Friday 26th April 2024
Lenten Fast: strict fast
Today we commemorate:
Hieromartyr Basil, bishop of Amasea (c.322). Righteous virgin Glaphyra (322). St. Stephen, bishop of Perm (1396). St. George of Cyprus (1091). St. Joannicius of Devich in Serbia (13th C).
British Isles and Ireland:
St. Trudpert of Muenstethal (644).
Isaiah 66:10-24; Genesis 49:33-50:26; Proverbs 31:8-31
Isaiah 66:10-24
Rejoice, Jerusalem, and celebrate a festival in her, all you who love her. Rejoice greatly, all you who mourn over her, that you may suckle and be satisfied at her consoling breast, and that through much suckling you may take delight in entering into her glory. For the Lord says this, ‘I myself am turning towards them like a river of peace, and like a wadi in flood with the glory of the nations. Their children will be carried on shoulders and comforted on knees. As a mother comforts a child, so I too shall comfort you, and you will be comforted in Jerusalem.’ You will see and your heart will rejoice, your bones will grow like the grass and the hand of the Lord will be known to those who worship him, but will be a threat to the disobedient. For the Lord will come like fire and his chariots like a tempest to wreak his vengeance with wrath, and his rebuke with a flame of fire. For by the fire of the Lord will all the earth be judged, and all flesh by his sword; under the Lord there will be many wounded. ‘Those who sanctify and purify themselves for the gardens and eat pig’s meat in porches and abominations and the mouse will be consumed together,’ says the Lord. ‘I know their deeds and their thoughts. I am coming to gather all nations and languages, and they will come and see my glory. I shall leave signs upon them, and I shall send those of them who have been saved to the nations, to Tarshish and Pul and Lud and Mosoch and Tubal, and to Greece and to islands far away, to those who have not heard my name nor seen my glory, and they will declare my glory among the nations. They will bring your brothers of all nations as a gift to the Lord, with horses and chariots, in mule-drawn litters with awnings into the holy city of Jerusalem, just as the sons of Israel bring to me in the house of the Lord their sacrifices with psalms,’ says the Lord, ‘and I shall take some of them to be for me priests and Levites,’ says the Lord. ‘For as long as the new heaven and the new earth which I am making remains,’ says the Lord, ‘so will your descendants and your name continue. And it will come about from month to month and from Sabbath to Sabbath that all flesh will come to me to worship in Jerusalem,’ says the Lord, ‘and they will go out and see the corpses of those who have transgressed against me. For their worm will not die nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be a spectacle to all flesh.’
Genesis 49:33-50:26
Jacob finished giving orders to his sons, and lifting his feet up upon the bed he died and was gathered to his fathers. Joseph fell upon his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him. Then Joseph commanded his servants, the embalmers, to embalm his father; and the embalmers embalmed Israel. They completed their task in forty days, the number of days taken for embalming, and Egypt mourned him for seventy days. And when the days of mourning were past, Joseph spoke to Pharaoh’s high officials, saying, ‘If I have found favour in your eyes, speak of me to the ear of Pharaoh, saying, “My father made me swear, saying, ‘In the sepulchre that I dug for myself in the land of Canaan is where you will bury me.’ I shall therefore now go there to bury my father, and I shall return.”’ And Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘Go up and bury your father as he made you swear.’ And Joseph went up to bury his father, and with him went all the servants of Pharaoh together with the elders of his house and all the elders of the land of Egypt, and the entire household of Joseph and his brothers and his father’s household and his relatives. But the sheep and the oxen they left behind in the land of Goshen. Chariots and horsemen went up with him, a very great company. They came to the threshing floor of Atad which is beyond Jordan, and there they grieved for him with great and very grave lamentation, and he mourned his father for seven days. The inhabitants of the land of Canaan saw the mourning at the floor of Atad and they said, ‘This is a great mourning for the Egyptians.’ They therefore called the place beyond Jordan ‘The Mourning of Egypt’. This is what his sons did for him. They carried him up to the land of Canaan and buried him in the double cave near Mamre that Abraham had bought from Ephron the Hittite as a place of burial. Then Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers and those who had gone up with him to bury his father. When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead they said, ‘Perhaps Joseph will remember our wickedness and punish us for all the evil that we did to him.’ And so they approached Joseph and said, ‘Your father made us swear before his death to say to Joseph, “Forgive them their injustice and their sin in the evil they have done to you; now accept the injustice of the servants of the God of your father.”’ And Joseph wept as they spoke to him. They came to him and said, ‘All of us here are your servants.’ And Joseph said to them, ‘Do not fear, for I am God’s man. You plotted against me for evil, but God planned something good for me so that this day might come, and that many people might be fed.’ And he said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I shall support you and your families.’ And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. Joseph lived in Egypt, he and his brothers and all his father’s house. Joseph lived a hundred and ten years and saw Ephraim’s children to the third generation, and the sons of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were born on Joseph’s thighs. Joseph spoke to his brothers, saying, ‘I am about to die, but God will surely visit you and bring you out from this land to the land of which God swore to our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ And Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, ‘In the time of visitation when God visits you, you will take my bones with you.’ Joseph died. He was a hundred and ten years old and they buried him, placing him in a coffin in Egypt.
Proverbs 31:8-31
Open your mouth with a word from God and judge all fairly. Open your mouth and judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and weak. Who will find a courageous woman? She is more valuable than precious stones. The heart of her husband trusts in her. She has no need of fine ornaments, for she strives for the benefit of her husband all her life. She spins wool and flax and makes use of it with her hands. She is like a ship sailing in from afar; it is she who gathers together a livelihood. She rises when it is still night, provides food for her household and allots tasks to her maidservants. She views a farm and buys it, and through the fruits of her hands she tills her estate. She girds up her loins with might and strengthens her arms for work. She finds by experience that working is good, and her candle is not snuffed out the whole night. She reaches out with her arms to do what is profitable and sets her hands to the spindle. She opens her hands to the needy and reaches out with her fruit to the poor. Her husband is not anxious for his household during the time he is away, for everyone with her is clothed. She makes two sets of clothes for her husband, and for herself garments of fine linen and purple. Her husband is respected at the gates and when he sits in council with the elders of the land. She makes fine linen and sells it, and waistbands for the Canaanites. She opens her mouth with care and propriety, and she controls her tongue. She is arrayed in strength and honour, and she rejoices in her latter days. She carefully orders her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. She opens her mouth wisely and appropriately. She brings up her children with compassion and they prosper, and her husband praises her. Many daughters have obtained riches, many have done great things, but you have surpassed and exceeded them all. Charms are deceptive and a woman’s beauty is vain, but an intelligent woman is praised. Let her proclaim the fear of the Lord. Give to her from the fruit of her hands, and let her husband be acknowledged at the gates.
The text and chapter and verse references of the Old Testament readings are those of the Septuagint, but note that in the Greek text the first two verses of today’s reading from Proverbs appear at the end of chapter 24 and the remaining verses at the end of chapter 29.