From the calendar 2026

Tuesday, November 17

St Gregory the Wonderworker

Appointed readings

2 passages

Epistle

2 Thessalonians 1:10–2:2

10when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.

11Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power,

12that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

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

2not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come.

Gospel

Luke 14:25–35

Open Reader ↗

25Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them,

26'If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.

27And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

28For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—

29lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,

30saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish'?

31Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?

32Or else, while the other is still great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace.

33So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.

34'Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?

35It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!'

The rhythm of the day

Fasting: Wine & oil
Weekly tone: Tone 7

In remembrance

The saints commemorated this day

St Gregory the WonderworkerRead the life

He was born to a prominent pagan family in Neocaesarea, where Christianity was at the time almost unknown. Nonetheless, Gregory found and embraced the faith of Christ at an early age. His parents educated him at the finest schools of the day in Athens, Alexandria, and Beirut; he and his brother spent five years studying under the great Origen, though, the Synaxarion is quick to note, “They possessed enough discernment, however, to avoid certain errors into which Origen was led by the excessive boldness of his speculations about the mysteries of God.”

Refusing many tempting offers of worldly position, Gregory withdrew to the wilderness to live in ascesis. However, the Archbishop of Amesia, familiar with his holiness and ability, consecrated him Bishop of Neocaesarea against his will, and Gregory in obedience took up his see at about the age of thirty.

Read the full life

Ven. Nikon of RadonezhRead the life

He was born in 1350 in the town of Yuriev-in-the-fields, between Rostov and Radonezh. At a very young age he sought out St Sergius of Radonezh, seeking to be his disciple; but the Saint placed him in another monastery, where he soon became known as the ‘lover of obedience’ for his humility and selflessness. At last, when he was about thirty and had been ordained to the priesthood, he was able to go to Radonezh, where St Sergius, discerning his advanced spiritual state, made Nikon his cell-attendant. At the death of St Sergius, the brethren unanimously elected Nikon as their Abbot. In 1408, St Nikon was warned in an apparition that the monastery would be sacked by Tatars, so he and his monks fled with the monastery’s books and sacred vessels. When they returned they found that the monastery had been burned to the ground.

Read the full life

Our Holy Father Longinus (4th or 5th c.)Read the life

“Our holy Father Longinus lived in the Egyptian deserts during the fourth or fifth century. Among other sayings of his, are the following: A dead man judges no one, and it is just the same with the man who is humble. To someone who wanted to go to live in exile, he replied: Unless you guard your tongue, you will not be able to live in exile wherever you go. To someone else who wanted to live in solitude, he said: If you do not exercise the virtues in the midst of men, still less will you be able to do so in solitude. By his life and his words he taught love of humility as superior to all the works of ascesis, saying: Fasting humbles the body, vigil purifies the intellect and stillness leads to the affliction that baptizes man anew and cleanses him of all sin.

We also owe to him the famous saying: Shed your blood and receive the Spirit.” (Synaxarion)

Our Holy Mother Hilda, Abbess of Whitby (680)Read the life

A noble kinswoman of St Edwin, king of Northumbria (commemorated October 12), Hilda was baptized at a young age through the preaching of St Paulinus, one of the first missionaries sent from Rome to British Isles. At the age of thirty-three she renounced the world and entered monastic life. At first, she sought to enter a monastery near Paris in Gaul, but she was called back to her homeland by St Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne (August 31), who, discerning her already-apparent spiritual gifts, set her as Abbess of a small monastery. As her gifts of discernment and spiritual guidance became more widely-known, she led larger monasteries, finally establishing the Monastery of Whitby in 657. The Saint spent the next thirty-three years directing the Monastery, which became a beacon of Christian life throughout the British Isles and beyond.

Read the full life

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