December 26, 2033

Events of the day

• Martyrs Eustratius, Auxentius, Eugene, Mardarius and Orestes

  Commemoration

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

• Vespers

  Wisdom of Solomon 3:1–9

• Vespers

  Wisdom of Solomon 5:15–6:3

• Vespers

  Wisdom of Solomon 4:7–15

• Matins Gospel

  Matthew 11:27–30

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  ²⁷All things have been delivered to me by my Father. No one knows the Son, except the Father; neither does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and he to whom the Son desires to reveal him.

  ²⁸“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.

  ²⁹Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls.

  ³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

• Epistle

  Hebrews 3:5–11, 17–19

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  ⁵Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken,

  ⁶but Christ is faithful as a Son over his house. We are his house, if we hold fast our confidence and the glorying of our hope firm to the end.

  ⁷Therefore, even as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you will hear his voice,

  ⁸don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, like as in the day of the trial in the wilderness,

  ⁹where your fathers tested me and tried me, and saw my deeds for forty years.

  ¹⁰Therefore I was displeased with that generation, and said, ‘They always err in their heart, but they didn’t know my ways.’

  ¹¹As I swore in my wrath, ‘They will not enter into my rest.’ ”

  ¹⁷With whom was he displeased forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

  ¹⁸To whom did he swear that they wouldn’t enter into his rest, but to those who were disobedient?

  ¹⁹We see that they weren’t able to enter in because of unbelief.

• Epistle · St Herman

  Galatians 5:22–6:2

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  ²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,

  ²³gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

  ²⁴Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.

  ²⁵If we live by the Spirit, let’s also walk by the Spirit.

  ²⁶Let’s not become conceited, provoking one another, and envying one another.

  ¹Brothers, even if a man is caught in some fault, you who are spiritual must restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; looking to yourself so that you also aren’t tempted.

  ²Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

• Gospel

  Mark 8:11–21

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  ¹¹The Pharisees came out and began to question him, seeking from him a sign from heaven, and testing him.

  ¹²He sighed deeply in his spirit, and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Most certainly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.”

  ¹³He left them, and again entering into the boat, departed to the other side.

  ¹⁴They forgot to take bread; and they didn’t have more than one loaf in the boat with them.

  ¹⁵He warned them, saying, “Take heed: beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.”

  ¹⁶They reasoned with one another, saying, “It’s because we have no bread.”

  ¹⁷Jesus, perceiving it, said to them, “Why do you reason that it’s because you have no bread? Don’t you perceive yet, neither understand? Is your heart still hardened?

  ¹⁸Having eyes, don’t you see? Having ears, don’t you hear? Don’t you remember?

  ¹⁹When I broke the five loaves among the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They told him, “Twelve.”

  ²⁰“When the seven loaves fed the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They told him, “Seven.”

  ²¹He asked them, “Don’t you understand yet?”

• Gospel · St Herman

  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

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