## [Epistle reading for the 33rd Wednesday after Pentecost (James 3:11-4:6)](oca.org/readings/daily/2026/01/21/1)
>Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh. Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”? But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
## [Gospel reading for the 18th Wednesday of Luke (Mark 11:22-26)](oca.org/readings/daily/2026/01/21/2)
>So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”
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## [1st Vespers reading for the Venerable Euthymius the Great (Wisdom of Solomon 5:15-6:3)](oca.org/readings/daily/2026/01/20/1)
> But the righteous live forever, and their reward is with the Lord; but the ungodly shall be punished, and their counsel shall come to nothing. For if they had sprung from one father, and been created by one God, and we all share one nature, how is it that they would hasten to remember us? They reason among themselves and say, "We are of noble birth." They trust in their riches and their strength, and they forget the Lord. But they are of little account, though they be many; and a feeble plant from a strange land, and a useless household, though they be firmly established. When He examines them, they are ashamed. And therefore, being faint-hearted, they will be utterly laid waste when terror comes upon them. For if He had not judged them, they are the judges, and He has given them authority and rule over all the peoples and all the nations, to do as they please, and to give their sons in marriage, and to take their daughters in marriage for their sons, to be found also, to plunder with gold and silver, because the riches of the earth and the riches of the heavens are beautiful, and the wealth of a good house is in the heavens. But if they have been the judges of men, they will die like men without peace; because the sword of the Lord has cut them off from the earth. But let them see with their own eyes and be ashamed for the multitude of their sins.
## [2nd Vespers reading for the Venerable Euthymius the Great (Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9)](oca.org/readings/daily/2026/01/20/2)
> But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will ever touch them. In the eyes of the foolish they seem to have died, and their departure is considered an affliction, and their going from us to be their destruction; but they are in peace. For though in the sight of men they were punished, their hope is full of immortality. And having been a little disciplined, they will be greatly honored, because God tested them and found them worthy of Himself. As gold in the furnace, He tested them, and as a whole burnt offering He accepted them. In the time of their visitation they will shine forth, and they will run like sparks among the stubble. They will judge nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord will reign over them forever. Those who trust in Him will understand truth, and the faithful will abide with Him in love, because grace and mercy are for His elect, and He watches over His holy ones.
## [3rd Vespers reading for the Venerable Euthymius the Great (Wisdom of Solomon 4:7-15)](oca.org/readings/daily/2026/01/20/3)
> But the righteous, though he die early, will be at rest. For old age is not honored for length of days, nor measured by number of years; but understanding is gray hair for men, and a blameless life is ripe old age. There was one who pleased God and was loved by Him, and while living among sinners He was taken up. He was snatched away lest evil should change his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul. For the fascination of wickedness obscures what is good, and the roving of desire perverts the innocent mind. Being made perfect in a short time, He fulfilled long years; for His soul was pleasing to the Lord, therefore He hurried to bring him out of the midst of evils. Yet the peoples saw and did not understand, nor did they take this into account, that God's grace and mercy are with His holy ones, and His care for His elect.
## [Matins Gospel reading Venerable Euthymius the Great (Matthew 11:27-30)](oca.org/readings/daily/2026/01/20/4)
> All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
## [Epistle reading the Venerable Euthymius the Great (Hebrews 13:17-21)](oca.org/readings/daily/2026/01/20/5)
> Obey those who rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be unprofitable for you. For if they do this with grief and with complaint, that would be harmful to you, and He who watches over your souls would have cause to groan, so that He should have no advantage over you.
## [Epistle reading for the 33rd Tuesday after Pentecost (James 3:1-10)](oca.org/readings/daily/2026/01/20/7)
> My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, He is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.
## [Gospel reading the Venerable Euthymius the Great (Luke 6:17-23)](oca.org/readings/daily/2026/01/20/6)
> And He came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and be healed of their diseases, as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits. And they were healed. And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all. Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said: "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven, for in like manner their fathers did to the prophets."
## [Gospel reading for the 18th Tuesday of Luke (Mark 11:11-23)](oca.org/readings/daily/2026/01/20/8)
> Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter into it, you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Loose it and bring it to Me. And if anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' say, 'The Lord has need of it,' and immediately He will send it here." And those who were sent went away and found it as He had said to them: a colt was tied outside at a door in the open street, and they loosed it, and some of those who stood there said to them, "What are you doing, loosing the colt?" And they said to them as Jesus had commanded. And they let them go. And they brought the colt to Jesus, and they threw their garments on the colt, and set Him on it. And many spread their garments on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: "Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!" And Jesus entered into Jerusalem and into the temple, and when He had looked all around, when it was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.
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