Isaiah 6.1-12 (6th Hour)

1And it came to pass in the year in which king Ozias died, that I saw the Lord sitting on a high and exalted throne, and the house was full of his glory. 2And seraphs stood round about him: each one had six wings: and with two they covered their face, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3And one cried to the other, and they said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. 4And the lintel shook at the voice they uttered, and the house was filled with smoke. 5And I said, Woe is me, for I am pricked to the heart; for being a man, and having unclean lips, I dwell in the midst of a people having unclean lips; and I have seen with my eyes the King, the Lord of hosts. 6And there was sent to me one of the seraphs, and he had in his hand a coal, which he had taken off the altar with the tongs: 7and he touched my mouth, and said, Behold, this has touched your lips, and will take away your iniquities, and will purge off your sins. 8And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go to this people? And I said, behold, I am here, send me. And he said, Go, and say to this people, 9You⌃ shall hear indeed, but you⌃ shall not understand; and you⌃ shall see indeed, but you⌃ shall not perceive. 10For the heart of this people has become gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. 11And I said, How long, O Lord? And he said, Until cities be deserted by reason of their not being inhabited, and the houses by reason of there being no men, and the land shall be left desolate. 12And after this God shall remove the men far off, and they that are left upon the land shall be multiplied.

Genesis 5.1-24 (Vespers)

1This is the genealogy of men in the day in which God made Adam; in the image of God he made him: 2male and female he made them, and blessed them; and he called his name Adam, in the day in which he made them. 3And Adam lived two hundred and thirty years, and begot a son after his own form, and after his own image, and he called his name Seth. 4And the days of Adam, which he lived after his begetting Seth, were seven hundred years; and he begot sons and daughters. 5And all the days of Adam which he lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died. 6Now Seth lived two hundred and five years, and begot Enos. 7And Seth lived after his begetting Enos, seven hundred and seven years, and he begot sons and daughters. 8And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years, and he died. 9And Enos lived one hundred and ninety years, and begot Cainan. 10And Enos lived after his begetting Cainan, seven hundred and fifteen years, and he begot sons and daughters. 11And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years, and he died. 12And Cainan lived one hundred and seventy years, and he begot Maleleel. 13And Cainan lived after his begetting Maleleel, seven hundred and forty years, and he begot sons and daughters. 14And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years, and he died. 15And Maleleel lived one hundred and sixty and five years, and he begot Jared. 16And Maleleel lived after his begetting Jared, seven hundred and thirty years, and he begot sons and daughters. 17And all the days of Maleleel were eight hundred and ninety and five years, and he died. 18And Jared lived one hundred and sixty and two years, and begot Enoch: 19and Jared lived after his begetting Enoch, eight hundred years, and he begot sons and daughters. 20And all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty and two years, and he died. 21And Enoch lived one hundred and sixty and five years, and became the father of Mathusala. 22And Enoch was well-pleasing to God after his begetting Mathusala, two hundred years, and he begot sons and daughters. 23And all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty and five years. 24And Enoch was well-pleasing to God, and was not found, because God translated him.

Proverbs 6.3-20 (Vespers)

3My son, do what I command you, and deliver yourself; for on your friend's account you are come into the power of evil men: faint not, but stir up even your friend for whom you are become surety. 4Give not sleep to your eyes, nor slumber with your eyelids; 5that you may deliver yourself as a doe out of the toils, and as a bird out of a snare. 6Go to the ant, O sluggard; and see, and emulate his ways, and become wiser than he. 7For whereas he has no husbandry, nor any one to compel him, and is under no master, 8he prepares food for himself in the summer, and lays by abundant store in harvest. Or go to the bee, and learn how diligent she is, and how earnestly she is engaged in her work; whose labors kings and private men use for health, and she is desired and respected by all: though weak in body, she is advanced by honouring wisdom. 9How long will you lie, O sluggard? and when will you awake out of sleep? 10You sleep a little, and you rest a little, and you slumber a short time, and you fold your arms over your breast a little. 11Then poverty comes upon you as an evil traveller, and lack as a swift courier: but if you be diligent, your harvest shall arrive as a fountain, and poverty shall flee away as a bad courier. 12A foolish man and a transgressor goes in ways that are not good. 13And the same winks with the eye, and makes a sign with his foot, and teaches with the beckonings of his fingers. 14His perverse heart devises evils: at all times such a one causes troubles to a city. 15Therefore his destruction shall come suddenly; overthrow and irretrievable ruin. 16For he rejoices in all things which God hates, and he is ruined by reason of impurity of soul. 17The eye of the haughty, a tongue unjust, hands shedding the blood of the just; 18and a heart devising evil thoughts, and feet hastening to do evil, —are hateful to God. 19An unjust witness kindles falsehoods, and brings on quarrels between brethren. 20My son, keep the laws of your father, and reject not the ordinances of your mother:

Ven. Hilarion the New

He took up the monastic life when very young, and lived as a recluse for many years, and gained the grace to heal sicknesses and drive out demons by his prayers. Later he became abbot of the Monastery of Pelekete in Bithynia. During the reign of the Emperor Leo the Isaurian, he and his monastery steadfastly upheld the holy icons, and were fiercely persecuted. Hilarion and his forty monks were exiled to a prison near Ephesus, where the Saint reposed.

