Occurring Scripture for the Hour of Matins
Week of the 11th Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday SaturdayLesson i
A reading from the Fourth Book of Kings
4 Kings 20:1-3In those days Ezechias was sick unto death: and Isaias the son of Amos the prophet came and said to him: "Thus says the Lord God: 'Give charge concerning your house, for you shall die, and not live.'" And he turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying: "I beseech thee, O Lord, remember how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is pleasing before thee." And Ezechias wept with much weeping.
Lesson ii
4 Kings 20:4-7And before Isaias was gone out of the middle of the court, the word of the Lord came to him, saying: "Go back, and tell Ezechias the captain of My people: Thus says the Lord the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer, and I have seen your tears: and behold I have healed you; on the third day you shall go up to the temple of the Lord. And I will add to your days fifteen years: and I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians, and I will protect this city for My own sake, and for David My servant's sake. And Isaias said: Bring me a lump of figs. And when they had brought it, and laid it upon his boil, he was healed.
Lesson iii
4 Kings 20:8-11And Ezechias had said to Isaias: "What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the temple of the Lord the third day?" And Isaias said to him: "This shall be the sign from the Lord, that the Lord will do the word which He has spoken: 'Do you want the shadow to go forward ten lines, or that it go back so many degrees?'" And Ezechias said: It is an easy matter for the shadow to go forward ten lines: and I do not desire that this be done, but let it return back ten degrees. And Isaias the prophet called upon the Lord, and he brought the shadow ten degrees backwards by the lines, by which it had already gone down in the dial of Achaz.
Lesson iv
Exposition of St Jerome
Book II on Isaias XXXVIIILest the heart of Hezekiah should be puffed up by his strange and unlooked for triumphs, and by his victory when he was but a prisoner, he was visited by bodily weakness, and told that he was to die that he might betake himself to the Lord, and turn Him from carrying out the sentence. We read of a like case in the history of the Prophet Jonah. And in regard to the threatening made against David — when punishments were foretold which were not brought to pass. This is not because that God is a Being capable of changing His mind, but because He wills mankind to know Him, how that "He [is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and] repented Him of the evil." : Hezekiah turned his face unto the wall, not being able to go up to the Temple. This may either mean that he turned towards the wall of the Temple, hard by which Solomon had built a palace, or simply, that he turned his face to the wall, so as not to parade his tears before his attendants.
Lesson v
Having been told that he was about to die, he prayed not for life and many years, but left it to God to do as in His good judgment He was pleased to will. He knew how this had pleased God on the part of Solomon. So, when he betook him to the Lord, he only made mention of his works, how he had walked before Him in truth, and with a perfect heart. Happy is he whose conscience in the hour of affliction can assure him of good works. Yea, "blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God " (Matthew 5:8). It is indeed written in another place "Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin" (Proverbs 20:9)? How then could Hezekiah say that he had walked with a perfect heart But the answer is, that by this is meant that he had destroyed the idols, opened the doors of the Temple, broken in pieces the brazen serpent, and done the rest of the things of which the Scripture makes mention.
Lesson vi
"And Hezekiah wept sore." He had then no children, and it seemed as though the promise which God had made unto David, [that "his seed should endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before" him (Psalm 88:30), was about to fail in his own death. It is written that "Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign," (4 Kings 21:1)— whence it is evident that Hezekiah begat him not till after three years of his new lease of life. Sore therefore wept he, when all hope was torn from him that the Messiah should spring from his seed. Others again remark that he wept sore, since death terrifies sometimes even the saints, since they know not what sentence is about to be pronounced upon them, and what place shall be allotted them in the inscrutable judgment.
Lesson vii
The continuation of the Holy Gospel according to Mark
Mark 7:31-37
At that time: Jesus, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. And they brought to Him one deaf and dumb; and they besought Him that He would lay His hand upon him. And taking him from the multitude apart, He put His fingers into his ears, and spitting, He touched his tongue: And looking up to heaven, He groaned, and said to him: "Ephpheta," which is, "Be thou opened." And immediately his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke right. And He charged them that they should tell no man. But the more He charged them, so much the more did they publish it. And so much the more did they wonder, saying: "He has done all things well; He has made both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak."
An Homily of Pope Saint Gregory the Great
Homily x Book i on Ezekiel.What does it signifyt that when God, the Maker of all, would heal a deaf and dumb man, "He put His Fingers into his ears, and He spit, and touched his tongue." What is figured by the Fingers of the Redeemer but the gifts of the Holy Ghost? Hence it is written in another place that after He had cast out an evil spirit, He said "If I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you" (Luke 11:20), which words are thus given by another Evangelist: "If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you" (Matthew 12:28). By setting these two passages together we see that the Spirit is called the Finger. For our Lord, then, to put His Fingers into the deaf man's ears was by the gift of the Holy Spirit to enlighten his dark mind unto obedience.
