2024

On Wednesday | April 3

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THE PROPHECY

READER

Prokeimenon. Mode pl. 2.

Psalm 49 (50).

Offer to God a sacrifice of praise.

The God of gods, the Lord, spoke, and summoned the earth. [SAAS]

The reading is from the Prophecy of Isaiah.

PRIEST

Wisdom. Let us be attentive.

READER

Is 10:12-20

It shall come to pass, when the Lord has completed all He will do on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, He will go against the arrogant heart of the king of the Assyrians and the glory of his haughty looks. For he said, “I shall act in my strength and by the wisdom of my understanding. I also shall remove the boundaries of the nations and plunder their strength. I shall shake their inhabited cities. I shall overtake with my hand all the inhabited world as a nest, and take them as eggs that have been left. There is no one who can escape or oppose me.” Shall the ax glorify itself without him who chops with it? Or shall the saw exalt itself without him who saws with it? It is likewise if one should lift a rod or a piece of wood. But it shall not be so, for the Lord of hosts will send dishonor against your honor; and He will kindle a burning fire against your glory. So the Light of Israel will be as a fire, and He will sanctify him with burning fire; and it will devour the wood like grass on that day. The mountains, the hills, and the forests will be consumed, and devour both soul and body, and he who flees will be like one fleeing from a burning flame. Then the remnant will be few in number, and a child shall write them. It shall come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel and those of Jacob who were saved will never again obey those who wronged them; but they will trust in God, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. [SAAS]

Prokeimenon. Mode pl. 2.

Psalm 50 (51).

Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your great mercy.

Create in me a clean heart, O God. [SAAS]

The Readings from Vespers

READER

Prokeimenon. Mode 4.

Psalm 51 (52).

I hope in God’s mercy forever and unto ages of ages.

Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man. [SAAS]

The reading is from the book of Genesis.

DEACON

Wisdom. Let us be attentive.

READER

Gn 7:6-9

Now Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth. Then Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, entered the ark because of the flood waters. Also the clean and unclean birds, the clean and unclean cattle, and everything that creeps on the earth, entered with Noah into the ark, two by two, male and female, as God commanded him. [SAAS]

Prokeimenon. Mode 4.

Psalm 52 (53).

When the Lord brings back the captivity of His people.

The fool said in his heart, “There is no God.” [SAAS]

The reading is from the Proverbs of Solomon.

DEACON

Wisdom. Let us be attentive.

READER

Pr 9:12-25

My son, if you become wise in yourself, you shall also be wise toward your neighbor; but if you prove to be evil, you alone will go through troubles. He who supports himself with lies will shepherd winds and chase flying birds; for he abandoned the ways of his own vineyard and strayed from paths of his own farming; and he will pass through a waterless desert, a land assigned to drought, and he gathers barrenness with his hands. A woman in need of a morsel is without discernment and overbold; she has no sense of shame. She sits upon the doors of her own house, upon a seat openly in the streets, calling to those who pass by and who go straight along their paths, “He who is very lacking in discernment, let him turn aside to me; and he who is in need of discernment, I exhort, saying, ‘Grasp with pleasure the secret bread and the sweet water of theft.’” But he does not know that the inhabitants of the earth perish beside her, and he happens upon a snare of Hades. But hurry off, do not continue in that place, neither set your eye toward her; for so you shall pass through strange water and cross beyond a strange river; and keep away from strange water, and do not drink from a strange fountain; that you may live a long time and add years of life to yourself. [SAAS]

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Stand for the reading of the Synaxarion.

Synaxarion

From the Menaion.

On April 3 we commemorate our devout father Niketas the confessor, Abbot of the Monastery of Medicium.

On this day we also commemorate our devout father Joseph the Hymnographer.

On this day we also commemorate the holy martyr Elpidophoros.

On this day we also commemorate the holy martyr Dius.

On this day we also commemorate the holy martyr Bythonius.

On this day we also commemorate the holy martyr Galycus.

On this day we also commemorate our devout father Illyrios of Mount Myrsion.

On this day the holy new martyr Paul the Russian, the freedman, who witnessed in Constantinople in the year 1683, died by the sword.

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.