December 19, 2023 
Martyr Boniface at Tarsus in Cilicia and the Righteous Aglaida of Rome (290)
Martyr Polyeuctus of Caesarea in Cappadocia and Timothy
Martyrs Elias, Probos and Ares in Cilicia (308)
St Boniface the Merciful, bishop of Ferentino (6th)
St Gregory, archbishop of Zafar (c552)
Venerable Ilya of Murom, Wonderworker of the Kiev Caves (c1188)
Martyr Tryphon the Presbyter
George the Scribe and Sabbas of Khakhuli
Righteous Susanna the Chaste
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Tuesday of the 29th week after Pentecost
Heb 4.1-13 (Epistle)
Brethren, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: “So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest,’ “ although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.” Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.” For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
Mark 10.2-12 (Gospel)
At that time, the Pharisees came to Jesus and asked Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” testing Him. And He answered and said to them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to dismiss her.” And Jesus answered and said to them, “Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’ ’For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, ’and the two shall become one flesh’; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate. In the house His disciples also asked Him again about the same matter. So He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”