December 20, 2024

Events of the day

• St Ambrose, Bishop of Milan; St Nilus of Stolobnoye

  Commemoration

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

• Epistle

  1 Timothy 4:4–8, 16

  Show the text

  ⁴For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with thanksgiving.

  ⁵For it is sanctified through the word of God and prayer.

  ⁶If you instruct the brothers of these things, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished in the words of the faith, and of the good doctrine which you have followed.

  ⁷But refuse profane and old wives’ fables. Exercise yourself toward godliness.

  ⁸For bodily exercise has some value, but godliness has value in all things, having the promise of the life which is now, and of that which is to come.

  ¹⁶Pay attention to yourself and to your teaching. Continue in these things, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.

• Gospel

  Luke 21:37–22:8

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  ³⁷Every day Jesus was teaching in the temple, and every night he would go out and spend the night on the mountain that is called Olivet.

  ³⁸All the people came early in the morning to him in the temple to hear him.

  ¹Now the feast of unleavened bread, which is called the Passover, was approaching.

  ²The chief priests and the scribes sought how they might put him to death, for they feared the people.

  ³Satan entered into Judas, who was also called Iscariot, who was counted with the twelve.

  ⁴He went away, and talked with the chief priests and captains about how he might deliver him to them.

  ⁵They were glad, and agreed to give him money.

  ⁶He consented, and sought an opportunity to deliver him to them in the absence of the multitude.

  ⁷The day of unleavened bread came, on which the Passover must be sacrificed.

  ⁸Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat.”

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

Saints and icons

• Prayer of the day: Short penitential prayers