12But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for my name’s sake.
13It will turn out as a testimony for you.
14Settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate beforehand how to answer,
15for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to withstand or to contradict.
16You will be handed over even by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends. They will cause some of you to be put to death.
17You will be hated by all men for my name’s sake.
18And not a hair of your head will perish.
19“By your endurance you will win your lives.
Isaiah 8.13-9.7
(6th Hour)
13Sanctify you⌃ the Lord himself; and he shall be your fear.
14And if you shall trust in him, he shall be to you for a sanctuary; and you⌃ shall not come against him as against a stumbling-stone, neither as against the falling of a rock: but the houses of Jacob are in a snare, and the dwellers in Jerusalem in a pit.
15Therefore many among them shall be weak, and fall, and be crushed; and they shall draw near, and men shall be taken securely.
16Then shall those who seal themselves that they may not learn the law be made manifest.
17And one shall say, I will wait for God, who has turned away his face from the house of Jacob, and I will trust in him.
18Behold I and the children which God has given me: and they shall be for signs and wonders in the house of Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells in mount Sion.
19And if they should say to you, Seek those who have in them a divining spirit, and them that speak out of the earth, them that speak vain words, who speak out of their belly: shall not a nation diligently seek to their God? why do they seek to the dead concerning the living?
20For he has given the law for a help, that they should not speak according to this word, concerning which there are no gifts to give for it.
21And famine shall come sorely upon you, and it shall come to pass, that when you⌃ shall be hungry, you⌃ shall be grieved, and you⌃ shall speak ill of the prince and your fathers' ordinances: and they shall look up to heaven above,
22and they shall look on the earth below, and behold severe distress, and darkness, affliction, and anguish, and darkness so that one can’t see; and he that is in anguish shall not be distressed only for a time.
1Drink this first. Act quickly, O land of Zabulon, land of Nephthalim, and the rest inhabiting the sea-coast, and the land beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.
2O people walking in darkness, behold a great light: you⌃ that dwell in the region and shadow of death, a light shall shine upon you.
3The multitude of the people which you have brought down in your joy, they shall even rejoice before you as they that rejoice in harvest, and as they that divide the spoil.
4Because the yoke that was laid upon them has been taken away, and the rod that was on their neck: for he has broken the rod of the exactors, as in the day of Madiam.
5For they shall compensate for every garment that has been acquired by deceit, and all raiment with restitution; and they shall be willing, even if they were burnt with fire.
6For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, whose government is upon his shoulder: and his name is called the Messenger of great counsel: for I will bring peace upon the princes, and health to him.
7His government shall be great, and of his peace there is no end: it shall be upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to establish it, and to support it with judgment and with righteousness, from henceforth and forever. The seal of the Lord of hosts shall perform this.
Genesis 6.9-22 (Vespers)
9And these are the generations of Noe. Noe was a just man; being perfect in his generation, Noe was well-pleasing to God.
10And Noe begot three sons, Sem, Cham, Japheth.
11But the earth was corrupted before God, and the earth was filled with iniquity.
12And the Lord God saw the earth, and it was corrupted; because all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth.
13And the Lord God said to Noe, A period of all men is come before me; because the earth has been filled with iniquity by them, and, behold, I destroy them and the earth.
14Make therefore for yourself an ark of square timber; you shall make the ark in compartments, and you shall pitch it within and without with pitch.
15And thus shall you make the ark; three hundred cubits the length of the ark, and fifty cubits the breadth, and thirty cubits the height of it.
16You shall narrow the ark in making it, and in a cubit above you shall finish it, and the door of the ark you shall make on the side; with lower, second, and third stories you shall make it.
17And behold I bring a flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven, and whatever things are upon the earth shall die.
18And I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall enter into the ark, and your sons and your wife, and your sons' wives with you.
19And of all cattle and of all reptiles and of all wild beasts, even of all flesh, you shall bring by pairs of all, into the ark, that you may feed them with yourself: male and female they shall be.
