Saint David the Prophet and King Antiochian Orthodox Christian Mission

09/08/2026

Wisdom of Solomon 16:15-18:4 15 To escape from Your hand is impossible, 16 For the ungodly who refuse to know You Were flogged by the strength of Your arm. They were pursued by rains, hail, and thu…

09/08/2026

09/08/2026

Daily Scripture Readings and Lives of the Saints for Tuesday, September 08, 2026

Feasts and Saints celebrated today:

The Nativity of Our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary
Sophronios, Bishop of Iberia
Readings for today:

Luke 1:39-49, 56
St. Paul's Letter to the Philippians 2:5-11
Luke 10:38-42; 11:27-28
The Nativity of Our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary

Reading from the Synaxarion:

According to the ancient tradition of the Church, the Theotokos was born of barren and aged parents, Joachim and Anna, about the year 16 or 17 before the birth of Christ. Joachim was descended from the royal line of David, of the tribe of Judah. Anna was of the priestly tribe of Levi, a daughter of the priest Matthan and Mary, his wife.

Apolytikion of Nativity of the Theotokos in the Fourth Tone

Your birth, O Theotokos, brought joy to the whole world, for from you dawned the sun of righteousness, Christ our God. Freeing us from the curse, He gave us His blessings. Abolishing death, He granted us eternal life.

Kontakion of Nativity of the Theotokos in the Fourth Tone

In your holy birth, Immaculate One, Joachim and Anna were rid of the shame of childlessness; Adam and Eve of the corruption of death. And so your people, free of the guilt of their sins, celebrate crying: "The barren one gives birth to the Theotokos, who nourishes our life."

The content on this page is under copyright and is used by permission. All rights reserved. These works may not be further reproduced, in print or on other websites or in any other form, without the prior written authorization of the copyright holder:
Reading (c) Holy Transfiguration Monastery - Brookline, MA
Apolytikion of Nativity of the Theotokos (c) Narthex Press
Kontakion of Nativity of the Theotokos (c) Narthex Press

Prayer Before Reading Scripture

Shine within our hearts, loving Master, the pure light of Your divine knowledge and open the eyes of our minds that we may comprehend the message of Your Gospel. Instill in us also reverence for Your blessed commandments, so that having conquered all sinful desires, we may pursue a spiritual life, thinking and doing all those things that are pleasing to You. For You, Christ our God, are the light of our souls and bodies, and to You we give glory together with Your Father who is without beginning and Your all holy, good, and life giving Spirit, now and forever and to the ages of ages. Amen.

Orthros Gospel Reading

The Reading is from Luke 1:39-49, 56

In those days, Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a city of Judah, and she entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord."

And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name." And Mary remained with her about three months, and returned to her home.

Epistle Reading

The Reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the Philippians 2:5-11

Brethren, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Gospel Reading

The Reading is from the Gospel According to Luke 10:38-42; 11:27-28

At that time, Jesus entered a village; and a woman called Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving; and she went to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve you alone? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her." As he said this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that you sucked!" But he said, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"

09/08/2026

Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna had been born into royalty, married into the Romanov dynasty, and moved through one of the most privileged courts in Europe. A granddaughter of Queen Victoria, she was the wife of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich and both an aunt by marriage and sister-in-law to Tsar Nicholas II. Then, in 1905, an assassin threw a bomb into her husband's carriage in Moscow and blew him apart.

What Elizabeth did afterward astonished people. She visited her husband's imprisoned assassin, Ivan Kalyayev, and urged him to repent. She later appealed for his life to be spared, although he was ultimately executed. But Sergei's murder also marked the beginning of Elizabeth's withdrawal from the world she had known.

She sold much of her jewelry and possessions and used the proceeds to establish the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent of Mercy in Moscow. The grand duchess who had once attended imperial balls now wore a simple white habit. She trained in nursing, cared for the sick, visited Moscow's poorest districts and helped provide food, medicine and shelter to people who had almost nothing.

Then came the Russian Revolution.

Elizabeth was a Romanov, and neither her religious life nor her work among the poor could protect her from what her name had come to represent. In 1918, the Bolsheviks arrested her and eventually transported her with several other members of the extended imperial family to Alapayevsk in the Urals.

On the night of July 17 to 18, 1918, one day after Nicholas II and his family were killed at Ekaterinburg, Elizabeth and the other prisoners were taken to an abandoned mine shaft.

They were beaten and thrown into it.

Grenades were hurled after them, but some reportedly survived the initial attack. When their bodies were later recovered, accounts indicated that Elizabeth had attempted to tend to the wounds of another victim in the darkness below.

She was 53 years old.

Elizabeth had begun her adult life surrounded by jewels, palaces and imperial ceremony. After her husband's assassination, she deliberately exchanged much of that world for nursing, charity and religious service.

The revolution ultimately made no distinction.

To the men who took her to that mine shaft in 1918, the woman who had given away her wealth and devoted herself to the poor was still a Romanov.

09/08/2026