January 20, 2026

Events of the day

No commemorations in the content package for this day yet

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

• Vespers

  Wisdom of Solomon 5:15–6:3

• Vespers

  Wisdom of Solomon 3:1–9

• 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

  James 3:1–10

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  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.

• Epistle · St Euthymius

  Hebrews 13:17–21

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  ¹⁷Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they watch on behalf of your souls, as those who will give account, that they may do this with joy, and not with groaning, for that would be unprofitable for you.

  ¹⁸Pray for us, for we are persuaded that we have a good conscience, desiring to live honorably in all things.

  ¹⁹I strongly urge you to do this, that I may be restored to you sooner.

  ²⁰Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus,

  ²¹make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

• Gospel

  Mark 11:11–23

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  ¹¹Jesus entered into the temple in Jerusalem. When he had looked around at everything, it being now evening, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

  ¹²The next day, when they had come out from Bethany, he was hungry.

  ¹³Seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came to see if perhaps he might find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.

  ¹⁴Jesus told it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” and his disciples heard it.

  ¹⁵They came to Jerusalem, and Jesus entered into the temple, and began to throw out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and overthrew the money changers’ tables, and the seats of those who sold the doves.

  ¹⁶He would not allow anyone to carry a container through the temple.

  ¹⁷He taught, saying to them, “Isn’t it written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations?’ But you have made it a den of robbers!”

  ¹⁸The chief priests and the scribes heard it, and sought how they might destroy him. For they feared him, because all the multitude was astonished at his teaching.

  ¹⁹When evening came, he went out of the city.

  ²⁰As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away from the roots.

  ²¹Peter, remembering, said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which you cursed has withered away.”

  ²²Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God.

  ²³For most certainly I tell you, whoever may tell this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and doesn’t doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is happening; he shall have whatever he says.

• Gospel · St Euthymius

  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, New Calendar (OCA practice). Text: World English Bible.

Saints and icons

• Prayer of the day: The Jesus Prayer