20Of all winged birds after their kind, and of all cattle after their kind, and of all reptiles creeping upon the earth after their kind, pairs of all shall come in to you, male and female to be fed with you.
21And you shall take to yourself of all kinds of food which you⌃ eat, and you shall gather them to yourself, and it shall be for you and them to eat.
22And Noe did all things whatever the Lord God commanded him, so did he.
Proverbs 8.1-21 (Vespers)
1You shall proclaim wisdom, that understanding may be obedient to you.
2For she is on lofty eminences, and stands in the midst of the ways.
3For she sits by the gates of princes, and sings in the entrances, saying,
4You, O men, I exhort; and utter my voice to the sons of men.
5O you⌃ simple, understand subtlety, and you⌃ that are untaught, imbibe knowledge.
6Listen to me; for I will speak solemn truths; and will produce right sayings from my lips.
7For my throat shall meditate truth; and false lips are an abomination before me.
8All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing in them wrong or perverse.
9They are all evident to those that understand, and right to those that find knowledge.
10Receive instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than tried gold.
11For wisdom is better than precious stones; and no valuable substance is of equal worth with it.
12I wisdom have lived with counsel and knowledge, and I have called upon understanding.
13The fear of the Lord hates unrighteousness, and insolence, and pride, and the ways of wicked men; and I hate the perverse ways of bad men.
14Counsel and safety are mine; prudence is mine, and strength is mine.
15By me kings reign, and princes decree justice.
16By me nobles become great, and monarchs by me rule over the earth.
17I love those that love me; and they that seek me shall find me.
18Wealth and glory belong to me; yes, abundant possessions and righteousness.
19It is better to have my fruit than to have gold and precious stones; and my produce is better than choice silver.
20I walk in ways of righteousness, and am conversant with the paths of judgment;
21that I may divide substance to them that love me, and may fill their treasures with good things. If I declare to you the things that daily happen, I will remember also to recount the things of old.
Isaiah 43.9-14
(Vespers, Martyrs)
9All the nations are gathered together, and princes shall be gathered out of them: who will declare these things? or who will declare to you things from the beginning? let them bring forth their witnesses, and be justified; and let them hear, and declare the truth.
10Be you⌃ my witnesses, and I too am a witness, says the Lord God, and my servant whom I have chosen: that you⌃ may know, and believe, and understand that I am he: before me there was no other God, and after me there shall be none.
11I am God; and beside me there is no Saviour.
12I have declared, and have saved; I have reproached, and there was no strange god among you: you⌃ are my witnesses, and I am the Lord God,
13even from the beginning; and there is none that can deliver out of my hands: I will work, and who shall turn it back?
14Thus says the Lord God that redeems you, the Holy One of Israel; for your sakes I will send to Babylon, and I will stir up all that flee, and the Chaldeans shall be bound in ships.
Wisdom of Solomon 3.1-9
(Vespers, Martyrs)
1But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them.
2In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure is taken for misery,
3And their going from us to be utter destruction: but they are in peace.
4For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality.
5And having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded: for God proved them, and found them worthy for himself.
6As gold in the furnace has he tried them, and received them as a burnt offering.
7And in the time of their visitation they shall shine, and run to and fro like sparks among the stubble.
8They shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the people, and their Lord shall reign for ever.
9They that put their trust in him shall understand the truth: and such as be faithful in love shall abide with him: for grace and mercy is to his saints, and he has care for his elect.
Wisdom of Solomon 5.15-6.3
(Vespers, Martyrs)
15But the righteous live for evermore; their reward also is with the Lord, and the care of them is with the most High.
16Therefore shall they receive a glorious kingdom, and a beautiful crown from the Lord's hand: for with his right hand shall he cover them, and with his arm shall he protect them.
17He shall take to him his jealousy for complete armor, and make the creature his weapon for the revenge of his enemies.
