Isaiah 5.7-16 (6th Hour)

7For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Juda his beloved plant: I expected it to bring forth judgment, and it brought forth iniquity; and not righteousness, but a cry. 8Woe to them that join house to house, and add field to field, that they may take away something of their neighbor's: will you⌃ dwell alone upon the land? 9For these things have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts: for though many houses should be built, many and fair houses shall be desolate, and there shall be no inhabitants in them. 10For where ten yoke of oxen plow the land shall yield one , and he that sows six homers shall produce three measures. 11Woe to them that rise up in the morning, and follow strong drink; who wait at it till evening: for the wine shall inflame them. 12For they drink wine with harp, and lute, and drums, and pipes: but they regard not the works of the Lord, and consider not the works of his hands. 13Therefore my people have been taken captive, because they know not the Lord: and there has been a multitude of dead bodies, because of hunger and of thirst for water. 14Therefore hell has enlarged its desire and opened its mouth without ceasing: and her glorious and great, and her rich and her pestilent men shall go down into it. 15And the mean man shall be brought low, and the great man shall be disgraced, and the lofty eyes shall be brought low. 16But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and the holy God shall be glorified in righteousness.

Genesis 4.8-15 (Vespers)

8And Cain said to Abel his brother, Let us go out into the plain; and it came to pass that when they were in the plain Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and killed him. 9And the Lord God said to Cain, Where is Abel your brother? and he said, I know not, am I my brother's keeper? 10And the Lord said, What have you done? the voice of your brother's blood cries to me out of the ground. 11And now you are cursed from the earth which has opened her mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. 12When you till the earth, then it shall not continue to give its strength to you: you shall be groaning and trembling on the earth. 13And Cain said to the Lord God, My crime is too great for me to be forgiven. 14If you cast me out this day from the face of the earth, and I shall be hidden from your presence, and I shall be groaning and trembling upon the earth, then it will be that any one that finds me shall kill me. 15And the Lord God said to him, Not so, any one that slays Cain shall suffer sevenfold vengeance; and the Lord God set a mark upon Cain that no one that found him might kill him.

Proverbs 5.1-15 (Vespers)

1My son, attend to my wisdom, and apply your ear to my words; 2that you may keep good understanding, and the discretion of my lips gives you a charge. Give no heed to a worthless woman; 3for honey drops from the lips of a harlot, who for a season pleases your palate: 4but afterwards you will find her more bitter than gall, and sharper than a two-edged sword. 5For the feet of folly lead those who deal with her down to the grave with death; and her steps are not established. 6For she goes not upon the paths of life; but her ways are slippery, and not easily known. 7Now then, my son, hear me, and make not my words of none effect. 8Remove your way far from her; draw not near to the doors of her house: 9lest you give away your life to others, and your substance to the merciless: 10lest strangers be filled with your strength, and your labors come into the houses of strangers; 11And you repent at last, when the flesh of your body is consumed, 12and you shall say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart avoided reproofs! 13I heard not the voice of him that instructed me, and taught me, neither did I apply my ear. 14I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly. 15Drink waters out of your own vessels, and out of your own springing wells.

St Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem

He was born in Jerusalem in 315, ordained to the priesthood in 346, and succeeded Maximus as Archbishop of Jerusalem in 350. He was exiled three times by the Arian Emperors Constantius and Valens for his unwavering defense of the Faith. Restored by the Emperor Theodosius, he did not return to the throne, but lived for eight years in peace before reposing in 386.

He was known to all his people as a tireless defender of the poor, and as a great ascetic. He was gentle and humble in his bearing, pale and gaunt from fasting. He struggled throughout his time against the Arian heresy, which had become very strong, claiming the allegiance even of the Emperors. In addition, he lived through the reign of Julian the Apostate, who tried by many means to weaken and undermine the Church and the Christian Faith.

Of St Cyril’s many writings, the best-known are his Catecheses, considered the oldest systematic summary of Christian teaching.

St Ananias (Aninus) the Wonderworker (?)

“Born in Chalcedon, he was little of stature, like Zaccheus, but great in spirit and faith. He denied himself to the world at the age of fifteen and settled near the River Euphrates in a little hut, where he atoned for his sins, and prayed to God, at first with his teacher Mayum and then, after Mayum’s death, alone. By the power of his prayers he filled an empty well with water, healed the sick of various pains and tamed wild beasts. There was a tamed lion with him as his servant. He had insight into distant happenings. When robbers attacked a stylite, Pionius, at some distance from him, and beat him up to such an extent that he decided to come down from his pillar and go to complain to the judges, St Aninus saw his intention in his soul and sent him a letter by means of his lion, telling him to set aside his intention, to forgive his assaulters and to continue in his asceticism. He was inexpressibly generous. The bishop of Neo-Caesarea made a gift to him of a donkey, to ease his carrying of water from the river, but he gave this donkey to some poor man who had complained to him of his poverty. The bishop gave him a second donkey, but he gave that away. Then the bishop gave him a third donkey, not for his own but only to serve as a water-carrier, to be kept and returned. At the time of his death, he saw Moses, Aaron and Or coming to him and calling: ‘Aninus, the Lord is calling you. Get up and come with us.’ This he revealed to his disciples, and gave his spirit to the Lord whom he had served so faithfully. He was 110 years old when he finished his earthly course.” (Prologue)

Saint Nikolai (Velimirovic), Bishop of Ochrid and Zica, Serbia (1956)(March 5 OC)

He has been called ‘The New Chrysostom’ for his many grace-filled sermons and writings.

He was born in 1880 in the Serbian village of Lelich. After attending the Seminary of St Sava in Belgrade, he obtained doctoral degrees from both the University of Berne and Oxford University. In 1919, Archimandrite Nikolai was made Bishop of Zica.

In 1941 Bishop Nikolai was arrested by the Nazis and, after three years’ imprisonment in Ljubostir Vojlovici Monastery, was sent to the infamous Dachau concentration camp along with the Serbian Patriarch Gavrilo. He both witnessed and personally underwent many tortures there until the camp was liberated by the US army in 1945.

After the war he fled Communist-controlled Yugoslavia and emigrated to the United States, where he taught at St Sava’s Seminary, St Vladimir Seminary and St Tikhon seminary. It was at St Tikhon Seminary that he reposed in 1956. His relics rested for awhile at St Sava’s Seminary in Libertyville IL, then were returned to Serbia, where they now reside.

Throughout his adult life, the holy monk and bishop poured forth a steady stream of beautiful homilies and theological and spiritual writings. He is the author of the Prologue from Ochrid, a Slavic Synaxarion. The luminous homilies included therein, one for each day of the year, give a good sample of his inspired writing.

His feast is kept on this day (March 5 OC, March 18 NC) by Orthodox Christians on both the Old and New Calendars.

Note: With the blessing of Bishop Jovan of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Mitrophan Chin is engaged in a project to translate St Nikolai’s Prologue into Chinese. To learn more about this worthy project, see his web site: http://chineseorthodox.n3.net