Readings for 15 January 2026
2 January 2026 on the Old calendar
- ✚Repose (1833), and Second Finding of the Relics (1991), of Venerable Seraphim, Wonderworker of Sarov
Liturgical colour: gold
Epistle: James 4:7-5:9
Translation: World English Bible
7Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you. 11Don’t speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another? 13Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.” 14Yet you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15For you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that.” 16But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil. 17To him therefore who knows to do good and doesn’t do it, to him it is sin. 5:1Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you. 2Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. 3Your gold and your silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be for a testimony against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up your treasure in the last days. 4Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Armies. 5You have lived in luxury on the earth, and taken your pleasure. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. 6You have condemned and you have murdered the righteous one. He doesn’t resist you. 7Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receives the early and late rain. 8You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. 9Don’t grumble, brothers, against one another, so that you won’t be judged. Behold, the judge stands at the door.
Gospel: Mark 12:38-44
Translation: World English Bible
38In his teaching he said to them, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk in long robes, and to get greetings in the marketplaces, 39and to get the best seats in the synagogues and the best places at feasts, 40those who devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation.” 41Jesus sat down opposite the treasury and saw how the multitude cast money into the treasury. Many who were rich cast in much. 42A poor widow came and she cast in two small brass coins, which equal a quadrans coin. 43He called his disciples to himself and said to them, “Most certainly I tell you, this poor widow gave more than all those who are giving into the treasury, 44for they all gave out of their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, gave all that she had to live on.”
Epistle: Hebrews 7:26-8:2
Translation: World English Bible
26For such a high priest was fitting for us: holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; 27who doesn’t need, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices daily, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. For he did this once for all, when he offered up himself. 28For the law appoints men as high priests who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints a Son forever who has been perfected. 8:1Now in the things which we are saying, the main point is this: we have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2a servant of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, not man.
Gospel: John 15:1-7
Translation: World English Bible
1“I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer. 2Every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3You are already pruned clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can’t bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me. 5I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6If a man doesn’t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you.
Epistle: Galatians 5:22-6:2
Translation: World English Bible
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, 23gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts. 25If we live by the Spirit, let’s also walk by the Spirit. 26Let’s not become conceited, provoking one another, and envying one another. 6:1Brothers, even if a man is caught in some fault, you who are spiritual must restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, looking to yourself so that you also aren’t tempted. 2Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Gospel: Luke 6:17-23
Translation: World English Bible
17He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a crowd of his disciples and a great number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases, 18as well as those who were troubled by unclean spirits; and they were being healed. 19All the multitude sought to touch him, for power came out of him and healed them all. 20He lifted up his eyes to his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for God’s Kingdom is yours. 21Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. 22Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude and mock you, and throw out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake. 23Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven, for their fathers did the same thing to the prophets.