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.
4And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into sickles: and nation shall not take up sword against nation, neither shall they learn to war any more.
5And now, O house of Jacob, come, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.
6For he has forsaken his people the house of Israel, because their land is filled as at the beginning with divinations, as the land of the Philistines, and many strange children were born to them.
7For their land is filled with silver and gold, and there was no number of their treasures; their land also is filled with horses, and there was no number of chariots.
8And the land is filled with abominations, even the works of their hands; and they have worshipped the works which their fingers made.
9And the mean man bowed down, and the great man was humbled: and I will not pardon them.
10Now therefore enter you⌃ into the rocks, and hide yourselves in the earth, for fear of the Lord, and by reason of the glory of his might, when he shall arise to strike terribly the earth.
11For the eyes of the Lord are high, but man is low; and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
Genesis 1.24-2.3 (Vespers)
24And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind, quadrupeds and reptiles and wild beasts of the earth according to their kind, and it was so.
25And God made the wild beasts of the earth according to their kind, and cattle according to their kind, and all the reptiles of the earth according to their kind, and God saw that they were good.
26And God said, Let us make man according to our image and likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the flying creatures of heaven, and over the cattle and all the earth, and over all the reptiles that creep on the earth.
27And God made man, according to the image of God he made him, male and female he made them.
28And God blessed them, saying, Increase and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the seas and flying creatures of heaven, and all the cattle and all the earth, and all the reptiles that creep on the earth.
29And God said, Behold I have given to you every seed-bearing herb sowing seed which is upon all the earth, and every tree which has in itself the fruit of seed that is sown, to you it shall be for food.
30And to all the wild beasts of the earth, and to all the flying creatures of heaven, and to every reptile creeping on the earth, which has in itself the breath of life, even every green plant for food; and it was so.
31And God saw all the things that he had made, and, behold, they were very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
1And the heavens and the earth were finished, and the whole world of them.
2And God finished on the sixth day his works which he made, and he ceased on the seventh day from all his works which he made.
3And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he ceased from all his works which God began to do.
Proverbs 2.1-22 (Vespers)
1My son, if you will receive the utterance of my commandment, and hide it with you;
2your ear shall listen to wisdom; you shall also apply your heart to understanding, and shall apply it to the instruction of your son.
3For if you shall call to wisdom, and utter your voice for understanding;
4and if you shall seek it as silver, and search diligently for it as for treasures;
5then shall you understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.
6For the Lord gives wisdom; and from his presence come knowledge and understanding,
7and he treasures up salvation for them that walk uprightly: he will protect their way;
8that he may guard the righteous ways: and he will preserve the way of them that fear him.
9Then shall you understand righteousness, and judgment; and shall direct all your course aright.
10For if wisdom shall come into your understanding, and discernment shall seem pleasing to your soul,
11good counsel shall guard you, and holy understanding shall keep you;
12to deliver you from the evil way, and from the man that speaks nothing faithfully.
13Alas for those who forsake right paths, to walk in ways of darkness;
14who rejoice in evils, and delight in wicked perverseness;
15whose paths are crooked, and their courses winding;
16to remove you far from the straight way, and to estrange you from a righteous purpose. My son, let not evil counsel overtake you,
17of her who has forsaken the instruction of her youth, and forgotten the covenant of God.
18For she has fixed her house near death, and guided her wheels near Hades with the giants.
19None that go by her shall return, neither shall they take hold of right paths, for they are not apprehended of the years of life.
20For had they gone in good paths, they would have found the paths of righteousness easy.
21For the upright shall dwell in the earth, and the holy shall be left behind in it.
22The paths of the ungodly shall perish out of the earth, and transgressors shall be driven away from it.
Commemorations
Ven. Isidore of Pelusium
He was born to a noble family in Alexandria. For a short time he taught rhetoric in Pelusium in Egypt; but soon his love for the things of God led him to flee to the Desert as a solitary. After a year of ascetical life, he returned to Pelusium, where he was ordained to the priesthood. After a few years he retired to a monastery where he spent the rest of his life, eventually becoming Abbot. From the monastery he wrote thousands of epistles full of divine grace and wisdom; of these more than two thousand still survive.
Saint Isidore was a student and devout disciple of St John Chrysostom, as he knew him through his writings. When St Cyril became Patriarch of Alexandria, he refused to commemorate St John in the diptychs during the Divine Liturgy. Saint Isidore wrote him a strong letter reminding him not to heed the rumors, prejudices or threats of men, and St Cyril was persuaded to restore commemoration of the Archbishop of Constantinople, and later became a strong advocate of the veneration of St John. Isidore, though a monk, was treated as a spiritual father by Patriarch Cyril: around 433, when St Cyril was inclined to deal harshly with some who had been swept up in the Nestorian heresy, St Isidore wrote to him: ‘As your father, since you are pleased to give me this name, or rather as your son, I adjure you to put an end to this dissension lest a permanent breach be made under the pretext of piety.’
With reputation came persecution, and St Isidore suffered much from Imperial and church authorities unhappy with his holy influence. He bore all these troubles impassibly, and in 440 (according to one source) or about 449 (according to another) he joyfully gave up his soul to God.
Venerable Cyril of New Lake (Novoezezrsk) (1532)
When he was only fifteen, St Cyril left home in secret to join the Monastery of St Cornelius of Komel (May 19). Seven years later his father visited the monastery and recognized his son. Instead of persuading Cyril to return to the world, the father was persuaded by his son to enter monastic life; his mother soon joined them, entering a convent nearby. Within the next few years, St Cyril’s mother and father both died, prompting him to exclaim ‘I too am mortal!’ He redoubled his ascetical labors and before long was granted the gift of tears in prayer. Ten years after entering the monastery, St Cyril obtained his abbot’s blessing to live the life of a hermit. He lived in complete reclusion, subsisting on wild greens and mushrooms. After seven years of solitude, he built a hermitage at New Lake and established two churches there. Soon he was ordained to the priesthood. His sanctity attracted a large company of disciples, and he founded a large monastery. There he continued to live in the strictest asceticism and shared in all the common labor of the monks. Once some thieves tried to steal the church bells, but by divine intervention became disoriented and circled the monastery in the dark until morning. When they were apprehended and brought to the Saint, he told them, ‘My children, no one has ever been enriched by stealing, but many have lost even what belonged to them.’ He then ordered that they be given food and released.
During his lifetime the Saint wrought many healings, and was especially known for restoring the sight of the blind. Once his disciple Athanasius saw an unknown deacon serving with St Cyril at the Liturgy. The mysterious deacon disappeared at the end of the service, and St Cyril forbade his disciple to speak of the incident until after his death. In 1532 the Saint reposed in peace: his last words were ‘Glory to God for all things!’