Tax Collector and Pharisee

After the Opening Psalm we read Blessed is the man (the first Kathisma of the Psalter). At Lord, I have cried, we insert 10 Stichera: 7 of the Resurrection in the Tone of the week from the Octoichos, and the following Idiomels from the Triodion, doubling the first.

Brethren, let us not pray like the Pharisee, for those who exalt themselves will be humbled. Let us be humbled before God through fasting like the Tax Collector, as we cry aloud, ‘God forgive[1] us sinners’.[2] (Twice)

A Pharisee, conquered by vainglory, and a Tax Collector, bowed down in repentance, drew near to you, the only Master. The one by boasting was deprived of God’s good things, while the other by not uttering was found worthy of gifts. Strengthen me[3] by these sighs of sorrow, Christ our God, for you love humankind.

Almighty Lord, I know how powerful tears are. They brought Ezekias up from the gates of death.[4] They delivered the sinful woman from the transgressions of many years.[5] They justified the Tax Collector above the Pharisee. And so I pray, ‘Numbering me with them with them, have mercy on me’.

The 1st Theotokion in the Tone of the week from the Octoichos, followed by the Entrance, O Joyful Light, and the Prokeimenon of the day, The Lord is King.

Understanding the difference between the Tax Collector and the Pharisee, my soul, hate the proud speech of the one, and eagerly imitate the deeply contrite prayer of the other, crying aloud, ‘God forgive me a sinner and have mercy on me’.[6]

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 humankind.][7]

My eyes have been weighed down through my iniquities, and I am unable to look up and gaze on the height of heaven. But receive me, O Saviour, as I repent like the Tax Collector, and have mercy on me.

You are temple and gate, palace and throne of the King, all-honoured Virgin. Through you, my Redeemer, Christ the Lord, appeared to those who sat in darkness, for he is the Sun of justice, who wishes to enlighten those whom he fashioned in his own image by his own hand. Therefore, O All-praised, as you have a mother’s freedom to speak with him, intercede unceasingly that our souls may be saved.

[If Vespers are celebrated on their own, Apolytikion of the Resurrection and Theotokion in the Tone of the week].

Note that we chant the Office of the Saint of the day at Compline on the preceding Friday, or when the Ecclesiarch thinks fitting, unless the commemoration of a major saint occurs.

[1] See note 6, below.

[2] Luke 18:10-14.

[3] Psa. 50:14

[4] 2 Reigns 20:1-6

[5] Luke 7:36-50

[6] The translation of the last two clauses is a problem. The first is a quotation from the parable, which is almost always translated ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner’; the second is the extremely common prayer ‘Have mercy on me’, eleison me. The prayer in the Gospel could equally well be rendered ‘Be gracious to me’, or ‘forgive me’. The familiar prayer to the Holy Trinity, ‘All-holy Trinity, have mercy on us. Lord, wipe away our sins’ is not from this passage, but from Psalm 78:9, where the Septuagint is translating the Hebrew kipper, which probably means ‘wipe away’, though some scholars believe it means ‘cover’. The former meaning explains the Slavonic translation. The Greek verb is extremely rare in the Bible, occurring about a dozen times in the Old and only twice in the New Testament.

[7] Unlike the Slavonic, the current Greek Triodion makes no special provision for the Liti. The Slavonic books give the third Idiomel in Tone 3 from Lauds as the Doxastikon and the Resurrection Theotokion in the same Tone.