Holy Martyrs Pamphilus the Priest (c. 309) and Porphyrius and their companions.
Great Fast Day 5. Feast of the Forerunner moved to February 25. Abstention from meat and foods that contain meat. According to liturgical prescriptions, the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated today.
Sixth Hour – Isaiah 3:1-14. Presanctified – Genesis 2:20-3:20. Proverbs 3:19-34.
Read Isaiah 3:1-14
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
The Fathers of the Church when reflecting on today’s text saw a prophesy of the rejection of Christ by Israel. St. Ambrose of Milan says this, “It is the tribes, then, that are meant by the names of the patriarchs. From the tribe of Simeon come the scribes, from that of Levi the chief priests, who brought their wickedness to completion and filled up the entire measure of their fathers’ ungodliness in the passion of the Lord. They took counsel against the Lord Jesus, to kill him, even as Isaiah says, “Alas for their souls! Because they have devised an evil counsel against themselves, saying. ‘Let us bind the just one, for he is profitless to us.”” They killed the prophets and apostles who announced the coming of the Lord of salvation and preached his glorious passion and resurrection. Thereafter, in their greed and out of their desire for earthly wickedness, they fled from sharing in the divine, from chastity of body and moderation of spirit, contempt for money and profit in grace. (On The Patriarchs 3.13.5)
In the Septuagint (LXX) Greek translation of the Old Testament Scriptures, which is the text translated and accepted by the Jews about 300 years before the coming of Christ, verse 10 says “Let us hand over the righteous man, for he is burdensome to us.” We consider the LXX an inspired translation and early Christians and Greek Jews used this text as a primary reading. The early Fathers first and foremost had a Christ centred method of reading the Scriptures. They searched for Jesus in the text first and then after finding Jesus they would start exploring the different layers of meaning in the text.
As I start my day today, let us reflect on this same method. Am I seeking Christ first in my day? When we read the Scriptures in this way it sets a beautiful president in our life. May we seek the One Who Is and the priceless treasure our Saviour and Lord.