December 13, 2031

Events of the day

No commemorations in the content package for this day yet

Fasting

Fast day · Nativity Fast

Nativity Fast, Saturday and Sunday: fish is allowed.

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

• Vespers

  Wisdom of Solomon 3:1–9

• Vespers

  Wisdom of Solomon 5:15–6:3

• 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

  Ephesians 1:16–23

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  ¹⁶don’t cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers,

  ¹⁷that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him,

  ¹⁸having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

  ¹⁹and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might

  ²⁰which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places,

  ²¹far above all rule, authority, power, dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.

  ²²He put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things for the assembly,

  ²³which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

• Epistle · St Herman

  Galatians 5:22–6:2

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  ²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,

  ²³gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

  ²⁴Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.

  ²⁵If we live by the Spirit, let’s also walk by the Spirit.

  ²⁶Let’s not become conceited, provoking one another, and envying one another.

  ¹Brothers, even if a man is caught in some fault, you who are spiritual must restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; looking to yourself so that you also aren’t tempted.

  ²Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

• Gospel

  Luke 13:18–29

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  ¹⁸He said, “What is God’s Kingdom like? To what shall I compare it?

  ¹⁹It is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and put in his own garden. It grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the sky live in its branches.”

  ²⁰Again he said, “To what shall I compare God’s Kingdom?

  ²¹It is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”

  ²²He went on his way through cities and villages, teaching, and traveling on to Jerusalem.

  ²³One said to him, “Lord, are they few who are saved?” He said to them,

  ²⁴“Strive to enter in by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter in and will not be able.

  ²⁵When once the master of the house has risen up, and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ then he will answer and tell you, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’

  ²⁶Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’

  ²⁷He will say, ‘I tell you, I don’t know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.’

  ²⁸There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in God’s Kingdom, and yourselves being thrown outside.

  ²⁹They will come from the east, west, north, and south, and will sit down in God’s Kingdom.

• Gospel · St Herman

  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: Prayer for the departed