31st Sunday After Pentecost - Afterfeast of Theophany - 1/11/26
Sunday, January 11th, is the 31st Sunday after Pentecost and the fifth day of the Afterfeast of Theophany. Many of the hymns of this period glorify Christ as God Who sanctifies the waters of Jordan by being baptized in them.
On this day, the Church remembers:
Ven. Theodosius the Great, the Cenobiarch (529)
Ven. Michael of Klops Monastery, Fool-for-Christ (Novgorod—ca. 1453-56)
St. Theodosius of Antioch (ca. 412)
Ven. Theodosius, Metropolitan of Trebizond (1392)
The “ELETSKAIA” Icon of the Mother of God (1060).
Read more about the lives of these saints here.
Readings for Sunday, January 11th:
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7
But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
8
Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.”
9
(Now this, “He ascended” – what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?
10
He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)
11
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
12
for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
13
till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
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12
Now when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, He departed to Galilee.
13
And leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali,
14
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:
15
“The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles:
16
The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death Light has dawned.”
17
From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
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.