Isaiah 1.19-2.3 (6th Hour)

19And if you⌃ be willing, and listen to me, you⌃ shall eat the good of the land: 20but if you⌃ be not willing, nor listen to me, a sword shall devour you: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken this. 21How has the faithful city Sion, once full of judgment, become a harlot! wherein righteousness lodged, but now murderers. 22Your silver is worthless, your wine merchants mix the wine with water. 23Your princes are rebellious, companions of thieves, loving bribes, seeking after rewards; not pleading for orphans, and not heeding the cause of widows. 24Therefore thus says the Lord, the Lord of hosts, Woe to the mighty men of Israel; for my wrath shall not cease against my adversaries, and I will execute judgment on my enemies. 25And I will bring my hand upon you, and purge you completely, and I will destroy the rebellious, and will take away from you all transgressors. 26And I will establish your judges as before, and your counselors as at the beginning: and afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful mother-city of Sion. 27For her captives shall be saved with judgment, and with mercy. 28And the transgressors and the sinners shall be crushed together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be utterly consumed. 29For they shall be ashamed of their idols, which they delighted in, and they are made ashamed of the gardens which they coveted. 30For they shall be as a turpentine tree that has cast its leaves, and as a garden that has no water. 31And their strength shall be as a thread of tow, and their works as sparks, and the transgressors and the sinners shall be burnt up together, and there shall be none to quench them.

1The word which came to Esaias the son of Amos concerning Judea, and concerning Jerusalem. 2For in the last days the mountain of the Lord shall be glorious, and the house of God shall be on the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall come to it. 3And many nations shall go and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will tell us his way, and we will walk in it: for out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem.

Genesis 1.14-23 (Vespers)

14And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, to divide between day and night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and for years. 15And let them be for light in the firmament of the heaven, so as to shine upon the earth, and it was so. 16And God made the two great lights, the greater light for regulating the day and the lesser light for regulating the night, the stars also. 17And God placed them in the firmament of the heaven, so as to shine upon the earth, 18and to regulate day and night, and to divide between the light and the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. 20And God said, Let the waters bring forth reptiles having life, and winged creatures flying above the earth in the firmament of heaven, and it was so. 21And God made great whales, and every living reptile, which the waters brought forth according to their kinds, and every creature that flies with wings according to its kind, and God saw that they were good. 22And God blessed them saying, Increase and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let the creatures that fly be multiplied on the earth. 23And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

Proverbs 1.20-33 (Vespers)

20Wisdom sings aloud in passages, and in the broad places speaks boldly. 21And she makes proclamation on the top of the walls, and sits by the gates of princes; and at the gates of the city boldly says, 22So long as the simple cleave to justice, they shall not be ashamed: but the foolish being lovers of haughtiness, having become ungodly have hated knowledge, and are become subject to reproofs. 23Behold, I will bring forth to you the utterance of my breath, and I will instruct you in my speech. 24Since I called, and you⌃ did not listen; and I spoke at length, and you⌃ gave no heed; 25but you⌃ set at nothing my counsels, and disregarded my reproofs; 26therefore I also will laugh at your destruction; and I will rejoice against you when ruin comes upon you: 27yes when dismay suddenly comes upon you, and your overthrow shall arrive like a tempest; and when tribulation and distress shall come upon you, or when ruin shall come upon you. 28For it shall be that when you⌃ call upon me, I will not listen to you: wicked men shall seek me, but shall not find me. 29For they hated wisdom, and did not choose the word of the Lord: 30neither would they attend to my counsels, but derided my reproofs. 31Therefore shall they eat the fruits of their own way, and shall be filled with their own ungodliness. 32For because they wronged the simple, they shall be slain; and an inquisition shall ruin the ungodly. 33But he that hearkens to me shall dwell in confidence, and shall rest securely from all evil.

Ven. Benedict of Nursia

His name, Benedictus, means “Blessed” in Latin. He was born in 480 in Nursia, a small town northeast of Rome. He had only rudimentary schooling: he wrote later of his fear that through book-learning he might ‘lose the great understanding of my soul.’ At an early age he fled to a monastery where he was tonsured; he then withdrew to a remote mountain, where he lived or several years in a cave, perfecting himself in prayer. His only food was some bread brought to him by Romanus, the monk who had tonsured him. When he became known in the area, he fled his cave to escape the attentions of the pious; but flight proved useless, and in time a community of monks formed around him. He was granted many spiritual gifts: he healed the sick and drove out evil spirits, raised the dead, and appeared in visions to others many miles away.

Benedict founded twelve monasteries, most famously that at Monte Cassino. Initially, each monastic house had twelve monks, to imitate the number of the Twelve Apostles. The Rule that he established for his monks was based on the works of St John Cassian and St Basil the Great, and became a standard for western monasteries. Thus he is sometimes called the first teacher of monks in the West.

Six days before his death, the Saint ordered that his grave be opened, gathered all his monks together, gave them counsel, then gave his soul back to God on the day that he had predicted. At the moment of his death, two monks in different places had the same vision: they saw a path from earth to heaven, richly adorned and lined on either side with ranks of people. At the top of the path stood a man, clothed in light and unspeakably beautiful, who told them that the path was prepared for Benedict, the beloved of God. In this way, the monks learned that their abbot had gone to his rest.

St Theognostus, Metropolitan of Kiev (1353)

He was born in Greece and succeeded St Peter of Kiev as Metropolitan of that city. Some of his enemies among his own flock denounced him to the Mongol ruler, saying that he had collected no tribute from his churches to pay to the Mongols. Summoned before the Mongol prince and asked about this, he answered ‘Christ our God bought His Church from the unbelievers with His precious Blood. For what do we pay tribute to unbelievers?’ Returning home, he governed the Church for twenty-five more years and reposed in peace in 1353.