Isaiah 58.1-11 (6th Hour)

1Cry aloud, and spare not; lift up your voice as with a trumpet, and declare to my people their sins, and to the house of Jacob their iniquities. 2They seek me day by day, and desire to know my ways, as a people that had done righteousness, and had not forsaken the judgment of their God: they now ask of me righteous judgment, and desire to draw near to God, 3saying, Why have we fasted, and you regard not? why have we afflicted our souls, and you did not know it? Nay, in the days of your fasts you⌃ find your pleasures, and all them that are under your power you⌃ wound. 4If you⌃ fast for quarrels and strifes, and strike the lowly with your fists, therefore do you⌃ fast to me as you⌃ do this day, so that your voice may be heard in crying? 5I have not chosen this fast, nor such a day for a man to afflict his soul; neither though you should bend down your neck as a ring, and spread under you sackcloth and ashes, neither thus shall you⌃ call a fast acceptable. 6I have not chosen such a fast, says the Lord; but do you loose every burden of iniquity, do you untie the knots of hard bargains, set the bruised free, and cancel every unjust account. 7Break your bread to the hungry, and lead the unsheltered poor to your house: if you see one naked, clothe him, and you shall not disregard the relations of your own seed. 8Then shall your light break forth as the morning, and your health shall speedily spring forth: and your righteousness shall go before you, and the glory of God shall compass you. 9Then shall you cry, and God shall listen to you; while you are yet speaking he will say, Behold, I am here. If you remove from you the band, and the stretching forth of the hands, and murmuring speech; 10and if you give bread to the hungry from your heart, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall your light spring up in darkness, and your darkness shall be as noon-day: 11and your God shall be with you continually, and you shall be satisfied according as your soul desires; and your bones shall be made fat, and shall be as a well-watered garden, and as a fountain from which the water has not failed.

Genesis 43.26-31, 45.1-16 (Vespers)

26And Joseph entered into the house, and they brought him the gifts which they had in their hands, into the house; and they did him reverence with their face to the ground. 27And he asked them, How are you⌃? and he said to them, Is your father, the old man of whom you⌃ spoke, well? Does he yet live? 28And they said, Your servant our father is well; he is yet alive. And he said, Blessed be that man by God; —and they bowed, and did him reverence. 29And Joseph lifted up his eyes, and saw his brother Benjamin, born of the same mother; and he said, Is this your younger brother, whom you⌃ spoke of bringing to me? and he said, God have mercy on you, my son. 30And Joseph was troubled, for his bowels yearned over his brother, and he sought to weep; and he went into his chamber, and wept there. 31And he washed his face and came out, and refrained himself, and said, Set on bread.

1And Joseph could not refrain himself when all were standing by him, but said, Dismiss all from me; and no one stood near Joseph, when he made himself known to his brethren. 2And he uttered his voice with weeping; and all the Egyptians heard, and it was reported to the house of Pharao. 3And Joseph said to his brethren, I am Joseph; does my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him, for they were troubled. 4And Joseph said to his brethren, Draw near to me; and they drew near; and he said, I am your brother Joseph, whom you⌃ sold into Egypt. 5Now then be not grieved, and let it not seem hard to you that you⌃ sold me hither, for God sent me before you for life. 6For this second year there is famine on the earth, and there are yet five years remaining, in which there is to be neither plowing, nor mowing. 7For God sent me before you, that there might be left to you a remnant upon the earth, even to nourish a great remnant of you. 8Now then you⌃ did not send me hither, but God; and he has made me as a father of Pharao, and lord of all his house, and ruler of all the land of Egypt. 9Hasten, therefore, and go up to my father, and say to him, These things says your son Joseph; God has made me lord of all the land of Egypt; come down therefore to me, and wait not. 10And you shall dwell in the land of Gesem of Arabia; and you shall be near me, you and your sons, and your sons' sons, your sheep and your oxen, and whatever things are your. 11And I will nourish you there: for the famine is yet for five years; lest you be consumed, and your sons, and all your possessions. 12Behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaks to you. 13Report, therefore, to my father all my glory in Egypt, and all things that you⌃ have seen, and make haste and bring down my father hither. 14And he fell on his brother Benjamin's neck, and wept on him; and Benjamin wept on his neck. 15And he kissed all his brethren, and wept on them; and after these things his brethren spoke to him. 16And the report was carried into the house of Pharao, saying, Joseph's brethren are come; and Pharao was glad, and his household.