Repose of Gerontissa Gavrilia (1992) (March 15 OC)

Mother Gavrilia, who was known to many who are still alive, has not been officially glorified by the Church, but is considered by many to be a Saint of our time. Her fine biography, Ascetic of Love, has been translated into English and several other languages. The account below is excerpted from that on the web site of St Gregory Palamas Monastery.

“The Gerontissa Gabrielia was born in Constantinople a hundred years ago on October 2/15, 1897. She grew up in the City until her family moved to Thessalonika in 1923. She went to England in 1938 and stayed there throughout the Second World War. She trained as a chiropodist and physiotherapist. In 1945 she returned to Greece where she worked with the Friends Refugee Mission and the American Farm School in Thessalonika in early post-war years. Later she opened her own therapy office in Athens until 1954. In March of that year her mother died and the office was closed. Sister Lila left Greece and traveled overland to India where she worked with the poorest of the poor, even the lepers, for five years.

“It was not until 1959 that she went to the Monastery of Mary and Martha in Bethany, Palestine, to become a nun. When she arrived she asked Fr. Theodosius the chaplain for a rule of prayer. Fr. Theodosius was somewhat surprised to find that she could read even ancient Byzantine Greek. Fr. Theodosius said, “The great elders that we hear about no longer exist. I certainly am not one. You came here to save your soul. If I start giving you rules, you will lose you soul and I will as well. But here is Fr. John. He will be your elder.” So for her first year in the monastery he set her to reading only the Gospels and St. John Climacus. (It should be noted that at that time the Ladder had not been published in modern Greek.)

“She was three years in Bethany. In April, 1962, word came that Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople sought to send an Orthodox monastic to Taize in France. Sister Gabrielia went by way of Taize (she spoke fluent French from childhood) to America.

“In 1963 she was back in Greece. The Gerontissa was tonsured to the Small Schema by Abbot Amphilochios (Makris) on Patmos in the Cave of St. Anthony under the Monastery of Evangelismos just before she and the nun Tomasina left again for India. Elder Amphilochios was enthusiastic at the idea a nun who would be open to the an active outreach in the world. In India she was for three year in Nani Tal in Uttar Pradesh where Fr. Lazarus Moore was the priest and where he consulted the Gerontissa in his translations of the Psalter and the Fathers. Between 1967 and 1977 the Gerontissa traveled in the Mission field of East Africa, in Europe including visiting old friends and spiritual fathers Lev Gillet and Sophrony of Essex, again to America, and briefly in Sinai where Archbishop Damianos was attempting to reintroduce women’s monasticism. She traveled extensively, with much concern and broad love for the people of God. Some of her spiritual children found her in Jerusalem beside the Tomb of Christ; others found her on the mission field of East Africa. For years beginning in about 1977, she lived hidden in a little apartment, the “House of the Angels” in Patissia in the midst of the noise and smog and confusion of central Athens. A little place, a hidden place, a precious place to those who knew her there.

“In 1989 she moved to Holy Protection hermitage on the island of Aegina, close by the shrine of St. Nectarios. There she called the last two of her spiritual children to become monastics near her, and there she continued to receive many visitors. At the start of Great Lent in 1990 she was hospitalized for lymphatic cancer. She was forty days in the hospital, leaving during Holy Week and receiving communion of Pascha. And to the puzzlement of the doctors, the cancer disappeared. It was not yet her time.

“The Gerontissa finally withdrew to quiet. With only one last nun she moved for the last time in this life, to the island of Leros. There they established the hesychastirion of the Holy Archangels. Only in this last year of her life did she accept the Great Schema at the hands of Fr. Dionysious from Little St. Anne’s Skete on Athos. He came to give her the Schema in the Chapel of the Panaghia in the Kastro on the top of Leros.

“Gerontissa Gabrielia passed from this world on March 28, 1992, having never built a monastery. Over the years, six of her spiritual children did become monastics, but never more that one or two were with her at a time. Only the angels could count the number of lives that God touched and changed through her. Her biography and collected writings were published in Greek in 1996, through the work of her last monastic daughter and the contribution of many, many others who held the Gerontissa dear. An English translation is in process [Note: it has now been published].

“Anyone who knew the Gerontissa realized that God has not left us without His saints, even down to the present day. The few words recorded here scarcely suggest the clarity and love of her soul. Words are only the tools of this world; the wonder of the Gerontissa was wrapped in the mystery of the silence of the world to come.

“She never sought a reputation. She never allowed anything about her to be published during her long life and only allowed her children to take photographs in her very last years. Those whom God touched through her called her Gerontissa; she never made herself anything but the nun Gabrielia.

“She was humility and love incarnate.”

The Gerontissa embodied an ‘ecumenism’ that might serve as a model for many in our time: she was completely loving and open to all people of all faiths, yet while working freely with protestants and Hindus in service to man, she never compromised any aspect of her Orthodox faith. Once, some protestant fellow-workers suggested that they pray together; Mother Gavrilia thanked them lovingly, but said ‘I only pray in church or alone.’