Thursday, January 1, 2026
Circumcision of Our Lord
Thursday of the 30th week after Pentecost
Tone 4. Fast-free. What this means
The Epistle for St Basil
Hebrews 7:26–8:2
For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; 27Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself. 28For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.
1Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; 2A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.
The Gospel for St Basil
Luke 6:17–23
And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judæa and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases; 18And they that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed. 19And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all.
20And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. 21Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh. 22Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. 23Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.
Commemorated today
- Our Father among the Saints Basil the Great (379).
- Peter the New Martyr of the Peloponnesos
- Theodotos the Martyr
- Righteous Theodosios of Triglia
- Telemachos the Martyr
- Fulgentius, Bishop of Ruspe
- St Gregory, Bishop of Nazianzus (374), father of St Gregory the Theologian
Hymns and lives of the saints are on the Online Chapel of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese.