: Saturus, Revocatus, Saturninus, Secundulus and Felicitas (202-203)
Ven. Peter Galata, Hermit, near Antioch in Syria (429)
Ven. Vendemianus (Bendemianus), Hermit, of Bithynia (ca. 512)
Ven. Bridget (Brigid) of Ireland (523)
Read more about the lives of these and other saints here.
Readings for Sunday, February 1st:
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10
But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance,
11
persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra – what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me.
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Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
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But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
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But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them,
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and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
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10
“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
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The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men – extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.
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I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’
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And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’
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I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
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.