December 19, 2029

Events of the day

• St Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia

  Polyeleos rank

Fasting

Fast day · Nativity Fast

Nativity Fast, Wednesday and Friday: xerophagy.

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

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

• Vespers

  Composite reading — Proverbs 10, 3, 8

• Vespers

  Proverbs 10:31–11:12

• Vespers

  Wisdom of Solomon 4:7–15

• Matins Gospel

  John 10:9–16

  Show the text

  ⁹I am the door. If anyone enters in by me, he will be saved, and will go in and go out, and will find pasture.

  ¹⁰The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.

  ¹¹I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

  ¹²He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who doesn’t own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and flees. The wolf snatches the sheep, and scatters them.

  ¹³The hired hand flees because he is a hired hand, and doesn’t care for the sheep.

  ¹⁴I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and I’m known by my own;

  ¹⁵even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep.

  ¹⁶I have other sheep, which are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. They will become one flock with one shepherd.

• Epistle

  Hebrews 10:1–18

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  ¹For the law, having a shadow of the good to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near.

  ²Or else wouldn’t they have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having been once cleansed, would have had no more consciousness of sins?

  ³But in those sacrifices there is a yearly reminder of sins.

  ⁴For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.

  ⁵Therefore when he comes into the world, he says, “You didn’t desire sacrifice and offering, but you prepared a body for me.

  ⁶You had no pleasure in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin.

  ⁷Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (in the scroll of the book it is written of me) to do your will, O God.’ ”

  ⁸Previously saying, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you didn’t desire, neither had pleasure in them” (those which are offered according to the law),

  ⁹then he has said, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He takes away the first, that he may establish the second,

  ¹⁰by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

  ¹¹Every priest indeed stands day by day serving and often offering the same sacrifices which can never take away sins,

  ¹²but he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God,

  ¹³from that time waiting until his enemies are made the footstool of his feet.

  ¹⁴For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

  ¹⁵The Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying,

  ¹⁶“This is the covenant that I will make with them: ‘After those days,’ says the Lord, ‘I will put my laws on their heart, I will also write them on their mind;’ ” then he says,

  ¹⁷“I will remember their sins and their iniquities no more.”

  ¹⁸Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.

• Epistle · St Nicholas

  Hebrews 13:17–21

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  ¹⁷Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they watch on behalf of your souls, as those who will give account, that they may do this with joy, and not with groaning, for that would be unprofitable for you.

  ¹⁸Pray for us, for we are persuaded that we have a good conscience, desiring to live honorably in all things.

  ¹⁹I strongly urge you to do this, that I may be restored to you sooner.

  ²⁰Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus,

  ²¹make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

• Gospel

  Luke 21:5–7, 10–11, 20–24

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  ⁵As some were talking about the temple and how it was decorated with beautiful stones and gifts, he said,

  ⁶“As for these things which you see, the days will come, in which there will not be left here one stone on another that will not be thrown down.”

  ⁷They asked him, “Teacher, so when will these things be? What is the sign that these things are about to happen?”

  ¹⁰Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

  ¹¹There will be great earthquakes, famines, and plagues in various places. There will be terrors and great signs from heaven.

  ²⁰“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand.

  ²¹Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let those who are in the middle of her depart. Let those who are in the country not enter therein.

  ²²For these are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.

  ²³Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who nurse infants in those days! For there will be great distress in the land, and wrath to this people.

  ²⁴They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

• Gospel · St Nicholas

  Luke 6:17–23

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  ¹⁷He came down with them, and stood on a level place, with a crowd of his disciples, and a great number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases;

  ¹⁸as well as those who were troubled by unclean spirits, and they were being healed.

  ¹⁹All the multitude sought to touch him, for power came out of him and healed them all.

  ²⁰He lifted up his eyes to his disciples, and said, “Blessed are you who are poor, God’s Kingdom is yours.

  ²¹Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

  ²²Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude and mock you, and throw out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake.

  ²³Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven, for their fathers did the same thing to the prophets.

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

Saints and icons

• St Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia
• Prayer of the day: Troparion of St Nicholas