2024

On Tuesday | March 26

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THE PROPHECY

READER

Prokeimenon. Mode 4.

Psalm 25 (26).

O Lord, I love the beauty of Your house.

Judge me, O Lord, for I walk in my innocence. [SAAS]

The reading is from the Prophecy of Isaiah.

PRIEST

Wisdom. Let us be attentive.

READER

Is 5:7-16

Thus says the Lord: For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the man of Judah is His beloved plant. I waited for it to bring forth judgment, but it brought forth lawlessness, and not righteousness, but a cry. Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, to take something from their neighbor. Surely you will not dwell alone in the land. For these things reached the ears of the Lord of hosts, for though many large and beautiful houses should be built, they shall be desolate, for there shall be no one to live in them. For where ten yoke of oxen shall work, the land shall yield one jar, and whoever sows six homers shall receive three measures. Woe to those who rise early in the morning to follow intoxicating drink; to those who continue until night, for wine shall inflame them. For they drink wine with the harp, the strings, the tambourine and flute, but they do not look at the deeds of the Lord, nor consider the works of His hands! Therefore my people became captives, because they did not know the Lord; and a multitude died through hunger and thirst for water. Hades enlarged itself and opened its mouth continually. The glorious, the great, the wealthy, and the troublesome shall descend into it. A man shall be humiliated, and a man shall be dishonored; and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled. But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and the Holy God shall be glorified in righteousness. [SAAS]

Prokeimenon. Mode 3.

Psalm 26 (27).

The Lord is my light and my savior.

The Lord is the defender of my life. [SAAS]

The Readings from Vespers

READER

Prokeimenon. Mode pl. 2.

Psalm 27 (28).

O Lord, save Your people, and bless Your inheritance.

To You, O Lord, I cry, O my God. [SAAS]

The reading is from the book of Genesis.

PRIEST

Wisdom. Let us be attentive.

READER

Gn 4:8-15

Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Then God said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He replied, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” Thus God said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. You will be groaning and trembling on the earth.” Then Cain said to the Lord, “My guilt is too great to be forgiven! Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be groaning and trembling on the earth. Then it will happen if anyone finds me, he will kill me.” So the Lord God said to him, “Not so! Whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” Thus the Lord set a sign on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him. [SAAS]

Prokeimenon. Grave Mode.

Psalm 28 (29).

The Lord will give strength to His people.

Bring to the Lord, O you sons of God. [SAAS]

The reading is from the Proverbs of Solomon.

PRIEST

Wisdom. Let us be attentive.

READER

Pr 5:1-15

My son, hold fast to wisdom and incline your ear to my words, that you may guard good thinking; and I command you with the perception of my lips. Do not join yourself to a base woman, for honey drips from the lips of a prostitute, or for a season she is pleasing to your taste; afterward, however, you will find her more bitter than gall and sharper than a two-edged sword. For feet lacking discernment lead those using her down into Hades with death; her footsteps are not planted, for she does not travel the ways of life; and her paths are slippery and not easy to discern. Now therefore, my son, hear me, and do not make my words invalid; make your way distant from her and do not come near the doors of her house, that you may not give away your life to others and your existence to the merciless; that strangers may not be filled with your strength, and your labors go into the houses of strangers, and you should feel regret at the last, when the flesh of your body is consumed; and you will say, “How I hated instruction and turned my heart away from reproofs; I did not hear the voice of my instructor and teacher, nor did I incline my ear; little by little I was in every evil in the midst of the church and congregation.” Drink waters from your vessels and from the fountains of your spring. [SAAS]

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The Readings for the Commemoration

2024

March 26

Synaxis in Honor of the Chief Commander Gabriel

The Readings from Vespers the Previous Evening

From Menaion - - -

Ex 3:1-8

Now Moses came to Horeb, the mountain of God. Then the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he saw the bush burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. So Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not consumed.” When therefore the Lord saw him turn aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses! Moses!” Then he said, “Here I am.” So He said, “Do not come any closer. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.” Moreover He said, “I am the God of your father – the God of Abraham, the God Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Moses then hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Then the Lord said, “Indeed, I have seen the affliction of My people in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrow. So I came down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey.” [SAAS]

Pr 8:23-30

The Lord created me in the beginning of His ways for His works; He established me in the beginning before time. Before He made the earth, and before He made the abysses, before the going forth of the fountains of waters, before the mountains were created; and He begot me before all hills. The Lord made the fields and the uninhabited places and the inhabited heights under heaven. When He prepared heaven, I was present with Him, and when He set apart His throne upon the winds. When He made strong the things above the clouds, and made sure the fountains under heaven, and made strong the foundations of the earth, I was working beside Him; I was He in whom He rejoiced; daily and continually I was gladdened by His face. [SAAS]

The Epistle

For the Archangel.

The reading is from Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews.

Heb. 2:2-10

Brethren, if the message declared by angels was valid and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard him, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his own will. For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere, “What is man that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that thou carest for him? Thou didst make him for a little while lower than the angels, thou hast crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for every one. For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering. [RSV]

The Gospel

For the Archangel.

The reading is from the holy Gospel according to Luke.

Lk. 10:16-21

The Lord said to his disciples, “He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.” [RSV]

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Stand for the reading of the Synaxarion.

Synaxarion

From the Menaion.

On March 26 we hold services in honor of the Archangel Gabriel, which practice was instituted very early on, since he ministered the divine and supernal and ineffable mystery.

On this day we also commemorate the holy twenty-six martyrs who witnessed in the land of the Goths: two priests Bathouses and Wirkas with Wirkas’s two sons and three daughters, and the monk Arpylas; the laymen Abippas, Agnas, Ryax, Hegathrax, Eskoes, Silas, Sigetzas, Suerilas, Seimblas, Thermas, Filgas; and the women Anna, Alla, Baris, Moiko, Mamika, Wirko, and Animais.

On this day we also commemorate the holy martyrs Quadratus, Theodosios, Manuel, and another forty in Anatolia.

On this day we also commemorate our devout father Stephen the confessor, Abbot of Triglia.

On this day we read the edifying story about the monk Malchus who was taken captive.

By the intercessions of Your Saints, O God, have mercy on us. Amen.

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Fasting Rule

Strict: Refrain from meat, fish, oil, dairy, and eggs.

It is a weekday in Lent.