Tuesday 3rd March 2026
Lenten Fast: strict fast
Today we commemorate:
Holy Martyr Eutropius of Amasea, and with him Martyrs Cleonicu, Basiliscus, Zeno and Zoilus (c.308). Hieromartyr Theodoretus, priest of Antioch (363).
British Isles and Ireland:
St. Nonna (Non), mother of St. David of Wales (6th C). St. Winwaloe, abbot (6th C). St. Foila of Kilfaile (6th C). St. Sacer, abbot of Saggard, Dublin (7th C). St. Cele-Christ, hermit and bishop (c.728). St. Lamalisse, hermit of Arran (7th C).
Isaiah 5:7-16; Genesis 4:8-15; Proverbs 5:1-15
Isaiah 5:7-16
The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the man of Judah his beloved young plant. I waited for him to produce justice, but he produced lawlessness; there was no righteousness, only a cry. Alas for those who add house to house and merge field with field to take what is their neighbour’s. Would you want to live alone in the land? These things have come to the ears of the Lord of hosts. Though many large and beautiful houses may appear, they will be deserted because there will be no one to live in them. Where ten yoke of oxen are at work the yield will be one jar, and the one who sows six bushels will produce but three measures. Alas for those who rise early in the morning to go after intoxicating drink and continue until evening. The wine will inflame them. For with lyre and harp, drums and pipes, they drink their wine, but they disregard the works of the Lord and give no thought to the works of his hands. My people have therefore become captive, for they do not know the Lord. They have become a multitude of corpses because of famine and drought. Hades has become glutted; it opens its mouth continually, and those of repute and the mighty and the wealthy will fall into it with her accursed. A person will be humiliated, a man will be dishonoured, and uplifted eyes will be lowered. But the Lord of hosts will be exalted in judgement, and the Holy God will be glorified in righteousness.
Genesis 4:8-15
Cain said to his brother Abel, ‘Let us go out into open country,’ and when they were in the open country Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. The Lord God said to Cain, ‘Where is your brother Abel?’ And he answered, ‘I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?’ And the Lord said, ‘What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to me from the earth. Now you are cursed from the earth that has opened her mouth to receive your brother’s blood at your hand. When you till, the earth will not continue to give you her strength. You will be groaning and trembling upon the earth.’ And Cain said to the Lord God, ‘My guilt is too great for me to be forgiven. If you banish me today from the face of the earth, I shall be hidden from your presence and I shall be groaning and trembling on the earth, and anyone who finds me will kill me.’ But the Lord God said to him, ‘Not so. Anyone who kills Cain will let loose vengeance sevenfold.’ And the Lord God gave Cain a mark so that no one who found him would kill him.
Proverbs 5:1-15
My son, pay attention to my wisdom and bend your ear to my words, so that you may preserve a good disposition. I charge you with the perception of my lips to pay no heed to a worthless woman. For honey drips from the lips of a harlot who, for a while, pleases your palate, but later you will find her more bitter than gall and sharper than a two-edged sword. Foolish feet lead those who make use of her down to death, to Hades, for her footsteps are not firmly fixed. She does not come by the paths of life, but her ways are slippery and unknown. So now, son, listen to me, and do not make my words of no effect. Make your path far from hers. Do not go near the door of her house, so that you do not give away your life to others or your substance to those without mercy, so that strangers are not filled with your strength or your labours spent on the houses of strangers. You will finally repent when the flesh of your body is utterly consumed, and you will say, ‘How I hated instruction and how my heart avoided reproof. I would not listen to the voice of my instructor, nor would I bend my ear to my teacher. I was on the edge of every evil among the congregation and the assembly.’ Drink water from your own vessels and from the issue of your wells.
The text and chapter and verse references of the Old Testament readings are those of the Septuagint