An Irish Welcome

Céad Míle Fáilte friend and rover ...
Wherever you come from and whosoever you may be.
That's an Irish greeting and it means

you are welcome
a thousand times over.
Showing posts with label Great Lent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Great Lent. Show all posts

Thursday, February 18, 2010

deemed a Mother in truth

The "Theotokions" in the Service of Matins, Sunday 21 February.



All surpassing every thought,
all surpassing glorious,
O Mother of God,
are your mysteries.

For while bearing the seal of purity and preserved in virginity,
you were deemed a Mother in truth, for to the true God you gave birth.

To Him pray fervently, entreating that our souls be saved.
 

O Theotokos, through you became manifest to us on earth the mystery, which was hid from eternity, and which the Angels themselves knew not: that God, uniting natures without confusion, becomes a man and accepts crucifixion for our salvation voluntarily. By virtue of this, resurrecting man whom He had first created, He saved our souls from death.



O pure Maiden, all the hosts of
holy angels were amazed at the awesome
mystery of your pregnancy and
birth, how He whose simple command
holds all things together is held
in your embrace as a mortal babe, the
pre‐eternal Word accepts an origin,
and He is nursed who nourishes the
whole world in His ineffable kindness.
And they extol you and glorify
you who are truly Godʹs Mother.

You are supremely blessed, O Virgin Theotokos.


For through Him who from you became incarnate, was Hades taken prisoner, and Adam has been
summoned back, and the curse has been neutralized, and Eve has been liberated; death has been put to death, and we have been brought to life. Therefore extolling we cry out:


O Christ our God, You are blessed, for so was Your good pleasure.

Glory to You.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Enlighten me Christ ...

Thursday night Vesper prayers:

I have been darkened by the devil's deceits, my Christ.

Enlighten me, enlightener of the faithful,


Who darkened the sun as you hung upon the cross,
Granting deliverance,
So that as I walk in the light of your precepts
I may see purely the saving rays of your resurrection!
Hanging as a vine upon the tree, Savior,
You satisfied the earth with the wine of incorruption.
Therefore, I cry to you:
I have been drunk always and darkened with sinfulness.
Satisfy me with the true sweet drink of compunction,
And strengthen me now through abstinence from pleasures
My gracious Savior and lover of mankind!

Great are the wonders of the cross!

It planted abstinence firmly in the church.
And uprooted adam's lack of it in paradise.
One tree in eden brought death to man,
But another on Golgotha granted eternal life to the world.

The cross is the fountain of paradise

Which released your life-bearing blood and water.

By your cross, gladden our lenten joy,
God of Israel who possess great mercy.



-- From the Triodion First Week of Lent Thursday Vespers.