January 4, 2027

Events of the day

No commemorations in the content package for this day yet

• Forefeast: Holy Theophany. The Baptism of the Lord

Fasting

No fast

Christmastide (25 Dec – 4 Jan Old Style) is fast-free: no fasting.

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 2:14–26

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  ¹⁴What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him?

  ¹⁵And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food,

  ¹⁶and one of you tells them, “Go in peace. Be warmed and filled;” yet you didn’t give them the things the body needs, what good is it?

  ¹⁷Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself.

  ¹⁸Yes, a man will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

  ¹⁹You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe, and shudder.

  ²⁰But do you want to know, vain man, that faith apart from works is dead?

  ²¹Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?

  ²²You see that faith worked with his works, and by works faith was perfected.

  ²³So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God.

  ²⁴You see then that by works, a man is justified, and not only by faith.

  ²⁵In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works, in that she received the messengers and sent them out another way?

  ²⁶For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.

• Gospel

  Luke 17:20–25

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  ²⁰Being asked by the Pharisees when God’s Kingdom would come, he answered them, “God’s Kingdom doesn’t come with observation;

  ²¹neither will they say, ‘Look, here!’ or, ‘Look, there!’ for behold, God’s Kingdom is within you.”

  ²²He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.

  ²³They will tell you, ‘Look, here!’ or ‘Look, there!’ Don’t go away or follow after them,

  ²⁴for as the lightning, when it flashes out of one part under the sky, shines to another part under the sky; so will the Son of Man be in his day.

  ²⁵But first, he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

Source: Orthocal: lectionary data — Slavic tradition, New Calendar (OCA practice). Text: World English Bible.

Saints and icons

• Prayer of the day: Morning prayer of St Macarius the Great