Friday 20th February 2026
Cheesefare week: abstain only from meat
Today we commemorate:
St. Leo, bishop of Catania in Sicily (c.780). St. Dionysius, pope of Rome (268). Hieromartyr Sadoc, bishop of Persia, and 128 Martyrs with him (c.344). St. Agathon, pope of Rome (682). St. Bessarion the Great, Wonderworker of Egypt (466).
British Isles and Ireland:
St. Bolcan, bishop of Derkan (480). St. Colgan, abbot of Clonmacnoise (c.796).
Zechariah 8:7-17; Zechariah 8:19-23;
Zechariah 8:7-17
The Lord Almighty says this, ‘Behold, I am rescuing my people from the land of the East and from the land of the West, and I shall bring them in and make them live in the midst of Jerusalem. They will be my people and I shall be their God in truth and in righteousness.’ The Lord Almighty says this, ‘Let your hands be strong, you who in these days listen to words from the mouths of the prophets from the day that the House of the Lord was founded and from the time that the Temple was built. For before those days there will be no profit in people’s wages, and no profit from livestock; there will be no respite from distress for those who come and go, and I shall send everyone out against their neighbours. But now I am not going to treat the remnant of this people as I did in earlier days,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘for I shall show peace; the vine will yield her fruit and the land will yield her harvest, and heaven will drop its dew. I shall give all these things to the remnant of my people as a possession. And it will be that although you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, I shall save you and you will be a blessing. Be of good courage and strengthen your hands.’ The Lord Almighty says this, ‘Although I decided to do you harm when your fathers provoked me,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and I did not relent, now I am prepared and I have decided to do well by Jerusalem and by the house of Judah. Be of good courage. These are the things you are to do. Let each of you speak the truth to your neighbour. Judge with justice that leads to peace when you sit at the city gates. Let none of you think evil in your heart against your neighbour, and do not be content to swear falsely. For all these things I hate,’ says the Lord Almighty.
Zechariah 8:19-23
The Lord Almighty says this, ‘The fourth fast and the fifth fast and the seventh fast and the tenth fast will be joy and gladness and like good feasts for the house of Judah, and you will rejoice and love truth and peace.’ The Lord Almighty says this, ‘Many peoples will come, the inhabitants of many cities. The inhabitants of five cities will come together to one city saying, “Let us go to pray in the presence of the Lord and to seek the face of the Lord Almighty. I too will go.”’ Yes, many peoples and many nations will come to seek the face of the Lord Almighty in Jerusalem and to make atonement in the presence of the Lord. The Lord Almighty says this, ‘In those days if ten men of all languages and nations lay hold of a Jew, catching the hem of the man’s cloak, they will say, “We are going with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”’
The text and chapter and verse references of the Old Testament readings are those of the Septuagint