Dear brothers and sisters, a blessed and joyful feast of the Hawaiian-Iveron Icon of the Mother of God.
It was lovely to have the chance to tell the children about the icon whilst Father Mark the Younger prepared the chalice for Holy Communion – especially as we anticipate the icon’s November visit to South Wales and Wessex.
It was a joy and relief to have Father Mark the Younger back after last weekend’s throat problems.
As you may know, I also concelebrated in Bournville with Father Nenad, in Lazarica, this weekend, with the Divine Liturgy and parastas for the departed yesterday morning.
I greatly enjoyed spending time with the youth of the community, and answering their questions and sharing some perspectives on our Orthodox spiritual life. I was also able to discus some parish matters with Fr Nenad – this being a major reason for my visit. Thanks to everyone for such warmth and kindness!
We will return to Bournville for our parish pilgrimage on Saturday 26th October.
If you are able to offer free places in your car, please let Tracy know, and we will ensure that as many as possible enjoy the blessing of the visit, during which I am particularly keen for our young people to meet their peers in Bournville.
Despite the half-marathon and our brothers on the Holy Mountain, our Liturgy was pretty well attended, and it was good to welcome back our recent visitors and share not only Liturgy, but trapéza with them.
As we try to economise a little, due to the considerable rise in rent, we set 15:00 as the end of trapéza and pack away time, and this seemed to work well. We will review this as the weeks pass.
In the week ahead, we will offer a moleben for the protection and well-being of the parish on Tuesday – meeting in the Oratory Church at 15:00. Vespers will be celebrated at the same time on Friday (not Thursday, this week), after which I will travel to Warminster, where we will celebrate the Hours and Divine Liturgy for our west of England parishioners in the Chapel of St Lawrence at 10:30.
Parishioners from the Welsh side of the Severn will be enthusiastically welcomed!
Confessions may be heard before and after our Oratory services, but please give notice if you wish to do so beforehand.
Amongst the newly departed, please remember Halyna, whose funeral I will celebrate in Barry tomorrow; Nikolai who reposed on Tuesday; Edmund’s father-in-law, Igor, and Lydia and Natalia.
We pray for our regent Olga and for Valentina Nikolaevna on their travels, and for Lazarus, George, Nikolai, Porphyrios, Vlad and Gleb on their Athonite pilgrimage.
It has been lovely to see their photographs, including Athonite cats, and we look forward to hearing of their experiences on the Holy Mountain.
The faithful have traditionally turned to St Paisius to pray for those who have died without repentance, but we can equally pray to him to guide us to repentance in this life – trusting in the power of his prayers.
CANON – TONE VI
Ode I, Irmos: A helper and protector hath He been unto me for my salvation. He is my God, and I shall glorify Him. He is the God of my fathers, and I shall exalt Him, for gloriously hath He been glorified.
Venerable father, Paisius, pray to God for us!
Unto God, Who maketh all wise, do thou pray, O venerable father, that He open mine unworthy lips and move mine ignorant tongue in behalf of His servant [handmaid]. By the grace of the Holy Spirit which abideth in thee, O father, overcome my reluctance and lack of eloquence, that I may hymn thy wonders.
Venerable father, Paisius, pray to God for us!
Let me therefore begin by recounting thy right laudable and spiritually profitable life from infancy. Egypt of old produced Moses, great among the prophets, who was glorified by His closeness to God and his great miracles. And now Egypt hath shown itself to be glorified a second time, for thy sake, O father Paisius, enriched by thine honourable name and the many virtues, which the Lord bestowed upon thee. Him to thou entreat, that He save our souls.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Entering the kingdom of heaven by the narrow and onerous path, according to the commandment of the thy Master Christ, O venerable father Paisius, having hated the wide and spacious road, dispel the darkness which hath spread over my mind, that I may be able to offer this meagre supplication in thine all-pure memory.
Now & ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
O good one, grant me a contrite spirit, a humble heart, a pure mind, correction of life and remission of transgressions.
Ode III, Irmos: On the rock of Thy commandments, O Lord, establish Thou mine unsteady heart, for Thou alone art our holy Lord.
Venerable father, Paisius, pray to God for us!
Thou wast a rock of faith like the Apostle Peter, O venerable Paisius, having crucified thyself to the world throughout all thy life; and thou didst direct thy feet straight to the heavenly path and didst attain the Jerusalem on high. Standing with the saints before the Holy Trinity, on my behalf entreat the Good One Who loveth mankind.
Venerable father, Paisius, pray to God for us!
The Lord chose thee as a most splendid shoot sprung forth from a pious root; for an angel told thy mother: “This one is pleasing unto God!” And taking up thy cross from childhood, thou didst follow Him without turning back, and by the grace of God didst grow in age and understanding. Pray thou that He grant me remission of sins.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
O Master Lord Jesus Christ, who doth not marvel at Thy love for mankind? For when the desire came upon the venerable one to undertake the monastic life so as to fulfil Thy commandments, like an unblemished lamb he was led by Thy grace into the wilderness, where he came upon the reason-endowed flock and was brought to the blessed shepherd Pambo and clothed in the monastic habit. O Lord, through the supplications of the venerable Paisius make me steadfast also in the doing of Thy commandments!
Now & ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
By thy supplications, O Virgin, free me from grievous torments, from outermost darkness and Gehenna; for thou hast the will and the power so to do, O thou who gavest birth to the one all-good Lord.
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
Sessional Hymn, Tone II: Having bound thy soul with the love of Christ and hated all earthly things, O wise and venerable father, thou didst make thine abode among the deserts and mountains; and tasting of the noetic tree, thou didst shine forth like an angel. Wherefore, having traversed the gloom of thy flesh, thou didst drive away the darkness of the demons. O Paisius, foremost among monastics, entreat Christ God, that He grant remission of sins unto those who with love honour thy holy memory.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; now & ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Theotokion: Speedy protection, help and mercy do thou show thy servant, O pure one. Still thou the waves of vain imaginings, and lift up my soul, O Theotokos, for I know that thou canst do whatsoever thou desirest.
Ode IV, Irmos: The prophet heard of Thine coming, O Lord, and was afraid, for Thou didst desire to be born of the Virgin and reveal Thyself to men; and he said: “I have heard report of Thee and was afraid. Glory to Thy power, O Lord!
Venerable father, Paisius, pray to God for us!
Taking up the ascetic life from thine earliest years, O divinely wise Paisius, thou didst persevere to the end of thy days, receiving as a divine victor the crown of triumph from the King of all, that by thy supplications thou mayest deliver sinners from torment, of whom I am the first. Forget me not!
Venerable father, Paisius, pray to God for us!
Having thee as a mighty advocate and comforter of the grieving, an intercessor, ally and pious mediator, we are saved from all misfortunes, perils and evil circumstances.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
He Who hath a great abyss of judgments said unto thee: “Behold, I give thee a gift: Whatsoever thou shalt ask of My Father in My name will be given thee: for whichever sinner thou shalt pray, his sins will be forgiven.” Wherefore, I who have an abyss of offences fall down before thee, O father Paisius, praying that He Who made thee this promise may through thy supplications remit my sins, in that He is good and loveth mankind.
Now & ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Direct thy words to thy Son, O all-immaculate one, when I will be justly judged, that I may then find thee to be a refuge and most mighty help, delivering me from all torments.
Ode V, Irmos: Enlighten me who rise at dawn out of the night, I pray, O Thou Who lovest mankind, and guide me in Thy precepts; and teach me to do Thy will, O Savior.
Venerable father, Paisius, pray to God for us!
Having laid waste to thy body by fasting, O father Paisius, thou didst once abide for seventy days without bodily food, possessing ineffable divine strength after communing of the Body and Blood of Christ, able to maintain the power of life by thy grace more than the strengthening of food. Glory to Thy might, O Lord!
Venerable father, Paisius, pray to God for us!
Like John the Baptist thou didst desire to walk the straight and narrow path. He, seeing thy Creator at the Jordan, was afraid and cried aloud: “I who am straw cannot approach Fire!” And once, in the desert, thou, O father Paisius, unable to look upon the face of the Lord Who appeared unto thee, didst fall down, overcome by trembling. But He said to thee: “Fear not! I will fill this desert with ascetics for thee.” And with them we pray to thee: In thy prayers forget us not, O father, that we may find mercy.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
To begin I admit to Thee mine offenses; and I entreat Thy loving- kindness toward mine iniquities, that Thou mayest forgive and cover the multitude of my sins with Thy compassion, and grant me to pass the remaining time of my life without sin, that having easily walked the path to salvation, I may without hindrance attain unto a good end with thy help, for without Thine aid and guidance I can accomplish naught that is good, and can receive mercy only with Thee.
Now & ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
I, who am a fool, offer thee this servile entreaty and flee unto thy compassionate loving-kindness: Turn me not away, ashamed, O pure one.
Ode VI, Irmos: With all my heart I cry out to the compassionate God, and He heard my cry from the uttermost depths of Hades, and hath led my life up from corruption.
Venerable father, Paisius, pray to God for us!
Jordan, a creation which lacketh a soul, stood in awe of its Creator and cried aloud: “I cannot wash the Sinless One!” But when thou, O saint, didst see the Lord, thou didst take water and touch the Untouchable One, washing His feet. And when thou didst drink of that water, thou didst receive the gift to heal infirmities and to drive demons away from men. Wherefore, we fall down before thee, O father, praying: By thy supplications have mercy on us, delivering us from every demonic assault.
Venerable father, Paisius, pray to God for us!
To the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ we have found in thee, O father Paisius, a great refuge and a fervent advocate and helper amid our sins. For once, a monk died who had apostatised from Christianity and was brought down into the depths of hell for his pernicious unbelief; but when his elder sensed this, he had recourse unto thee, begging thee to pray to the most Merciful One. And the Compassionate Lord appeared to thee, and said: “O my favoured one, it is a good thing that, emulating My love, thou carest for sinners, willing to assume torment for their deliverance.”
