From the calendar 2026

Wednesday, January 21

Ven. Maximus the Confessor

Appointed readings

2 passages

Epistle

James 3:11–4:6

Open Reader ↗

11Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening?

12Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.

13Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.

14But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth.

15This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic.

16For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.

17But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.

18Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

1Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?

2You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.

3You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

4Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

5Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, 'The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously'?

6But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: 'God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.'

Gospel

Mark 11:22–26

Open Reader ↗

22So Jesus answered and said to them, 'Have faith in God.

23For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.

24Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

25'And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.

26But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.'

The rhythm of the day

Fasting: Strict fast
Weekly tone: Tone 7

In remembrance

The saints commemorated this day

Ven. Maximus the ConfessorRead the life

He was born to a noble family in Constantinople in 580. (But, according to a recently-discovered account, he may have been born in Palestine.) He showed uncommon piety and depth of theological understanding from an early age, and wrote some of the Church’s most profound theological works. He became the chief secretary of the Emperor Heraclius and his grandson Constans. But when the Monothelite heresy took hold in the royal court, Maximos could not bear to be surrounded by this error and left for the Monastery at Chrysopolis, where he later became abbot. From the monastery, he battled Monothelitism in homilies and treatises that exercised a considerable influence; so much so that the Emperor Constans ordered him either to accept Monothelite belief or keep silence. Maximos refused to do either, and he was arrested.

Read the full life

Holy Martyr Agnes of Rome (ca. 304)Read the life

She was a virgin of noble birth who lived in Rome during the reign of Diocletian. She was martyred at the age of twelve. From an early age she loved chastity (“Agne”, the origin of her name, means “pure” or “chaste” in Greek.) Her purity became so well known that she was sought out by many women of Rome, whom she exhorted to accept Christ as the one true God, and to honor him with their chastity. For this she was in time arrested and brought before the City Prefect. When she refused to deny Christ, the Prefect had her handed over to a brothel; but everyone who attempted to violate her was mysteriously prevented, and one especially vicious and lewd attacker was miraculously struck dead. In front of the Prefect’s soldiers, Agnes prayed to God and the dead man was restored to life. Many pagan spectators, and the Prefect himself, cried “Great is the power of the Christians!”

Read the full life

Our Holy Father Maximos the Greek (1556)Read the life

He was born Michael Tivolis in 1470. In his early youth he traveled to Italy, where many scholars had fled to preserve Hellenic culture despite the fall of Constantinople. After completing his studies in Florence, he went to the Holy Mountain in 1507 and entered Vatopedi Monastery, where he received the name of Maximos. Ten years later he was sent to Russia in answer to a request of Grand Prince Basil Ivanovich, who sought someone to translate works of the Holy Fathers on the Psalter, as well as other Church books, into Slavonic. Maximos completed this work with such success that he was made to stay in Russia to correct the existing translations (from Greek to Slavonic) of the Scriptures and liturgical books, and to preach. His work aroused the jealousy of some native monks, and Maximos was falsely accused of plotting against the Prince.

Read the full life

Follow a little further

Explore the Library

Writings handed down through the life of the Church.

Carry this reading into Study Beta

Follow a question, gather passages, and give your reading room to grow.