You can find the daily readings on the Antiochian Archdiocese website at antiochian.org/liturgicday. That’s the simplest answer.
But it helps to know what you’re actually looking at when you pull up those readings, because if you’re coming from a Baptist or non-denominational background, this might feel different from what you’re used to. The Orthodox Church doesn’t leave scripture reading up to personal choice or a pastor’s sermon series. We follow a lectionary that’s been set for centuries, assigning specific passages from the Epistles and Gospels to every single day of the year.
These readings aren’t random. They follow the Church’s year, which is shaped mostly by the date of Pascha, and on major feasts and saints’ days they connect to whatever we’re commemorating. On December 17th, for instance, we commemorate the Prophet Daniel and the Three Holy Youths.
The OCA (Orthodox Church in America) also maintains excellent daily readings at oca.org/readings. Their site lets you search by book, chapter, or verse if you want to look something up. Both the Antiochian and OCA sites will show you the epistle and gospel for the day, along with which saints we’re remembering. Many individual parishes post the daily readings too.
There’s also orthocal.info, which isn’t officially run by any jurisdiction but pulls from the same ancient sources we all use. It’ll give you the readings, the fasting rule for the day, and stories from the lives of the saints.
Here’s something that surprises people: we’ve got different readings for different services throughout the day. Vespers has its readings. Matins has its readings. The Divine Liturgy has its readings. When we say “daily readings,” we usually mean the epistle and gospel appointed for the Divine Liturgy, since that’s the service most laypeople attend when they can make it during the week.
Most of the readings, Sundays and weekdays alike, follow a semi-continuous cycle through the New Testament that is counted from Pascha, so they shift from year to year. The exceptions are the great feasts and certain saints’ days on fixed dates, which have their own appointed readings. If it’s the feast of St. Basil the Great, you’re reading the passages assigned to that feast no matter what year it is.
This is part of what we mean when we talk about Holy Tradition. The lectionary isn’t something each parish invents. It’s received, handed down, part of the rhythm of the Church’s life going back further than any of us can trace. When you read the daily readings, you’re reading the same passages Christians in Antioch or Constantinople or Alexandria read on this day centuries ago.
If you work rotating shifts at one of the refineries around here, you might not make it to a weekday liturgy very often. That’s fine. Lots of Orthodox Christians read the daily readings at home as part of their prayer rule. Pull them up on your phone in the morning or during a break. Let the Church set your scripture reading rather than trying to figure out where to start on your own.
The readings assume you’re hearing them within the context of the liturgical life of the Church. They’re not designed for private Bible study the way a lot of Protestant devotional plans are, though there’s nothing wrong with reading them privately. They’re meant to be heard in church, surrounded by incense and icons and the prayers of the faithful, but they still feed you when you’re standing in your kitchen or sitting in your truck.
Start with the Antiochian site. Bookmark it. Check it each morning if you can. You’ll start noticing patterns, seeing how the readings flow through the year, how they build toward Pascha and then celebrate the Resurrection, how they prepare us for fasts and let us feast on the great celebrations. It’s one more way the Church forms us, teaching us to live according to her rhythm rather than our own.
