Day 1 (Monday)
Proverbs 4:1-27
This reading and reflection marks the beginning of the third year of the Religious Education Initiative. Each week, we will provide three readings for the parish. Everyone is urged to participate; families should participate together, reading the selections Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (or three other days/times, if they work better). Anyone can take the lead, but we recommend that the father and mother in each household do so, and, since fathers often get left out of religious matters in the home, because of their other responsibilities and obligations outside of the home, we strongly recommend that each household take this opportunity to shift that balance in the other direction. The most important thing is for the family to do these readings and reflections as an entire and whole family, all together, but wherever possible, it is worthwhile for the father to take the lead in this initiative, either reading the selection and guiding the discussion himself, or delegating the reading to someone else.
As we begin the new Church year, then, we will start with another selection from the book of Proverbs. In this passage, the writer of Proverbs urges his children (and by extension all of us) to attend to his teaching, explaining how much depends on parents' faithful instruction of their children, and on the faithful reception of that instruction by those children. We pray that this reading will remind us all of the sacred responsibilities placed in our hands, and that we will run with patience and faithfulness the race that is set before us, not just this year, but over our entire lives.
Parental Advice
4 Listen, children, to a father’s instruction,
and be attentive, that you may gain insight;
2 for I give you good precepts:
do not forsake my teaching.
3 When I was a son with my father,
tender, and my mother’s favorite,
4 he taught me, and said to me,
“Let your heart hold fast my words;
keep my commandments, and live.
5 Get wisdom; get insight: do not forget, nor turn away
from the words of my mouth.
6 Do not forsake her, and she will keep you;
love her, and she will guard you.
7 The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom,
and whatever else you get, get insight.
8 Prize her highly, and she will exalt you;
she will honor you if you embrace her.
9 She will place on your head a fair garland;
she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.”
Admonition to Keep to the Right Path
10 Hear, my child, and accept my words,
that the years of your life may be many.
11 I have taught you the way of wisdom;
I have led you in the paths of uprightness.
12 When you walk, your step will not be hampered;
and if you run, you will not stumble.
13 Keep hold of instruction; do not let go;
guard her, for she is your life.
14 Do not enter the path of the wicked,
and do not walk in the way of evildoers.
15 Avoid it; do not go on it;
turn away from it and pass on.
16 For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong;
they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.
17 For they eat the bread of wickedness
and drink the wine of violence.
18 But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
which shines brighter and brighter until full day.
19 The way of the wicked is like deep darkness;
they do not know what they stumble over.
20 My child, be attentive to my words;
incline your ear to my sayings.
21 Do not let them escape from your sight;
keep them within your heart.
22 For they are life to those who find them,
and healing to all their flesh.
23 Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
24 Put away from you crooked speech,
and put devious talk far from you.
25 Let your eyes look directly forward,
and your gaze be straight before you.
26 Keep straight the path of your feet,
and all your ways will be sure.
27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left;
turn your foot away from evil.
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (Leader should note both what is being warned against, what is being advised, and what is being promised: what we should avoid, what we should do, and what we will receive if we do these things. In summary, we are being warned to reject what is evil and to hold fast to what is wholesome, and are promised that we will be blessed if we walk in faithfulness, and wretched and lost if we do not.)
2) Where do we see Christ in this text; what is He saying or doing here?
3) Do we see ourselves and the Church in this text; what does it say about us?
4) What do you find difficult about this reading? Is there anything confusing about it, or anything that you dislike? (This is an open question, as always. )
5) Does this reading make you think that you need to change anything in your life?
Day 2 (Wednesday)
Feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos
As we begin the new Church Year, we always make a start with the celebration of the feast of the Birth of the Theotokos, the Mother of God. This is unsurprising, as her birth marks the formal beginning of the Lord’s work of His Incarnation, with the fulfillment of the many promises and hopes of the people of the Covenant, who (at least when they were being faithful) had held sacred above all their responsibility to their children, to convey to them the things that the Lord had done for Israel, and what purpose He had for them. For she herself is precisely the fulfillment of that purpose, as she is the one who is truly the vessel of the Lord’s entrance into the world. As we celebrate this great feast, we will take the occasion, then, to read together some of the significant hymns of the Feast.
2nd Hymn of the Kekragaria
This is the Lord's Day, O people, be filled with gladness! Behold! The bridal chamber of the Light and the book of the Word of Life has come forth from the womb. The Temple Gate that faces east has been born, and she awaits the entry of the Great High Priest. She alone introduces the only Christ to the world, for the salvation of our souls.
