Tuesday 25th November 2025
Nativity Fast: fish, wine and oil allowed
Great Martyr Catherine of Alexandria
Leavetaking of the Entrance of the Mother of God into the Temple
Today we commemorate:
Great Martyr Mercurius of Caesarea in Cappadocia (3rd C). Venerable Peter the Silent, of Galata, Syria (429). Holy Martyrs Augusta Faustina the Empress, Porphyrius, and 200 soldiers at Alexandria with Great-martyr Catherine (305).
2 Thessalonians 1:10-2:2; Luke 17:26-37,18:8
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
2 Thessalonians 1:10-2:2
Brothers and sisters, our witness among you was believed. This is why we are always praying for you, so that our God may count you worthy of the calling and satisfy powerfully every good desire and act of faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in him, through the grace of our God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we beg you, brothers and sisters, not to be quickly shaken from what you know, nor to be troubled, not by the Spirit, not by a message, not by a letter supposedly from us saying that the day of Christ has come.
Luke 17:26-37,18:8
The Lord said, ‘As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the Days of the Son of Man also. They were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, until the day Noah went into the ark. Then the flood came and wiped out all of them. And the same thing happened in the days of Lot. They were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day Lot left Sodom he rained fire and burning sulphur from heaven and wiped out all of them. That is how it will be on the Day the Son of Man is revealed. On that Day, whoever is on the rooftop with possessions in the house should not go down to fetch them. And likewise, whoever is in the field should not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Those who seek to save their life will lose it, and those who lose it will save it. On that night, I tell you, there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be milling in the same place; one will be taken and the other left. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.’ Their response was to ask him, ‘Where, Lord?’ And he told them, ‘Where the carcase is, there the eagles will be gathered. … And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’
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.’