Isaiah 29.13-23 (6th Hour)

13Domnul zice: „Când se apropie de Mine poporul acesta, Mă cinsteşte cu gura şi cu buzele, dar inima lui este departe de Mine, şi frica pe care o are de Mine nu este decât o învăţătură de datină omenească. 14De aceea voi lovi iarăşi pe poporul acesta cu semne şi minuni din ce în ce mai minunate, aşa că înţelepciunea înţelepţilor lui va pieri, şi priceperea oamenilor lui pricepuţi se va face nevăzută.” 15Vai de cei ce îşi ascund planurile dinaintea Domnului, care îşi fac faptele în întuneric şi zic: „Cine ne vede şi cine ne ştie?”! 16Stricaţi ce sunteţi! Oare olarul trebuie privit ca lutul sau poate lucrarea să zică despre lucrător: „Nu m-a făcut el”? Sau poate vasul să zică despre olar: „El nu se pricepe”? 17Peste puţină vreme, Libanul se va preface în pomet, şi pometul va fi socotit ca o pădure! 18În ziua aceea, surzii vor auzi cuvintele cărţii, şi ochii orbilor, izbăviţi de negură şi întuneric, vor vedea. 19Cei nenorociţi se vor bucura tot mai mult în Domnul, şi săracii se vor înveseli de Sfântul lui Israel. 20Căci asupritorul nu va mai fi, batjocoritorul va pieri, şi toţi cei ce pândeau nelegiuirea vor fi nimiciţi: 21cei ce osândeau pe alţii la judecată, întindeau curse cui îi înfrunta la poarta cetăţii şi năpăstuiau fără temei pe cel nevinovat. 22De aceea, aşa vorbeşte Domnul către casa lui Iacov, El, care a răscumpărat pe Avraam: „Acum Iacov nu va mai roşi de ruşine şi nu i se va mai îngălbeni faţa acum. 23Căci, când vor vedea ei, când vor vedea copiii lor, în mijlocul lor, lucrarea mâinilor Mele, Îmi vor sfinţi Numele; vor sfinţi pe Sfântul lui Iacov şi se vor teme de Dumnezeul lui Israel.

Genesis 12.1-7 (Vespers)

1Domnul zisese lui Avram: „Ieşi din ţara ta, din rudenia ta şi din casa tatălui tău şi vino în ţara pe care ţi-o voi arăta. 2Voi face din tine un neam mare şi te voi binecuvânta; îţi voi face un nume mare şi vei fi o binecuvântare. 3Voi binecuvânta pe cei ce te vor binecuvânta şi voi blestema pe cei ce te vor blestema; şi toate familiile pământului vor fi binecuvântate în tine. 4Avram a plecat, cum îi spusese Domnul, şi a plecat şi Lot împreună cu el. Avram avea şaptezeci şi cinci de ani când a ieşit din Haran. 5Avram a luat pe Sarai, nevasta sa, şi pe Lot, fiul fratelui său, împreună cu toate averile pe care le strânseseră şi cu toate slugile pe care le câştigaseră în Haran. Au plecat în ţara Canaan şi au ajuns în ţara Canaan. 6Avram a străbătut ţara până la locul numit Sihem, până la stejarul lui More. Canaaniţii erau atunci în ţară. 7Domnul S-a arătat lui Avram şi i-a zis: „Toată ţara aceasta o voi da seminţei tale.” Şi Avram a zidit acolo un altar Domnului care i Se arătase.

Proverbs 14.15-26 (Vespers)

15Omul lesne crezător crede orice vorbă, dar omul chibzuit ia seama bine cum merge. – 16Înţeleptul se teme şi se abate de la rău, dar nesocotitul este îngâmfat şi fără frică. – 17Cine este iute la mânie face prostii, şi omul plin de răutate se face urât. – 18Cei proşti au parte de nebunie, dar oamenii chibzuiţi sunt încununaţi cu ştiinţă. – 19Cei răi se pleacă înaintea celor buni, şi cei nelegiuiţi înaintea porţilor celui neprihănit. – 20Săracul este urât chiar şi de prietenul său, dar bogatul are foarte mulţi prieteni. – 21Cine dispreţuieşte pe aproapele său face un păcat, dar ferice de cine are milă de cei nenorociţi. – 22În adevăr, cei ce gândesc rău se rătăcesc, dar cei ce gândesc binele lucrează cu bunătate şi credincioşie. 23Oriunde se munceşte este şi câştig, dar oriunde numai se vorbeşte, este lipsă. – 24Bogăţia este o cunună pentru cei înţelepţi, dar cei nesocotiţi n-au altceva decât nebunie. – 25Martorul care spune adevărul scapă suflete, dar cel înşelător spune minciuni. – 26Cine se teme de Domnul are un sprijin tare în El, şi copiii lui au un loc de adăpost la El. –

St Hilarion the New, abbot of Pelecete, Confessor (754)

He took up the monastic life when very young, and lived as a recluse for many years, and gained the grace to heal sicknesses and drive out demons by his prayers. Later he became abbot of the Monastery of Pelekete in Bithynia. During the reign of the Emperor Leo the Isaurian, he and his monastery steadfastly upheld the holy icons, and were fiercely persecuted. Hilarion and his forty monks were exiled to a prison near Ephesus, where the Saint reposed.

