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SUNDAY OF THE MAN BORN BLIND ON SATURDAY EVENING AT SMALL VESPERS At Lord, I have cried we insert 4 Stichera and chant 3 of the Resurrection and one by Anatolios in Tone 5, as at Great Vespers. Glory. Tone 5.O Lord, as you passed by on the way, you found a man blind from birth. Your Disciples were amazed and asked you, saying, ‘Teacher, who has sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ But you, my Saviour, cried out to them, ‘Neither has he sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God might be revealed in him. I must do the works of him who sent me, which none can do’. So saying you spat on the ground, made clay, and anointed his eyes, and said, ‘Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam’. When he had washed he became whole and cried out to you: ‘I believe Lord’. And he worshipped you. Therefore we too cry out: Have mercy on us! Both now. Dogmatic Theotokion. Tone 5.Let us honour the Maiden, revered and worthy of God, in honour higher than the Cherubim, for the Creator of all things, when he wished to become man, made his dwelling ineffably in her, O strange deeds and wondrous mysteries! Who would not be amazed on hearing this, that God becomes man? There was no change in him. He passed through the gates of virginity and no diminution was left in her, as the Prophet says; No man will ever pass through it, except the Lord, the God of Israel, who has great mercy. At the Aposticha, the Resurrection Sticheron. Tone 5. O Christ our Saviour, incarnate, yet not parted from heaven, with sounds of praise we magnify you; for, as the Lord who loves mankind, you accepted Cross and death for the sake of our race; you despoiled the gates of Hell, rose on the third day, and saved our souls. Then the following of the Mother of God Verse: I shall remember your name in every generation and generation.Hail, seal of the Prophets, proclamation of Apostles inspired by God; for beyond understanding and reason you bore the one who is truly God become incarnate for our sake. Having regained our ancient nobility and enjoying the Paradise of delight, in hymns we honour you, O All-holy, as cause of such splendour and as acceptable advocate, we who are enriched with your everlasting entreaty that we may share the life of your Son, who richly apportions his great mercy. Verse: Listen, daughter, and see, and incline your ear; and forget your people and your father’s house.Hail, rational heaven, in which God incarnate made his dwelling; jar of the divine Manna; lamp of the Son; shadowed mountain of God; bridal chamber that contained God; table that provides life; golden lampstand; life-bearing Paradise; bush unburned; ark of sanctification; heavenly ladder; living cloud; rod from Jesse’s root that budded. Implore Christ, O Virgin, to grant our souls his great mercy. Verse: The rich among the people of the land will entreat your favour.Hail, All-unblemished, who conceived the Son of God beyond all explanation, and gave to birth him who had truly taken flesh for our sake from your blood, and had a soul with mind and freewill. For having put on Adam whole and entire, he saved him , refashioning humankind. Therefore Christ is proclaimed by us in two natures, displaying in himself the properties of both. Implore him to grant to those who sing your praise his great mercy. Glory. Both now. Tone 8.Christ our God, spiritual Sun of justice, by your pure touch you enlightened the one who had been deprived of light from his mother’s womb; by shedding your rays on the eyes of our souls, show us to be sons of the day, that we may cry to you with faith, ‘Great and ineffable is your compassion for us. Lover of humankind, glory to you!‘ Resurrection Apolytikion with its Theotokion, as at Great Vespers. AT GREAT VESPERS After Christ has risen, at Lord, I have cried we insert 10 stichera and we sing 7 of the Resurrection and 2 Idiomels of the Blind Man, doubling the first.Resurrection Stichera. Tone 5. Through your precious Cross, O Christ, you have shamed the Devil; and by your Resurrection you have blunted the sting of sin and you have saved us from the gates of Death; we glorify you, Only-begotten. He who gives resurrection to the human race like a sheep was led to the slaughter; the princes of Hades trembled before him, and the gates of pain were lifted up; for Christ, the King of glory had come in, saying to those in chains, ‘Come forth!’ and to those in darkness ‘Reveal yourselves!’ A mighty wonder! The immortal Creator of things invisible, having suffered in the flesh for love of mankind, arose. Come families of the nations and let us worship him; for we, delivered from error by his compassion, have learned to praise one God in three Persons. Stichera by Anatolios. We offer you our evening worship, O light that knows no evening, who at the end of the ages, as in a glass, shone on the world through the flesh and went down as far as Hades; abolished the darkness there and showed the light of the resurrection to the nations. Giver of life, O Lord, glory to you! Let us glorify Christ, the author of our salvation; for by his rising from the dead the world has been saved from error. The Angel choir rejoices, demons’ deception flees, fallen Adam rises, the Devil has been overthrown. The members of the guard were instructed by the transgressors: ‘Conceal Christ’s Rising. Accept money and say: While we slept the body was stolen from the tomb’. Who ever saw, who ever heard of a corpse being stolen? Moreover one embalmed and naked and that also abandoned its grave-clothes in the tomb? Do not be deceived, you Jews; hear the sayings of the Prophets and know that he is truly the redeemer of the world and all-powerful. O Lord, our Saviour, who despoiled Hades and trampled on death; who enlightened the world by your precious Cross, have mercy on us. Idiomel Stichera of the Blind Man. Tone 2. The man born blind reasoned with himself, ‘Was it through my parents’ sin that I was born blind? Or was I born because of the unbelief of the nations as an accusation? I am not competent to ask when it is day, when night. My feet cannot detect the stumbling blocks of the stones. I have not seen the sun shining, nor him who fashioned me in his image. But I beg you, Christ God: Look on me and have mercy on me. ( Twice)The Same Tone. As Jesus was passing by from the temple, he found a man blind from birth, and moved with compassion for him put clay on his eyes and said to him, ‘Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam’. He, having washed, gained his sight and gave glory to God. But his next of kin said to him, ‘Who opened the eyes which none of those with sight could cure?’ But he cried out and said, ‘A man called Jesus, he it was said to me: Wash in the Pool of Siloam; and I gained my sight. He is truly Christ Messias of whom Moses spoke in the Law; he is the Saviour of our souls’. Glory. Tone 5.O Lord, as you passed by on the way, you found a man blind from birth. Your Disciples were amazed and asked you, saying, ‘Teacher, who has sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ But you, my Saviour, cried out to them, ‘Neither has he sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God might be revealed in him. I must do the works of him who sent me, which none can do’. So saying you spat on the ground, made clay, and anointed his eyes, and said, ‘Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam’. When he had washed he became whole and cried out to you, ‘I believe Lord’. And he worshipped you. Therefore we too cry out: Have mercy on us! Both now. Theotokion. Same ToneIn the Red Sea was once depicted an image of the bride who knew not wedlock. There Moses the parter of the waters; here Gabriel the servant of the wonder. Then Israel marched dry-shod through the deep; now the Virgin has given birth to Christ without seed. The Sea after the passage of Israel remained untrodden; the Blameless after bearing Emmanuel, remained incorrupt. O God, who exist and pre-exist, and who appeared as a man, have mercy on us. At the Liti the Sticheron of the Saint of the Monastery. Considering his whole life to be night, the Blind man cried out to you, O Lord: ‘Open my pupils, Son of David, our Saviour, that with all I too may hymn your power’. Both now. Theotokion. The same Tone.Assent to the supplications of your servants, O Most Pure, by ending the assaults of our dangers and delivering us from every tribulation: for we have you as our only safe and sure anchor and we have gained your protection; may we who call for your aid, Sovereign Lady, not be put to shame; hasten to the entreaties of those who cry out to you in faith: Hail Sovereign Lady, the help of all, the joy and protection and salvation of our souls. At the Aposticha, Resurrection Sticheron. O Christ our Saviour, incarnate, yet not parted from heaven, with sounds of praise we magnify you; for, as the Lord who loves mankind, you accepted Cross and death for the sake of our race; you despoiled the gates of Hell, rose on the third day, and saved our souls. Then the Easter Stichera with their verses. Verse: Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered: and let those that hate him flee before his face.A sacred Pascha has been shown forth to us to-day, a new and holy Pascha, a mystic Pascha, an all-venerable Pascha, a Pascha that is Christ the Redeemer, a spotless Pascha, a Pascha of the faithful, a Pascha that has opened to us the gates of Paradise, a Pascha that hallows all the faithful. Verse: As smoke vanishes, so let them vanish: as wax melts before the fire.Come from the scene, O women bearers of good tidings, and say to Zion: Receive from us the tidings of joy, of the Resurrection of Christ. Exult, dance and be glad, O Jerusalem, for you have seen Christ the King as a bridegroom come forth from the tomb. Verse: So let sinners perish at the presence of God: and let the righteous be glad.The Myrrhbearing women at early dawn came near the tomb of the Giver of life; they found an Angel sitting on the stone, and he, addressing them in this manner, said, ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead? Why do you mourn the Incorruptible amid corruption? Go, proclaim it to his Disciples!’ Verse: This is the day that the Lord has made: let us be glad and rejoice in it.A Pascha of delight, Pascha, the Lord’s Pascha, an all-venerable Pascha has dawned for us, a Pascha on which let us embrace one another with joy. O Pascha, ransom from sorrow! To-day Christ has shone forth from the tomb as from a bridal chamber, and has filled the women with joy, saying: Proclaim it to the Apostles. Glory. Tone 8.Christ our God, spiritual Sun of justice, by your pure touch you enlightened the one who had been deprived of light from his mother’s womb; by shedding your rays on the eyes of our souls, show us to be sons of the day, that we may cry to you with faith, ‘Great and ineffable is your compassion for us. Lover of humankind, glory to you!‘ Both now. Tone 5. It is the day of Resurrection; let us be radiant for the festival, and let us embrace one another. Let us say, O brethren, even to those who hate us: let us forgive all things at the Resurrection, and so let us cry: Christ has risen from the dead; by death he has trampled on death, and to those in the graves given life. Resurrection Apolytikion. Model Melody. Tone 5. Let us believers praise and let us worship the Word who like the Father and the Spirit is without beginning, born from a Virgin for our salvation; for he was well pleased to ascend the Cross in the flesh and undergo death, and to raise those who had died, by his glorious Resurrection. Theotokion. Hail gate of the Lord, through which none may pass; hail wall and protection of those who flee to you; hail haven without storms, and who did not know wedlock; who bore in the flesh your maker and God. Do not cease to intercede for those who praise and worship your offspring. Dismissal. |
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