Venerable father, Paisius, pray to God for us!
Thy prayers and tears were borne aloft to God like incense of sweet savour and a sacrifice without blemish and right acceptable. Forget me not in thy mediation before the all-holy Theotokos. Grant me tears of compunction; wash away the depths of my sins; deliver me from the abyss of death; grant great mercy to the hopeless, and forgive them their offences.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
I am seized by incomprehension when I ponder in mind the dread hour of my trial by my Judge and God; and I weep, groan and lament, mindful of the abyss of my sins. Wherefore, at the supplications of Thy favoured one, the venerable Paisius, O Thou Who lovest mankind, save and deliver me from torment, in that Thou art full of loving-kindness.
Now & ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
From the depths of my heart I offer thee groans, I all-immaculate one, begging thy timely aid. Have mercy on my passion-fraught soul, O greatly merciful Mother, and take pity and deliver me from damnation and the lake of fire.
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; now & ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Kontakion, Tone II: Forsaking the tumults of life, thou didst love the life of stillness, emulating the Baptist in all ways; and we honour thee with him, O Paisius, chief among the fathers.
Ikos: Hearkening to the voice of Christ, thou didst follow His commandments; and stripping thyself bare of life, thou didst put aside all cares, all possessions and property, and thy brethren and the love of thy mother, O God-bearing Paisius. And, in the desert thou didst in mind converse alone with God, and didst receive gifts, which do thou send also unto me who praise thee in hymns, O Paisius, chief among the fathers.
Ode VII, Irmos: We have sinned, we have committed iniquity, we have dealt unjustly before Thee. We have neither done nor acted as Thou hast commanded us. But forsake us not utterly, O God of our fathers.
Venerable father, Paisius, pray to God for us!
Full of many sins am I; wherefore let thy prayer ascend like incense of sweet savour, O father. Abolish the abyss of my sins, still the raging sea of mine evil life, drive away the flood of rage, and with thy chaste supplications make steadfast my mind, O father Paisius.
Venerable father, Paisius, pray to God for us!
Having thee as an instructor, a fervent advocate, a speedy helper, a firm rampart and unshakable bulwark, and a mighty and invincible commander, we beseech thee: Forget not those who pray to thee, deliver us from ever grief and assault of the enemy!
Venerable father, Paisius, pray to God for us!
O great wonder! One day, while thou wast sitting in thy cave, O father Paisius, there came to thee a voice, saying: “Peace be unto thee, my beloved favourite!” And overcome with fear and trembling, thou didst arise and fall prostrate, saying: “Behold, I am Thy servant, O Lord!” Wherefore, we beseech thee: Entreat Him Who loveth mankind, that He save our souls.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
O Christ, grant me understanding and patience, that I may not judge sinners with the arrogance of the Pharisee; but accept my repentance as Thou didst that of the publican and the prodigal son, O God; and through the prayers of the venerable Paisius show me to be worthy of Thy Supper, and grant me forgiveness of sins.
Now & ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Arise, O my passion-fraught soul! Stand forth, O wretched one! Beat thy breast, and from thine inner depths put forth springs of tears, that the kind-hearted Mother of Christ God may have mercy on thee, who art accursèd.
Ode VIII, Irmos: Let every creature that hath breath hymn, bless and supremely exalt for all ages Him Whom the armies of heaven glorify and before Whom the cherubim and seraphim tremble.
Venerable father, Paisius, pray to God for us!
Disdain not this grateful hymnody which I offer thee, O father Paisius; rather, accept it, and fill it with spiritual joy, that without hindrance I may venerate thine icon, where it is inscribed: “He who imparteth healings unto all”.
Venerable father, Paisius, pray to God for us!
Emulating the most venerable life of the God-pleasing fathers who in ages past lived in humility and asceticism for the sake of Christ, O father Paisius, thou didst live thy whole life martyrically, and didst suffer greatly from the attacks of the demons, vanquishing them. Wherefore, I beseech thee, O father: By thy supplications drive far from me violence, wrath and indifference.
Venerable father, Paisius, pray to God for us!
O Master Christ God, most Compassionate One: By the judgments which Thou knowest grant that I may hate the works of the evil one, for Thou art our God, Who didst say: “Ask, and ye shall receive.” Grant me love, that through the supplications of the venerable father Paisius I may do Thy saving will with all my soul.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
I beseech Thee: O Master: Be Thou long-suffering to me, a sinner, and do not visit me with the severing of death as Thou wouldst a barren tree, sending me into the fire; but, entreated by the supplications of the venerable one, show me to be fruitful, and grant me time for repentance, in that Thou lovest mankind.
Now & ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Send me streams of tears and groans from the depths of my soul, O pure one, that when I fall down before thy protection I may find remission of my sins at thy supplication.
Ode IX, Irmos: O Virgin who received the angel’s salutation and gavest birth to thine own Creator, save those who magnify thee.
Venerable father, Paisius, pray to God for us!
Even during thy lifetime thou wast a speedy helper, O venerable one: for once a certain elder had a disciple who died in disobedience and was led down into hell; but that elder fell prostrate, entreating the most Compassionate One on behalf of his disciple; and thou, as a speedy listener and maintainer of love, didst set thy hope on the most compassionate God and stretched forth thy hands in prayer. And the greatly Merciful One, Who is true to His promises, did the will of those who feared Him and hearkened to thy supplications, and led forth that soul from hell. Wherefore, I the unworthy one, falling down, beseech Thee: O father Paisius, by thy prayers deliver me from torment and from unquenchable fire.
Venerable father, Paisius, pray to God for us!
I have become the object of the demons’ mockery, the disparagement of men, the lamentation of the righteous, the weeping of the angels, the defilement of air, earth and water. By mine actions I have sullied my body and rendered my mind vile beyond description, and have made myself an enemy to God. Woe is me! I have sinned! At the supplications of the venerable Paisius forgive me!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Like the one who fell among thieves and was wounded, so have I also fallen through many sins, and my soul hath been wounded. To whom can I flee, guilty as I am, if not to Thee, the merciful Physician of souls? Accept the venerable Paisius as a fervent advocate, and by his supplications pour forth the oil of Thy great mercy upon me.
Now & ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
My transgressions have multiplied, and I deserve threatening and condemnation. O pure one, falling down, I cry unto thee: Before the end grant me cleansing, compunction and the correction of my ways.
Troparion, Tone II: Consumed by divine love from thy youth, O venerable one, thou didst despise all the beautiful things in the world, and didst love Christ alone. Wherefore, thou madest thine abode in the desert, where thou wast vouchsafed a visitation of God, upon Whom the eyes of the angels found in impossible to gaze, and didst fall prostrate. And He Who loveth mankind, as the great Bestower of gifts, said unto thee: “Fear not, my beloved! Thy works are pleasing unto Me! Behold, I grant thee a boon: For whichsoever sinner thou shalt pray, I will remit his sins.” And afire in the purity of thy heart, thou didst take water and touch the Intangible One, washing His feet; and when thou didst drink that water thou wast enriched with the gift of miracles, so that thou wast by thine entreaty able to deliver sinners from torment, to heal the sick, and to expel demons from men, O venerable father Paisius. Wherefore since I am first among such sinners, I beseech thee to entreat Him Who made thee this promise, that He grant me time to repent and forgive mine offences, in that He is good and loveth mankind, that with all others I may chant unto Him: Alleluia!
Greetings as we continue to celebrate the afterfeast of the Exultation of the Cross, and nameday congratulations to all of our Sofias, Vieras, Nadezhdas, and Liubovs – especially to our little Sofia and Viera in Cardiff, mama Liuba in Cheltenham, Nadia in the Llanelli parish, Viera Aleksandrova in Chiswick and our former student Liuba in Fr Paul’s parish!
Dear sisters: May God grant you many, blessed years! Многая и благая лѣта!
The feast has been joyfully busy, starting as it did with Great Vespers in the Oratory Church on Thursday; the Hours and Divine Liturgy on Friday morning, after which we venerated a relic of the Life-Giving Cross, and then a litia and veneration of a relic of St Alban after refreshment. It was a particular joy to welcome our friends Helen and Rupert from the Cambridge parish – loyal supporters of the Walsingham shrine.
The second day of the feast was celebrated in Warminster, with a quiet prayerful Liturgy, blessed with Byzantine chants, as our usual dingers were absent. Thanks to all for a lovely Liturgy and splendid agape afterwards. Many thanks to Irina for bringing wonderful Old Believer‘s incense from Rogozha, where her late babushka worshipped.
The third day of the feast in Cardiff saw a very prayerful Liturgy, though we missed Father Mark the Younger, who is ill with chest and throat infections.
After the “liveliness” of the last few weeks, it was a blessing to have a Liturgy without distraction, with the blessing of venerating the beautiful new caved cross from Ukraine at the end of the service.
Thanks to all for a lovely feast and aftetfeast, whether in Splott, Warminster or Canton.
It has been a wonderful few days, and I look forward to a moleben to the Honourable and Life-Giving Cross tomorrow (Tuesday) at 15:00, with veneration of the Oratory’s relic of the Precious Cross.
Yesterday was also the feast of St Lyudmila, and the nameday of our dear elder-parishioner Ludmilla Borisevna, whom we were glad to greet and congratulate, wishing her many, blessed years. Многая и благая лѣта!
“The Holy Martyr Lyudmila, a Czech (Bohemian) princess, was married to the Czech prince Borivoy. Both spouses received holy Baptism from Saint Methodios, Archbishop of Moravia and Enlightener of the Slavs (Comm. 11 May).
As Christians, they showed concerned for the enlightening of their subjects with the light of the true faith, they built churches and invited priests therein to make Divine-services. Prince Borivoy died early at age 36.
