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 26.21-27.9
(6th Hour)
21For, behold, the Lord is bringing wrath from his holy place upon the dwellers on the earth: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall not cover her slain.
1In that day God shall bring his holy and great and strong sword upon the dragon, even the serpent that flees, upon the dragon, the crooked serpent: he shall destroy the dragon.
2In that day there shall be a fair vineyard, and a desire to commence a song concerning it.
3I am a strong city, a city in a siege: in vain shall I water it; for it shall be taken by night, and by day the wall shall fall.
4There is no woman that has not taken hold of it; who will set me to watch stubble in the field? because of this enemy I have set her aside; therefore on this account the Lord has done all that he appointed.
5I am burnt up; they that dwell in her shall cry, Let us make peace with him, let us make peace,
6they that are coming are the children of Jacob. Israel shall bud and blossom, and the world shall be filled with his fruit.
7Shall he himself be thus struck, even as he struck? and as he killed, shall he be thus slain?
8Fighting and reproaching he will dismiss them; did you not meditate with a harsh spirit, to kill them with a wrathful spirit?
9Therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be taken away; and this is his blessing, when I shall have taken away his sin; when they shall have broken to pieces all the stones of the altars as fine dust, and their trees shall not remain, and their idols shall be cut off, as a thicket afar off.
Genesis 9.18-10.1
(Vespers)
18Now the sons of Noe which came out of the ark, were Sem, Cham, Japheth. And Cham was father of Chanaan.
19These three are the sons of Noe, of these were men scattered over all the earth.
20And Noe began to be a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard.
21And he drank of the wine, and was drunk, and was naked in his house.
22And Cham the father of Chanaan saw the nakedness of his father, and he went out and told his two brothers without.
23And Sem and Japheth having taken a garment, put it on both their backs and went backwards, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their face was backward, and they saw not the nakedness of their father.
24And Noe recovered from the wine, and knew all that his younger son had done to him.
25And he said, Cursed be the servant Chanaan, a slave shall he be to his brethren.
26And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Sem, and Chanaan shall be his bond-servant.
27May God make room for Japheth, and let him dwell in the habitations of Sem, and let Chanaan be his servant.
28And Noe lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.
29And all the days of Noe were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died.
1Now these are the generations of the sons of Noe, Sem, Cham, Japheth; and sons were born to them after the flood.
Proverbs 12.23-13.9 (LXX)
(Vespers)
23An understanding man is a throne of wisdom; but the heart of fools shall meet with curses.
24The hand of chosen men shall easily obtain rule; but the deceitful shall be for a prey.
25A terrible word troubles the heart of a righteous man; but a good message rejoices him.
26A just arbitrator shall be his own friend; but mischief shall pursue sinners; and the way of ungodly men shall lead them astray.
27A deceitful man shall catch no game; but a blameless man is a precious possession.
28In the ways of righteousness is life; but the ways of those that remember injuries lead to death.
1A wise son is obedient to his father: but a disobedient son will be destroyed.
2A good man shall eat of the fruits of righteousness: but the lives of transgressors shall perish before their time.
3He that keeps his own mouth keeps his own life: but he that is hasty with his lips shall bring terror upon himself.
4Every slothful man desires, but the hands of the active are diligent.
5A righteous man hates an unjust word: but an ungodly man is ashamed, and will have no confidence.
7There are some who, having nothing, enrich themselves: and there are some who bring themselves down in the midst of much wealth.
8A man's own wealth is the ransom of his life: but the poor endures not threatening.
9The righteous always have light: but the light of the ungodly is quenched. Crafty souls go astray in sins: but just men pity, and are merciful.
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)