December 26, 2026

Events of the day

• Martyrs Eustratius, Auxentius, Eugene, Mardarius and Orestes

  Commemoration

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

• Vespers

  Wisdom of Solomon 3:1–9

• Vespers

  Wisdom of Solomon 5:15–6:3

• Vespers

  Wisdom of Solomon 4:7–15

• Matins Gospel

  Matthew 11:27–30

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  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

  Ephesians 5:1–8

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  ¹Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children.

  ²Walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance.

  ³But sexual immorality, and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be mentioned among you, as becomes saints;

  ⁴nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not appropriate, but rather giving of thanks.

  ⁵Know this for sure, that no sexually immoral person, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God.

  ⁶Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience.

  ⁷Therefore don’t be partakers with them.

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

• Epistle · St Herman

  Galatians 5:22–6:2

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  ²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,

  ²³gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

  ²⁴Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.

  ²⁵If we live by the Spirit, let’s also walk by the Spirit.

  ²⁶Let’s not become conceited, provoking one another, and envying one another.

  ¹Brothers, even if a man is caught in some fault, you who are spiritual must restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; looking to yourself so that you also aren’t tempted.

  ²Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

• Gospel

  Luke 13:18–29

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  ¹⁸He said, “What is God’s Kingdom like? To what shall I compare it?

  ¹⁹It is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and put in his own garden. It grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the sky live in its branches.”

  ²⁰Again he said, “To what shall I compare God’s Kingdom?

  ²¹It is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”

  ²²He went on his way through cities and villages, teaching, and traveling on to Jerusalem.

  ²³One said to him, “Lord, are they few who are saved?” He said to them,

  ²⁴“Strive to enter in by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter in and will not be able.

  ²⁵When once the master of the house has risen up, and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ then he will answer and tell you, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’

  ²⁶Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’

  ²⁷He will say, ‘I tell you, I don’t know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.’

  ²⁸There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in God’s Kingdom, and yourselves being thrown outside.

  ²⁹They will come from the east, west, north, and south, and will sit down in God’s Kingdom.

• Gospel · St Herman

  Luke 6:17–23

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  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 for the departed