30th Sunday After Pentecost - Forefeast of Theophany - 1/5/26
Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles
Sunday, January 4th, is the 30th Sunday after Pentecost and the third day of the Forefeast of Theophany. The hymns we sing compare the Feast of the Nativity with the coming Feast. “There shepherds saw the Child and were amazed; here the voice of the Father proclaims the only-begotten Son.” On this day, the Church remembers:
Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles (The Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles was established by the Orthodox Church to indicate the equal honor of each of the Seventy. They were sent two by two by the Lord Jesus Christ to go before Him into the cities He would visit (Luke 10:1)
Ven. Theoctistus, Abbot at Cucomo, in Sicily (800)
Repose of St. Eustathius I, Archbishop of Serbia (ca. 1285)
St. Aquila, Deacon, of the Kiev Caves (Far Caves—14th c.)
Confessors Zosimus the Hermit and Athanasius the Commentarisius (Superintendent of Prisoners), Anchorites, of Cilicia (3rd-4th c.)
St. Nikephoros the Leper (1964)
Ven. Euthymius and twelve other Monks, martyred at Vatopedi (Mt. Athos—1285)
Ven. Onuphrius of Chilandari (Mt. Athos), Martyr (1818).
Read more about the lives of these saints here.
Readings for Sunday, January 4th:
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5
But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
6
For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand.
7
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
8
Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.
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1
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
2
As it is written in the Prophets: “Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.
3
The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; make His paths straight.’”
4
John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
5
Then all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.
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Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.
7
And he preached, saying, “There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose.
8
I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
The Holy Scriptures are part of the Church’s Holy Tradition. Metropolitan Kallistos Ware of blessed memory wrote:
In the words of Father Alexander Schmemann, “A Christian is the one who, wherever he looks, finds everywhere Christ, and rejoices in Him.” This is true in particular of the biblical Christian. Wherever he looks, on every page, he finds everywhere Christ.
See Metropolitan Ware’s article How to Read the Bible for more on an Orthodox approach to scripture.