Repose of Gerontissa Gavrilia (1992) (March 15 OC)

Mother Gavrilia, who was known to many who are still alive, has not been officially glorified by the Church, but is considered by many to be a Saint of our time. Her fine biography, Ascetic of Love, has been translated into English and several other languages. The account below is excerpted from that on the web site of St Gregory Palamas Monastery.

“The Gerontissa Gabrielia was born in Constantinople a hundred years ago on October 2/15, 1897. She grew up in the City until her family moved to Thessalonika in 1923. She went to England in 1938 and stayed there throughout the Second World War. She trained as a chiropodist and physiotherapist. In 1945 she returned to Greece where she worked with the Friends Refugee Mission and the American Farm School in Thessalonika in early post-war years. Later she opened her own therapy office in Athens until 1954. In March of that year her mother died and the office was closed. Sister Lila left Greece and traveled overland to India where she worked with the poorest of the poor, even the lepers, for five years.

“It was not until 1959 that she went to the Monastery of Mary and Martha in Bethany, Palestine, to become a nun. When she arrived she asked Fr. Theodosius the chaplain for a rule of prayer. Fr. Theodosius was somewhat surprised to find that she could read even ancient Byzantine Greek. Fr. Theodosius said, “The great elders that we hear about no longer exist. I certainly am not one. You came here to save your soul. If I start giving you rules, you will lose you soul and I will as well. But here is Fr. John. He will be your elder.” So for her first year in the monastery he set her to reading only the Gospels and St. John Climacus. (It should be noted that at that time the Ladder had not been published in modern Greek.)

“She was three years in Bethany. In April, 1962, word came that Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople sought to send an Orthodox monastic to Taize in France. Sister Gabrielia went by way of Taize (she spoke fluent French from childhood) to America.

“In 1963 she was back in Greece. The Gerontissa was tonsured to the Small Schema by Abbot Amphilochios (Makris) on Patmos in the Cave of St. Anthony under the Monastery of Evangelismos just before she and the nun Tomasina left again for India. Elder Amphilochios was enthusiastic at the idea a nun who would be open to the an active outreach in the world. In India she was for three year in Nani Tal in Uttar Pradesh where Fr. Lazarus Moore was the priest and where he consulted the Gerontissa in his translations of the Psalter and the Fathers. Between 1967 and 1977 the Gerontissa traveled in the Mission field of East Africa, in Europe including visiting old friends and spiritual fathers Lev Gillet and Sophrony of Essex, again to America, and briefly in Sinai where Archbishop Damianos was attempting to reintroduce women’s monasticism. She traveled extensively, with much concern and broad love for the people of God. Some of her spiritual children found her in Jerusalem beside the Tomb of Christ; others found her on the mission field of East Africa. For years beginning in about 1977, she lived hidden in a little apartment, the “House of the Angels” in Patissia in the midst of the noise and smog and confusion of central Athens. A little place, a hidden place, a precious place to those who knew her there.

“In 1989 she moved to Holy Protection hermitage on the island of Aegina, close by the shrine of St. Nectarios. There she called the last two of her spiritual children to become monastics near her, and there she continued to receive many visitors. At the start of Great Lent in 1990 she was hospitalized for lymphatic cancer. She was forty days in the hospital, leaving during Holy Week and receiving communion of Pascha. And to the puzzlement of the doctors, the cancer disappeared. It was not yet her time.

“The Gerontissa finally withdrew to quiet. With only one last nun she moved for the last time in this life, to the island of Leros. There they established the hesychastirion of the Holy Archangels. Only in this last year of her life did she accept the Great Schema at the hands of Fr. Dionysious from Little St. Anne’s Skete on Athos. He came to give her the Schema in the Chapel of the Panaghia in the Kastro on the top of Leros.

“Gerontissa Gabrielia passed from this world on March 28, 1992, having never built a monastery. Over the years, six of her spiritual children did become monastics, but never more that one or two were with her at a time. Only the angels could count the number of lives that God touched and changed through her. Her biography and collected writings were published in Greek in 1996, through the work of her last monastic daughter and the contribution of many, many others who held the Gerontissa dear. An English translation is in process [Note: it has now been published].

“Anyone who knew the Gerontissa realized that God has not left us without His saints, even down to the present day. The few words recorded here scarcely suggest the clarity and love of her soul. Words are only the tools of this world; the wonder of the Gerontissa was wrapped in the mystery of the silence of the world to come.

“She never sought a reputation. She never allowed anything about her to be published during her long life and only allowed her children to take photographs in her very last years. Those whom God touched through her called her Gerontissa; she never made herself anything but the nun Gabrielia.

“She was humility and love incarnate.”

The Gerontissa embodied an ‘ecumenism’ that might serve as a model for many in our time: she was completely loving and open to all people of all faiths, yet while working freely with protestants and Hindus in service to man, she never compromised any aspect of her Orthodox faith. Once, some protestant fellow-workers suggested that they pray together; Mother Gavrilia thanked them lovingly, but said ‘I only pray in church or alone.’