Isaiah 1.19-2.3 (6th Hour)

19And if you⌃ be willing, and listen to me, you⌃ shall eat the good of the land: 20but if you⌃ be not willing, nor listen to me, a sword shall devour you: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken this. 21How has the faithful city Sion, once full of judgment, become a harlot! wherein righteousness lodged, but now murderers. 22Your silver is worthless, your wine merchants mix the wine with water. 23Your princes are rebellious, companions of thieves, loving bribes, seeking after rewards; not pleading for orphans, and not heeding the cause of widows. 24Therefore thus says the Lord, the Lord of hosts, Woe to the mighty men of Israel; for my wrath shall not cease against my adversaries, and I will execute judgment on my enemies. 25And I will bring my hand upon you, and purge you completely, and I will destroy the rebellious, and will take away from you all transgressors. 26And I will establish your judges as before, and your counselors as at the beginning: and afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful mother-city of Sion. 27For her captives shall be saved with judgment, and with mercy. 28And the transgressors and the sinners shall be crushed together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be utterly consumed. 29For they shall be ashamed of their idols, which they delighted in, and they are made ashamed of the gardens which they coveted. 30For they shall be as a turpentine tree that has cast its leaves, and as a garden that has no water. 31And their strength shall be as a thread of tow, and their works as sparks, and the transgressors and the sinners shall be burnt up together, and there shall be none to quench them.

1The word which came to Esaias the son of Amos concerning Judea, and concerning Jerusalem. 2For in the last days the mountain of the Lord shall be glorious, and the house of God shall be on the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall come to it. 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.

Genesis 1.14-23 (Vespers)

14And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, to divide between day and night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and for years. 15And let them be for light in the firmament of the heaven, so as to shine upon the earth, and it was so. 16And God made the two great lights, the greater light for regulating the day and the lesser light for regulating the night, the stars also. 17And God placed them in the firmament of the heaven, so as to shine upon the earth, 18and to regulate day and night, and to divide between the light and the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. 20And God said, Let the waters bring forth reptiles having life, and winged creatures flying above the earth in the firmament of heaven, and it was so. 21And God made great whales, and every living reptile, which the waters brought forth according to their kinds, and every creature that flies with wings according to its kind, and God saw that they were good. 22And God blessed them saying, Increase and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let the creatures that fly be multiplied on the earth. 23And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

Proverbs 1.20-33 (Vespers)

20Wisdom sings aloud in passages, and in the broad places speaks boldly. 21And she makes proclamation on the top of the walls, and sits by the gates of princes; and at the gates of the city boldly says, 22So long as the simple cleave to justice, they shall not be ashamed: but the foolish being lovers of haughtiness, having become ungodly have hated knowledge, and are become subject to reproofs. 23Behold, I will bring forth to you the utterance of my breath, and I will instruct you in my speech. 24Since I called, and you⌃ did not listen; and I spoke at length, and you⌃ gave no heed; 25but you⌃ set at nothing my counsels, and disregarded my reproofs; 26therefore I also will laugh at your destruction; and I will rejoice against you when ruin comes upon you: 27yes when dismay suddenly comes upon you, and your overthrow shall arrive like a tempest; and when tribulation and distress shall come upon you, or when ruin shall come upon you. 28For it shall be that when you⌃ call upon me, I will not listen to you: wicked men shall seek me, but shall not find me. 29For they hated wisdom, and did not choose the word of the Lord: 30neither would they attend to my counsels, but derided my reproofs. 31Therefore shall they eat the fruits of their own way, and shall be filled with their own ungodliness. 32For because they wronged the simple, they shall be slain; and an inquisition shall ruin the ungodly. 33But he that hearkens to me shall dwell in confidence, and shall rest securely from all evil.

St Photios, patriarch of Constantinople (891)

St Photios, along with St Mark of Ephesus and St Gregory Palamas, is counted as one of the Three Pillars of Orthodoxy, who stood against Latinizing influences on the Orthodox Church.

He was born in Constantinople in 810, son of pious parents belonging to one of the prominent families of the City. Both his parents were martyred during the Iconoclast persecution, leaving their son an example of adherence to the True Faith even unto death. He received a superb education, and was widely considered the single most learned person of his time. He was elevated to the Patriarchal throne in 858, after being raised through all the degrees of the priesthood in six days.

Throughout his Patriarchal reign he was troubled by the usual political battles and intrigues and, more importantly, by various threats to the Faith in the form of Manicheans and Iconoclasts.

Photios showed a special concern for the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world: it was he who commissioned Sts Cyril and Methodius to embark on their mission to the Slavs.

Most memorably, it was the Patriarch’s lot to stand against the arrogant, uncanonical and heretical claims of Pope Nicholas I of Rome, who openly asserted for the first time the Pope’s pretensions to universal jurisdiction over the Church. When the Patriarch opposed these claims, Pope Nicholas summoned a council of western bishops, which “deposed” Photios and excommunicated all clergy whom he had ordained. In 867 the Emperor Michael III was assassinated, and his successor Basil I deposed Photios, had him imprisoned, and reinstated his predecessor Ignatius. To gain legitimacy for this widely-opposed move, he submitted it to the Pope for approval. Delighted, the Pope ratified the Emperor’s decision and used it to advance the claims of the Papacy. When the eastern bishops realized what was happening they prevailed on the Emperor to release Photios from his three-year imprisonment; and when Ignatius died, the Church unanimously returned Photios to the Patriarchal throne. A Council in Constantinople in 879-880, at which Photios presided, restored communion between the Eastern and Western Churches but at the same time anathematized the heretical addition of the filioque to the Creed, which the Papacy had been promoting.

When Leo VI succeeded Basil I as Emperor, the Patriarch was once again deposed, and was imprisoned in the Monastery of the Armenians for five years. During this time he wrote the Mystagogy of the Holy Spirit, a learned and eloquent refutation of the filioque heresy. The Saint, still imprisoned, reposed in peace in 893.

Sts Barsanuphius and John the Prophet, monks of Palestine (6th c.)

‘Saint Barsanuphius the Great, who was from Egypt, and his disciple, Saint John the Prophet, struggled in very strict reclusion during the sixth century at the monastery of Abba Seridus at Gaza of Palestine, and were endowed with amazing gifts of prophecy and spiritual discernment. They are mentioned by Saint Dorotheus of Gaza, their disciple, in his writings. Many of the counsels they sent to Christians who wrote to them are preserved in the book which bears their names. Once certain of the Fathers besought Saint Barsanuphius to pray that God stay His wrath and spare the world. Saint Barsanuphius wrote back that there were “three men perfect before God,” whose prayers met at the throne of God and protected the whole world; to them it had been revealed that the wrath of God would not last long. These three, he said, were “John of Rome, Elias of Corinth, and another in the diocese of Jerusalem,” concealing the name of the last, since it was himself.’ (Great Horologion)

Saint Barsanuphius lived in such reclusion that only Abbot Seridus ever saw him: once a week the Abbot would bring him three loaves and some water, and would write down the Saint’s counsels. Some of the brethren came to suspect that Barsanuphius was an invention of the Abbot, and to relieve their minds he came out of his cell for the only time, greeted them, washed their feet, and withdrew again.

It is unknown when St Barsanuphius reposed. When it was suspected that he had died in his cell, the Patriarch of Jerusalem ordered that it be opened, but fire blasted forth from the door, preventing any from entering.