First Sunday After Pentecost - All Saints - 6/7/26
Sunday, June 7th, is the First Sunday after Pentecost and is the Sunday dedicated to All Saints, both those who are known to us, and those who are known only to God. There have been saints at all times, and they have come from every corner of the earth, whether Apostles, Martyrs, Prophets, Hierarchs, Monastics, or Righteous. All of them were filled by the same Holy Spirit.
The Descent of the Holy Spirit makes it possible for us to rise above our fallen state and to attain sainthood, thereby fulfilling God’s directive to “be holy, for I am holy” (Lev. 11:44, 1 Peter 1:16, etc.). Therefore, it is fitting to commemorate All Saints on the first Sunday after Pentecost.
On this day, we remember:
Venerable Daniel of Sketis (6th c.)
Hieromartyr Theodotus, Bishop of Ancyra (303)
Hieromartyr Marcellinus, Pope of Rome, and with him Claudius, Cyrenus, and Antonina (304)
Martyrs Cyriaca, Caleria, and Mary, of Cæsarea in Palestine (284-305).
Readings for Sunday, June 7th:
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33
who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
34
quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
35
Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
36
Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.
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They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented –
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of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.
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And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise,
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God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.
1
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
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32
Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
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But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
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He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.
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And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.
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Then Peter answered and said to Him, “See, we have left all and followed You. Therefore what shall we have?”
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So Jesus said to them, “Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
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And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.
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But many who are first will be last, and the last first.
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.