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2026 |
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On Monday | December 21 |
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The Readings from the Regular Cycle |
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The Epistle |
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Monday of the 30th Week |
The reading is from Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews. |
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Heb. 8:7 – 13 |
Brethren, if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second. For he finds fault with them when he says: “The days will come, says the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant, and so I paid no heed to them, says the Lord. This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach every one his fellow or every one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” In speaking of a new covenant he treats the first as obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. [RSV] |
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The Gospel |
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Monday of the 14th Week of Luke |
The reading is from the holy Gospel according to Mark. |
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Mk. 9:42 – 50; 10:1 |
The Lord said, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung round his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell, to the unquenchable fire, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. For every one will be salted with fire and every sacrifice will be salted with salt. Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its saltness, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again; and again, as his custom was, he taught them. [RSV] |
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Stand for the reading of the Synaxarion. |
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Synaxarion |
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From the Menaion. |
On December 21 we commemorate the holy Martyr Julianna. |
On this day we also commemorate the holy 500 Martyrs who believed through St. Julianna and died by the sword in Nicomedia. |
On this day the holy 130 Martyrs died by the sword in Nicomedia. |
On this day we commemorate the holy Martyr Themistocles. |
By the intercessions of Your Saints, O God, have mercy and save us. Amen. |
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Fasting Rule |
Strict: Refrain from meat, fish, oil, dairy, and eggs. |
It is the Christmas fast. |