June 23, 2026

Events of the day

• Hieromartyr Timothy, Bishop of Prusa

  Commemoration

Fasting

Fast day · Apostles' Fast

Apostles' 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

• Epistle

  Romans 10:11–11:2

  Show the text

  ¹¹For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.”

  ¹²For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich to all who call on him.

  ¹³For, “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

  ¹⁴How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher?

  ¹⁵And how will they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Good News of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!”

  ¹⁶But they didn’t all listen to the glad news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?”

  ¹⁷So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

  ¹⁸But I say, didn’t they hear? Yes, most certainly, “Their sound went out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”

  ¹⁹But I ask, didn’t Israel know? First Moses says, “I will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no nation. I will make you angry with a nation void of understanding.”

  ²⁰Isaiah is very bold and says, “I was found by those who didn’t seek me. I was revealed to those who didn’t ask for me.”

  ²¹But about Israel he says, “All day long I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”

  ¹I ask then, did God reject his people? May it never be! For I also am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

  ²God didn’t reject his people, which he foreknew. Or don’t you know what the Scripture says about Elijah? How he pleads with God against Israel:

• Gospel

  Matthew 11:16–20

  Show the text

  ¹⁶“But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces, who call to their companions

  ¹⁷and say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you didn’t dance. We mourned for you, and you didn’t lament.’

  ¹⁸For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’

  ¹⁹The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children.”

  ²⁰Then he began to denounce the cities in which most of his mighty works had been done, because they didn’t repent.

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

Saints and icons

• Prayer of the day: The Jesus Prayer