Joel 2.12-26
(Sixth Hour)
12Now therefore, says the Lord your God, turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with lamentation:
13and rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God: for he is merciful and compassionate, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy, and repents of evils.
14Who knows if he will return, and repent, and leave a blessing behind him, even a meat-offering and a drink-offering to the Lord your God?
15Sound the trumpet in Sion, sanctify a fast, proclaim a solemn service:
16gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the infants at the breast: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.
17Between the porch and the altar let the priests that minister to the Lord weep, and say, Spare your people, O Lord, and give not your heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them, lest they should say among the heathen, Where is their God?
18But the Lord was jealous of his land, and spared his people.
19And the Lord answered and said to his people, Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and you⌃ shall be satisfied with them: and I will no longer make you a reproach among the Gentiles.
20And I will chase away from you the northern adversary, and will drive him away into a dry land, and I will sink his face in the former sea, and his back parts in the latter sea, and his ill savor shall come up, and his stink come up, because he has wrought great things.
21Be of good courage, O land; rejoice and be glad: for the Lord has done great things.
22Be of good courage, you⌃ beasts of the plain, for the plains of the wilderness have budded, for the trees have borne their fruit, the fig tree and the vine have yielded their strength.
23Rejoice then and be glad, you⌃ children of Sion, in the Lord your God: for he has given you food fully, and he will rain on you the early and the latter rain, as before.
24And the floors shall be filled with corn, and the presses shall overflow with wine and oil.
25And I will recompense you for the years which the locust, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, and the cankerworm have eaten, even my great army, which I sent against you.
26And you⌃ shall eat abundantly, and be satisfied, and shall praise the name of the Lord your God for the things which he has wrought wonderfully with you: and my people shall not be ashamed for ever.
Joel 3.12-21
(Vespers)
12Let them be aroused, let all the nations go up to the valley of Josaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the Gentiles round about.
13Bring forth the sickles, for the vintage is come: go in, tread the grapes, for the press is full: cause the vats to overflow; for their wickedness is multiplied.
14Noises have resounded in the valley of judgment: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of judgment.
15The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their light.
16And the Lord shall cry out of Sion, and shall utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heaven and the earth shall be shaken, but the Lord shall spare his people, and shall strengthen the children of Israel.
17And you⌃ shall know that I am the Lord your God, who dwell in Sion my holy mountain: and Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall not pass through her anymore.
18And it shall come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the fountains of Juda shall flow with water, and a fountain shall go forth of the house of the Lord, and water the valley of flags.
19Egypt shall be a desolation, and Idumea shall be a desolate plain, because of the wrongs of the children of Juda, because they have shed righteous blood in their land.
20But Judea shall be inhabited for ever, and Jerusalem to all generations.
21And I will make inquisition for their blood, and will by no means leave it unavenged: and the Lord shall dwell in Sion.
1 John 2.18-3.10
(Epistle, St John)
18Little children, these are the end times, and as you heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen. By this we know that it is the final hour.
19They went out from us, but they didn’t belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have continued with us. But they left, that they might be revealed that none of them belong to us.
20You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.
21I have not written to you because you don’t know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.
22Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.
23Whoever denies the Son doesn’t have the Father. He who confesses the Son has the Father also.
24Therefore, as for you, let that remain in you which you heard from the beginning. If that which you heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son, and in the Father.
25This is the promise which he promised us, the eternal life.
26These things I have written to you concerning those who would lead you astray.
27As for you, the anointing which you received from him remains in you, and you don’t need for anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you, you will remain in him.
28Now, little children, remain in him, that when he appears, we may have boldness and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
29If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.
1See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him.
2Beloved, now we are children of God. It is not yet revealed what we will be; but we know that when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him just as he is.
3Everyone who has this hope set on him purifies himself, even as he is pure.
4Everyone who sins also commits lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness.
5You know that he was revealed to take away our sins, and no sin is in him.
6Whoever remains in him doesn’t sin. Whoever sins hasn’t seen him and doesn’t know him.
7Little children, let no one lead you astray. He who does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
8He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed: that he might destroy the works of the devil.
9Whoever is born of God doesn’t commit sin, because his seed remains in him, and he can’t sin, because he is born of God.
10In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the devil. Whoever doesn’t do righteousness is not of God, neither is he who doesn’t love his brother.
Mark 11.1-11
(Gospel, St John)
1When they came near to Jerusalem, to Bethsphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples
2and said to them, “Go your way into the village that is opposite you. Immediately as you enter into it, you will find a young donkey tied, on which no one has sat. Untie him and bring him.
3If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs him;’ and immediately he will send him back here.”
4They went away, and found a young donkey tied at the door outside in the open street, and they untied him.
5Some of those who stood there asked them, “What are you doing, untying the young donkey?”
6They said to them just as Jesus had said, and they let them go.
7They brought the young donkey to Jesus and threw their garments on it, and Jesus sat on it.
8Many spread their garments on the way, and others were cutting down branches from the trees and spreading them on the road.
9Those who went in front and those who followed cried out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
10Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
11Jesus entered into the temple in Jerusalem. When he had looked around at everything, it being now evening, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.