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Canon by Kyr Kosmas, of which the Acrostic is: Ode 1. Tone 1. Irmos. Your sacred and renowned memorial, embroidered, O Virgin, with divine glory, has brought all the faithful together for joy and led by Miriam with dances and timbrels they sing to your Only-begotten Son, for he has been glorified. Troparia A host of the immaterial dwellers in heaven was attending your godlike body in Sion; while suddenly the multitude of the Apostles, streaming together from the ends of the earth, stood beside you all at once, Mother of God; with them, immaculate Virgin, we glorify your august memory. You have carried off prizes of victory against nature, Pure Virgin, in bearing God; yet, imitating your Maker and Son, beyond nature you submit to nature’s laws; and so dying, you rise with your Son and live forever. Ode 3. Irmos. O Christ, the Wisdom and Power of God, which creates and upholds all, establish the Church unshaken and unwavering; for you alone are holy, who have your resting place among the Saints. Troparia Knowing you, All-blameless, to be a mortal woman, but beyond nature Mother of God, with fearful hands the illustrious Apostles touched you, as you blazed with glory, gazing on you as the Tabernacle that had received God. Just punishment intervened to cut off the sacrilegious hands of the presumptuous, for God guarded with the glory of the godhead the reverence due to the living Ark, in which the Word had become flesh. Ode 4. Irmos. The sayings and riddles of the Prophets foreshadowed your incarnation from a Virgin, O Christ, even the brightness of your lightning, which would come as a light for the nations; and the deep calls to you with joy: Glory to your power, O Lover of mankind. Troparia See, you peoples, and marvel; for the holy and most manifest mountain of God is being lifted up far above the hills of heaven, as the earthly heaven makes her dwelling in a heavenly and incorruptible land. Death has become for you, pure Virgin, a crossing to an eternal and better life, translating you from one which perishes to one which is truly divine and without change, to gaze in joy upon your Son and Lord. The gates of heaven were lifted up, the Angels sang in praise and Christ received the virgin treasure of his own Mother. Cherubim withdrew before you with gladness and Seraphim glorify you with joy. Ode 5. Irmos. I shall expound the divine and ineffable beauty of your virtues, O Christ; for you shone out from the eternal glory as the empersonned and eternal brightness, and taking flesh, and incarnate from a virgin womb, for those in darkness and in shadow you dawned as the sun’. Troparia Riding as though upon a cloud, the company of the Apostles was being gathered to Sion from the ends of the earth to minister, O Virgin, to you, the light cloud, from which God the Most High, the Sun of righteousness had shone for those in darkness. The inspired tongues of men who were theologians, resonant with the Spirit, cried out more loudly than trumpets the burial hymn for the Mother of God: Hail, unsullied source of God’s incarnation, origin of life and salvation for all. Ode 6. Irmos. The fire within the whale, the monster dwelling in the sea, was a prefiguring of your three-day burial; and Jonas acted as interpreter, for saved and unharmed, as though he had never been swallowed, he cried aloud: I will sacrifice to you with a voice of praise, O Lord! Troparia The Suzerain and God of all apportions to you the things above nature; for just as he kept you a Virgin in your giving birth, so he preserved your body incorrupt in the tomb, and he glorified you with him by a divine Translation, gracing you with honours, as a Son his Mother. Your Offspring, O Virgin, has truly made you dwell in the Holy of Holies as shining Lampstand of the immaterial fire, golden Censer of the divine coal, Jar and Rod and Tablet written by God, holy Ark and Table of the bread of life. Ode 7. Irmos. Fighting against cruel wrath and fire, love divine quenched the fire with dew, and laughed the wrath to scorn, making the three-stringed lyre of the Saints, inspired by God, sing in the midst of the ame, in answer to the instruments of music: Blessed are you, most glorious God, our God and the God of our fathers. Troparia In wrath Moses smashed the tablets made by God, written by the divine Spirit; but his Master having kept her who gave him birth unharmed for heavenly abodes, has now made her dwell in them. As with her we leap for joy, we cry to Christ: Blessed are you, most glorious God, our God and the God of our fathers. With cymbals of pure lips and the harmonious harp of the heart, with the well-sounding trumpet of an uplifted mind, as we clap with active hands, we cry on this auspicious and chosen day of the translation of the pure Virgin: Blessed are you, most glorious God, our God and the God of our fathers. The people inspired by God has gathered; for the Tabernacle of God’s glory is being translated in Sion to a heavenly abode, where there is the pure sound of those who feast, the voice of ineffable joy of those who cry with gladness to Christ: Blessed are you, most glorious God, our God and the God of our fathers. Ode 8. Irmos. The all-powerful Angel of God revealed to the Youths a flame that brought refreshment to the Holy, but consumed the ungodly; while he made the Mother of God a spring, source of life, gushing forth the destruction of death, but life for those who sing: We who have been delivered praise the only Creator, and highly exalt him to all the ages. Troparia The whole multitude of the Divines accompanied the Ark of God in Sion with words, as they cried: Where do you now depart, Tabernacle of the living God? Do not cease to watch over those who sing: We who have been delivered praise the only Creator, and highly exalt him to all the ages. As she departed the All-blameless lifted up her hands, which had held God incarnate in their embrace, and she said with a Mother’s boldness to the One whom she had borne: Those whom you have made mine keep unto the ages, as they cry to you: We who have been delivered praise the only Creator, and highly exalt him to all the ages. Ode 9. Megalynarion, which is sung before each Troparion of the following Ode: All generations call you blessed, the only Mother of God. Irmos. In you, O Virgin without spot, the bounds of nature have been overcome; for childbirth remains virgin, and death is betrothed to life; Virgin after bearing child, and alive after death, O Mother of God, may you ever save your inheritance. The angelic Powers were amazed as they looked in Sion on their own Master bearing in his hands the soul of a woman; for as befitted a Son he was saying to the one who gave him birth without spot: Come, honoured Lady, be glorified with your Son and God. The choir of the Apostles shrouded your Body, which had received God, as they looked with awe and addressed you with clear voice: As you depart into heavenly bridal chambers to your Son, may you ever save your inheritance.
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