This page offers a year-long series for reading through the Gospel lectionary according to the Byzantine liturgical cycle. Each Sunday, images of the appointed Gospel reading are presented as they appear in a Greek lectionary manuscript. Through this approach, readers encounter the Gospel text in a way that closely reflects how it has been received, preserved, and proclaimed within the rhythms of ecclesial worship for centuries.
The readings are drawn from L434 (Athens, National Library of Greece, EBE 68), a twelfth-century Gospel lectionary manuscript written on parchment. Reading the biblical text from this source connects us to the historical continuity of the Church’s proclamation—the same Gospel that has been read aloud within the same liturgical context for hundreds of years. This manuscript was digitized by CSNTM, and full images are available through the CSNTM database and the National Library of Greece.
Through this series, we invite readers to encounter the richness of lectionary reading by engaging the text directly in its manuscript form—the way these words have been handed down for centuries and shared by generations of the faithful.
For those who prefer to read the day’s lesson in English or the modern Greek lectionary, you can find these directly on the website of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.
Week 1: Easter – The Holy and Great Sunday of Pascha (John 1:1-17)
While September 1st marks the beginning of the church year in the Orthodox calendar, the true center and culmination of the church’s worship is Pascha, the feast of the resurrection of Christ. This day begins the Johannine period of readings, the first of four periods encountered in the annual cycle of readings.
Pascha is the preeminent feast of the Byzantine Church and the heart of the liturgical year. The entire cycle through Lent and Holy Week leads up to Pascha with anticipation—and from it, all the weeks that follow take their shape. For this reason, the Gospel proclaimed at Pascha is not only a celebration of the resurrection of Christ but also the beginning of the annual cycle of Gospel readings.
In the Byzantine tradition, the paschal Gospel is John 1:1–17—“In the beginning was the Word…”—a fitting proclamation of both the triumph over death and the dawning of the new creation.
Read the full text on the images below.
The celebration of Pascha extends far beyond a single day into Bright Week, inaugurating a fifty-day season of sustained Easter joy that culminates in Pentecost. Throughout this week, Paschal hymns resound, festal meals are shared, and fasting is set aside.
The doors of the iconostasis—the screen of icons separating the nave from the altar—remain open. This happens only during this time of the year and symbolizes the stone rolled away from Christ’s tomb and the opening of the gates of heaven.
During this week, the reality of the resurrection is so deeply interwoven into the public worship that there can be no doubt in the minds of those celebrating: what has taken place on Pascha has transformed the world and humanity, now and forevermore.
We begin this week, as the Church does, with the proclamation:
Χριστὸς ἀνέστη!
Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη!