Thursday 4th December 2025
Nativity Fast: fish, wine and oil allowed
Great Martyr Barbara and Martyr Juliana at Heliopolis in Syria
Today we commemorate:
St. John the Righteous, of Damascus (776). New Hieromartyr Bishop Seraphim at the Phanar (1601). New Martyrs Protopresbyter Alexander Hotovitzky of New York (1937), and Priest Alexis Benemansky of Tver (1937).
1 Timothy 3:1-13; Luke 20:9-18
For the Commemoration: Galatians 3:23-4:5; Mark 5:24-34
Readings in bold type are those appointed by the Typikon for use at the Liturgy
1 Timothy 3:1-13
Timothy, my son, the saying is true: if anyone aspires to the office of bishop, he desires a noble task. Now the bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, disciplined, modest, hospitable, able to teach, not overfond of wine, nor a brawler or a money-grubber, but gentle, peaceable, free from avarice, ruling his own household well, keeping his children in order with complete dignity, for if someone does not know how to preside over his own household, how is he to care for the Church of God? He must not be newly converted or he may become puffed up with vanity and fall into the devil’s condemnation, and he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he does not fall into disrepute and the snare of the devil. Deacons likewise should be reverent, not two-faced, not given to large quantities of wine, not greedy, but should hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. They too should be tested first, and if blameless, then let them serve. In the same way the women should be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in every way. Deacons should be husbands of one wife, presiding over their children and their own households well, for those who minister well are earning for themselves a good standing and great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.
Luke 20:9-18
The Lord told this parable. ‘There was a man who planted a vineyard, leased it to vine-growers, and went abroad for a long time. At the appropriate season he sent a servant to the vine-growers so that they might give him some of the produce of the vineyard. But the vine-growers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. He did more, sending another servant to them, but they showed him no respect. They beat him as well, and sent him away empty-handed. He did more, sending a third, and they wounded him too and threw him out. Then the master of the vineyard said, “What shall I do? I shall send my beloved son. Perhaps when they see him they will show respect.” But when the vine-growers saw him they discussed it among themselves, saying, “This is the heir. Come, let us kill him so that the inheritance may be ours.” And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Now what will the master of the vineyard do to them? He will come and wipe out those vine-growers and give the vineyard to others.’ On hearing it, they exclaimed, ‘May it never happen.’ He looked at them and said, ‘Then what is this that is written? “It is the stone the builders rejected that has become the chief cornerstone.” Everyone who falls over that stone will be dashed to pieces, and the one on whom it falls will be ground to dust.’
Galatians 3:23-4:5
Brothers and sisters, before the coming of faith we were guarded under the law, locked up for the faith yet to be revealed. And so the law became our tutor on behalf of Christ so that by faith we might be made righteous. But faith has come, and we are no longer under a tutor because you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all who are baptised into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, because you are all one in Christ Jesus. And since you are Christ’s, you are Abraham’s offspring and heirs according to promise. I am saying that as long as the heir, the master of everything, is a child, the heir is no different from a slave and is under guardians and trustees until the day set by the father. We too, when we were children, were enslaved under the elemental principles of the world, but in the fullness of time God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons and daughters.
Mark 5:24-34
At that time a large crowd followed Jesus, and they were pressing against him. There was also a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered much under many physicians and spent all that she had without benefiting at all; rather, she had become worse. Hearing about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she said to herself, ‘If I touch even his clothes, I shall be healed.’ At once her flow of blood was staunched and she knew in her body that she had been healed of the scourge. Jesus realised immediately within himself that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ But his disciples said to him, ‘You see the crowd pressing against you and you ask, “Who touched me?”’ He was looking around to see who had done it, and the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came forward in fear and trembling and fell down before him, and she told him the whole truth. He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace, and be healed of your scourge.’