December 7, 2025

Events of the day

• Great-martyr Catherine; Great-martyr Mercurius

  Polyeleos rank

• Afterfeast: Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple

Fasting

Fast day · Nativity Fast

Nativity Fast, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday: fish is allowed.

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

By the Typikon (ch. 33) Tuesday and Thursday of the Apostles' and Nativity Fasts call for oil and wine only, fish only for a saint with a polyeleos; lay practice per the ROC calendar allows fish.

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

• 4th Matins Gospel

  Luke 24:1–12

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  ¹But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they and some others came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared.

  ²They found the stone rolled away from the tomb.

  ³They entered in, and didn’t find the Lord Jesus’ body.

  ⁴While they were greatly perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling clothing.

  ⁵Becoming terrified, they bowed their faces down to the earth. They said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?

  ⁶He isn’t here, but is risen. Remember what he told you when he was still in Galilee,

  ⁷saying that the Son of Man must be delivered up into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and the third day rise again?”

  ⁸They remembered his words,

  ⁹returned from the tomb, and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.

  ¹⁰Now they were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. The other women with them told these things to the apostles.

  ¹¹These words seemed to them to be nonsense, and they didn’t believe them.

  ¹²But Peter got up and ran to the tomb. Stooping and looking in, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he departed to his home, wondering what had happened.

• Epistle

  Ephesians 5:8–19

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  ⁸For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light,

  ⁹for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth,

  ¹⁰proving what is well pleasing to the Lord.

  ¹¹Have no fellowship with the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather even reprove them.

  ¹²For it is a shame even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.

  ¹³But all things, when they are reproved, are revealed by the light, for everything that reveals is light.

  ¹⁴Therefore he says, “Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

  ¹⁵Therefore watch carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise,

  ¹⁶redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

  ¹⁷Therefore don’t be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

  ¹⁸Don’t be drunken with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,

  ¹⁹speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;

• Gospel

  Luke 13:10–17

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  ¹⁰He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath day.

  ¹¹Behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years. She was bent over, and could in no way straighten herself up.

  ¹²When Jesus saw her, he called her, and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your infirmity.”

  ¹³He laid his hands on her, and immediately she stood up straight and glorified God.

  ¹⁴The ruler of the synagogue, being indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the multitude, “There are six days in which men ought to work. Therefore come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day!”

  ¹⁵Therefore the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each one of you free his ox or his donkey from the stall on the Sabbath, and lead him away to water?

  ¹⁶Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham whom Satan had bound eighteen long years, be freed from this bondage on the Sabbath day?”

  ¹⁷As he said these things, all his adversaries were disappointed and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.

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

Saints and icons

• Prayer of the day: The Symbol of Faith (Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed)