Saturday Evening

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PERIOD OF TONE 3

ON SATURDAY EVENING

AT SMALL VESPERS

At Lord, I have cried… we insert 4 Stichera, and sing the 3 Resurrection Stichera from the Oktoichos, doubling the 1st. Glory…, Both now… and the following Theotokion, the Dogmatic.

Tone 3.

Greatest wonder: a Virgin gives birth, and that which was born is God before the ages. Manifest the giving birth, that which was accomplished was beyond nature. O fearsome Mystery! What was apprehended remains ineffable, and that which was contemplated is not understood. Blessed are you, most pure Maiden, daughter of Adam the earthborn, and manifested as Mother of God Most High. Implore him that our souls may be saved.

Then O Joyful Light… and the Prokeimenon The Lord is King… with its verses. After Grant, Lord… etc., we sing the first Resurrection Sticheron of the Aposticha and the following Prosomia of the Mother of God.

Tone 3.

Verse: I shall remember your name in every generation and generation.

Pure Virgin, we know you to be the spiritual Ark that bears the Tables written by God, for us the Lawgiver and Creator. Intercede with him that our souls may be saved.

Verse: Listen, daughter, and see, and incline your ear; and forget your people and your father’s house.

God the Word, by nature beyond contemplation, who dwelt in your womb and took on flesh, revealed you to be Heaven upon earth, pure Virgin. And you, who knew not wedlock, rain down upon all an immortal dew.

Verse: The rich among the people of the land will entreat your favour.

By your intercessions we have gained salvation, because through them, O Virgin, we ever escape from dangers and the squall of temptations. And so we ask, do not cease to intercede for us, that our souls may be saved.

Glory. Both now. Theotokion.

Through you, Mary most pure, we know refashioning and a second life for human nature: the Creator of creation who was kneaded in your womb and who raised us up from Hades and form death and has granted us eternal life to cry out to you, Ever-virgin; ‘Hail, who joined together things below with those of heaven. Hail, the hope of all the ends of the earth, protection and assistance. Hail, who by the Resurrection of your Son make radiant the universe and grant the world his great mercy’.

Now Master, Trisagion etc. and the Resurrection Apolytikion.

And the Dismissal.

AT GREAT VESPERS

After the Opening Psalm and the first Kathisma of the Psalter, at Lord I have cried…, we insert 10 Stichera, and we sing 7 Resurrection Stichera and 3 of the Saint of the day, or 4 and 6 if the Saint is ‘feasted’.

Resurrection Stichera. Tone 3.

By your Cross, Christ Saviour, death’s might has been abolished, the devil’s deception destroyed, while the human race, saved by faith, each evening offers you its hymn.

By your Resurrection, Lord, the universe has been filled with light and Paradise has been opened again, while all creation as it sings your praise, each evening offers you its hymn.

I glorify the power of the Father and the Son, and I praise the authority of the Holy Spirit, undivided, uncreated Godhead, consubstantial Trinity, that reigns from age to age.

Other Stichera, by Anatolios.

We worship your precious Cross, O Christ, and we praise and glorify your Resurrection, for by your stripes we have all been healed.

We praise the Saviour who took flesh from the Virgin; for he was crucified for us and rose on the third day, granting us his great mercy.

Going down to those in Hell, Christ proclaimed the good tidings, saying, ‘Be of good courage; now have I conquered! I am the Resurrection; I will bring you up, abolishing the gates of death’.

We who stand unworthily in your most pure house sing an evening hymn, as we cry out of the depths, ‘Christ God, who enlightened the world by your Resurrection on the third day, deliver your people from the hand of your foes, O Lover of mankind’.

Glory. Both now. Theotokion.

How should we not marvel at your Offspring, who is both God and man, all-honoured one? For without knowing man, O all-blameless, you gave birth in the flesh to a Son without father, begotten from the Father before the ages without mother, in no way undergoing change, or mixture or separation, but preserving intact the identity of either nature. Therefore, Sovereign Lady, Virgin Mother, implore him that the souls may be saved of those who with right belief acknowledge you as Mother of God.

After the Entrance and O Joyful Light…, the designated Monk makes a metania to the Superior and sings the Prokeimenon of the day.

The Lord is King: * he has robed himself in majesty

Verse 1: The Lord has robed and girded himself with power.

Verse 2: He has made the world firm; it will not be shaken.

Then the usual Litany, Grant Lord… etc. and after the Ekphonesis we sing the idiomel Sticheron of the Saint of the Monastery as we process into the Narthex. After the usual prayers we return to the Church singing the

Resurrection Aposticha. Tone 3.

By your passion, O Christ, you darkened the sun, and by the light of your Resurrection you made the whole universe radiant. Accept our evening hymn, O Lover of humankind.

In Alphabetical Order.

Verse 1: The Lord is King: he has robed himself in majesty. The Lord has robed and girded himself with power.

Gracious Lord, your Rising that received life has enlightened the world, and recalled your own fashioning which had become corrupt. And so, delivered from Adam’s curse, we cry, ‘All-powerful Lord, glory to you!’

Verse 2: He has made the world firm; it will not be shaken.

Howbeit that as God you are unchanging, yet by suffering in the flesh you changed. Creation, unable to bear seeing you hanging on a cross, was shaken with fear, and it groaned as it sang the praise of your long-suffering; but having descended into Hell, you arose on the third day, granting life to the world and your great mercy.

Verse 3: Holiness befits your house, O Lord, to length of days.

In order to ransom our race from death, O Christ, you underwent death; and rising on the third day from the dead you raised with yourself those who acknowledged you as God, and you enlightened the world. Lord, glory to you!

Glory. Both now. Theotokion.

By the Father’s will, without seed you conceived from the divine Spirit the Son of God, who from before the ages is from the Father without mother. But you gave birth in the flesh and suckled as a babe him who for our sake had come from you without father. Therefore do not cease to intercede that our souls may be delivered from dangers.

Apolytikion.

Let everything in heaven rejoice, let everything on earth be glad, for the Lord has shown strength with his arm; by death he has trampled on death; he has become the first-born of the dead; from the bowels of Hades he has delivered us; and granted the world his great mercy.

Theotokion.

Virgin Mother of God, we praise you as the means of the salvation of our race; for your Son and our God, who through the Cross accepted suffering in the flesh he had taken from you, has redeemed us from corruption, for he loves mankind.

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This page was last updated on 10 February 2001