The Repose of Our Holy Father Methodius, Teacher of the Slavs (885); Our Venerable Father and Confessor Nicetas, Hegumen of the Monastery of Medicius (824)
Great Fast Day 40. All-Night Vigil Feast. Abstention from meat and foods that contain meat. According to liturgical prescriptions, the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated today.
Read
Proverbs 31:8-31
Lent ends with the death of Joseph and the exaltation of lady wisdom. What are we to make of this? The Lenten reading program of Genesis shows humanity from its heights of glory created in the image of God and its subsequent fall. What follows is the gradual degradation of humanity; just look at all the stories of intrigue throughout Genesis—lusts, jealousies, lies, and the like. Against this downward slope, Proverbs shows us the inverse, the high road, what life is like lived according to wisdom. The embodiment of wisdom is Lady wisdom. We hear: “Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.” (Pro 31:29)
Where ever we find ourselves between the low road of Genesis and the high road of Proverbs, we must recognize that Lord comes to meet us there, to teach us, betwixt and between. Raising us up from the sallow jealousies that our first fathers fell into of Genesis, we can be ravished by lady wisdom on the other side of Pascha.