From the calendar, 2028.

Wednesday, January 12

St Sava, Archbishop of Serbia

Strict fastNo meat, dairy, eggs, fish, wine or oil.

Appointed to be read.

At the
1. EpistleHebrews 10:1–18
2. GospelMark 8:30–34

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Epistle.

Hebrews 10:1–18

2 min read

1For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.

2For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.

3But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.

4For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.

5'Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me.

6In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure.

7Then I said, 'Behold, I have come— In the volume of the book it is written of Me— To do Your will, O God.' '

8Previously saying, 'Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them' (which are offered according to the law),

9then He said, 'Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.' He takes away the first that He may establish the second.

10By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

11And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

12But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God,

13from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.

14For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

15But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before,

16'This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,'

17then He adds, 'Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.'

18Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

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Gospel.

Mark 8:30–34

1 min read

30Peter answered and said to Him, 'You are the Christ.' Then He strictly warned them that they should tell no one about Him.

31And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

32He spoke this word openly. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.

33But when He had turned around and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, 'Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.'

34When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, 'Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

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In remembrance.

St Sava, Archbishop of Serbia

Holy Martyr Tatiana (ca. 230)Read the life

She was the daughter of a wealthy Roman consul. She became a deaconess in Rome, and was seized as a Christian during the reign of Alexander Severus. Before the tribunal she fearlessly confessed Christ and, when she was taken to the temple in an effort to force her to make sacrifice, she cast down the idols by the power of her prayer. At this, the soldiers seized her and subjected her to many indignities and tortures, finally throwing her into a raging furnace. When this did not harm her, she was thrown to the wild beasts, but they refused to harm her. At last she was beheaded and thus gained her crown.

Venerable Benedict Biscop, Abbot of Wearmouth (689-690)Read the life

He came from a noble Northumbrian family in Britain, and was tonsured a monk in 653 at Lerins in Gaul. In 669 he was made Abbot of the Monastery of Saints Peter and Paul in Canterbury. He traveled to Rome in 671 to be instructed in monastic practice according to the Rule of Saint Benedict (of Nursia). Returning to Northumbria he established two new monasteries, the first to follow St Benedict’s Rule in the British Isles. He went to Rome once again in 678-679, this time bringing back the archcantor of St Peter’s, who taught the monks of St Benedict’s monasteries the chant and liturgical practices used in Rome.

Read the full life

Further.

The Library

The Fathers, the services and the lives of the saints.

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What this is.

The Scripture the Orthodox Church reads each day, the saints it remembers, and a study aid that answers from Scripture and the Fathers and shows its sources.

Divine Liturgy. The Church's main service, at which Holy Communion is given. Its Epistle and Gospel are what most people mean by the day's readings.

Matins. The morning service of praise. On Sundays and feasts it has a Gospel of its own.

Vespers. The evening service. The Church's day begins at sunset, so a feast's Vespers is served the evening before.

Hours. Short services of psalms and prayer at set times of the day: the First, Third, Sixth and Ninth Hours.

Tone. The hymns of the week are sung in one of eight tones, or melodies, which follow each other week by week.

New Calendar. Fixed feasts are kept on the civil date, as in the OCA and the Antiochian Archdiocese. Churches on the Old Calendar keep them 13 days later. Pascha is the same for both.