January 30, 2025

Events of the day

• St Anthony the Great

  Polyeleos rank

Fasting

No fast

No fast today.

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 5:15–6:3

• Vespers

  Wisdom of Solomon 3:1–9

• Vespers

  Wisdom of Solomon 4:7–15

• Matins Gospel

  Matthew 11:27–30

  Show the text

  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

  James 4:7–5:9

  Show the text

  ⁷Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

  ⁸Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.

  ⁹Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom.

  ¹⁰Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

  ¹¹Don’t speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge.

  ¹²Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another?

  ¹³Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city, and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.”

  ¹⁴Whereas you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.

  ¹⁵For you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.”

  ¹⁶But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil.

  ¹⁷To him therefore who knows to do good, and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin.

  ¹Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you.

  ²Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten.

  ³Your gold and your silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be for a testimony against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up your treasure in the last days.

  ⁴Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Armies.

  ⁵You have lived in luxury on the earth, and taken your pleasure. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.

  ⁶You have condemned and you have murdered the righteous one. He doesn’t resist you.

  ⁷Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receives the early and late rain.

  ⁸You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

  ⁹Don’t grumble, brothers, against one another, so that you won’t be judged. Behold, the judge stands at the door.

• Epistle · St Anthony

  Hebrews 13:17–21

  Show the text

  ¹⁷Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they watch on behalf of your souls, as those who will give account, that they may do this with joy, and not with groaning, for that would be unprofitable for you.

  ¹⁸Pray for us, for we are persuaded that we have a good conscience, desiring to live honorably in all things.

  ¹⁹I strongly urge you to do this, that I may be restored to you sooner.

  ²⁰Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus,

  ²¹make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

• Gospel

  Mark 11:27–33

  Show the text

  ²⁷They came again to Jerusalem, and as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him,

  ²⁸and they began saying to him, “By what authority do you do these things? Or who gave you this authority to do these things?”

  ²⁹Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.

  ³⁰The baptism of John—was it from heaven, or from men? Answer me.”

  ³¹They reasoned with themselves, saying, “If we should say, ‘From heaven;’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’

  ³²If we should say, ‘From men’ ”—they feared the people, for all held John to really be a prophet.

  ³³They answered Jesus, “We don’t know.” Jesus said to them, “Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

• Gospel · St Anthony

  Luke 6:17–23

  Show the text

  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: Prayer to the Holy Spirit “O Heavenly King”