Readings February to April

The Lord spoke to Moses on the day on which he brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, saying, ‘Sanctify to me every first-born, first produced that opens every womb among the children of Israel’. And Moses said to the people, ‘Remember this day, on which you came out of Egypt, from the house of slavery, for the Lord has brought you out from there with a mighty hand. And keep his law. And it shall be that when the Lord God brings you into the land of the Chananites, in the way that he swore to your fathers, you shall set apart everything that opens the womb; the males to the Lord. But if after this your son asks you, saying, “What is this?”, you will say to him, “God brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery, with a mighty hand. And when Pharao hardened his heart against sending us out, the Lord slew every first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of humans to the first-born of animals. This is why I sacrifice everything that opens the womb; the males to the Lord, and every first-born of my sons I will redeem”. And it will be for a sign upon your hand, and immovable before your eyes, because thus said the Lord the Almighty, “All the first-born of your sons you will give me. [Leviticus 12] And it shall be that everyone[2] who gives birth to a male child shall circumcise the flesh of its foreskin on the eighth day. And for thirty three days he will not come into the sanctuary of God to the Priest, until the days of purification are completed. And after this he will offer an unblemished yearling lamb to the Lord for a holocaust, and a young pigeon or turtle dove to the Priest at the door of the Tabernacle of Witness. Or instead of these he will offer two young pigeons or two turtle doves. And the Priest will make atonement for him. [Numbers] Because these have been offered to me as an offering out of all the children of Israel. And I have taken them and sanctified them for myself in place of the first-born of the Egyptians, on the day when I smote every first-born in the land of Egypt from human to beast of burden,” said God the Most High, the Holy One of Israel.’[3]

In the year that King Ozias died, I saw the Lord, seated on a high and exalted throne. And the house was full of his glory. And Seraphim stood around him, the one having six wings and the other having six wings, and with two they covered their faces and with two the feet and with two they flew. And one cried to other and they said, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord Sabaoth[4]. The whole earth is full of his glory.’ The threshold was lifted up at the voice with which they cried, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said, ‘Woe is me! For I am pricked to the heart, because I, a human being, and with unclean lips dwell among a people with unclean lips, and with my eyes I have seen the King, the Lord Sabaoth.’ And one of the Seraphim was sent to me, and in his hand he held a burning coal, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. And touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your lips and it will take away your iniquities and cleanse your sins.’ And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go to this people?’ And I said, ‘See, here am I. Send me.’ And he said, ‘Go, and say to this people, “You will hear and not understand, and seeing, you will see and not perceive.” For the heart of this people has grown fat, and they have heard with heavy ears and they have shut their eyes, lest perhaps they perceive with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn back, and I will heal them.’ And I said, ‘Until when, Lord?’ And he said, ‘Until the cities are deserted from being inhabited and the houses from there being no people, and the land will be abandoned as desert. And after this God will remove the people far away, and those who are left behind will be multiplied on the land’.

See, the Lord will be seated on a light cloud[5] and will come to Egypt and the idols of Egypt will be shaken at his presence and their heart will be worsted within them. ‘And their spirit will be troubled within them, and I will frustrate their counsel and hand Egypt over into the hands of harsh lords,’ says the Lord Sabaoth. And the Egyptians will drink water that is beside the sea, while the river will fail and be dried up. Thus says the Lord, ‘Where now are your wise men? And let them declare to you and let them say, “What has the Lord Sabaoth planned against Egypt?” On that day the Egyptians will be like women, in fear and trembling in the presence of the hand of the Lord Sabaoth, which he will bring against them. And there will be an Altar to the Lord in the country of the Egyptians and a pillar to Lord at its border. And it will be for a sign for ever to the Lord in the country of Egypt, because they will cry to the Lord and he will send them a man who will save them. And the Lord will be known to the Egyptians. And the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day, and they will offer sacrifice and gift, and they will vow vows to the Lord and pay them.[6]

24th. First and Second Finding of the Precious Head of Saint John the Baptist. [Also 29 August.]

Thus says the Lord: Comfort, comfort my people, says God. Priests, speak to the heart of Jerusalem. Comfort her, because her humiliation has been completed; for her has sin has been abolished, because she has received from the Lord’s hand double for her sins. A voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God. Every valley will be filled and every mountain and hill made low; what is crooked will become straight, and the rough ways will be made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Go up onto a high mountain, you who bring good tidings to Sion; lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem. Lift it up, do not be afraid. I the Lord God, I, the God of Israel, will hearken and will not forsake them; but I will open rivers from the mountains and springs in the middle of plains. I will turn the wilderness into water meadows and the thirsty earth with water courses. Let the heavens rejoice from on high and let the clouds rain justice. Let the earth sprout and blossom with mercy and justice. Announce a voice of gladness to the end of the earth and let this be heard: Say that the Lord has delivered his servant Jacob. And if they thirst through deserts, he will bring water for them from a rock. Rejoice you barren who have never given birth, break out and shout, you who have never known birth pangs, for the children of the deserted are more than those of her who has a husband.

