This page features this Sunday's scripture readings, and feast day and service information. We encourage our faithful to visit this page weekly to read the Sunday scriptures.
THIS SUNDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2025
Fifth Sunday of Advent
Յիսնակի Հինգերորդ ԿԻրակի
8:15 am | Morning Service
10:00 am | Divine Liturgy
View our Livestream here. Livestream begins at 10 am.
View the Sunday Bulletin here. (Link updated on Saturday.)
Make an online Sunday offering here.
Follow along in our Divine Liturgy pew book (transliteration.)
SCRIPTURE READINGS
OLD TESTAMENT READING - Isaiah 40:18-31
18 To whom, then, will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? 19 An idol? A workman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains.
20 As a gift one chooses mulberry wood —wood that will not rot—then seeks out a skilled artisan to set up an image that will not topple.
21 Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them like a tent to live in, 23 who brings princes to naught and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.
24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows upon them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
25 To whom, then, will you compare me, or who is my equal? says the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in strength, mighty in power, not one is missing.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”? 28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint and strengthens the powerless. 30 Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted, 31 but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
NEW TESTAMENT EPISTLE READING - Hebrews 4:16-5:10
16 Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
5 Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness, 3 and because of this he must offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people. 4 And one does not presume to take this honor but takes it only when called by God, just as Aaron was.
5 So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest but was appointed by the one who said to him, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you”; 6 as he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.”
7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered, 9 and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, 10 having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
GOSPEL READING - Luke 18:9-14
Our Lord Jesus Christ:
9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other, for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”