Saint Liudmila as a widow led an austere pious life and continued to be concerned for the Church during the reign of her son Bratislav, which lasted for 33 years. Bratislav was married to Dragomira, from whom he had a son Vyacheslav.
After the death of Bratislav, 18 year old Vyacheslav came on the throne. Taking advantage of the inexperience and youth of her son, Dragomira began to propagate pagan manners and customs in the country.
Saint Lyudmila of course opposed this. Dragomira came to hate her mother-in-law and tried to destroy her. When Saint Lyudmila moved away to the city of Techin, Dragomira sent there two boyars in secret to murder her.
At the time Saint Lyudmila was praying, and the two assassins entered the house, carrying out Dragomira’s orders. The relics of the holy Martyr Lyudmila was buried in Techin in the city wall. From her grave there occurred numerous healings.
Prince Vyacheslav transferred the body of Saint Liudmila to the city of Prague and placed it in the church of Saint George.”
Our namedays are of immense importance, and far outshine our birthdays. Our name saint is our second “guardian angel”, hence our using the phrase angel day for our nameday. We celebrate these days with joy, prayer and devotions to our heavenly protector and ideally with communion of the Most Pure Mysteries. Given the dispersal of our parish and lack of building, more than often, we have a catch up on the following Sunday, but whether we do so on the feast itself, it is customary for us to bring flowers, gifts and cards, and to send greeting to those further away.
When it is OUR nameday, it is customary that WE treat others, bringing cakes, or something sweet to share with our brothers and sisters.
We take the opportunity to share our feast with others, and to honour our saint by this act of love.
This is an important thing for the converts of our parish to learn and embrace.
As well as celebrating a moleben tomorrow, vespers for the Leave-Taking of the feast will be celebrated in the Oratory Church on Thursday at 15:00. Confessions will also be heard before and after the services, though I will need notice from anyone coming beforehand.
I will be away on Friday and Saturday, visiting the Church of St Lazar in Birmingham for the evening akathist at 19:00 and morning Liturgy at 09:00, but back for Sunday’s Liturgy – Sunday being the feast of the Hawaiian Myrrh-streaming Iveron Icon of the Mother of God.
Father Mark the Younger has asked me to remind parents that there will be a short meeting with parents after Sunday’s Liturgy, with the hope that parents will remain this time. After the last request, only matushka Alla remained in church.
After the recent tension about arrival time of at St John’s, the ladies of the parish expressed their concern that people were waiting outside and wish us to communicate that nobody should do so – so, we will take our lead from the parishioners who – at least – continue to be positive about our presence. Heeding their counsel, as long as the Anglican service is over, please enter if you are early. This makes confessions considerably easier.
With a group of parish brothers on the Holy Mountain, armed with your prayer requests, we will be a little thinner on male parishioners next week, but it is wonderful that our brothers should band together to organise this Athonite pilgrimage, taking Gleb, the son of one of our Bath friends. Glory to God!
Greetings for the after-feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God, and the feast of our Venerable Fathers, Sergius and Herman of Valaam, for whose feast we celebrated Great Vespers in the Oratory Church, yesterday!
Today is also the feast of St Siouan the Athonite, and we send our greetings to Ruth-Silouana, on her name day.
This day is also the anniversary of the canonisation of St Xenia of St Petersburg by our Russian Church Abroad in 1978, so we greet our sisters named for the great God-pleaser and wonderworker – including our sister, Xenia, in Prestbury.
Dear sisters – Many, blessed years!
As well as celebrating vespers, Monday saw the funeral of Helen, wife of Father David Hathaway, known to some of our parishioners from his time as Anglican incumbent of St Augustine’s, Rumney, before his entry into the Roman Catholic Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.
Until his retirement, Father David faithfully served the sisters at Nazareth House, and our paths crossed on many a Sunday morning, when he always showed interest in our parish and its people.
Helen was a pillar of strength in supporting Father David in his ministry, and we know that even though he is now retired, a lack of ‘matushka’ figure at his side will leave an immense gap.
Please keep the newly departed Helen, and Father David and his family in your prayers.
As you are aware I was unable to travel to London for the altar-feast of the cathedral, largely due to swollen feet – something that I’ve never suffered with before – though I am glad to say that things are getting back to normal. Thankyou for your prayers!
With so many parishioners away on their travels, our Sunday numbers, in Cardiff, were rather scant, and we look forward to a little more normality with the return of our travellers and students.
Thanks to all who contributed to Sunday’s after-feast, especially our kliros.
The end of Liturgy saw a litia for Edmund‘s father-in-law, Igor, and other newly departed faithful. Please pray for the repose of Igor’s soul, for Ed’s wife, Olga, and for all the family. Memory Eternal!
After a Liturgy with rather constant background noise on Sunday, I hope that in the weeks ahead we will work together for a more peaceful worship environment, as noise and movement is becoming an obstacle to prayer and is causing much distraction – especially during he most solemn moments, such as the reading of the Gospel and the anaphora.
Distractions are disturbing the faithful, who come to church to be able to concentrate in prayer and stand before the Lord without earthly cares for a short time each week.
If we as clergy are being distracted from priestly prayers in the altar, then we know that it must be even more distracting for those closer to the children’s corner and sources of distraction.
Starting on Sunday, the children’s corner will be out of use during Liturgy, as this has become the major source of intrusive noise and a cause of disturbance, and games that cause constant noise have made it very difficult for the faithful to pray.
Any activities to occupy the children should be quiet and not involve telephones.
Children who are old enough to be confessing (from seven years and above), are old enough to increasingly join in the worship of the Church, by STANDING, and learning how to and pray and how to worship.
As Father Mark the Younger observed, even though we understand that the complete duration of the Hours and Liturgy is very long for our children, we must be clear that we come to church to pray, not play.
We are clear to our adult new-comers that we worship with our whole bodies, including making the sign of the cross, bowing during our prayers, and making prostrations on weekdays and feasts of the Cross – as we will at the veneration of the Cross this coming Sunday – and our children need to learn this by being part of worship.
As indicated several times before, from the Cherubic Hymn onwards, children need to be with parents, and learning to participate in the Church’s Liturgy, becoming familiar with the prayers and hymns, and the acts of Christian worship.
They should not needlessly be moving around the church during the Divine Liturgy.
We hope to see the development of spiritually educational activities, but this needs volunteers who are willing to undertake this obedience, and who will take care of resources needed, given our lack of space in church.
We know that it will take time for the children to learn, but we have to make a beginning.
Whilst we are discussing behaviour in church we also need to be clear that nobody should be drinking from water bottles during from the service. If there is a medical reason for needing to drink, that need not be a problem, but this needs to be discussed with the clergy to seek a blessing. In such circumstances, the faithful can go to the kitchen and do so discreetly, not in the middle of worship.
This Friday is the feast of the Exultation of the Cross, and will begin with Great Vespers in the Oratory Church at 15:00 on Thursday afternoon. We will return the next morning for the Divine Liturgy at 10:30. We will have refreshments in the church hall afterwards.
Confessions will be heard after vespers and before Liturgy, but as I will be performing a house blessing, there will be no evening confessions this week.
The second day of the feast will be celebrated in Warminster, where the Hours and Divine Liturgy will be celebrated in the Capel of St Lawrence – in Market Place – at 10:30.
Sunday is not only the after-feast of the Cross, but also of St Ludmilla, so we look very much look forward to greeting our elder-parishioner and sister. We will also bless our brothers who will be travelling to Mount Athos the following morning.
Just a reminder that we are asking parishioners who are helping with set up to arrive at 10:15, and other parishioners to come to St John’s at 10:30.
As you know, we have been asked to not park on the grass, and ask that parking spaces are left for our older parishioners and those bringing equipment and supplies to church.
I am sorry that much of the newsletter has been taken up with dos-and-dont’s, but I am sure you will understand that we have to make some POSITIVE changes for right-worship, the meaning of Orthodoxy/Pravoslavie, and for the glory of God.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Dear brothers and sisters, Greetings for the Great-Feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God.
Though we celebrate this feast when the green of summer is fading, the natural world beginning to look tired, with the days becoming cooler and the nights darker, the Nativity of the Mother of God is the springtime of our salvation – a spiritual turning point in the existence and history of the human race.
The Holy Church celebrates this feast with great joy and solemnity – a joy which those outside the Church, and those lacking the Orthodox mind of the Church may fail to understand.
We have every reason to be joyful and see in the Nativity of the Mother of God a wondrous event that touches and embraces all of creation.
Our holy father, St John the Wonderworker of Kronstadt wrote that,
“The event that we celebrate – the birth of the God-Chosen maiden – brought joy to all the world, for the God-Man, Jesus Christ, Who shone forth from Her, destroyed God’s curse which weighed heavily upon the transgressing and accursed human race, and brought God’s blessing upon it; having trampled down inherent death, He gave people eternal life. Thus the Holy Church explains the cause of the present joy.”
This feast marks the advent of the Mother of God as the means of the Incarnation of the God-Man, and she would come in her own right to be part of the undoing of the curse that entered the world through the tempting of the serpent and the disobedience of Adam and Eve.
At the very time of the disobedience of the First-Father and the First-Mother, God looked forward to the Incarnation, through the Most-Holy Virgin, and spoke of this day to the tempter and deceiver.
To quote our newly-glorified Father, Saint Cleopa of Sihăstria–
“Understand, dear brothers, that God opened His Divine plan for the salvation of the world through the Theotokos already at the beginning of the world, when He told Eve that her seed would crush the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15). For about Christ it was said “Seed of the Woman” as having been born not from the seed of a man. At the very beginning of the world the All-Good God already through the old Eve in this mysterious way pointed to the new, spiritual Eve, that is to the Mother of God, able to bear in the fullness of time the New Adam, Christ, Who by His Incarnation crushed the head of the serpent, and death, and sin, for as in Adam all die, so in Christ all are quickened (cf. 1 Cor. 15:22).”