Proverbs 21.23-22.4 (Vespers)

23He that keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps his soul from trouble. 24A bold and self-willed and insolent man is called a pest: and he that remembers injuries is a transgressor. 25Desires kill the sluggard; for his hands do not choose to do anything. 26An ungodly man entertains evil desires all the day: but the righteous is unsparingly merciful and compassionate. 27The sacrifices of the ungodly are abomination to the Lord, for they offer them wickedly. 28A false witness shall perish; but an obedient man will speak cautiously. 29An ungodly man impudently withstands with his face; but the upright man himself understands his ways. 30There is no wisdom, there is no courage, there is no counsel against the ungodly. 31A horse is prepared for the day of battle; but help is of the Lord.

1A fair name is better than much wealth, and good favor is above silver and gold. 2The rich and the poor meet together; but the Lord made them both. 3An intelligent man seeing a bad man severely punished is himself instructed, but fools pass by and are punished. 4The fear of the Lord is the offspring of wisdom, and wealth, and glory, and life.

Ven. Alexius the Man of God

He was born of pious and noble parents in Rome in the time of the Emperor Honorius. His parents, Euphemianus and Agalais, set a high standard of godly living: his father, though wealthy, sat down to dine only once a day, at sunset. By his parents’ arrangement Alexis was married at a young age. However, without ever living with his new wife, he fled to Edessa in Mesopotamia, where he lived in asceticism for eighteen years, presenting himself as a beggar in order to avoid the praise of men. When, despite his efforts, he began to be known as a holy man, he fled the city and took ship for Laodicea. By divine providence, the ship was blown off course and forced to land in Rome. Taking this as a sign, Alexis, still disguised as a beggar, returned to his parents’ house, where he sat at the gates, unrecognized by any of his family. His father, not knowing who he was, allowed him to live in a hut in his courtyard. There Alexis spent another seventeen years, living only on bread and water. He died clutching a piece of paper on which he had revealed his true identity. At the time of his death, the pope of Rome heard a voice saying “Look for the Man of God,” and revealing where he should look. It is said that the Emperor Honorius, the Pope and a large retinue came to the house, where they found Alexis dead in his tiny hut, his face shining like the sun. His parents and wife were at first overcome with grief to learn that their son and husband had been secretly living near them, but they were comforted when they saw that his body healed the sick and exuded a fragrant myrrh. Thus they knew that God had glorified him. His head is preserved at the Church of St Laurus on the Peloponnese.

St Patrick, Enlightener of Ireland (ca. 461)

“Saint Patrick, the Apostle of the Irish, was seized from his native Britain by Irish marauders when he was sixteen years old. Though the son of a deacon and grandson of a priest, it was not until his captivity that he sought out the Lord with his whole heart. In his Confession, the testament he wrote towards the end of his life, he says, ‘After I came to Ireland — every day I had to tend sheep, and many times a day I prayed — the love of God and His fear came to me more and more, and my faith was strengthened. And my spirit was so moved that in a single day I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and almost as many at night, and this even when I was staying in the woods and on the mountain; and I would rise for prayer before daylight, through snow, through frost, through rain, and I felt no harm.”

After six years of slavery in Ireland, he was guided by God to make his escape, and afterwards struggled in the monastic life in Aesir in Gaul [now France], under the guidance of the holy Bishop Germanus. Many years later he was ordained bishop and sent to Ireland once again, about the year 432, to convert the Irish to Christ. His arduous labours bore so much fruit that within seven years, three bishops were sent from Gaul to help him shepherd his flock, ‘my brethren and sons whom I have baptized in the Lord — so many thousands of people,’ he says in his Confession.

His apostolic work was not accomplished without much ‘weariness and painfulness,’ long journeys through difficult country, and many perils; he says his very life was in danger twelve times. When he came to Ireland, as its enlightener, it was a pagan country; when he ended his earthly life some thirty years later, about 461, the Faith of Christ was established in every corner.” (Great Horologion)

The work of St Patrick and his brethren has been called the most successful single missionary venture in the history of the Church.

It is said of St Patrick that he chanted the entire Psalter every day.