Our venerable father and confessor Procopius the Decapolite lived during the eighth century in the region of Decapolis, to the east of Lake Galilee. There he labored for his salvation, struggling in asceticism. St. Procopius, his fellow ascetic St. Basil, and others zealous for holy Orthodoxy rose up against the Iconoclast heresy of those times. By order of the emperor Leo the Isaurian, St. Procopius was arrested, subjected to a fierce scourging and thrown into prison. Here he languished together with St. Basil until the death of the oppressive emperor, after which the holy confessors were set free. St. Procopius lived the rest of his life in peace, guiding many on the way of virtue and salvation.
Your abundant tears made the wilderness bloom, and your suffering made your labors fruitful a hundredfold; you became a shining torch over the world. O venerable father Procopius, pray to Christ our God that He may save our souls.
Today the church acknowledges you as a star before dawn, dispelling the darkness of error. Therefore, she honors you, O glorious Procopius, as one who contemplates heaven.
When Noah was five hundred years old, he begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
When human beings began to grow numerous on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw how beautiful the daughters of human beings were, and so they took for their wives whomever they pleased. Then the Lord said: My spirit shall not remain in human beings forever, because they are only flesh. Their days shall comprise one hundred and twenty years.
The Nephilim appeared on earth in those days, as well as later, after the sons of God had intercourse with the daughters of human beings, who bore them sons. They were the heroes of old, the men renown.
When the Lord saw how great the wickedness of human beings was on earth, and how every desire that their heart conceived was always nothing but evil, the Lord regretted making human beings on the earth, and his heart was grieved.
So the Lord said: I will wipe out from the earth the human beings I have created, and not only the human beings, but also the animals and the crawling things and the birds of the air, for I regret that I made them. But Noah found favor with the Lord.
Observe, my son, your father’s command, and do not reject your mother’s teaching;
Keep them fastened over your heart always, tie them around your neck.
When you lie down they will watch over you, when you wake, they will share your concerns; wherever you turn, they will guide you.
For the command is a lamp, and the teaching a light, and a way to life are the reproofs that discipline,
Keeping you from another’s wife, from the smooth tongue of a foreign woman.
Do not lust in your heart after her beauty, do not let her captivate you with her glance!
For the price of a harlot may be scarcely a loaf of bread, but a married woman is a trap for your precious life.
Can a man take embers into his bosom, and his garments not be burned?
Or can a man walk in live coals, and his feet not be scorched?
So with him who sleeps with another’s wife– none who touches her shall go unpunished.
Thieves are not despised if out of hunger they steak to satisfy their appetite.
Yet if caught they must pay back sevenfold, yield up all the wealth of their house.
But those who commit adultery have no sense; those who do it destroy themselves.
They will be beaten and disgraced, and their shame will not be wiped away;
For passion enraged the husband, he will have no pity on the day of vengeance;
He will not consider any restitution, nor be satisfied by your many bribes.
My son, keep my words, and treasure my commands.
Icon courtesy of Jack Figel, Eastern Christian Publications – ecpubs.com
Thursday, February 26 –
