November 18, 2026

Events of the day

• Martyrs Galaction and Episteme; St Jonah, Archbishop of Novgorod

  Commemoration

Fasting

Fast day · Wednesday / Friday

Wednesday and Friday: fast without meat, dairy or eggs. Whether fish is allowed depends on the day's feast — check the church calendar.

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

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

  2 Thessalonians 2:1–12

  Show the text

  ¹Now, brothers, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him, we ask you

  ²not to be quickly shaken in your mind, and not be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by letter as if from us, saying that the day of Christ has already come.

  ³Let no one deceive you in any way. For it will not be, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction,

  ⁴he who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself up as God.

  ⁵Don’t you remember that, when I was still with you, I told you these things?

  ⁶Now you know what is restraining him, to the end that he may be revealed in his own season.

  ⁷For the mystery of lawlessness already works. Only there is one who restrains now, until he is taken out of the way.

  ⁸Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will kill with the breath of his mouth, and destroy by the manifestation of his coming;

  ⁹even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,

  ¹⁰and with all deception of wickedness for those who are being lost, because they didn’t receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

  ¹¹Because of this, God sends them a working of error, that they should believe a lie;

  ¹²that they all might be judged who didn’t believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

• Gospel

  Luke 11:42–46

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  ⁴²But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, but you bypass justice and God’s love. You ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.

  ⁴³Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues, and the greetings in the marketplaces.

  ⁴⁴Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like hidden graves, and the men who walk over them don’t know it.”

  ⁴⁵One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying this you insult us also.”

  ⁴⁶He said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load men with burdens that are difficult to carry, and you yourselves won’t even lift one finger to help carry those burdens.

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

Saints and icons

• Prayer of the day: The Trisagion