Doxastikon of the Kekragaria
Today, God who rests upon the noetic thrones has prepared a holy throne for Himself upon the earth. He who established the heavens in wisdom has prepared an animate heaven, in His love for mankind; from a fruitless root, He raised for us a life-bearing plant, His Mother. God of wonders and the hope of the hopeless, Lord, glory to You.
3rd Hymn of the Aposticha
Today let the barren and childless Anna ⁄ clap her hands with splendor! ⁄ Let those on earth bear lamps; kings leap for joy; ⁄ let bishops be glad in blessing! ⁄ Let the whole world keep the feast! ⁄ For behold the Queen, the immaculate Bride of the Father, ⁄ has come from the root of Jesse. ⁄ No longer will women bear children in grief, ⁄ for joy has blossomed forth ⁄ and life lives in the world for all! ⁄ No longer will the offerings of Joachim be rejected ⁄ for the lamentation of Anna has been changed to joy! ⁄ She cries: Rejoice with me, chosen Israel! ⁄ For behold the Lord has given me the living palace of His divine glory ⁄ for our common gladness and joy ⁄⁄ and for the salvation of our souls!
Hymn from Ode 4 of the Canon of the Feast
Let us, the faithful, in songs and hymns ⁄ glorify the all-holy birth of the Theotokos! ⁄ Let us worship with faith the God Who never lies, ⁄ and Who swore of old to David to give him the fruit of his body.
Hymn from Ode 4 of the Canon of the Feast
The prophesies of those inspired by God ⁄ are now fulfilled in your birth, undefiled One: ⁄ those who in their faith called you the tabernacle and Gate, ⁄ spiritual mountain, bush, and the rod of Aaron ⁄ sprung from the root of David!
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (Leader should note that the birth of the Virgin Mary is celebrated as the fulfillment of many prophecies, promises, and signs in the Old Testament, and also as the entrance of heaven into the earth, with the Virgin Mary herself prepared as the glorious throne of God. It is worth noting that this combination of themes is also seen in our iconography, with the Virgin Mary in the apse as the ladder connecting heaven with the earth. That the apse and dome are so often surrounded with icons of both the Old Covenant and the New (the Church) is just another reflection on this same reality, that the God Who made Himself known in a veil and a shadow to the Hebrew people in the Old Testament comes to us now in truth, in the flesh He has assumed from the Virgin. )
2) Where do we see Christ in this text; what is He saying or doing here?
3) Do we see ourselves and the Church in this text; what does it say about us?
4) What do you find difficult about this reading? Is there anything confusing about it, or anything that you dislike? (This is an open question, as always. )
5) Does this reading make you think that you need to change anything in your life?
Day 3 (Friday)
Matthew 1:1-17
In Year 3 of the REI, we will read the Gospel according to Matthew. This Gospel is similar in its content to the Gospels of Mark and Luke, giving somewhat less historical detail than Luke, but much more of Jesus’ actual preaching than Mark provides. One particular concern of St. Matthew is the connection of what the Lord did with the prophecies in the Old Testament that He fulfilled, and we will see these prophecies referenced time and again. He begins his Gospel account by providing a genealogy of the Lord, going back to Abraham.
The Genealogy of Jesus the Messiah
1 An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, 4 and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of King David.
And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7 and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, 8 and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15 and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.
17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.
Discussion questions:
1) What did you notice in today’s reading? What surprised you or what was memorable to you? (The Leader should note first that Matthew, in tracing the Lord’s genealogy back to Abraham, is therefore clearly showing Jesus as the child of promise, the fulfillment of the Lord’s oath to Abraham that in him all the nations of the world would be blessed. Second, it is worth noting the strange emphasis on the three sets of 14 generations. There is nothing obvious or clear about this, but one suggestion is that 3 sets of 14 is also six sets of seven, and six sets of seven makes a work week of sevens, after which one would expect a Sabbath, a completion of the work, a day of rest, or perhaps even a New Creation. This is, perhaps, what Matthew is getting at, particularly as the next portion of the chapter shows Jesus prophesied as Emmanuel, God with Us, bringing the fulfilment and completion of the promise at the end of this work week of generational sevens.)
2) Where do we see Christ in this text; what is He saying or doing here?
3) Do we see ourselves and the Church in this text; what does it say about us?
4) What do you find difficult about this reading? Is there anything confusing about it, or anything that you dislike? (This is an open question, as always. )
5) Does this reading make you think that you need to change anything in your life?