December 17, 2029

Events of the day

• Great-martyr Barbara; St John of Damascus

  Polyeleos rank

Fasting

Fast day · Nativity Fast

Nativity Fast, Monday: cooked food without oil.

• Meat: not allowed
• Dairy & eggs: not allowed
• Fish: not allowed
• Oil: not allowed
• Wine: not allowed

Food rules are reference church information. Agree your personal measure of fasting with a priest; consult a doctor if you are ill.

Readings of the day

• Epistle

  Hebrews 8:7–13

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  ⁷For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.

  ⁸For finding fault with them, he said, “Behold, the days come”, says the Lord, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;

  ⁹not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they didn’t continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them,” says the Lord.

  ¹⁰“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days,” says the Lord; “I will put my laws into their mind, I will also write them on their heart. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

  ¹¹They will not teach every man his fellow citizen, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all will know me, from their least to their greatest.

  ¹²For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. I will remember their sins and lawless deeds no more.”

  ¹³In that he says, “A new covenant”, he has made the first old. But that which is becoming old and grows aged is near to vanishing away.

• Epistle · St Alexander

  Hebrews 13:7–16

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  ⁷Remember your leaders, men who spoke to you the word of God, and considering the results of their conduct, imitate their faith.

  ⁸Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

  ⁹Don’t be carried away by various and strange teachings, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not by food, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited.

  ¹⁰We have an altar from which those who serve the holy tabernacle have no right to eat.

  ¹¹For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside of the camp.

  ¹²Therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside of the gate.

  ¹³Let’s therefore go out to him outside of the camp, bearing his reproach.

  ¹⁴For we don’t have here an enduring city, but we seek that which is to come.

  ¹⁵Through him, then, let’s offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which proclaim allegiance to his name.

  ¹⁶But don’t forget to be doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

• Gospel

  Luke 20:27–44

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  ²⁷Some of the Sadducees came to him, those who deny that there is a resurrection.

  ²⁸They asked him, “Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man’s brother dies having a wife, and he is childless, his brother should take the wife and raise up children for his brother.

  ²⁹There were therefore seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died childless.

  ³⁰The second took her as wife, and he died childless.

  ³¹The third took her, and likewise the seven all left no children, and died.

  ³²Afterward the woman also died.

  ³³Therefore in the resurrection whose wife of them will she be? For the seven had her as a wife.”

  ³⁴Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry, and are given in marriage.

  ³⁵But those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.

  ³⁶For they can’t die any more, for they are like the angels, and are children of God, being children of the resurrection.

  ³⁷But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he called the Lord ‘The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’

  ³⁸Now he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all are alive to him.”

  ³⁹Some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you speak well.”

  ⁴⁰They didn’t dare to ask him any more questions.

  ⁴¹He said to them, “Why do they say that the Christ is David’s son?

  ⁴²David himself says in the book of Psalms, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand,

  ⁴³until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet.” ’

  ⁴⁴“David therefore calls him Lord, so how is he his son?”

• Gospel · St Alexander

  Luke 12:32–40

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  ³²Don’t be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.

  ³³Sell that which you have, and give gifts to the needy. Make for yourselves purses which don’t grow old, a treasure in the heavens that doesn’t fail, where no thief approaches, neither moth destroys.

  ³⁴For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

  ³⁵“Let your waist be dressed and your lamps burning.

  ³⁶Be like men watching for their lord, when he returns from the wedding feast; that when he comes and knocks, they may immediately open to him.

  ³⁷Blessed are those servants, whom the lord will find watching when he comes. Most certainly I tell you that he will dress himself, make them recline, and will come and serve them.

  ³⁸They will be blessed if he comes in the second or third watch, and finds them so.

  ³⁹But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched, and not allowed his house to be broken into.

  ⁴⁰Therefore be ready also, for the Son of Man is coming in an hour that you don’t expect him.”

Source: Orthocal: lectionary data — Slavic tradition, Julian calendar. Text: World English Bible.

Saints and icons

• Prayer of the day: Morning prayer of St Macarius the Great