Tuesday 27th January 2026
Translation of the Relics of Saint John Chrysostom
Today we commemorate:
St. Peter of Egypt (4th C). New Martyr Demetrius at Constantinople (1784)
British Isles and Ireland:
St. Natalis of Ulster (6th C).
1 Peter 3:10-22; Mark 12:18-27
For the Commemoration: Hebrews 7:26-8:2; John 10:9-16
Readings in bold type are those appointed by the Typikon for use at the Liturgy
1 Peter 3:10-22
Beloved, ‘Those who desire to love life and to see good days should restrain their tongue from evil and their lips from speaking deceitfully. Let them turn away from evil and do good. Let them seek peace and pursue it, for the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.’ And who will harm you if you become a model of virtue? But even if you should suffer because of righteousness, blessed ones, ‘do not be alarmed by the fear of them, and do not be troubled.’ Reverence the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready with an answer for everyone who asks you for an account of the hope that is in you; but do it with humility and fear. Keep a good conscience so that those who slander you as evildoers and despise your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. And it is better to suffer while doing good, if it is God’s will, than to do evil, for Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, so that he might lead us to God. He was put to death in the flesh and made alive in the Spirit, in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison who refused to believe at the time when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while an ark was being built in which a few, that is eight souls, were saved through water. Baptism, which this prefigured, now saves us. It is not a removal of bodily dirt, but a question of a good conscience before God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ who has gone on into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities and powers subject to him.
Mark 12:18-27
At that time the Sadducees, they who say there is no resurrection from the dead, approached Jesus and questioned him. They said, ‘Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if someone’s brother should die and leave a wife but no children, his brother is to take his wife and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and when he died he left no issue. Then the second took her and he died, also leaving no issue. With the third it was just the same, and all seven took her and left no issue. Last of all the woman died too. At the resurrection then, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? Because seven had her as wife.’ Jesus told them, ‘The reason that you go astray is that you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God, for when they rise from the dead they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven. Now about the dead, that they rise again, have you not read about the bush in the book of Moses and how God spoke to him? He said, “I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” He is not the God of the dead but of the living. You are therefore seriously astray.’
Hebrews 7:26-8:2
Brothers and sisters, such a High Priest was appropriate for us: pure, innocent, undefiled, set apart from sinners and higher than the heavens. He does not need to offer daily sacrifices as the high priests do, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, because he did this once and for all when he offered himself. For the law appoints as high priests men with weaknesses, but the word given on oath that came after the law appoints a Son who has been made perfect for all time. The nub of what is being said is this: we have such a High Priest who took his seat at the right hand of the Throne of Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the Holy Places and of the true Tent that the Lord, not a human being, pitched.
John 10:9-16
The Lord said, ‘I am the Gate. Anyone who enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal, to kill and to destroy. I came so that they may have life and have it in abundance. I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep; but when the hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees a wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf carries the sheep off and scatters them. The hired hand, being a hired hand, runs away and does not care about the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own and I am known by those who are mine, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep, not of this fold; I must fetch them too. They will listen to my voice and there will be one flock, one Shepherd.’