January 5, 2027

Events of the day

• The Ten Martyrs of Crete

  Commemoration

• Forefeast: Nativity of our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ

Fasting

Fast day · Nativity Fast

Nativity Fast (from 20 Dec Old Style), Tuesday and Thursday: cooked food without oil.

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

  James 3:1–10

  Show the text

  ¹Let not many of you be teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive heavier judgment.

  ²For we all stumble in many things. Anyone who doesn’t stumble in word is a perfect person, able to bridle the whole body also.

  ³Indeed, we put bits into the horses’ mouths so that they may obey us, and we guide their whole body.

  ⁴Behold, the ships also, though they are so big and are driven by fierce winds, are yet guided by a very small rudder, wherever the pilot desires.

  ⁵So the tongue is also a little member, and boasts great things. See how a small fire can spread to a large forest!

  ⁶And the tongue is a fire. The world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by Gehenna.

  ⁷For every kind of animal, bird, creeping thing, and sea creature, is tamed, and has been tamed by mankind;

  ⁸but nobody can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

  ⁹With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men who are made in the image of God.

  ¹⁰Out of the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

• Gospel

  Mark 10:2–12

  Show the text

  ²Pharisees came to him testing him, and asked him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”

  ³He answered, “What did Moses command you?”

  ⁴They said, “Moses allowed a certificate of divorce to be written, and to divorce her.”

  ⁵But Jesus said to them, “For your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment.

  ⁶But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female.

  ⁷For this cause a man will leave his father and mother, and will join to his wife,

  ⁸and the two will become one flesh, so that they are no longer two, but one flesh.

  ⁹What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”

  ¹⁰In the house, his disciples asked him again about the same matter.

  ¹¹He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife, and marries another, commits adultery against her.

  ¹²If a woman herself divorces her husband, and marries another, she commits adultery.”

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

Saints and icons

• Prayer of the day: The Jesus Prayer