December 16, 2027

Events of the day

• Prophet Zephaniah; St Sabbas of Storozhi, Zvenigorod

  Polyeleos rank

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

• Epistle

  1 Timothy 3:1–13

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  ¹This is a faithful saying: someone who seeks to be an overseer desires a good work.

  ²The overseer therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, modest, hospitable, good at teaching;

  ³not a drinker, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous;

  ⁴one who rules his own house well, having children in subjection with all reverence;

  ⁵(but how could someone who doesn’t know how to rule one’s own house take care of God’s assembly?)

  ⁶not a new convert, lest being puffed up he fall into the same condemnation as the devil.

  ⁷Moreover he must have good testimony from those who are outside, to avoid falling into reproach and the snare of the devil.

  ⁸Servants, in the same way, must be reverent, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for money,

  ⁹holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.

  ¹⁰Let them also first be tested; then let them serve if they are blameless.

  ¹¹Their wives in the same way must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, and faithful in all things.

  ¹²Let servants be husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.

  ¹³For those who have served well gain for themselves a good standing, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

• Gospel

  Luke 20:9–18

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  ⁹He began to tell the people this parable. “A man planted a vineyard, and rented it out to some farmers, and went into another country for a long time.

  ¹⁰At the proper season, he sent a servant to the farmers to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard. But the farmers beat him, and sent him away empty.

  ¹¹He sent yet another servant, and they also beat him, and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty.

  ¹²He sent yet a third, and they also wounded him, and threw him out.

  ¹³The lord of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. It may be that seeing him, they will respect him.’

  ¹⁴“But when the farmers saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.’

  ¹⁵They threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What therefore will the lord of the vineyard do to them?

  ¹⁶He will come and destroy these farmers, and will give the vineyard to others.” When they heard that, they said, “May that never be!”

  ¹⁷But he looked at them and said, “Then what is this that is written, ‘The stone which the builders rejected was made the chief cornerstone?’

  ¹⁸Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but it will crush whomever it falls on to dust.”

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”