Lesson viii
And what does it signify that "He spit and touched his tongue." We receive spittle out of the Redeemer's mouth upon our tongues when we receive wisdom to speak God's truth. Spittle is a secretion of the head which flows into the mouth. And so, that wisdom, which is Himself, the great Head of His Church, as soon as it hath touched our tongue, straightway takes the form of preaching. "And looking up to heaven, He sighed," not that He had any need to sigh, Who gave whatsoever He asked, but that He was pleased to teach us to look up and sigh toward Him Whose throne is in heaven, confessing our need, that our ears should be opened by the gift of the Holy Spirit, and our tongue loosed by the spittle of our Savior's Mouth, that is, by knowledge of His Divine Word, before we can use it to preach to others.
Lesson ix
"And He said unto him: Ephphatha, that is, be opened. And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed." Here we must remark the command, "Be opened" was addressed to the deaf ears, but the tongue also was immediately loosed. Just so, when the ears of a man's heart have been opened to learn the obedience of faith, the string of his tongue also is thereby loosed, that he may exhort others to do the good things which he does himself. It is well added "And he spoke [right]." Only he who has first learned to obey does well in preaching obedience to others.
Let us pray:
O almighty and eternal God, who in the abundance of Thy loving kindness art wont to give beyond the deserts and desires of those who humbly pray; pour down upon us Thy mercy, forgiving those things of which our conscience is afraid, and granting us those blessings for which we dare not presume to ask. Through our Lord Jesus Christ.Lesson i
A reading from the Fourth Book of Kings
4 Kings 22:1-5Josias was eight years old when he began to reign: he reigned one and thirty years in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Idida, the daughter of Hadaia, of Besecath. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of David his father: he turned not aside to the right hand, or to the left. And in the eighteenth year of king Josias, the king sent Saphan the son of Assia, the son of Messulam, the scribe of the temple of the Lord, saying to him: "Go to Helcias the high priest, that the money may be put together which is brought into the temple of the Lord, which the doorkeepers of the temple have gathered of the people. And let it be given to the workmen by the overseers of the house of the Lord: and lot them distribute it to those that work in the temple of the Lord, to repair the temple:"
Lesson ii
4 Kings 22:8-10And Helcias the high priest said to Saphan the scribe: I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord: and Helcias gave the book to Saphan, and he read it. And Saphan the scribe came to the king, and brought him word again concerning that which he had commanded, and said: "Thy servants have gathered together the money that was found in the house of the Lord, and they have given it to be distributed to the workmen, by the overseers of the works of the temple of the Lord." And Saphan the scribe told the king, saying: Helcias the priest hath delivered to me a book. And when Saphan had read it before the king...
Lesson i
4 Kings 22:11-13And the king had heard the words of the law of the Lord, he rent his garments. And he commanded Helcias the priest, and Ahicam the son of Saphan, and Achobor the son of Micha, and Saphan the scribe, and Asaia the king's servant, saying: "Go and consult the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Juda, concerning the words of this book which is found: for the great wrath of the Lord is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened to the words of this book, to do all that is written for us."
Lesson i
A reading from the Fourth Book of Kings
4 Kings 23:2-3And the king went up to the temple of the Lord, and all the men of Juda, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, the priests and the prophets, and all the people both little and great: and in the hearing of them all he read all the words of the book of the covenant, which was found in the house of the Lord. And the king stood upon the step: and made a covenant with the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies and his ceremonies, with all their heart, and with all their soul, and to perform the words of this covenant, which were written in that book: and the people agreed to the covenant.
Lesson ii
4 Kings 23: 4-5And the king commanded Helcias the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to cast out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that had been made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burnt them outside Jerusalem in the valley of Cedron, and he carried the ashes of them to Bethel. And he destroyed the soothsayers, whom the kings of Juda had appointed to sacrifice in the high places in the cities of Juda, and round about Jerusalem: them also that burnt incense to Baal, and to the sun, and to the moon, and to the twelve signs, and to all the host of heaven.
Lesson iii
4 Kings 23:6-8And he caused the grove to be carried out from the house of the Lord without Jerusalem to the valley of Cedron, and he burnt it there, and reduced it to dust, and cast the dust upon the graves of the common people. He destroyed also the pavilions of the effeminate, which were in the house of the Lord, for which the women wove as it were little dwellings for the grove. And he gathered together all the priests out of the cities of Juda: and he defiled the high places, where the priests offered sacrifice, from Gabaa to Bersabee: and he broke down the altars of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Josue governor of tile city, which was on the left hand of the gate of the city.
Lesson i
A reading from the Fourth Book of Kings
4 Kings 23:24-26Moreover the diviners by spirits, and soothsayers, and the figures of idols, and the uncleanness, and the abominations, that had been in the land of Juda, and Jerusalem, Josias took away: that he might perform the words of the law, that were written in the book which Helcias the priest had found in the temple of the Lord. There was no king before him like unto him, that returned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with ail his strength, according to all the law of Moses: neither after him did there arise any like him. But yet the Lord turned not away from the wrath of his great indignation, wherewith his anger was kindled against Juda: because of the provocations, wherewith Manasses had provoked him.
