1Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children.
2Walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance.
3But sexual immorality, and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be mentioned among you, as becomes saints;
4nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not appropriate, but rather giving of thanks.
5Know this for sure, that no sexually immoral person, nor unclean person, nor covetous man (who is an idolater), has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God.
6Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience.
7Therefore don’t be partakers with them.
8For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light,
Galatians 3.8-12
(Epistle, Saturday before Nativity)
8The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Good News beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you all the nations will be blessed.”
9So then, those who are of faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham.
10For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them.”
11Now that no man is justified by the law before God is evident, for, “The righteous will live by faith.”
12The law is not of faith, but, “The man who does them will live by them.”
Luke 16.10-15 (Gospel)
10He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much. He who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.
11If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
12If you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?
13No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to one and despise the other. You aren’t able to serve God and Mammon.”
14The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they scoffed at him.
15He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts. For that which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
Luke 13.18-29
(Gospel, Saturday before Nativity)
18He said, “What is God’s Kingdom like? To what shall I compare it?
19It is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and put in his own garden. It grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the sky live in its branches.”
20Again he said, “To what shall I compare God’s Kingdom?
21It is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”
22He went on his way through cities and villages, teaching, and traveling on to Jerusalem.
23One said to him, “Lord, are they few who are saved?” He said to them,
24“Strive to enter in by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter in and will not be able.
25When once the master of the house has risen up and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ then he will answer and tell you, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’
26Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’
27He will say, ‘I tell you, I don’t know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.’
28There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in God’s Kingdom, and yourselves being thrown outside.
29They will come from the east, west, north, and south, and will sit down in God’s Kingdom.
Commemorations
Holy Ten Martyrs of Crete
All ten suffered for Christ together on Crete during the reign of the Emperor Decius. They were tormented and humiliated for thirty days, but bore their trials with such serenity that the Governor feared that others would be converted to the Faith, so had all of them beheaded.
Our Venerable Father Paul, Archbishop of Neocaesarea (4th c.)
This holy bishop was so revered that he was summoned by the Emperor Licinius himself, who attempted to turn him from the Faith. When this failed, the Emperor ordered that molten metal be poured on the bishop’s hands, which left them paralyzed and horribly disfigured. Years went by, Christianity was legalized by Constantine the Great and, when the Council of Nicaea was summoned, St Paul was among those bishops who were called to attend. Many of the bishops who attended bore in their bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus (Gal. 6:17): noses, ears or eyes lost, scars and burns from their trials for Christ. At the Council, the Emperor Constantine knelt before St Paul and kissed his hands as holy relics, saying ‘I will never tire of kissing these hands which have lost their life for the sake of my Christ.’ After the Council, the holy bishop served in Neocaesarea for several more years, then reposed in peace.
Our Holy Father Nahum of Ochrid, Wonderworker and Enlightener of the Slavs (ca. 900)
He was a disciple of Saints Cyril and Methodius (May 11), and traveled with them on their missionary journey to the Slavs. With them and their other companions, he endured many trials, including several imprisonments at the hands of the Latin Franks, who were seeking to seize control of the region of Moravia in order to impose the Latin language and to spread the heresy of the filioque. For a time their troubles were relieved by Pope Hadrian II, who supported the mission and made St Methodius Archbishop of Pannonia, with jurisdiction over the Eastern European Slav lands. But when St Methodius died, St Nahum and his companions were imprisoned once more, then sent into exile, where they finally found shelter in the Orthodox Kingdom of Bulgaria. There they were able to continue their work of evangelization in the Slavonic language. Saint Nahum founded the Monastery that bears his name on the shore of Lake Ochrid. After his repose his relics were brought there for burial, and are venerated there today.