In His Divine Humility and sacrificial, self-effacing love, God’s salvific plan – of which the serpent was warned – required both sonship and motherhood: a Divine-Human birth in the fulness (not simply the appearance) of human nature and existence; a Saviour born in the flesh as the New Adam, and from the womb of the New Eve.
We should be in awe of the fact that God – limitless, almighty, immortal, beyond comprehension – decided that the Fall, sin and death, should be healed, restored and undone through the cooperation and inclusion of the very humanity that had destroyed and lost the life of Paradise – through the Son of God putting on our human flesh.., the flesh that He created from the dust of the ground.
In the same homily quoted, St John of Kronstadt, reminds us that all of mankind is honoured and magnified through the Mother of God, “for it has been made worthy of renewal and sonship by God…” You and I, all of us assembled here are honoured and magnified, because through the Mother of God we become not only children of God, but are made new. Our human nature is honoured and magnified in her, who becamse the Mother of the God-Man who was made flesh and human through her birthgiving.
In that enfleshment, in His wisdom, God foreordained that the Mother of God would take not only a central, but an essential part in the realisation of His plan, the Economy of Salvation, and in her our humanity, opur human nature our own flesh – become an instrument of our own salvation, as God takes humanity and uses it as the remedy for its own fallen condition. God does not condemn this humanity simply because it has rebelled – simply because it is fallen, simply because it is diseased through sin.
After all, God is the Creator who made that humanity, and made it to be good, made it to be pure, made it to grow in holiness – not as something finished, even what we might describe as perfect. This humanity was open ended and intended to grow in holiness, developing from its infancy in Adam and Eve: a humanity filled with the potential to grow and be infused with God’s grace and holiness.
The fall of Adam and Eve, and even their banishment from Paradise did not suddenly mean that God wished to throw humanity away. Rather, as the loving father, as the creator and source of life – only bringing this humanity back, healing it and restoring it could be a reflection of God, Who is perfect and absolute love.
The limitlessness and even scandal of this love would be seen in God becoming incarnate, sharing in nature, so that humans might be restored and become gods by adoption – not by nature – of course – by their inclusion in His life, in their reflection of His glory, by their partaking of His Grace, by their presence in His holiness.
Without the inclusion of the Mother of God, this could not, and would not be possible, for to become human, the Only-Begotten Son and Word of God needed to be born of a human, and putting-on Adam’s flesh required the human-bridge linking earth to heaven: a living-door though which the Incarnate-God would enter the world to redeem it and to save.
Following God’s warning to the tempter-of-souls, God’s plan and economy of salvation unfolded century by century in the generations of the sons of Adam who were the ancestors of the Mother of God, and therefore ancestors of Christ, but this wonderful feast marks the manifest physical foundation of God’s plan for our salvation – for the restoration of fallen humanity, heralding the reversal of the Fall, the conquering of death, and the cleansing of sin, as the Mother of the Saviour – the New Adam – is born as the New Eve.
Born to childless Joachim and Anna, not simply as reward for their faith and as an answer to their prayers, but to be the Mother of the Saviour Himself, the Theotokos enters the world as a prologue of the Gospel, as God’s preparation for the incarnation and birth of the Christ-child in the cave of Bethlehem, where “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.”
In the birth of the Mother of God the “bridge leading from earth to heaven”, the “opening of the doors of paradise”, and the “door of salvation”, entered the world, and salvation drew nearer to the human race.
As such, this glorious feast is a herald not only of the Nativity of the Saviour, but also of the Life-Giving Cross and Resurrection, which proceed by God’s economy from this glorious feast, as the beginning of the last leg of the journey of Adam’s seed to Bethlehem, and thence to Jerusalem, for the Saviour’s Passion and third-day rising from the Tomb.
This gives us every reason to celebrate and every reason to be joyful.
St John of Kronstadt asks,
What joy does the Nativity of the Mother of God bring us?
Through the birth of the Ever-Virgin, through Her only-begotten Son and God, cursed and outcast mankind makes peace with God Who is immeasurably offended by man’s sins, for Christ became the mediator of this peace (cf. Rom. 5:10-11).
Man is freed from the curse and eternal death, made worthy of the blessing of the Heavenly Father; he is united and co-mingled with the Divine nature; he is raised to his first inheritance by this co-mingling, according to the Church hymn.
Mankind, once an outcast, has been made worthy of sonship to the Heavenly Father, received the promise of the glorious resurrection and eternal life in the heavens together with the angels.
But we should not only be asking what the feast brings to us.
We should also be asking ourselves, what we bring to the feast, and what we offer to the Mother of Gpd as we celebrate her Nativity.
The Venerable Elder Iachint of Putna (+1998) instructs us that as we rejoice in her birth, for joy would to be full,
“…we must follow her angelic life; that is, to become God-bearers by knowledge and the preserving of His commandments. After all, that is why God created us.”
The Mother of God laboured for holiness, rejected temptation and sin, and was not miraculously free of temptation through some sort of divine force-field, as proposed through those who propose the immaculate conception. Rather, the Mother of God was tempted as we are, and it was through spiritual heroism in a life of holiness and ascetic struggle that she remained free of sin. Her life calls us to emulate her in these thing, and if we ish to truly honour her on this joyful feast, we must not insult her by drawing close with lives that go against her example, and all that she offered to God.
With forceful and challenging words, the Elder continues,
“Every Christian who listens to Christ, who loves the way of the Church, who lives with everyone in love, who renders mercy to the poor and hates nothing but sin is a true Christian – a Christ-bearer. But he who does not love the Church, who hates everyone and does not forgive, who does not confess, and does not unite himself with the Most Pure Mysteries is deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit and left as prey for the devil, and rebels against Christ by his sins.
Thus, if we want to bear Jesus Christ in our hearts, let us follow the example of the Mother of God, whose nativity we now celebrate. Let us bear the fear of God in our hearts. Let us bear in our souls Divine love. Ever bear in mind the thought of death, on our lips the words of holy prayer. Let us have tears of repentance in our eyes and on our face the joy of reconciliation and union with Christ.
By mercy and prayer let us make our home a church, and not an infernal cave by drunkenness and lust. Let us make our arms a cradle for a child, and not an instrument of sin. Let us make our children into children of the Church and society, and not agents of destruction.
If we thus live, we will become true God-bearers, and the Mother of God will be the most fervent intercessor for us, who by her prayers pours out the joy of Nazareth and prosperity in life upon us, and the bliss of Paradise will also be with us.”
Canon I of the Theotokos, the composition of John of Damascus, in Tone II
Ode I, Irmos: Come, ye people, let us chant a hymn to Christ God, Who divided the sea and guided the people whom He had led forth from the bondage of Egypt, for He hath been glorified.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Come, ye faithful, and, rejoicing with divine spirit, let us honour with hymns the Ever-virgin Maiden who today hath issued forth from a barren woman for the salvation of men.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Rejoice, O pure one, Mother and handmaid of Christ God, mediatress of our primal blessedness! All of us, the human race, glorify thee with hymns, as is meet.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Today is the bridge of life born, through which men have attained restoration after their fall into hades, glorifying Christ, the Bestower of life, with hymns.
Canon II of the Theotokos, the composition of Andrew of Crete, in Tone VIII
Irmos: To Him Who crushed battles with His arm and led Israel across the Red Sea, let us chant, as to God our Deliverer, for gloriously hath He been glorified.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Let all creation join chorus, and let David be glad, for from his tribe and seed hath come forth as a flower the rod which beareth the Lord, the Creator of all.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
The Holy of Holies is placed in the holy sanctuary as a babe, to be fed by the hands of angels. Let us all, therefore, faithfully keep festival together on her nativity.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Anna was barren and unable to give birth, yet she was not childless in God’s eyes; for, lo! she hath become known by all generations as the mother of the pure Virgin, from whom the Creator of nature hath sprung forth in the guise of a servant.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
With hymns we all honour thee, the innocent ewe-lamb who hast been born of Anna and who through thy womb brought the Lamb Christ into our nature.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
I glorify the three Unoriginate Ones, I hymn the three Holy Ones, I proclaim the three equally Everlasting Ones to be of a single Essence; for the one God is glorified in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Who hath seen a Babe fed with milk Whom a father hath not sown? Or where hath there been seen a Mother who is a Virgin? Truly past understanding are both of these things, O pure Theotokos.
Ode III, Irmos: Establish us in thee, O Lord Who hast slain sin by the Tree, and plant the fear of Thee in the hearts of us who hymn Thee.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Having lived blamelessly for God, ye gave birth unto the salvation of all, O divinely wise parents of her who gave birth to our Creator and God.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Having lived blamelessly for God, ye gave birth unto the salvation of all, O divinely wise parents of her who gave birth to our Creator and God.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
From a barren woman did the Lord, Who poureth forth life upon all, cause the Virgin to come forth, in whom He was pleased to make His abode, preserving her incorrupt even after giving birth.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Let us hymn Mary today as the Theotokos, the fruit of Anna, the intercessor and helper of all, who gave birth to the life-bearing Cluster.
Canon II, Irmos: My heart is established in the Lord; my horn is exalted in my God; my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies. I am glad in Thy salvation.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
O all-pure Virgin Theotokos, thou hast been shown to be higher than all creation, having given birth in the flesh to the Creator.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Blessed is thy womb, O chaste Anna, for thou didst pour forth the fruit of virginity who gave birth without seed to Jesus the Deliverer, the Nurturer of creation.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
O Ever-virgin, all creation calleth thee blessed who hast been born today of Anna as the rod sprung forth from the root of Jesse, who put forth Christ as an all-pure Bloom.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Showing thee to be more exalted than all creation, O pure Theotokos, thy Son magnifieth thy birth from Anna and gladdeneth all today.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
We worship Thee, O Father unoriginate in essence, we hymn Thy timeless Son, and we honour Thy Spirit Who is equally everlasting: as God three in Hypostases but one in Essence.
