From the calendar, 2028.

Wednesday, January 26

Ven. Xenophon, Mary, and their sons Arcadius and John

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

Appointed to be read.

At the
1. EpistleJames 3:11–4:6
2. GospelMark 11:22–26

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Epistle.

James 3:11–4:6

2 min read

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.

4:1Where 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.'

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Gospel.

Mark 11:22–26

1 min read

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.'

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In remembrance.

Ven. Xenophon, Mary, and their sons Arcadius and JohnRead the life

Xenophon was a wealthy senator in Constantinople during the reign of Justinian. He and his wife Mary had two sons, Arcadius and John, to whom they gave every advantage of education. When they were of age, Xenophon sent them both to study law in Berytus (Beirut). But the ship on which they set out was wrecked in a storm, and the two brothers were cast ashore, alive but separated, neither knowing whether the other had survived.

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St Simeon the Elder of Mount Sinai

St Ammonas of Egypt, disciple of St Anthony the Great (350)Read the life

“Saint Ammonas was a disciple of Saint Antony the Great and became his successor at the head of the hermits of the outer mountain of Pispir, after having spent fourteen years at Scetis in ceaseless prayer to the Lord to be granted victory over anger. He was afterwards consecrated bishop, probably by Saint Athanasius the Great. He possessed impassibility to the extent of being as though ignorant of the existence of evil, and incapable of passing judgment on anyone.

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Our Holy Mother Paula of Rome (404)Read the life

She was born in 347 to a noble family in Rome, and at age sixteen married Toxotius, a prominent nobleman. Though her husband was a pagan, he was devoted to her and gave her freedom to keep a Christian home and rear her children as Christians. They were blessed with five children. When she was thirty-two her husband died suddenly, and Paula resolved to turn her large house in Rome into a monastery. Later she traveled to the Holy Land with her spiritual father St Jerome (June 15). In Bethlehem she established two monasteries, one for women (where she dwelt) and one for St Jerome and his companions. Every day the nuns chanted the entire Psalter, which they were required to learn by heart. Paula was exceptionally austere in her fasting and lavish in her almsgiving, often giving away to the poor even the goods needed by her community for subsistence.

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Further.

The Library

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

Study

Ask a question about a passage. Answers cite their sources.

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.