Thus says the Lord Almighty: See, I am sending my Angel, my messenger, before your face, who will prepare your way before you. And the Lord whom you seek will come to his temple. And who will endure the day of his entrance? And who will withstand at his appearing? Because he will enter like fire in a smelting furnace and like the lye of launderers. And he will come to you in judgement; and he will be a swift witness against the wicked and against adulteresses and against those swear falsely in his name and those who do not fear him, says the Lord Almighty. Because I am the Lord your God, and I have not changed and you, children of Jacob, have perverted the laws and not kept them. Therefore turn back to me and I will turn back to you, says the Lord Almighty. And all the nations will call you blessed and you will know that I am the Lord who discern between just and lawless on the day on which I make a peculiar possession of those who love me. Know then and remember the law of Moses my servant, as I gave him commandment on Horeb, to all Israel ordinances and judgements. And see, I will send you Elias the Thesbite, before the great and manifest day of the Lord comes; he will turn again the heart of father to son and of a man to his neighbour, lest when I come I smite the earth grievously, says the Lord Almighty, God the Holy One of Israel.

A just man if he comes to his end will be at rest. A just man who dies will condemn the ungodly who are alive; for they will see the end of a just man and will not understand what they counselled concerning him. For the Lord will break the ungodly, render them voiceless and cast them headlong, and he will shake them from the foundations and they will be utterly worsted in sorrow, and their memory shall perish. They shall come with fear at the accounting of their sins, and their iniquities will convict them to their face. Then the just will stand with much boldness in the face of those who afflicted him and made his toils of no account. When they see this they will be troubled with great fear and will be amazed at the wonder of his salvation. For they will say as they repent and with anguish they will groan and say: Is this he whom we fools once made a laughing stock and a byword of reproach? We reckoned his life folly and his end dishonour. How has he been numbered among the children of God and his lot with the Saints? Therefore we have erred from the way of truth and the light of righteousness has not shone on us and the sun has not dawned on us. We have been filled with paths of lawlessness and destruction and journeyed through trackless paths, but have not known the way of the Lord.

Thus says the Lord: All the nations were gathered together, and rulers will be gathered out of them. Who will declare this, or who will declare to you the things from the beginning? Let them bring their witnesses and let them be justified, and let them hear and say the truth. Be my witnesses, says the Lord, and I am a witness and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe and understand that I am. Before me there was no other, nor shall there be any after me. I am God, and besides me there is no saviour. I declared and saved, I rebuked, and there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses. I am the Lord God, even from the beginning; there is none who can deliver from my hand; I shall work and who will turn it back? Thus says the Lord, God who redeems you, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake I will send to Babylon and I will rouse up all who flee and the Chaldaeans will be bound in ships.

25th. The Annunciation to Our Most Holy Lady, Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary. [And on other Feasts of the Mother of God]

Jacob went out from the well of the oath and journeyed towards Harran. And he lighted on a place and slept there, for the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of the place and put is at his head; and he slept in that place, and he dreamed. And behold, a ladder set up on the earth, whose head reached to heaven; and the Angels of God were going up and going down upon it. But the Lord stood above it and said: I am the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac, do not be afraid. The land on which you are sleeping I shall give to you and to your seed. And your seed will be like the sand of the earth, and it will be spread abroad to the Sea and Liva and North and East; and in you and in your seed all the tribes of the earth will be blessed. And behold, I am with you, guarding you on every road on which you may journey; and I shall bring you back again to this land, because I shall never abandon you until I have done all that I have said to you. And Jacob arose from his sleep and said: The Lord is in this place, but I did not know it. And he was afraid, and said: How fearful is this place! This is none other than the house of God, this is the gate of heaven.

It shall be from the eighth day and upwards, the Priests shall make your holocausts upon the altar, and those for your salvation; and I shall accept you, says the Lord. And he turned me back by the way of the outer gate of the Holy Place, which looks towards the east, and it was shut. And the Lord said to me: This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no one shall pass through it, because the Lord, the God of Israel, will enter through it, and it shall be shut. Therefore this prince shall sit in it to eat bread. By the way of the Elam of the gate he shall enter, and by that way he shall go out. And he brought me by the way of the gate towards the North, opposite the House; and I saw, and behold the whole house of the Lord was full of glory.

