January 4, 2025

Events of the day

• Great-martyr Anastasia the Deliverer from Bonds

  Polyeleos rank

• Forefeast: Nativity of our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ

Fasting

Fast day · Nativity Fast

Nativity Fast (from 20 Dec Old Style), Saturday and Sunday: food with oil, no fish.

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

  Ephesians 1:16–23

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  ¹⁶don’t cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers,

  ¹⁷that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him,

  ¹⁸having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

  ¹⁹and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might

  ²⁰which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places,

  ²¹far above all rule, authority, power, dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.

  ²²He put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things for the assembly,

  ²³which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

• Epistle · Saturday before Nativity

  Galatians 3:8–12

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  ⁸The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Good News beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you all the nations will be blessed.”

  ⁹So then, those who are of faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham.

  ¹⁰For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them.”

  ¹¹Now that no man is justified by the law before God is evident, for, “The righteous will live by faith.”

  ¹²The law is not of faith, but, “The man who does them will live by them.”

• Gospel

  Luke 16:10–15

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  ¹⁰He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much. He who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.

  ¹¹If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?

  ¹²If you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?

  ¹³No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. You aren’t able to serve God and Mammon.”

  ¹⁴The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they scoffed at him.

  ¹⁵He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts. For that which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

• Gospel · Saturday before Nativity

  Luke 13:18–29

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  ¹⁸He said, “What is God’s Kingdom like? To what shall I compare it?

  ¹⁹It is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and put in his own garden. It grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the sky live in its branches.”

  ²⁰Again he said, “To what shall I compare God’s Kingdom?

  ²¹It is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”

  ²²He went on his way through cities and villages, teaching, and traveling on to Jerusalem.

  ²³One said to him, “Lord, are they few who are saved?” He said to them,

  ²⁴“Strive to enter in by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter in and will not be able.

  ²⁵When once the master of the house has risen up, and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ then he will answer and tell you, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’

  ²⁶Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’

  ²⁷He will say, ‘I tell you, I don’t know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.’

  ²⁸There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in God’s Kingdom, and yourselves being thrown outside.

  ²⁹They will come from the east, west, north, and south, and will sit down in God’s Kingdom.

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

Saints and icons

• Prayer of the day: Prayer for the departed