2025

On Wednesday | February 26

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THE PROPHECY

READER

Prokeimenon. Mode pl. 2.

O Lord, save Your people.

To You, O Lord, I cry; O my God. [SAAS]

The reading is from the Prophecy of Joel.

PRIEST

Wisdom. Let us be attentive.

READER

Joel 2:12 – 26

Now says the Lord your God, “Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting and wailing and with mourning; rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for He is merciful and compassionate. He is longsuffering and plenteous in mercy and repents of evils. Who knows if He will return and change His mind – if He will leave a blessing behind Him, even an offering and drink-offering to the Lord our God?” Sound the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly; gather the people, sanctify the congregation, call out the elders, and gather the nursing infants. Let the bridegroom go out from his bedchamber and the bride out of her bridal chamber. Between the porch and the altar, the priests of the altar, ministering to the Lord, will each be weeping and will say, “O Lord, spare Your people; do not give Your inheritance to reproach, that the Gentiles should rule over them, lest they should say among the Gentiles, ‘Where is their God?’” But the Lord was zealous for His land and spared His people. And the Lord answered His people and said, “Behold, I send you wheat, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied with them. I will no longer make you a reproach among the nations, and I will drive the army from the north away from you, and I shall force him into a dry land. I will drown his face in the eastern sea and his back in the western sea; its stench and foul smell will rise up, because he has done powerful works.” O land, be of good courage; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things. Take courage, you beasts of the field, for the plains of the wilderness have budded, and the trees bear their fruit. And again the vine and the fig tree yield their full potency. And you children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in the Lord your God, for He gives food that is right for you, and He will shower you as before with the early and the late rain. The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, and the presses of wine and olive oil will overflow. “And I will restore to you the years the grasshopper and the locust have eaten, and for the blight, and the caterpillar, even for My great army, which I sent against you. You will eat abundantly and be satisfied and will praise the name of the Lord your God for what He has so wondrously done unto you. And My people will not be put to shame forever.” [SAAS]

Prokeimenon. Grave Mode.

The Lord will give strength to His people.

Bring to the Lord, O you sons of God. [SAAS]

The Readings from Vespers

THE PROPHECY

READER

The reading is from the Prophecy of Joel.

PRIEST

Wisdom. Let us be attentive.

READER

Joel 4:12 – 21

Thus says the Lord, “Let all the nations rouse themselves and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I shall sit to judge all the nations round about. Bring out the sickles, for the harvest is ripe. Come in and tread the grapes, for the winepress is full, the wine vats overflow; for their wickedness is multiplied. The news resounded in the valley of judgment, for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of judgment. The sun and moon shall become dark, and the stars shall withdraw their light. And the Lord shall cry out from Zion, and He shall utter His voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and earth will quake, but the Lord shall keep His people safe and shall strengthen the sons of Israel. So you shall know that I am the Lord your God, the one dwelling in Zion on My holy mountain. Then Jerusalem shall be a holy city, and no more will strangers pass through her. And it will come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drip sweetness, and milk shall flow from the hills, and all the brooks of Judah shall flow with water. And a fountain shall flow out from the house of the Lord, and it will supply water to the Valley of Acacias. Egypt shall become a desolation and Edom a wilderness because of the wrongdoings against the people of Judah, because of the innocent blood shed in their land. But Judah shall be inhabited forever and Jerusalem unto generations of generations. And I shall avenge their blood and shall not let it go unpunished. The Lord shall dwell in Zion.” [SAAS]

Prokeimenon. Mode pl. 2.

Let Israel hope in the Lord.

O Lord, my heart is not exalted. [SAAS]

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The Readings for the Commemoration

2025

February 26

Memory of the Holy Great-martyr Photini the Samaritan Woman

The Readings from Vespers the Previous Evening

Menaion Supplement - - -

Pr 1:20; 3:21 – 37

Wisdom sings in the streets; she moves boldly in the squares. God by wisdom founded the earth and prepared the heavens with discernment. With perception the depths were broken up, and the clouds flowed with dew. My son, do not be careless, but keep my counsel and thinking, that your soul may live, and grace may be around your neck. And there will be healing for your flesh and care for your bones, that you may walk confidently in peace in all your ways, and your foot may not stumble. For if you sit down, you will be without fear, and if you lie down, your sleep will be pleasant. And do not be afraid of intimidation when it comes upon you, nor of the attack of the ungodly when it comes at you; for the Lord will be over all your ways, and He will plant your feet firmly, that you may not be shaken. Do not withhold doing good to the needy, when you may give a helping hand; do not say, when you are able to do good, “Come back tomorrow, and I will give you something”; for you do not know what the next day will bring forth. Do not devise evil things against your friend who dwells beside you and trusts in you. Do not be ready to quarrel with a man in vain, lest he do you some harm. Do not incur the reproach of evil men, neither seek their ways; for every lawless man is unclean before the Lord, and he does not sit among the righteous. The curse of God is in the houses of the ungodly, but He blesses the dwellings of the righteous. The Lord opposes the arrogant, but He gives grace to the humble. [SAAS]