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
O pure Theotokos, who gavest birth unto the Bestower of light, the Author of man’s life, thou hast been shown to be the treasure of our life and the portal of Light unapproachable.
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
Sessional Hymn, Tone IV, Spec. Mel. “Joseph marvelled…”: Like a cloud of light hath the Virgin Mary, the Theotokos, truly shone forth upon us today, and she cometh forth from the righteous ones for our glory. No longer is Adam condemned, and Eve is freed from her bonds. Wherefore, we exclaim, crying aloud with boldness to her who alone is pure: Thy nativity announceth joy to the whole world!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
The foregoing is repeated.
Ode IV, Irmos: I have heard report of Thy dispensation, O Lord, and have glorified Thee Who alone lovest mankind.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
We hymn Thee, O Lord, Who hast given unto all, as a haven of salvation, her who gaveth birth to Thee.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
We hymn Thee, O Lord, Who hast given unto all, as a haven of salvation, her who gaveth birth to Thee.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Christ hath revealed thee, O Bride of God, to all who with faith hymn thy mystery as their boast and might.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Delivered from transgressions by thy supplications, O Mistress who knewest not wedlock, we all bless thee with a good understanding.
Canon II, Irmos: With noetic eyes the Prophet Habbakuk foresaw Thy coming, O Lord; wherefore he cried aloud: “God shall come out of Thæman!” Glory to Thy power! Glory to Thy condescension!
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
The Patriarch Jacob, clearly foreseeing the mighty works of Thy dispensation, O Saviour, cried out in the Spirit, saying mystically to Judah: “From the tender plant thou art gone up, O my Son!”, referring to Thee, O God, Who wast born of the Virgin.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Now the pure Virgin, the rod of Aaron which sprung forth from the root of David, cometh forth from Anna, and heaven and earth and all the nations of the gentiles mystically join chorus together with Anna and Joachim.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Let heaven now be glad; let the earth rejoice! And let Joachim and David join chorus: the one as the father of thee who truly gavest birth to God, and the other as thine ancestor who proclaimed thy mighty deeds, O pure one.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
The whole world rejoiceth with thee today, O divinely wise Anna; for thou hast budded forth the Mother of its Deliverer, she who from the root of David put forth for us the rod of strength which beareth Christ as a flower.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
I glorify God, the unoriginate Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the consubstantial, uncreated Trinity, before Whom the seraphim stand with reverence, crying aloud: Holy, Holy, Holy art Thou, O God!
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
The all-unoriginate Origin receiveth a beginning from thee in the flesh and in time, O Theotokos, and He remaineth equally the unoriginate and incarnate Word of the Father, equally everlasting with the Spirit, maintaining His divine dignity.
Ode V, Irmos: Having destroyed the shadowy darkness of indistinct images and illumined the hearts of the faithful by the coming of the Truth through the divine Maiden, O Christ, guide us by Thy light.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
O ye people, let us hymn the cause of the Cause of all, Who became like unto us. For the prophets, counted worthy to behold her image, rejoiced, bringing forth the fruit of manifest salvation through her.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
O ye people, let us hymn the cause of the Cause of all, Who became like unto us. For the prophets, counted worthy to behold her image, rejoiced, bringing forth the fruit of manifest salvation through her.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
The budding forth of the dry rod of the priest showed forth the destiny of Israel; and now the most glorious offspring of the barren woman most gloriously shineth forth the splendour of those who gave rise to her.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
The budding forth of the dry rod of the priest showed forth the destiny of Israel; and now the most glorious offspring of the barren woman most gloriously shineth forth the splendour of those who gave rise to her.
Canon II, Irmos: Grant us peace, O Lord our God. O Lord our God, take us for Thy possession. O Lord, we know none other than Thee; we call upon Thy name.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Thy nativity is all-pure, O immaculate Virgin, thy conception is ineffable, and thy birthgiving unutterable, O Bride unwedded; for God hath clad Himself in all of me.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Let the angelic ranks be glad; let the descendants of Adam join chorus; for the rod hath been born which put forth as flower Christ alone, our Deliverer.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Today the condemnation of Eve is lifted in thy nativity, the barrenness of Anna is loosed, and Adam is freed from the ancient curse; for by thee have we been delivered from corruption.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Glory to Thee Who hast glorified the barren woman today! For, according to the promise, she gave birth unto the flowering rod from whence Christ, the Flower of our life, hath budded forth.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Glory to Thee, O Holy Father, Unbegotten God! Glory to Thee, O timeless and Only-Begotten Son! Glory to Thee, O Spirit Divine and equally enthroned, Who proceedest from the Father and restest in the Son!
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Thy womb didst become the chariot of the Sun; thy purity remained intact as before, O Virgin; for Christ the Sun appeared from thee like a Bridegroom from a bridal chamber.
Ode VI, Irmos: From the belly of the sea monster, Jonah cried out: Lead me up from the abyss of hell, I pray, that with a spirit of truth and in a voice of praise I may sacrifice to Thee, as to my Deliverer!
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
The divinely wise parents of the Mother of God cried out to the Lord in grief over their barrenness; and they gave birth to her, our common boast and salvation for generations of generations.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
The divinely wise parents of the Mother of God cried out to the Lord in grief over their barrenness; and they gave birth to her, our common boast and salvation for generations of generations.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
The divinely wise parents of the Mother of God received a gift worthy of heaven from God, for she is a chariot more highly exalted than the cherubim, the Mother of the Word and Creator.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
The divinely wise parents of the Mother of God received a gift worthy of heaven from God, for she is a chariot more highly exalted than the cherubim, the Mother of the Word and Creator.
Canon II, Irmos: Like the waters of the sea am I tossed about by the waves of life, O Thou Who lovest mankind. Wherefore, like Jonah I cry to Thee: Lead up my life from corruption, O compassionate Lord!
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Thy chaste parents placed thee, who art the Holy of Holies, in the temple of the Lord, O pure one, to be raised with honour and prepared to become His Mother.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Join chorus, ye barren women and mothers! Be of good cheer and leap up, O ye childless! For a childless and barren woman buddeth forth the Theotokos who delivereth Eve from her birth pangs and Adam from the curse.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
I hearken to David who singeth to thee: “The virgins that follow after thee shall be brought into the temple of the King. And with him I also hymn thee, the daughter of the King.”
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
We hymn thy holy nativity and honour thine immaculate conception, O divinely chosen Bride and Virgin. And with us the ranks of angels and the souls of the saints glorify thee.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
In thee, O pure one, is the mystery of the Trinity hymned and glorified; for the Father was well-pleased, and the Word made His abode within thee, and the divine Spirit overshadowed thee.
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Thou wast a golden candlestick, O pure Theotokos, for in thy womb the Fire made His abode: the Word from the Holy Spirit; and He became visible in thee in human form.
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Kontakion, Tone IV: In thy holy nativity, O all-pure one, Joachim and Anna are freed from the reproach of childlessness, and Adam and Eve from mortal corruption. And, delivered from the affliction of sin, thy people celebrate it, crying out to thee: A barren woman giveth birth to the Theotokos, the nourisher of our Life!
Ikos:The supplication of Joachim over his childlessness, together with the sighing of Anna over her barrenness, were right acceptable to God: they entered the ears of the Lord and brought forth life-bearing fruit for the world. For the one made supplication on the mountain, and the other bore her reproach in the garden; and with joy the barren woman giveth birth to the Theotokos, the nourisher of our Life.
Ode VII, Irmos: The fiery bush on the mount and the dew-bearing furnace of Chaldæa manifestly prefigured thee, O Bride of God; for in thy material womb thou didst receive the divine and immaterial Fire without being consumed. Wherefore, to Him Who was born of thee do we chant: Blessed art Thou, O God of our fathers!
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Once, the transmitter of the law was prevented from understanding thy great mystery in material manifestations, O all-pure one, though instructed through images not to think earthly thoughts. Wherefore, marvelling at the wonder, he said: Blessed is the God of our fathers!
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Once, the transmitter of the law was prevented from understanding thy great mystery in material manifestations, O all-pure one, though instructed through images not to think earthly thoughts. Wherefore, marvelling at the wonder, he said: Blessed is the God of our fathers!
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
In godly manner the divine choir called thee beforehand the mountain and portal of heaven and the noetic ladder; for from thee was the Stone cut without the aid of man’s hands, and thou art the door through which passed the Lord of wonders, the God of our fathers.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
In godly manner the divine choir called thee beforehand the mountain and portal of heaven and the noetic ladder; for from thee was the Stone cut without the aid of man’s hands, and thou art the door through which passed the Lord of wonders, the God of our fathers.
Canon II, Irmos: The Chaldæan furnace, burning with fire, was bedewed by the Spirit through the presence of God; and the children chanted: Blessed art Thou, O God of our fathers!
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
We celebrate and bow down with faith before thy holy nativity, O pure one, honouring thy Son, by Whom we have now been delivered from the ancient condemnation of Adam.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Now Anna maketh merry and, rendering praise, crieth out: Though barren, I have given birth unto the Mother of God, for whose sake the condemnation of Eve, to give birth in pain and grief, hath been loosed!
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Adam hath been freed and Eve danceth; and they cry out to thee in spirit, O Theotokos: Through thee have we been delivered from the primeval curse with the appearance of Christ!
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
O the womb which contained the dwelling-place of God! O the womb which bore her who is more spacious than the heavens, the holy throne, the noetic ark of sanctification!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
We glorify the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the unity of the Godhead, the All-Holy Trinity, indivisible, uncreated, equally everlasting and consubstantial.
