Friday 6th February 2026
Fast free week
Afterfeast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple
Today we commemorate:
St. Photios the Great, patriarch of Constantinople (891). St. Bucolos, bishop of Smyrna (c.100). Virgin-Martyr Dorothy, two sisters Christina and Callista, and Theophilos, at Caesarea in Cappadocia (300). Martyr Julian of Emesa, the holy and unmercenary healer (312). St. Barsanuphius the Great and St. John the Prophet (6th C). St. James, Ascetic of Syria (c.460). St. Dorothea, Schema-nun of Kashin (1629).
British Isles and Ireland:
SS Mael and Mun, bishops and nephews of St. Patrick (c.488). Martyr Tanco, Irish bishop of Werden.
1 John 2:7-17; Mark 14:3-9
Readings in bold type are those appointed by the Typikon for use at the Liturgy
1 John 2:7-17
Brothers and sisters, I am not writing a new commandment to you but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you heard from the beginning. Then again I am writing a new commandment to you that is true for him and for you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Those who say that they are in the light but hate their brother or sister are still in the darkness. Those who love their brother or sister live in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in them. But those who hate their brother or sister are in the darkness and walk in darkness, and they do not know where they are going because the darkness makes their eyes blind. I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven through his name. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know the one who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one. Do not love the world, nor what is in the world. As for those who love the world, the Father’s love is not in them because all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pretentious lifestyle, comes not from the Father but from the world. The world with its lusts is passing away, but those who do the will of God live for ever.
Mark 14:3-9
At that time Jesus was at Bethany, dining in the house of Simon the leper, when a woman arrived with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfumed oil, pure spikenard. She broke the jar and poured it over his head. Some were outraged, saying among themselves, ‘Why has the oil been wasted? This oil could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.’ And they were murmuring against her. But Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. Why are you troubling her? She has done a good deed for me. You always have the poor with you and you can do them good whenever you wish, but you do not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anticipated the anointing of my body in preparation for burial. Truly I tell you that wherever this Gospel is preached throughout the world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of as a memorial to her.’