July 30, 2026

Events of the day

• Great-martyr Marina (Margaret)

  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

• Epistle

  1 Corinthians 14:6–19

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  ⁶But now, brothers, if I come to you speaking with other languages, what would I profit you, unless I speak to you either by way of revelation, or of knowledge, or of prophesying, or of teaching?

  ⁷Even things without life, giving a voice, whether pipe or harp, if they didn’t give a distinction in the sounds, how would it be known what is piped or harped?

  ⁸For if the trumpet gave an uncertain sound, who would prepare himself for war?

  ⁹So also you, unless you uttered by the tongue words easy to understand, how would it be known what is spoken? For you would be speaking into the air.

  ¹⁰There are, it may be, so many kinds of sounds in the world, and none of them is without meaning.

  ¹¹If then I don’t know the meaning of the sound, I would be to him who speaks a foreigner, and he who speaks would be a foreigner to me.

  ¹²So also you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, seek that you may abound to the building up of the assembly.

  ¹³Therefore let him who speaks in another language pray that he may interpret.

  ¹⁴For if I pray in another language, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.

  ¹⁵What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also. I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.

  ¹⁶Otherwise if you bless with the spirit, how will he who fills the place of the unlearned say the “Amen” at your giving of thanks, seeing he doesn’t know what you say?

  ¹⁷For you most certainly give thanks well, but the other person is not built up.

  ¹⁸I thank my God, I speak with other languages more than you all.

  ¹⁹However in the assembly I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that I might instruct others also, than ten thousand words in another language.

• Gospel

  Matthew 20:17–28

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  ¹⁷As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them,

  ¹⁸“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death,

  ¹⁹and will hand him over to the Gentiles to mock, to scourge, and to crucify; and the third day he will be raised up.”

  ²⁰Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, kneeling and asking a certain thing of him.

  ²¹He said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Command that these, my two sons, may sit, one on your right hand, and one on your left hand, in your Kingdom.”

  ²²But Jesus answered, “You don’t know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They said to him, “We are able.”

  ²³He said to them, “You will indeed drink my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with, but to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give; but it is for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”

  ²⁴When the ten heard it, they were indignant with the two brothers.

  ²⁵But Jesus summoned them, and said, “You know that the rulers of the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.

  ²⁶It shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.

  ²⁷Whoever desires to be first among you shall be your bondservant,

  ²⁸even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

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”