January 13, 2025

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

  Hebrews 8:7–13

  Show the text

  ⁷For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.

  ⁸For finding fault with them, he said, “Behold, the days come”, says the Lord, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;

  ⁹not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they didn’t continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them,” says the Lord.

  ¹⁰“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days,” says the Lord; “I will put my laws into their mind, I will also write them on their heart. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

  ¹¹They will not teach every man his fellow citizen, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all will know me, from their least to their greatest.

  ¹²For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. I will remember their sins and lawless deeds no more.”

  ¹³In that he says, “A new covenant”, he has made the first old. But that which is becoming old and grows aged is near to vanishing away.

• Gospel

  Mark 12:13–17

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  ¹³They sent some of the Pharisees and the Herodians to him, that they might trap him with words.

  ¹⁴When they had come, they asked him, “Teacher, we know that you are honest, and don’t defer to anyone; for you aren’t partial to anyone, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?

  ¹⁵Shall we give, or shall we not give?” But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why do you test me? Bring me a denarius, that I may see it.”

  ¹⁶They brought it. He said to them, “Whose is this image and inscription?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.”

  ¹⁷Jesus answered them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” They marveled greatly at him.

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