18He shall put on righteousness as a breastplate, and true judgment instead of an helmet.
19He shall take holiness for an invincible shield.
20His severe wrath shall he sharpen for a sword, and the world shall fight with him against the unwise.
21Then shall the right aiming thunderbolts go abroad; and from the clouds, as from a well drawn bow, shall they fly to the mark.
22And hailstones full of wrath shall be cast as out of a stone bow, and the water of the sea shall rage against them, and the floods shall cruelly drown them.
23Yes, a mighty wind shall stand up against them, and like a storm shall blow them away: thus iniquity shall lay waste the whole earth, and ill dealing shall overthrow the thrones of the mighty.
1Hear therefore, O you⌃ kings, and understand; learn, you⌃ that be judges of the ends of the earth.
2Give ear, you⌃ that rule the people, and glory in the multitude of nations.
3For power is given you of the Lord, and sovereignty from the Highest, who shall try your works, and search out your counsels.
Hebrews 12.1-10
(Epistle, Martyrs)
1Therefore let’s also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with perseverance the race that is set before us,
2looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you don’t grow weary, fainting in your souls.
4You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin.
5You have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, “My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him;
6for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
7It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with children, for what son is there whom his father doesn’t discipline?
8But if you are without discipline, of which all have been made partakers, then you are illegitimate, and not children.
9Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?
10For they indeed for a few days disciplined us as seemed good to them, but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness.
Matthew 20.1-16
(Gospel, Martyrs)
1“For the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who was the master of a household, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.
2When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
3He went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace.
4He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went their way.
5Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise.
6About the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle. He said to them, ‘Why do you stand here all day idle?’
7“They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ “He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and you will receive whatever is right.’
8“When evening had come, the lord of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning from the last to the first.’
9“When those who were hired at about the eleventh hour came, they each received a denarius.
10When the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise each received a denarius.
11When they received it, they murmured against the master of the household,
12saying, ‘These last have spent one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat!’
13“But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Didn’t you agree with me for a denarius?
14Take that which is yours, and go your way. It is my desire to give to this last just as much as to you.
15Isn’t it lawful for me to do what I want to with what I own? Or is your eye evil, because I am good?’
16So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Commemorations
The Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebastia (Sebaste) (320)
They were all soldiers under one general, taken captive in the time of Licinius for their faith in Christ. They were stripped naked and cast onto a frozen lake at Sebastia in Pontus. They endured the entire night, encouraging each other to be patient. Some accounts say that their persecutors placed warm baths in their sight on the shore to entice them to renounce Christ. Finally one of their number, broken by his sufferings, apostatized and left the company. One of the guards, named Aglaius, saw in a vision thirty-nine wreaths descending from heaven onto the heads of the faithful sufferers, and was moved to declare himself a Christian. He was immediately sent to join the martyrs on the frozen lake, keeping the number of forty complete. In the morning all of them, almost dead, were cast into fire, and their remains thrown in the lake. On the third day the martyrs appeared to Peter, the local bishop, and told him to search for them in the lake. The bishop went to the lake on a dark night with his clergy, and one account says that the bones of the martyrs rose to the surface and burned there like a candle. The relics were gathered and given honorable burial.
This is the most common account. The Prologue gives a somewhat different version, in which the martyrs were made to stand, not on the frozen lake, but in the freezing waters.
St Caesarius (369)
He was the brother of St Gregory the Theologian and, like his brother, was a theological writer. In his works he gave an answer to the question: How long did Adam and Eve spend in Paradise before the Fall? Various writers had given estimates ranging from six hours to three days. Saint Caesarius wrote that our first parents’ time in Paradise was forty days; and that for this reason Christ fasted for forty days in the wilderness, being tempted by the Devil. “For, while the old Adam was not able to withstand the devil’s temptation in the abundance of Paradise, the New Adam withstood him as a true knight in hunger and thirst in the wilderness.” (Prologue)