Pr 31:8 – 30

Open your mouth for the word of God, and judge all men fairly; Open your mouth and judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and helpless. Who will find a courageous wife? For such a one is more valuable than precious stones. The heart of her husband trusts in her; she will not be at a loss for fine spoils, for she provides good things for her husband all her life. She weaves wool and linen cloth and is productive with her hands. She is like a ship trading afar off, so she procures her livelihood. She also rises before dawn and gives food to her household, and appoints tasks for her maidservants. Seeing a farm, she buys it, and from the fruits of her hands she plants her plot of land. Strongly girding her loins, she strengthens her arms for work. She experiences work as a good thing, and her lamp is not quenched all night. She extends her arms to do profitable things, and she applies her hands to the spindle. She opens her hands to the poor and reaches out with her fruit to the needy. Her husband is not anxious about those at home when he spends a long time elsewhere, for all her household are clothed. She makes a double upper garment for her husband and garments of fine linen and purple for herself. Her husband is respected at the gates and when he sits in council with the elders who inhabit the land. She makes and sells fine linens and girdles to the Canaanites. She opens her mouth carefully and lawfully and controls her tongue. She clothes herself with strength and dignity and rejoices in the last days. She runs her household carefully, and she does not eat the bread of idleness. She opens her mouth wisely and lawfully, and her charity raises her children, and they become rich, and her husband praises her, “Many daughters acquire riches; many do mighty things, but you excel and surpass all.” Desires to please are deceitful, and the beauty of a wife is vain; for a wise wife is blessed, and let her in fear praise the Lord. Give to her from the fruits of her hands, and let her husband praise her at the gates. [SAAS]

Pr Κεφ. 3, 11 – 18

My son, do not despise the instruction of the Lord, neither grow weary under His reproof. For whom the Lord loves He instructs, and chastises every son He receives. Blessed is a man who finds wisdom, and a mortal who sees discernment; for the profits gained from wisdom are better than the treasures of gold and silver. And wisdom is more valuable than precious stones, and nothing evil will withstand her; she is well known to all who come near her, and no honor is worthy of her. For length of days and years of life are in her right hand, and in her left hand are riches and glory; righteousness proceeds from her mouth, and she carries law and mercy upon her tongue. Her ways are good ways, and all her paths are in peace. [Wickedness shall never prevail over wisdom.] [SAAS]

The Epistle

For the Holy Woman.

The reading is from Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians.

2 Cor. 4:1 – 12

Brethren, having this ministry as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. We have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways; we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of truth we would commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. [RSV]

The Gospel

For the Holy Woman.

The reading is from the holy Gospel according to John.

Jn. 4:5 – 42

At that time, Jesus came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and so Jesus, wearied as he was with his journey, sat down beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, and his sons, and his cattle?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband; this you said truly.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain; and you say that Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ); when he comes, he will show us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” Just then his disciples came. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but none said, “What do you wish?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” So the woman left her water jar, and went away into the city and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the city and were coming to him. Meanwhile the disciples besought him, saying “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him food?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already white for harvest. He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor; others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.” Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony. “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of your words that we believe, for we have heard ourselves, and we know that this is indeed Christ the Savior of the world.” [RSV]

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Stand for the reading of the Synaxarion.

Synaxarion

From the Menaion.

On February 26, we commemorate our devout father Porphyrios, Bishop of Gaza.

On this day we also commemorate the holy martyr Photini the Samaritan woman with whom Christ spoke at the well, and those with her.

On this day St. Photo, her sister, died by the sword.

On this day St. Photis, another of her sisters, died when she was tied to two trees and split in two.

On this day St. Paraskeve, another of her sisters, died by the sword.

On this day St. Kyriaki, another of her sisters, died by the sword.

On this day the holy martyr Joses, son of St. Photini, died by the sword.

On this day St. Photinos, another of her sons, died by the sword.

On this day St. Sebastian the Duke died by the sword.

The holy new martyr John the craftsman died by the sword in Constantinople in the year 1575.

By the intercessions of Your Saints, O God, have mercy on us. Amen.

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Fasting Rule

Dairy: Dairy, eggs, fish, oil and wine are allowed. Refrain from meat.

It is the third week of the Triodion.