Our Venerable Father and Confessor Theophilactus, Bishop of Nicomedia (c. 845)
Great Fast Day 22
Sixth Hour – Isaiah 14:24-32; Vespers – Genesis 8:21-9:7; Proverbs 11:19-12:6
Abstention from meat and foods that contain meat. According to liturgical prescriptions, the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated today
Read Isaiah 14:24-32
For the Lord founded Zion, and the humble of His people shall be saved.
The Lord looks after His chosen, Israel. Even with the threat of the Assyrians looming, and the possibility of joining a coalition of Egypt and Ethiopia against the Assyrians, the Lord tells Israel through Isaiah not to worry. He is the Lord of history. His plans shall not be thwarted by any earthly state.
Our Lord Jesus stated: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? … seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well (Mt 6:25-26, 33).
We are called to trust the Lord each day as Israel trusts in the Lord to be their protector against enemies. Let’s make this our prayer as we embrace and venerate the Cross this week.