Melkite readings of the day

Melkite readings for Tuesday, 31 March 2009.

31 Mar 2009 00:05:01 +1000

We celebrate on Tuesday, 31 March 2009: Commemoration of our Holy Father Hypatios the Wonderworker, Bishop of Gangra

Readings of Vespers -- 2009-03-31

31 Mar 2009 00:05:01 +1000

Genesis 27:1-41
When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called his elder son Esau and said to him, ‘My son’; and he answered, ‘Here I am.’ He said, ‘See, I am old; I do not know the day of my death. Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and hunt game for me. Then prepare for me savoury food, such as I like, and bring it to me to eat, so that I may bless you before I die.’ Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, Rebekah said to her son Jacob, ‘I heard your father say to your brother Esau, “Bring me game, and prepare for me savoury food to eat, that I may bless you before the Lord before I die.” Now therefore, my son, obey my word as I command you. Go to the flock, and get me two choice kids, so that I may prepare from them savoury food for your father, such as he likes; and you shall take it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.’ But Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, ‘Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a man of smooth skin. Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him, and bring a curse on myself and not a blessing.’ His mother said to him, ‘Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my word, and go, get them for me.’ So he went and got them and brought them to his mother; and his mother prepared savoury food, such as his father loved. Then Rebekah took the best garments of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob; and she put the skins of the kids on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. Then she handed the savoury food, and the bread that she had prepared, to her son Jacob. So he went in to his father, and said, ‘My father’; and he said, ‘Here I am; who are you, my son?’ Jacob said to his father, ‘I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, so that you may bless me.’ But Isaac said to his son, ‘How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?’ He answered, ‘Because the Lord your God granted me success.’ Then Isaac said to Jacob, ‘Come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.’ So Jacob went up to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, ‘The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.’ He did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him. He said, ‘Are you really my son Esau?’ He answered, ‘I am.’ Then he said, ‘Bring it to me, that I may eat of my son’s game and bless you.’ So he brought it to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to him, ‘Come near and kiss me, my son.’ So he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his garments, and blessed him, and said, ‘Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed. May God give you of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!’ As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of his father Isaac, his brother Esau came in from his hunting. He also prepared savoury food, and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, ‘Let my father sit up and eat of his son’s game, so that you may bless me.’ His father Isaac said to him, ‘Who are you?’ He answered, ‘I am your firstborn son, Esau.’ Then Isaac trembled violently, and said, ‘Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him?—yes, and blessed he shall be!’ When Esau heard his father’s words, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, ‘Bless me, me also, father!’ But he said, ‘Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.’ Esau said, ‘Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright; and look, now he has taken away my blessing.’ Then he said, ‘Have you not reserved a blessing for me?’ Isaac answered Esau, ‘I have already made him your lord, and I have given him all his brothers as servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?’ Esau said to his father, ‘Have you only one blessing, father? Bless me, me also, father!’ And Esau lifted up his voice and wept. Then his father Isaac answered him: ‘See, away from the fatness of the earth shall your home be, and away from the dew of heaven on high. By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you break loose, you shall break his yoke from your neck.’ Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, ‘The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.’. (NRSV)
Proverbs 19:16-25
Those who keep the commandment will live; those who are heedless of their ways will die. Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and will be repaid in full. Discipline your children while there is hope; do not set your heart on their destruction. A violent-tempered person will pay the penalty; if you effect a rescue, you will only have to do it again. Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom for the future. The human mind may devise many plans, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will be established. What is desirable in a person is loyalty, and it is better to be poor than a liar. The fear of the Lord is life indeed; filled with it one rests secure and suffers no harm. The lazy person buries a hand in the dish, and will not even bring it back to the mouth. Strike a scoffer, and the simple will learn prudence; reprove the intelligent, and they will gain knowledge. (NRSV)

Epistle of the Divine Liturgy: 1 Thessalonians 5:14-23 (of the season) -- 2009-03-31

31 Mar 2009 00:05:01 +1000

And we urge you, beloved brothers and sisters, to admonish the idlers, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them. See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil. May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (NRSV)

Gospel of the Divine Liturgy: Mark 8:30-34 (of the season) -- 2009-03-31

31 Mar 2009 00:05:01 +1000

And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him. Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’ He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. (NRSV)

Readings of the Prayer of the Sixth Hour -- 2009-03-31

31 Mar 2009 00:05:01 +1000

Isaiah 49:6-10
he says, ‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.’ Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations, the slave of rulers, ‘Kings shall see and stand up, princes, and they shall prostrate themselves, because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.’ Thus says the Lord: In a time of favour I have answered you, on a day of salvation I have helped you; I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land, to apportion the desolate heritages; saying to the prisoners, ‘Come out’, to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ They shall feed along the ways, on all the bare heights shall be their pasture; they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them down, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them. (NRSV)

Synaxarion of the day (story of the feast or commemoration): -- 2009-03-31

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Saint Hypatios was one of the three hundred and eighteen Fathers at the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea. He was a native of Cilicia and died a martyr in Galatia. By his pious life he obtained the gift of miracles and converted many pagans to the Christian faith. He built an inn to receive strangers. By his word alone he made some harmful moles which ravaged the country disappear. When he moved about during the night, he was constantly accompanied by torches which lit his way. He made the waters of a salty and bitter spring sweet. Under Emperor Constantius, the son of Constantine the Great, an enormous serpent got into the Imperial Treasury Chamber and such fright followed that no one dared enter it. If anyone dared to enter the room, he was killed on the spot. The Emperor was dismayed about this. Having heard of the Saint, he sent for him. The Saint came, approached the treasury room alone, and opened the door with a staff surmounted by a cross. He struck the serpent and removed it like a fish, coiled on the staff. He lit a large pyre in the forum and burned the serpent there. To preserve his treasury from any future evil, the Emperor had an icon of the Saint placed at the entrance of the room. Saint Hypatios died under the attacks of the Novatian heretics who fought against him continually. They took up an ambush position in a narrow passage bordered by precipices, and when the old holy man went to pass through, they all jumped on him, men and women, and knocked him down under a shower of rocks. He fell half dead. Then a wicked woman, wholly imbued in the errors of her sect, grabbed a heavy rock and hit him in the temples. The Saint died at once and thus consummated him martyrdom.

Further details for the day: -- 2009-03-31

31 Mar 2009 00:05:01 +1000

Class of feast: 5
Tone of week: 5
Fasting today: We neither eat nor drink from midnight to noon. We refrain from eating meat and meat products.