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Most gloriously didst thou alone give birth unto God, O Virgin. By thy nativity thou hast renewed nature, O Mary. Thou hast released Eve from the primeval curse, O pure Theotokos.
Ode VIII, Irmos: Thou didst once prefigure Thy Mother in the furnace of the children, O Lord; for her image drew from the fire those who entered it, without being consumed. We hymn and exalt her supremely for all ages, who through Thee hath been made manifest today to the ends of the earth.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Now the foreordained tabernacle of our reconciliation to God, who is to give birth to the Word Who hath manifested Himself to us in the coarseness of our flesh, beginneth her existence. Him do we, who have been brought into existence by Him out of nonexistence, hymn and exalt supremely for all ages.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Now the foreordained tabernacle of our reconciliation to God, who is to give birth to the Word Who hath manifested Himself to us in the coarseness of our flesh, beginneth her existence. Him do we, who have been brought into existence by Him out of nonexistence, hymn and exalt supremely for all ages.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
The reversal of Anna’s barrenness hath loosed the world’s lack of good things, and hath plainly shown forth a miracle: Christ, Who hath come to mortal men. Him do we, who have been brought into existence by Him out of nonexistence, hymn and exalt supremely for all ages.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
The reversal of Anna’s barrenness hath loosed the world’s lack of good things, and hath plainly shown forth a miracle: Christ, Who hath come to mortal men. Him do we, who have been brought into existence by Him out of nonexistence, hymn and exalt supremely for all ages.
Second Canon, Irmos: O Thou Who coverest Thy chambers with waters and settest the sands as a bound for the sea: Thee doth the sun hymn; Thee doth the moon glorify; and unto Thee doth all creation offer a hymn forever, as to the Creator of all.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Thou, O Holy God, Who wrought most glorious things through the barren womb, Who opened the childless womb of Anna and gave her fruit, Thou, O Son of the Virgin, hast received flesh from her, the ever-flourishing Virgin and Theotokos.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Thou, O Lord, Who closest the abyss and openest it, Who raisest water to the clouds and givest the rain, hast given the holy Anna to bud forth and give birth unto the all-pure fruit, the Theotokos, out of a barren root.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
O Cultivator of our thoughts, Planter of our souls, Who hast shown forth barren earth as right fruitful, Thou hast made the holy Anna, a field which before was dry, to become burgeoning, right fertile and fruitful, giving rise to the Theotokos, the all-pure fruit.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Come ye all, let us gaze upon the city of God born as from a little chamber, which issueth forth from the gate of Anna’s womb, yet hath no knowledge of the entry, for the one God and Creator issued forth by this strange path.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
O transcendent Trinity, unoriginate Unity, the multitude of angels hymneth and trembleth before Thee; heaven and earth are in awe of Thee; men bless Thee, and fire serveth Thee as a slave. Everything in creation submitteth to Thee with fear, O Holy Trinity.
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
O report most new! God becometh the Son of a woman! O seedless birthgiving! A Mother without a husband, a Begotten God! O awesome sight! O, the strange conception of the Virgin! O ineffable nativity, truly past all understanding and contemplation!
Ode IX – Refrain: Magnify, O my soul, the all-glorious nativity of the Mother of God!
Ode I, Irmos: Thee do we magnify, O blessed and most pure Theotokos, who through thy virginal womb ineffably didst make God incarnate, the Luminary Who shone forth before the sun and hath come to us in the flesh.
Refrain: Magnify, O my soul, the all-glorious nativity of the Mother of God!
He Who poured forth water from the stone for the rebellious people, through the womb of a barren woman giveth to us, the right submissive nations, the fruit of gladness: thee, O all-pure Mother of God, whom we magnify as is meet.
Refrain: Magnify, O my soul, the all-glorious nativity of the Mother of God!
He Who poured forth water from the stone for the rebellious people, through the womb of a barren woman giveth to us, the right submissive nations, the fruit of gladness: thee, O all-pure Mother of God, whom we magnify as is meet.
Refrain: Magnify, O my soul, the all-glorious nativity of the Mother of God!
Thee, O Theotokos, do we magnify, who hast removed the ancient and precipitous condemnation: the restoration of our first mother, the cause of the reconciliation of our race to God, the bridge to the Creator.
Refrain: Magnify, O my soul, the all-glorious nativity of the Mother of God!
Thee, O Theotokos, do we magnify, who hast removed the ancient and precipitous condemnation: the restoration of our first mother, the cause of the reconciliation of our race to God, the bridge to the Creator.
Refrain: Magnify, O my soul, the Virgin Mary who hath been born of the barren woman!
Canon II, Irmos: Foreign to mothers is virginity, and strange is childbirth to virgins; yet both were accomplished in thee, O Theotokos. Wherefore, all of us, the peoples of the world, magnify thee unceasingly.
Refrain: Magnify, O my soul, the Virgin Mary who hath been born of the barren woman!
Thou hast received a nativity worthy of thy purity, O Mother of God; for, according to the promise, thou wast given to the barren one as a fruit springing forth divinely. Wherefore, all of us, the peoples of the earth, unceasingly magnify thee.
Refrain: Magnify, O my soul, the Virgin Mary who hath been born of the barren woman!
Fulfilled is the prophecy of him whom crieth, for he saith: I shall raise up the tabernacle of sacred David which is fallen, which was a foretype of thee, O pure one, through whom the dust of all men hath been fashioned into a body for God.
Refrain: Magnify, O my soul, the Virgin Mary who hath been born of the barren woman!
We venerate thy swaddling clothes, O Theotokos. We glorify Him Who gave fruit to her who before was barren, and Who most gloriously opened the womb of her who was unable to give birth. For as God with complete authority, He doeth all things soever He desireth.
Refrain: Magnify, O my soul, the Virgin Mary who hath been born of the barren woman!
To thee, O Theotokos who wast born of Anna, do we faithfully offer up hymnody as a gift, mothers and virgins glorifying thee as the only Mother and Virgin; and we bow down before thee and hymn and glorify thee.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Strange is it for the iniquitous to glorify the unoriginate Trinity: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the uncreated omnipotent Principle, by Whom the whole world is sustained by the hand of His might.
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Within thy womb, O Mother, thou didst contain One of the Trinity: Christ the King, Whom all creation doth hymn and before Whom the ranks of heaven tremble. Him do thou entreat, O most pure one, that our souls be saved.
Troparion, Tone IV: Thy nativity, O Virgin Theotokos, hath proclaimed joy to all the world; for from thee hath shone forth Christ our God, the Sun of righteousness, Who, having annulled the curse, hath given His blessing, and having abolished death, hath granted us life everlasting.
As we begin this New Church Year, let us not only pray for God’s blessing to crown the year, but actively labour to make everything we do – whether as individuals, together as families, as communities, and as the Church – God-pleasing, worthy of blessing, and to His glory.
At the end of a week which saw services for the feasts of the Beheading of the Forerunner, St Alexander Nevsky and St Alexander of Svir, we began the New Indiction with vespers in the Oratory Church, followed by our New Year Liturgy in Cheltenham.
Once again we are grateful to Father Mark the Younger for celebrating for us, allowing me to hear confessions, help the boys learn to serve, and assist on the kliros.
I was pleased that the children showed that they were listening and concentrating on the end-of-Liturgy-lesson on St Symeon the Stylite, as they started play-building a pillar from foam blocks – ascended by the youngest as the stylite.
Thanks to everyone for their warmth and support for Father Mark in these first confident months of his priestly ministry.
The next day, our Cardiff Sunday celebration saw the return of a few more parishioners who had been away, but the absence of a goodly number on their travels to different parts of Europe.
It was good to know that some travellers had already found churches and pilgrimage-places to visit. We wish them restful and peaceful holidays.
Despite the limited space in St John’s, Sunday’s Liturgy saw our communicants gather at the front-centre of the church after communion and zapivka, rather than gathering in their usual alternative place near the zapivka table, chosen by default, due to lack of space.
Before the mid 17th century, those who were communing gathered at the centre of the temple at the Great Entrance and remained there until the Holy Gifts were transferred to the proskomedia after communion.
Whilst this is no longer normal in most places, the tradition of communicants awaiting the transfer of the Holy Gifts after communion remains part of Orthodox tradition, preserved in many parishes of the Russian Church Outside of Russia.
We are simply returning our communicant-worshippers to their traditional place as the choir sings on behalf of all who have communed,
“Let our mouths be filled with Thy praise O Lord, that we may sing of Thy glory; for Thou hast made us worthy to partake of Thy Holy, Divine, Immortal and Life-creating Mysteries. Keep us in Thy holiness, that all the day we may meditate upon Thy righteousness. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!”
At this time, the faithful traditionally stand silently and prayerfully with their arms folded across their chests as when approaching the chalice at communion.
Whilst talking about preserving traditions… just a reminder to those who have joined us from other parishes and traditions that whilst bowing for forgiveness before communion is inconsistent from place to place, it is a consistent tradition that before approaching confession when others are present with us, we turn and bow to ask forgiveness of those in church.
One of our young learners has asked that we have regular reminders of our worship-practices as part of parish teaching and learning, and has already suggested some topics. This is a great help, not just for catechumens, but also for those who have joined us from other places with different customs.
The general busyness of the month will continue in the weeks ahead.
We will have a moleben to King Edward the Martyr in the Oratory Church tomorrow at 15:00, and vespers and confessions at the same time on Thursday.
I will be in the cathedral for the altar-feast celebrations of the Nativity of the Mother of God on Friday and Saturday, before returning to Cardiff for Sunday’s service.
When you come to church that day, we have been instructed that it will not be possible to park on the grass any longer. Though this new rule seems to have been in place for weeks nobody communicated it to is, and the parking situation when we arrived on Sunday makes it clear that St John’s parishioners may not know either.
