The Transfer of the Relics of Our Holy Father Nicephorus, Patriarch of Constantinople (847)
Great Fast Day 19. Abstention from meat and foods that contain meat. According to liturgical prescriptions, the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated today.
Read
Proverbs 10:31-11:12
“A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight.”
Ambrose of Milan makes spiritual sense out of this balance. He means this in terms of weight our words:
Let each one weigh his words without fraud and deceit: “A deceitful balance is an abomination before the Lord.” I do not mean that balance which weighs out another’s pay (in trivial matters the flesh is deceitful). Before God, that balance of words is detestable which simulates the weight of sober gravity while practising at the same time cunning fraud. God condemns especially the man who deceives his neighbour with treacherous injustice. He will have no gain from his clever skill. For what does it profit a man if he gains the wealth of the whole world but defrauds his own soul of the payment of eternal life?
“Words which simulate sober gravity” How many times during this have we feigned sincere repentance during the great fast, mouthing the words of the prayer of St. Ephrem, but missing the meaning. We must measure our words with acts of repentance, fasting, confession. These physicalized actions, either of self-denial or self-disclosure, allows us to balance our words with our actions, in order to properly dispose ourselves to the world.