Isaiah 2.3-11 (6th Hour)

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. 4And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into sickles: and nation shall not take up sword against nation, neither shall they learn to war any more. 5And now, O house of Jacob, come, and let us walk in the light of the Lord. 6For he has forsaken his people the house of Israel, because their land is filled as at the beginning with divinations, as the land of the Philistines, and many strange children were born to them. 7For their land is filled with silver and gold, and there was no number of their treasures; their land also is filled with horses, and there was no number of chariots. 8And the land is filled with abominations, even the works of their hands; and they have worshipped the works which their fingers made. 9And the mean man bowed down, and the great man was humbled: and I will not pardon them. 10Now therefore enter you⌃ into the rocks, and hide yourselves in the earth, for fear of the Lord, and by reason of the glory of his might, when he shall arise to strike terribly the earth. 11For the eyes of the Lord are high, but man is low; and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.

Genesis 1.24-2.3 (Vespers)

24And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind, quadrupeds and reptiles and wild beasts of the earth according to their kind, and it was so. 25And God made the wild beasts of the earth according to their kind, and cattle according to their kind, and all the reptiles of the earth according to their kind, and God saw that they were good. 26And God said, Let us make man according to our image and likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the flying creatures of heaven, and over the cattle and all the earth, and over all the reptiles that creep on the earth. 27And God made man, according to the image of God he made him, male and female he made them. 28And God blessed them, saying, Increase and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the seas and flying creatures of heaven, and all the cattle and all the earth, and all the reptiles that creep on the earth. 29And God said, Behold I have given to you every seed-bearing herb sowing seed which is upon all the earth, and every tree which has in itself the fruit of seed that is sown, to you it shall be for food. 30And to all the wild beasts of the earth, and to all the flying creatures of heaven, and to every reptile creeping on the earth, which has in itself the breath of life, even every green plant for food; and it was so. 31And God saw all the things that he had made, and, behold, they were very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

1And the heavens and the earth were finished, and the whole world of them. 2And God finished on the sixth day his works which he made, and he ceased on the seventh day from all his works which he made. 3And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he ceased from all his works which God began to do.

Proverbs 2.1-22 (Vespers)

1My son, if you will receive the utterance of my commandment, and hide it with you; 2your ear shall listen to wisdom; you shall also apply your heart to understanding, and shall apply it to the instruction of your son. 3For if you shall call to wisdom, and utter your voice for understanding; 4and if you shall seek it as silver, and search diligently for it as for treasures; 5then shall you understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. 6For the Lord gives wisdom; and from his presence come knowledge and understanding, 7and he treasures up salvation for them that walk uprightly: he will protect their way; 8that he may guard the righteous ways: and he will preserve the way of them that fear him. 9Then shall you understand righteousness, and judgment; and shall direct all your course aright. 10For if wisdom shall come into your understanding, and discernment shall seem pleasing to your soul, 11good counsel shall guard you, and holy understanding shall keep you; 12to deliver you from the evil way, and from the man that speaks nothing faithfully. 13Alas for those who forsake right paths, to walk in ways of darkness; 14who rejoice in evils, and delight in wicked perverseness; 15whose paths are crooked, and their courses winding; 16to remove you far from the straight way, and to estrange you from a righteous purpose. My son, let not evil counsel overtake you, 17of her who has forsaken the instruction of her youth, and forgotten the covenant of God. 18For she has fixed her house near death, and guided her wheels near Hades with the giants. 19None that go by her shall return, neither shall they take hold of right paths, for they are not apprehended of the years of life. 20For had they gone in good paths, they would have found the paths of righteousness easy. 21For the upright shall dwell in the earth, and the holy shall be left behind in it. 22The paths of the ungodly shall perish out of the earth, and transgressors shall be driven away from it.

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.