Orthodox Calendar

Friday, March 6, 1953
Friday of the Third Week of Lent

Lenten Fast — Abstain from meat, fish, dairy, eggs, wine, and oil

Service Notes

  • Presanctified Liturgy

Scripture Readings

Commemorations

Scripture Readings

Isaiah 13.2-13 (6th Hour)

2Lift up a standard on the mountain of the plain, exalt the voice to them, beckon with the hand, open the gates, you⌃ rulers. 3I give command, and I bring them: giants are coming to fulfil my wrath, rejoicing at the same time and insulting. 4A voice of many nations on the mountains, even like to that of many nations; a voice of kings and nations gathered together: the Lord of hosts has given command to a warlike nation, 5to come from a land afar off, from the utmost foundation of heaven; the Lord and his warriors are coming to destroy all the world. 6Howl you⌃, for the day of the Lord is near, and destruction from God shall arrive. 7Therefore every hand shall become powerless, and every soul of man shall be dismayed. 8The elders shall be troubled, and pangs shall seize them, as of a woman in travail: and they shall mourn one to another, and shall be amazed, and shall change their countenance as a flame. 9For behold! the day of the Lord is coming which can’t be escaped, a day of wrath and anger, to make the world desolate, and to destroy sinners out of it. 10For the stars of heaven, and Orion, and all the host of heaven, shall not give their light; and it shall be dark at sunrise, and the moon shall not give her light. 11And I will command evils for the whole world, and will visit their sins on the ungodly: and I will destroy the pride of transgressors, and will bring low the pride of the haughty. 12And they that are left shall be more precious than gold tried in the fire; and a man shall be more precious than the stone that is in Suphir. 13For the heaven shall be enraged, and the earth shall be shaken from her foundation, because of the fierce anger of the Lord of hosts, in the day in which his wrath shall come on.

Genesis 8.4-21 (Vespers)

4And the water continued to decrease until the tenth month. 5And in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the heads of the mountains were seen. 6And it came to pass after forty days Noe opened the window of the ark which he had made. 7And he sent forth a raven; and it went forth and returned not until the water was dried from off the earth. 8And he sent a dove after it to see if the water had ceased from off the earth. 9And the dove not having found rest for her feet, returned to him into the ark, because the water was on all the face of the earth, and he stretched out his hand and took her, and brought her to himself into the ark. 10And having waited yet seven other days, he again sent forth the dove from the ark. 11And the dove returned to him in the evening, and had a leaf of olive, a sprig in her mouth; and Noe knew that the water had ceased from off the earth. 12And having waited yet seven other days, he again sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him again any more. 13And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year of the life of Noe, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the water subsided from off the earth, and Noe opened the covering of the ark which he had made, and he saw that the water had subsided from the face of the earth. 14And in the second month the earth was dried, on the twenty-seventh day of the month. 15And the Lord God spoke to Noe, saying, 16Come out from the ark, you and your wife and your sons, and your sons' wives with you. 17And all the wild beasts as many as are with you, and all flesh both of birds and beasts, and every reptile moving upon the earth, bring forth with you: and increase you⌃ and multiply upon the earth. 18And Noe came forth, and his wife and his sons, and his sons' wives with him. 19And all the wild beasts and all the cattle and every bird, and every reptile creeping upon the earth after their kind, came forth out of the ark. 20And Noe built an altar to the Lord, and took of all clean beasts, and of all clean birds, and offered a whole burnt offering upon the altar. 21And the Lord God smelled a smell of sweetness, and the Lord God having considered, said, I will not any more curse the earth, because of the works of men, because the imagination of man is intently bent upon evil things from his youth, I will not therefore any more strike all living flesh as I have done.

Proverbs 10.31-11.12 (Vespers)

31The mouth of the righteous drops wisdom: but the tongue of the unjust shall perish. 32The lips of just men drop grace: but the mouth of the ungodly is perverse.

1False balances are an abomination before the Lord: but a just weight is acceptable to him. 2Wherever pride enters, there will be also disgrace: but the mouth of the lowly meditates wisdom. 3When a just man dies he leaves regret: but the destruction of the ungodly is speedy, and causes joy. 4Possessions will not profit in a day of wrath, but righteousness will deliver from death. 5Righteousness traces out blameless paths: but ungodliness encounters unjust dealing. 6The righteousness of upright men delivers them: but transgressors are caught in their own destruction. 7At the death of a just man his hope does not perish: but the boast of the ungodly perishes. 8A righteous man escapes from a snare, and the ungodly man is delivered up in his place. 9In the mouth of ungodly men is a snare to citizens: but the understanding of righteous men is prosperous. 10In the prosperity of righteous men a city prospers: but by the mouth of ungodly men it is overthrown. 11At the blessing of the upright a city shall be exalted. 12A man void of understanding sneers at his fellow citizens: but a sensible man is quiet.

Commemorations

St Eustathius, archbishop of Antioch (337)

He was consecrated Bishop of Berea (Aleppo) in Syria, then of Antioch in 324. He took an active part in the Council of Nicea against the Arian heresy. His zeal for the Faith aroused the hatred of various heretics, who convened a council in Antioch where, by means of slanders and false witnesses, they were able to have the holy bishop deposed and exiled to Thrace, where he died a few years later.

The deposition of the Saint caused a schism in the Church of Antioch which was not healed until 414 (see St Meletius, Feb. 12). Saint John Chrysostom publicly praised Eustathius as a Martyr, and his relics were finally brought back to Antioch in 482. The Synaxarion says “The people then went in jubilation to meet him with lights and incense, and escorted him as he made a triumphal entry into his city, which thus recovered its unity in the Faith and in the veneration of this champion of Orthodoxy.”

St John the Scholastic, patriarch of Constantinople (577)

He came from the region of Antioch, and only became a clergyman at the age of fifty. He won a wide reputation as representative of the Patriarchate of Antioch at Constantinople, and was elected Patriarch of Constantinople following the deposition of Eutyches in 565. He compiled the Nomocanon, a collection of Church canons, and added the Communion hymn “Of Thy Mystical Supper…” to the Divine Liturgy. He reposed in peace.

Saint Zachariah, Patriarch of Jerusalem (632)

He was the Skevophylax, keeper of the sacred vessels in the Church of Constantinople, then was made Patriarch of Jerusalem in 609. When the Persians took Jerusalem in 614 and took the Precious Cross of our Lord as a trophy, Zachariah went to Persia with the Cross, clasping it in his arms. In 631 the Emperor Heraclius conquered the Persians and recovered the Cross, bringing it to Constantinople. According to one account, Zachariah returned with the Cross, then returned to governing the Church in Jerusalem until his repose in 632 when Modestus (who had been acting in his absence) succeeded him. According to another account, Saint Zachariah died in exile, and Modestus was made Patriarch when the Holy Cross returned to Jerusalem.