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.

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.