On arrival last Sunday, we learned of the death of Howell, son of the Monica the organist, in a work accident, and ask you to remember them in your prayers. May the Lord have mercy.
In a change to the schedule for the week commencing Monday 22nd September, a funeral at St Alban’s that day necessitates my presence in Cardiff, so we will celebrate vespers for the feast of St Silouan the Athonite at 15:00 that day rather than on Tuesday 23rd September. Thursday 26th will see Great Vespers for the Exultation of the Cross in the Oratory Church, followed by confessions, with the Divine Liturgy the following morning – Friday 27th September – at 10:30.
The following day, Saturday 28th September, the afterfeast will be celebrated for our Cardiff parishioners living in Wessex, with the Hours and Divine Liturgy in the chapel of St Lawrence in Warminster at 10:30.
Our October pilgrimage to the Church of St Lazar will be on Saturday 26th October, though I am also hoping to visit Lazarica on 4th and 5th October, welcoming any parishioners who might like to join me.
A reminder that book-club has started again, and that Menna will be publishing details. Please speak to her and check WhatsApp. She will also be pleased to receive unwanted Orthodox books for parish lending.
I am now awaiting the arrangement of the funeral of the newly departed handmaiden of God, Halyna, whom we hold in our prayers. As mentioned on WhatsApp, we also ask prayers for her children Vyacheslav, Roman, Maksym, Anna and Tatiana.
We also pray for the newly-departed servants of God, the Archimandrite Germogen, the Archpriest Osios, Jovana, Natalia and Lydia.
Greetings for the feast of the Holy Martyr Mamas: a shining beacon of holiness and complete abandonment to God, despite his young years.
As the offspring of a family anchored in pure faith in the age of the martyrs, the youth, St Mamas, put nothing before his loyalty to Christ.
In today’s Gospel reading, we hear of the rich young man, who struggled with the thought of letting go of his wealth to follow the Lord: material wealth and security that came between him and life in Christ.
But… as we have reflected – year by year – for each of us who are far from rich, there may be an equivalent obstacle to abandoning ourselves to life in Christ and following Him freely with focus on Him alone.
Attachment to earthly comforts – our homes and possessions, our holidays and trips, our clothes and accessories, our social engagements and calendars, our careers and professional or social reputation – may all come between us and Christ, and be chains to the world that prevent us from true discipleship and honest service to the Lord.
Even the most basic things – too much food, too much sleep, too much television, social media or computer consumption can come between us and Christ – who might say of each of us, that it would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for us – with our individual attachments, comforts and perhaps even passions – to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
We have to be clinically honest with ourselves and ask – have we put our hobbies and interests, social engagements or diary commitments before being present at the Divine Liturgy – whose celebration is the greatest thing that humans can do on earth?
Have we neglected the Great Feasts of the Church, perhaps because social commitments have taken precedence over the celebrations of the great events in the life of the Lord or the Mother of God, or great saints?
Have we justified missing the Liturgy or other services because we are tired, even though we know full well that the Saviour was so exhausted when He fell beneath the Cross and the weight of the whole of humanity, when He carried each and every one of us to Golgotha, dragging Himself in the broken, tortured weakness of His flesh to the Place of the Skull? Even when He was tired to the point of dereliction, the Saviour did not give up on us, so when we are tired, should we give up on Him?
Have we been weak and indulgent, failing to even fast for one day out of obedience to Christ through the tradition of His Church – convincing ourselves that we can’t go a single day without milk in our tea or butter on our toast – using health, tiredness, inconvenience or worldly excuses to justify needless leniency?
Have we neglected our prayers because social media, television, the theatre or a trip to the pub with our friends has been higher on our priority list? Have we found more time for our friends than we have for God?
Are we more motivated to meet our peers, than to meet God in the Holy Mysteries, in prayer, in pilgrimage, or in the silence of our hearts?
When we fail in such things, our fall is very often not a one-off-event, but a manifestation of a serial behaviour, of a fault-line in our spiritual lives, and an attachment, that comes between us and Christ – our equivalents to the young man’s wealth, and reminders of camels and needles, and the threatening and frighteningly low probability of us entering God’s Kingdom.
Do our attachments form an obstacle, or even a barricade between us and God, and block any progress even towards His Kingdom, let alone getting anywhere near its entrance?
But… to return to St Mamas…
His parents, Theodotus and Rufina, were dead, having perished in imprisonment for the Faith in the Roman persecution of the Christians. Any wealth or possessions of the once illustrious family had been confiscated and lost when they were arrested.
His mother Rufina had begged the Lord to find someone to care for her prematurely -born child, who entered the world in a prison cell, and the Lord called a rich Christian widow to adopt the child.
As an open and faithful Christian, the faith of young Mamas became an increasing danger as he entered early adulthood, and it made him a target as his parents had been, in ongoing persecution.
Like his parents, Mamas was arrested, but his noble, patrician family background and his confident and capable character led the governor Democritus, in Cappadocian Caesarea to refer his case to the Emperor Aurelian, hoping that this promising young man could be saved from Christianity and lured away from Christ.
The emperor sought to buy Mamas and steal him from Christ by offers of a comfortable life, with wealth and influence – the prospect of him becoming a rich young man.
In the lives of the martyrs – time after time – we hear the judge seeking to entice the one being accused and tortured for Christ: the enticement of a warm bath house to the forty martyr’s of Sebaste; the offer of a military career and imperial commission to the great warrior saints; the offers of rich marriages and socially-eminent husbands to the aristocratic women great-martyrs, renounced and betrayed by their noble pagan families.
Life’s comforts and security were the lure used to draw Christians away from their confession of Christ again and again.
In the passions of the martyrs, we hear their rejection of the offers what amounted to a living death in miserable earthly existence after having denied and blasphemed God.
Occasionally we glimpse those who gave in.
We know of the single apostate of Sebaste who preferred the warmth of a bath house to suffering with his fellow soldiers perishing in a freezing Armenian lake.
We know of the weakness and apostasy of St James the Persian, under the persecution of the Sassanian King, Yazdegerd I, and of his repentant confession and death by gradual mutilation.
We know of the apostate monks of the Holy Mountain, who betrayed Orthodoxy and accepted the unia, only for their dead bodies to be cursed with hair and fingernails growing century after century, making them a terrifying spectacle for those who saw the physical sign of betrayal.
Mamas, too, was offered enticements and incentives, but refused and remained anchored in Christ.
In contrast to both emperor’s offer of wealth and influence, and the portrait of the rich youth of the Gospel, we encounter the fifteen year old Mamas divinely delivered from imprisonment, and living in the wilderness, in fasting, prayer and constant communion with God – surrounded by wild animals with which he had the relationship of Adam and Eve in paradise:
With his life with his foster-mother Ammia a thing of the past before his arrest, we see a young man with no earthly possessions, wealth or material chains to the world – despite the traps and offers that had been set before him, and despite the former wealth and social position of his family.
Unlike the rich young man of the Gospel, this spiritually-rich youth had nothing material to chain him to earthly existence or to come between him and the Lord, yet even in his poverty and abandonment in Christ, there was still one last danger that could imperil his soul and make him a slave to the world. Undue attachment to worldly life itself – life according to the ways and influences not only of the world, but its fallen ways of thinking and existing.
Even though he was so young, St Mamas gave no thought to self-preservation when he had been discovered by the pagan authorities.
When the governor sent a detachment of soldiers to search the mountain and arrest Mamas, they mistook him for a simple shepherd, though he invited them to his dwelling, and gave them milk to drink, revealing his name.
Whether they failed to understand, or were avoiding detaining him we shall never know, but His life tells is that he told the soldiers to go ahead of him into Caesaria, as he followed them to the gates of the city, and Saint Mamas, accompanied by a mountain-lion, whom he rides to his martyrdom in many of his icons.
He was unbreakable in this second trial by the deputy-governor Alexander, not even weakening as he was tortured.
He was thrown to wild animals in the arena, but they would not touch this teenage boy who had lived in peace and harmony with the animals of the wilderness, and so, one of the pagan priests mortally wounded him with a trident.
The passion and witness of this young, but fearless martyr need to make us take a long hard look at ourselves, asking uncomfortable questions about who resolute we are in confessing Christ, whether we are willing to sacrifice the attachments, comforts and security of our lives to follow him, and to even ask whether we are so attached to life itself, that this holds us back from being free and liberated followers of Christ.
It is not only riches that can come between us and the Kingdom, and to see today’s Gospel as only being about wealth is dangerous and a deception.
How far we would go to both pursue and preserve our Faith, and what are we willing to sacrifice and leave behind to follow Christ.
There was no chance of a camel passing through the eye of a needle, as St Mamas rode into the glory of the Kingdom of Heaven mounted on the lion of courage, journeying to martyrdom and willing to surrender and give up everything – including his temporary and fleeting earthly life to follow Christ – the Way, the Truth and the Life.
The Holy Great Martyr Mamas was born in Paphlagonia, Asia Minor in the third century of pious and illustrious parents, the Christians Theodotus and Rufina. The parents of the saint were arrested by the pagans for their open confession of their faith and locked up in prison in Caesarea in Cappadocia.
Knowing his own bodily weakness, Theodotus prayed that the Lord would take him before being subjected to tortures. The Lord heard his prayer and he died in prison. Saint Rufina died also after him, after giving birth to a premature son. She entrusted him to God, beseeching Him to be the Protector and Defender of the orphaned infant.
God heard the dying prayer of Saint Rufina: a rich Christian widow named Ammia reverently buried the bodies of Saints Theodotus and Rufina, and she took the boy into her own home and raised him as her own son. Saint Mamas grew up in the Christian Faith. His foster mother concerned herself with the developing of his natural abilities, and early on she sent him off to study his grammar.
