Luke 21.12-19
(Matins Gospel, Martyrs)
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 28.14-22
(6th Hour)
14Therefore hear youpl the word of the Lord, youpl afflicted men, and youpl princes of this people that is in Jerusalem.
15Because youpl have said, We have made a covenant with Hades, and agreements with death; if the rushing storm should pass, it shall not come upon us: we have made falsehood our hope, and by falsehood shall we be protected:
16Therefore thus says the Lord, even the Lord, Behold, I lay for the foundations of Sion a costly stone, a choice, a corner-stone, a precious stone, for its foundations; and he that believes on him shall by no means be ashamed.
17And I will cause judgment to be for hope, and my compassion shall be for just measures, and youpl that trust vainly in falsehood shall fall: for the storm shall by no means pass by you,
18except it also take away your covenant of death, and your trust in Hades shall by no means stand: if the rushing storm should come upon you, youpl shall be beaten down by it.
19Whenever it shall pass by, it shall take you; morning by morning it shall pass by in the day, and in the night there shall be an evil hope. Learn to hear,
20youpl that are distressed; we can’t fight, but we are ourselves too weak for you to be gathered.
21The Lord shall rise up as a mountain of ungodly men, and shall be in the valley of Gabaon; he shall perform his works with wrath, even a work of bitterness, and his wrath shall deal strangely, and his destruction shall be strange.
22Therefore do not youpl rejoice, neither let your bands be made strong; for I have heard of works finished and cut short by the Lord of hosts, which he will execute upon all the earth.
Genesis 10.32-11.9
(Vespers)
32These are the tribes of the sons of Noe, according to their generations, according to their nations: of them were the islands of the Gentiles scattered over the earth after the flood.
1And all the earth was one lip, and there was one language to all.
2And it came to pass as they moved from the east, they found a plain in the land of Senaar, and they lived there.
3And a man said to his neighbor, Come, let us make bricks and bake them with fire. And the brick was to them for stone, and their mortar was bitumen.
4And they said, Come, let us build to ourselves a city and tower, whose top shall be to heaven, and let us make to ourselves a name, before we are scattered abroad upon the face of all the earth.
5And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of men built.
6And the Lord said, Behold, there is one race, and one lip of all, and they have begun to do this, and now nothing shall fail from them of all that they may have undertaken to do.
7Come, and having gone down let us there confound their tongue, that they may not understand each the voice of his neighbor.
8And the Lord scattered them thence over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city and the tower.
9On this account its name was called Confusion, because there the Lord confounded the languages of all the earth, and thence the Lord scattered them upon the face of all the earth.
Proverbs 13.19-14.6
(Vespers)
19The desires of the godly gladden the soul, but the works of the ungodly are far from knowledge.
20If you walk with wise men you shall be wise: but he that walks with fools shall be known.
21Evil shall pursue sinners; but good shall overtake the righteous.
22A good man shall inherit children's children; and the wealth of ungodly men is laid up for the just.
23The righteous shall spend many years in wealth: but the unrighteous shall perish suddenly.
24He that spares the rod hates his son: but he that loves, carefully chastens him.
25A just man eats and satisfies his soul: but the souls of the ungodly are in lack.
1Wise women build houses: but a foolish one digs hers down with her hands.
2He that walks uprightly fears the Lord; but he that is perverse in his ways shall be dishonored.
3Out of the mouth of fools comes a rod of pride; but the lips of the wise preserve them.
4Where no oxen are, the cribs are clean; but where there is abundant produce, the strength of the ox is apparent.
5A faithful witness does not lie; but an unjust witness kindles falsehoods.
6You shall seek wisdom with bad men, and shall not find it; but discretion is easily available with the prudent.
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.”