Lesson ii
4 Kings 23:27-30And the Lord said: I will remove Juda also from before my face, as I have removed Israel: and I will cast off this city Jerusalem, which I chose, and the house, of which I said: My name shall be there. Now the rest of the acts of Josias, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Juda? In his days Pharao Nechao king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josias went to meet him: and was slain at Mageddo, when he had seen him. And his servants carried him dead from Mageddo: and they brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in Iris own sepulcher.
Lesson iii
4 Kings 23:30-34And the people of the land took Joachaz the son of Josias: and they anointed him, and made him king in his father's stead. Joachaz was three and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Amital, the daughter of Jeremias of Lobna. And he did evil before the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done. And Pharao Nechao bound him at Rebla, which is in the land of Emath, that he should not reign in Jerusalem: and he set a fine upon the land, of a hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold. And Pharao Nechao made Eliacim the son of Josias king in the room of Josias his father: and turned his name to Joakim. And he took Joachaz away and carried him into Egypt, and he died there.
Lesson i
A reading from the Fourth Book of Kings
4 Kings 23:36-37; 24:1Joakim was five and twenty years old when he began to reign: and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Zebida the daughter of Phadaia of Ruma. And he did evil before the Lord according to all that his fathers had done. In his days Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon came up, and Joakim became his servant three years: then again he rebelled against him.
Lesson ii
4 Kings 24:2-4And the Lord sent against him the rovers [≈ pirates] of the Chaldees, and the rovers of Syria, and the rovers of Moab, and the rovers of the children of Ammon: and he sent them against Juda, to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord, which he had spoken by his servants the prophets. And this came by the word of the Lord against Juda, to remove them from before him for all the sins of Manasses which he did. And for the innocent blood that he shed, filling Jerusalem with innocent blood: and therefore the Lord would not be appeased.
Lesson iii
4 Kings 24:5-7But the rest of the acts of Joakim, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the words of the days of the kings of Juda? And Joakim slept with his fathers: And Joachin his son reigned in his stead. And the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his own country: for the king of Babylon had taken all that had belonged to the king of Egypt, from the river of Egypt, unto the river Euphrates.
Lesson i
A reading from the Fourth Book of Kings
4 Kings 24:8-11 12-14 15-17Joachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, a and he reigned three months in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Nohesta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. And he did evil before the Lord, according to all that his father had done. At that time the servants of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem, and the city was surrounded with their forts. And Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon came to the city with his servants to assault it.
Lesson ii
4 Kings 24:12-14And Joachin king of Juda went out to the king of Babylon, he and his mother, and his servants, and his nobles, and his eunuchs: and the king of Babylon received him in the eighth year of his reign. And he brought out from thence all the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king's house: and he cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord, according to the word of the Lord. And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the valiant men of the army, to the number of ten thousand into captivity: and every artificer and smith: and none were left, but the poor sort of the people of the land.
Lesson ii
4 Kings 24:15-17And he carried away Joachin into Babylon, and the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his eunuchs: and the judges of the land he carried into captivity from Jerusalem into Babylon. And all the strong men, seven thousand, and the artificers, and the smiths a thousand, all that were valiant men and fit for war: and the king of Babylon led them captives into Babylon. And he appointed Matthanias his uncle in his stead [as king of Juda]: and called his name Sedecias.
Lesson i
A reading from the Fourth Book of Kings
4 Kings 24:18-20Sedecias was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: the name of his mother was Amital, the daughter of Jeremias of Lobna. And he did evil before the Lord, according to all that Joakim had done. For the Lord was angry against Jerusalem and against Juda, till he cast them out from his face: and Sedecias revolted from the king of Babylon.
Lesson ii
4 Kings 25:1-3And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, the tenth day of the month, that Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon came, he and all his army against Jerusalem: and they surrounded it: and raised works round about it. And the city was shut up and besieged till the eleventh year of king Sedecias, The ninth day of the month: and a famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land. And a breach was made into the city: and all the men of war fled in the night between the two walls by the king's garden, (now the Chaldees besieged the city round about,) and Sedecias fled by the way that leadeth to the plains of the wilderness.
Lesson iii
4 Kings 25:4-13And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all the warriors that were with him were scattered, and left him: So they took the king, and brought him to the king of Babylon to Reblatha, and he gave judgment upon him. And he slew the sons of Sedecias before his face, and he put out his eyes, and bound him with chains, and brought him to Babylon. In the fifth month, the seventh day of the month, that is, the nineteenth year of the king of Babylon, came Nabuzardan commander of the army, a servant of the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem. And he burnt the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and the houses of Jerusalem, and every house he burnt with fire. And all the army of the Chaldees, which was with the commander of the troops, broke down the walls of Jerusalem round about. And Nabuzardan the commander of the army, carried away the rest of the people that remained in the city, and the fugitives that had gone over to the king of Babylon, and the remnant of the common people. But of the poor of the land he left some dressers of vines and husbandmen. And the pillars of brass that were in the temple of the Lord, and the bases, and the sea of brass which was in the house of the Lord, the Chaldees broke in pieces, and carried all the brass of them to Babylon.
