December 4, 2030

Events of the day

No commemorations in the content package for this day yet

Fasting

Fast day · Nativity Fast

Nativity Fast, Wednesday and Friday: xerophagy.

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

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

  2 Thessalonians 2:1–12

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  ¹Now, brothers, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him, we ask you

  ²not to be quickly shaken in your mind, and not be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by letter as if from us, saying that the day of Christ has already come.

  ³Let no one deceive you in any way. For it will not be, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction,

  ⁴he who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself up as God.

  ⁵Don’t you remember that, when I was still with you, I told you these things?

  ⁶Now you know what is restraining him, to the end that he may be revealed in his own season.

  ⁷For the mystery of lawlessness already works. Only there is one who restrains now, until he is taken out of the way.

  ⁸Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will kill with the breath of his mouth, and destroy by the manifestation of his coming;

  ⁹even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,

  ¹⁰and with all deception of wickedness for those who are being lost, because they didn’t receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

  ¹¹Because of this, God sends them a working of error, that they should believe a lie;

  ¹²that they all might be judged who didn’t believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

• Epistle · St Alexander

  Hebrews 13:7–16

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  ⁷Remember your leaders, men who spoke to you the word of God, and considering the results of their conduct, imitate their faith.

  ⁸Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

  ⁹Don’t be carried away by various and strange teachings, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not by food, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited.

  ¹⁰We have an altar from which those who serve the holy tabernacle have no right to eat.

  ¹¹For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside of the camp.

  ¹²Therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside of the gate.

  ¹³Let’s therefore go out to him outside of the camp, bearing his reproach.

  ¹⁴For we don’t have here an enduring city, but we seek that which is to come.

  ¹⁵Through him, then, let’s offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which proclaim allegiance to his name.

  ¹⁶But don’t forget to be doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

• Gospel

  Luke 21:5–7, 10–11, 20–24

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  ⁵As some were talking about the temple and how it was decorated with beautiful stones and gifts, he said,

  ⁶“As for these things which you see, the days will come, in which there will not be left here one stone on another that will not be thrown down.”

  ⁷They asked him, “Teacher, so when will these things be? What is the sign that these things are about to happen?”

  ¹⁰Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

  ¹¹There will be great earthquakes, famines, and plagues in various places. There will be terrors and great signs from heaven.

  ²⁰“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand.

  ²¹Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let those who are in the middle of her depart. Let those who are in the country not enter therein.

  ²²For these are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.

  ²³Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who nurse infants in those days! For there will be great distress in the land, and wrath to this people.

  ²⁴They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

• Gospel · St Alexander

  Luke 12:32–40

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  ³²Don’t be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.

  ³³Sell that which you have, and give gifts to the needy. Make for yourselves purses which don’t grow old, a treasure in the heavens that doesn’t fail, where no thief approaches, neither moth destroys.

  ³⁴For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

  ³⁵“Let your waist be dressed and your lamps burning.

  ³⁶Be like men watching for their lord, when he returns from the wedding feast; that when he comes and knocks, they may immediately open to him.

  ³⁷Blessed are those servants, whom the lord will find watching when he comes. Most certainly I tell you that he will dress himself, make them recline, and will come and serve them.

  ³⁸They will be blessed if he comes in the second or third watch, and finds them so.

  ³⁹But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched, and not allowed his house to be broken into.

  ⁴⁰Therefore be ready also, for the Son of Man is coming in an hour that you don’t expect him.”

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

Saints and icons

• Prayer of the day: The Trisagion