Wisdom has built herself a house. She has slaughtered her beasts and mixed her wine in the mixing bowl, and prepared her table. She her sent out her servants, to invite with a loud proclamation upon the mixing bowl: Whoever is foolish, let him turn to me. And to those who lack wisdom she said: Come, eat my bread, and drink the wine that I have mixed for you. Abandon folly, and you will live; and seek understanding that you may have life, and set aright your understanding with knowledge. One who corrects the wicked will gain dishonour for himself. One who rebukes the impious will get blame for himself; for to the impious rebukes are blows. Do not rebuke the wicked, lest they hate you. Rebuke a wise man and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man and he will be wiser; teach a just man and he will increase learning. The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, and the counsel of Saints, understanding. While to know the law is the part of a good mind. For by this means you will live for a long time, and years will be added to your life.

Now Moses was shepherding the sheep of his father-in-law, Jothor, the priest of Madiam; and he led the sheep to the desert, and came to mount Horeb. 2 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush; and he saw that the bush was burning, but the bush was not burned up. And Moses said, ‘I will turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not being burned up.’ When the Lord saw that he drew near to see, the Lord called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘What is it?’ Then he said, ‘Do not come near; untie your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ And he said, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses turned away his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; I know their suffering, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Pherizzites, the Gergesites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greeting. Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let them ask God, who gives to all generously and without reproaching, and it will be given them. But let them ask in faith, doubting nothing, for one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that someone double-minded, unstable in all their ways, will receive anything from the Lord. Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like the flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. Blessed is the one who endures trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him.

Beloved, let no one say when they are tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one; but each person is tempted when they are lured and enticed by their own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from on high, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Know this, my beloved brethren. Let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for a person’s anger does not work the justice of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rank growth of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, they are like a person who observes their natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, not being hearer that forget but doers that act, shall be blessed in their doing. If any one thinks they are religious, and does not bridle their tongue but deceives their heart, their religion is vain. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

My brethren, show no partiality as you hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if someone with gold rings and in fine clothing comes into your assembly, and pauper in shabby clothing also comes in, and you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, ‘Have a seat here, please,’ while you say to the pauper, ‘Stand there,’ or, ‘Sit at my feet,’ have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brethren. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonoured the poor person. Is it not the rich who oppress you, is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they who blaspheme that honourable name which was invoked over you? If you really fulfil the royal law, according to the scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself,’ you do well. But if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not kill.’ If you do not commit adultery but do kill, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgement is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy; yet mercy triumphs over judgement.

30th. Holy Apostle James [Iakovos], son of Zebedee, brother of John the Theologian.

[1] This reading is a selection from Exodus 12,51-13,16 together with 22,29 and passages from Leviticus 12 and Numbers 8. The reference to the purification of the mother in Leviticus is made to refer to the child. This may be influenced by Luke 2,22, which has ‘their’, not ‘her’, or, according to the Western text, ‘his’. The text in The Festal Menaion is misleading, being from the Hebrew, not the Greek of the Menaion, which differs noticeably from the LXX.

[2] This is masculine, though the LXX has ‘woman’.

[3] This last clause is not from any of the texts used in the reading. The phrase ‘God the Most High’ only occurs at Gen. 14,20 and Psalm 77,35. The second is characteristic of Isaias, and the two nearest references are 30,12 & 15. But the whole clause is probably a mere commonplace by the compiler.

[4] ‘Sabaoth’ is treated as a divine name by the Fathers, being one of the words which the translators ‘did not dare to put into Greek, but left in Hebrew’, according to St Basil, though, as St Gregory the Theologian says, they knew that it meant ‘powers’ or ‘armies’

[5] A frequent type of the Mother of God in liturgical texts, such as the 4th Irmos of the Canon of the Akathist.

[6] Note in the Greek Menaion. ‘Instead of the above reading, the manuscripts have another from the prophecy of Ezekiel 43 & 44 [i.e. the normal one for the Mother of God]. While what seems to be the oldest of the manuscripts has neither it, nor a Liti, nor Kathismata, but only the Aposticha with one Doxastikon in the same Tone, “A light for revelation of the nations”, which is to be found at Vespers on the 4th of the month.’

[7] The Typika prescribe readings for the Forty Martyrs in addition to the daily ones from the Triodion, but no references or texts are to be found in the Menaion.

[8] These two readings, for 2nd Vespers, are not found in the Menaion.