January 13, 2023

Events of the day

• St Melania of Rome

  Commemoration

• Leave-taking of the feast: Nativity of our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ

Fasting

No fast

Christmastide (25 Dec – 4 Jan Old Style) is fast-free: no fasting.

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 · Saturday after Nativity

  1 Timothy 6:11–16

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  ¹¹But you, man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.

  ¹²Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you confessed the good confession in the sight of many witnesses.

  ¹³I command you before God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate testified the good confession,

  ¹⁴that you keep the commandment without spot, blameless, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,

  ¹⁵which in its own times he will show, who is the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings, and Lord of lords.

  ¹⁶He alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and eternal power. Amen.

• Epistle

  James 2:1–13

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  ¹My brothers, don’t hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory with partiality.

  ²For if a man with a gold ring, in fine clothing, comes into your synagogue, and a poor man in filthy clothing also comes in,

  ³and you pay special attention to him who wears the fine clothing and say, “Sit here in a good place;” and you tell the poor man, “Stand there,” or “Sit by my footstool”

  ⁴haven’t you shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

  ⁵Listen, my beloved brothers. Didn’t God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him?

  ⁶But you have dishonored the poor man. Don’t the rich oppress you, and personally drag you before the courts?

  ⁷Don’t they blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called?

  ⁸However, if you fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well.

  ⁹But if you show partiality, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors.

  ¹⁰For whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.

  ¹¹For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not commit murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

  ¹²So speak and so do, as men who are to be judged by a law of freedom.

  ¹³For judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

• Gospel · Saturday after Nativity

  Matthew 12:15–21

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  ¹⁵Jesus, perceiving that, withdrew from there. Great multitudes followed him; and he healed them all,

  ¹⁶and commanded them that they should not make him known:

  ¹⁷that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying,

  ¹⁸“Behold, my servant whom I have chosen; my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my Spirit on him. He will proclaim justice to the nations.

  ¹⁹He will not strive, nor shout; neither will anyone hear his voice in the streets.

  ²⁰He won’t break a bruised reed. He won’t quench a smoking flax, until he leads justice to victory.

  ²¹In his name, the nations will hope.”

• Gospel

  Mark 12:1–12

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  ¹He began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a pit for the wine press, built a tower, rented it out to a farmer, and went into another country.

  ²When it was time, he sent a servant to the farmer to get from the farmer his share of the fruit of the vineyard.

  ³They took him, beat him, and sent him away empty.

  ⁴Again, he sent another servant to them; and they threw stones at him, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated.

  ⁵Again he sent another; and they killed him; and many others, beating some, and killing some.

  ⁶Therefore still having one, his beloved son, he sent him last to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’

  ⁷But those farmers said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’

  ⁸They took him, killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard.

  ⁹What therefore will the lord of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the farmers, and will give the vineyard to others.

  ¹⁰Haven’t you even read this Scripture: ‘The stone which the builders rejected was made the head of the corner.

  ¹¹This was from the Lord. It is marvelous in our eyes’?”

  ¹²They tried to seize him, but they feared the multitude; for they perceived that he spoke the parable against them. They left him, and went away.

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

Saints and icons

• Prayer of the day: Short penitential prayers