Isaiah 29.13-23 (6th Hour)

13And the Lord has said, This people draw near to me with their mouth, and they honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me: but in vain do they worship me, teaching the commandments and doctrines of men. 14Therefore behold I will proceed to remove this people, and I will remove them: and I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will hide the understanding of the prudent. 15Woe to them that deepen their counsel, and not by the Lord. Woe to them that take secret counsel, and whose works are in darkness, and they say, Who has seen us? and who shall know us, or what we do? 16Shall you⌃ not be counted as clay of the potter? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, You did not form me? or the work to the maker, You have not made me wisely? 17Is it not yet a little while, and Libanus shall be changed as the mountains of Chermel, and Chermel shall be reckoned as a forest? 18And in that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and they that are in darkness, and they that are in mist: the eyes of the blind shall see, 19and the poor shall rejoice with joy because of the Lord, and they that had no hope among men shall be filled with joy. 20The lawless man has come to nothing, and the proud man has perished, and they that transgress mischievously have been utterly destroyed: 21and they that cause men to sin by a word: and men shall make all that reprove in the gates an offense, because they have unjustly turned aside the righteous. 22Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the house of Jacob, whom he set apart from Abraam, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall he now change countenance. 23But when their children shall have seen my works, they shall sanctify my name for my sake, and they sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel.

Genesis 12.1-7 (Vespers)

1And the Lord said to Abram, Go forth out of your land and out of your kindred, and out of the house of your father, and come into the land which I will show you. 2And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and magnify your name, and you shall be blessed. 3And I will bless those that bless you, and curse those that curse you, and in you shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed. 4And Abram went as the Lord spoke to him, and Lot departed with him, and Abram was seventy-five years old, when he went out of Charrhan. 5And Abram took Sara his wife, and Lot the son of his brother, and all their possessions, as many as they had got, and every soul which they had got in Charrhan, and they went forth to go into the land of Chanaan. 6And Abram traversed the land lengthwise as far as the place Sychem, to the high oak, and the Chananites then inhabited the land. 7And the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, I will give this land to your seed. And Abram built an altar there to the Lord who appeared to him.

Proverbs 14.15-26 (Vespers)

15The simple believes every word: but the prudent man betakes himself to afterthought. 16A wise man fears, and departs from evil; but the fool trusts in himself, and joins himself with the transgressor. 17A passionate man acts inconsiderately; but a sensible man bears up under many things. 18Fools shall have mischief for their portion; but the prudent shall take fast hold of understanding. 19Evil men shall fall before the good; and the ungodly shall attend at the gates of the righteous. 20Friends will hate poor friends; but the friends of the rich are many. 21He that dishonors the needy sins: but he that has pity on the poor is most blessed. 22They that go astray devise evils: but the good devise mercy and truth. The framers of evil do not understand mercy and truth: but compassion and faithfulness are with the framers of good. 23With every one who is careful there is abundance: but the pleasure-taking and indolent shall be in lack. 24A prudent man is the crown of the wise: but the occupation of fools is evil. 25A faithful witness shall deliver a soul from evil: but a deceitful man kindles falsehoods. 26In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence: and he leaves his children a support.

Ven. Nicetas the Confessor

He was born in Caesarea of Bithynia. His widowed father became a monk, leaving Nicetas to the care of his grandmother. Nicetas himself, when he was grown, entered a monastery in Midikion, on the Sea of Marmara. After seven years of monastic life he was ordained hieromonk by Patriarch Tarasios. When Nikephoros, the abbot of the monastery, died, the brethren chose Nicetas as their new abbot.

When Leo the Armenian became Emperor, he revived the iconoclast heresy, even though it had been put down under the Empress Irene and condemned by an Ecumenical Council. The Emperor deposed and exiled the holy Patriarch Nicephoros, putting a heretic in his place. Nicetas, because he was known for his holiness and steadfast reverence for the holy icons, was imprisoned and tortured, but did not waver in his defense of Orthodoxy. Nicetas was taken from prison to prison, torture to torture, and exiled twice, until at last Leo the Armenian died and the Orthodox Emperor Michael came to the throne and freed all those imprisoned for Orthodoxy.

Once freed, Nicetas retired to a secluded hermitage near Constantinople, where he passed the remainder of his life in prayer and thanksgiving. When he died, his body was taken back to his monastery; during the journey, many of the sick who touched his holy body were healed.

Saint Joseph the Hymnographer (886)

“Saint Joseph was from Sicily, the son of Plotinus and Agatha. Because Sicily had been subjugated by the Moslems, he departed thence and, passing from place to place, came with Saint Gregory of Decapolis (see Nov. 20) to Constantinople, where he endured bitter afflictions because of his pious zeal. Travelling to Rome, he was captured by Arab pirates and taken to Crete, whence he later returned to Constantinople. He became an excellent hymnographer and reposed in holiness shortly after 886 (according to some, it was in 883). The melismatic canons of the Menaion are primarily the work of this Joseph; they bear his name in the acrostic of the Ninth Ode. He also composed most of the sacred book known as the Paracletike, which complements the Octoechos. For this reason, Joseph is called par excellence the Hymnographer.” (Great Horologion)

The “bitter afflictions” which St Joseph suffered were probably due (judging from his dates) to his veneration of the holy icons.

Note: In the Slavic calendar he is commemorated on April 4.

Saint Seraphim of Vyritsa (1949) (March 21 OC)

Born in 1866, he married and had three children. In 1920, at the age of 54, he and his wife quietly separated and each entered monastic life. Eventually he became the spiritual father of the St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg, where, as a clairvoyant staretz, he also confessed thousands of laity. He said, “I am the storage room where people’s afflictions gather.” In imitation of his patron saint, he prayed for a thousand nights on a rock before an icon of St. Seraphim of Sarov. He reposed in the Lord in 1949 and the Church of Russia glorified him in August of 2000. Thus his whole life as a monk was spent under Communist persecution.