The boy learned easily and willingly. He was not of an age of mature judgment but distinguished himself by maturity of mind and of heart. By means of prudent conversations and personal example young Mamas converted many of his own peers to Christianity.
The governor, Democritus, was informed of this, and the fifteen-year-old Mamas was arrested and brought to trial. In deference to his illustrious parentage, Democritus decided not to subject him to torture, but instead sent him off to the emperor Aurelian (270-275). The emperor tried at first kindly, but then with threats to turn Saint Mamas back to the pagan faith, but all in vain. The saint bravely confessed himself a Christian and pointed out the madness of the pagans in their worship of lifeless idols.
Infuriated, the emperor subjected the youth to cruel tortures. They tried to drown the saint, but an angel of the Lord saved Saint Mamas and bade him live on a high mountain in the wilderness, not far from Caesarea. Bowing to the will of God, the saint built a small church there and began to lead a life of strict temperance, in exploits of fasting and prayer.
Soon he received a remarkable power over the forces of nature: wild beasts inhabiting the surrounding wilderness gathered at his abode and listened to the reading of the Holy Gospel. Saint Mamas nourished himself on the milk of wild goats and deer.
The saint did not ignore the needs of his neighbours. Preparing cheese from this milk, he gave it away freely to the poor. Soon the fame of Saint Mamas’s life spread throughout all of Caesarea.
The governor sent a detachment of soldiers to arrest him. When they encountered Saint Mamas on the mountain, the soldiers did not recognize him, and mistook him for a simple shepherd. The saint then invited them to his dwelling, gave them a drink of milk and then told them his name, knowing that death for Christ awaited him. The servant of God told the servant of the Emperor to go on ahead of him into Caesaria, promising that he would soon follow. The soldiers waited for him at the gates of the city, and Saint Mamas, accompanied by a lion, met them there.
Surrendering himself into the hands of the torturers, Saint Mamas was brought to trial under a deputy governor named Alexander, who subjected him to intense and prolonged tortures. They did not break the saint’s will, however. He was strengthened by the words addressed to him from above: “Be strong and take courage, Mamas.”
When they threw Saint Mamas to the wild beasts, these creatures would not touch him. Finally, one of the pagan priests struck him with a trident. Mortally wounded, Saint Mamas went out beyond the city limits. There, in a small stone cave, he gave up his spirit to God, Who in the hearing of all summoned the holy Martyr Mamas into His heavenly habitation. He was buried by believers at the place of his death.
Christians soon began to receive help from him in their afflictions and sorrows. Saint Basil the Great speaks thus about the holy Martyr Mamas in a sermon to the people: “Remember the holy martyr, you who live here and have him as a helper. You who call on his name have been helped by him. Those in error he has guided into life. Those whom he has healed of infirmity, those whose children were dead he has restored to life, those whose life he has prolonged: let us all come together as one, and praise the martyr!”
Canon of the Great-Martyr Mamas, the composition of Theophanes, in Tone 8.
Ode 1, Irmos: The staff of Moses, once working a miracle, striking the sea in the form of the Cross and dividing it, drowned the mounted tyrant Pharaoh and saved Israel, who fled on foot, chanting a hymn unto God.
Holy Great-Martyr, Mamas, pray to God for us.
Traversing the heavens as an excellent martyr, filled with thrice-radiant effulgence, O glorious one, vouchsafe divine illumination unto those who on earth honour the precious and radiant day of thy repose.
Holy Great-Martyr, Mamas, pray to God for us.
The Word, foreknowing the nobility and perfection of thy mind in all things, filled thee with understanding from thine earliest infancy and adorned thee in manifold ways with the sweetness of good works, O most lauded martyr and athlete Mamas.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Thy parents, braving danger for the inviolate Faith in time of persecution by falsehood, were cast into prison; and there, at the command of God, they brought thee forth, who hast broken the bonds of polytheism.
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
In generations of generations all-glorious things are said of thee who, having contained God the Word within thy womb, remainest pure, O Mary Theotokos. Wherefore, we all honour thee, our intercessor before God.
Ode 3,Irmos: O Lord, Fashioner of the vault of heaven and Creator of the Church, establish me in the love of Thee, O summit of desire, confirmation of the faithful, Who alone lovest mankind.
Holy Great-Martyr, Mamas, pray to God for us.
Upon the pinnacle of His Church hath Christ placed the athlete Mamas like a radiant star, illumining the whole world with the splendours of his sufferings and all-glorious miracles.
Holy Great-Martyr, Mamas, pray to God for us.
Ascending the mountain of true knowledge, and illumined with purity of mind through visions, O blessed one, by the commands of God thou didst elevate the nature of dumb beasts to rational hymnody.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Thou wast a youth comely in beauty. Wherefore, thou wast shown to be unapproachable to those who sought iniquitously to seize thee, and thou didst bring thyself to the Lord of all, Who Himself had gone to suffering.
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
He Who stretched out the sky and sustaineth its whole vault by His divine nature was held in the flesh in thine embrace, O all-pure one, and hath shown thee to be the confirmation of all the faithful.
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
Sedalion of the martyr, Tone 8: As the precious offspring of piety, by the power of the Spirit thou wast shown to be the destroyer of impiety, O Mamas; for thou didst denounce the falsehood of idolatry in the arena and didst right boldly proclaim that the Trinity is to be hymned. Wherefore, cast to the wild beasts, O athlete, thou didst slay the beast, the serpent who is the author of evil. For this cause we cry out to thee: Entreat Christ God, that He grant remission of offences unto those who honour thy holy memory with love. (Twice)
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Theotokion: Thou wast the divine tabernacle of the Word, O only all-pure Virgin Mother, who dost surpass the angels in purity. With the waters of thy supplications cleanse me who, more than all other men, am dust and have been defiled by carnal transgressions, granting me great mercy, O pure one.
Stavrotheotokion. The unblemished ewe-lamb of the Word, the incorrupt Virgin Mother, beholding Him Who sprang forth from her without pain suspended upon the Cross, cried out maternally, lamenting: “Alas, O my Child! How is it that Thou sufferest, desiring to deliver man from the indignity of the passions?”
Ode 4, Irmos: Thou art my strength, O Lord, Thou art my power; Thou art my God, Thou art my joy, Who, without leaving the bosom of the Father, hast visited our poverty. Wherefore, with the Prophet Habbakuk I cry unto Thee: Glory to Thy power, O Thou Who lovest mankind!
Holy Great-Martyr, Mamas, pray to God for us.
With wisdom and unafraid thou didst of thine own will commit thyself to struggles; for thou didst have Christ helping thee with divine power, making thy weakness strong and showing thee forth as a witness to His sufferings, a partaker of splendour on high.
Holy Great-Martyr, Mamas, pray to God for us.
The most rational wild beast became tame, given thee by God as a companion, for with divine love thou didst subdue the irrational passions and wast shown to be adorned with a most wise intelligence, vanquishing the irrationality of the enemy.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Before the tyrants’ tribunal thou didst stand O blessed one, most manifestly proclaiming the incarnation of the Word, casting down the savagery of ungodliness and teaching all to chant with confidence: Glory to Thy power, O Thou Who lovest mankind!
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
By the supernatural offspring of thy birthgiving, O most immaculate Theotokos, the pangs of sin were loosed, the nature of mortals was released from the curse, the heavens were opened for thy sake to those below, and men join chorus with the angels.
Ode 5, Irmos: Wherefore hast Thou turned Thy face from me, O Light never-waning? And why hath a strange light covered me, wretch that I am? But turn me and guide my steps to the light of Thy commandments, I pray.
Holy Great-Martyr, Mamas, pray to God for us.
Lacerated, the glorious Mamas in nowise paid heed to his body, setting aside the grossness of corruption to be torn asunder and the garments of his skin to be rent apart; receiving instead the vesture of incorruption.
Holy Great-Martyr, Mamas, pray to God for us.
Grateful praises didst thou chant to thy Creator when thy side was pierced with a spear, O most blessed one, and thou didst hear a voice from heaven, strengthening thy mind for that which is more exalted and easing the pain of thy sufferings.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
As thou lay in prison a most beautiful dove appeared to thee in an all-glorious vision, O most blessed and much-suffering athlete, bearing thee the food of incorruption; for thou didst pass beyond the bounds of corruption.
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Thou wast the mediatress of the divine incarnation and of ineffable deliverance, having given birth to Him Who was begotten of the Father before the sun shone forth; for through thee hath the nature of those on earth been joined to God and set upon the throne of glory.
Ode 6, Irmos: Cleanse me, O Saviour, for many are mine iniquities, and lead me up from the abyss of evils, I pray; for to Thee have I cried, and Thou hast hearkened unto me, O God of my salvation.
Holy Great-Martyr, Mamas, pray to God for us.
Burning with zeal for God, O most sacred and valiant athlete, bedewed by divine rain from heaven thou didst in nowise take heed of the burning flame.
Holy Great-Martyr, Mamas, pray to God for us.
He Who in manifest light transformed the furnace into dew for the three youths rescued thee, O most blessed and divinely wise one, from the flame, and all-gloriously showed thee to be mightier than the fire.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Undergoing tremendous struggles, thou didst show thyself to be most supreme, wondrous among athletes, a martyr tried and tested. Wherefore, the Judge of the contest vouchsafed thee greater rewards.
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Through thy divine birthgiving, O all-pure one, we have come to share in the divine nature; and, praising thee with ranks of the angels, we have inherited heavenly rest in Christ.
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Kontakion of the Martyr, Tone 3: With the staff given thee by God, O holy one, thou didst shepherd thy people in life-bearing pastures; and thou didst crush the invisible and untamed wild beasts beneath the feet of those who hymn thee. For all who find themselves amid misfortunes have thee as their fervent intercessor, O Mamas.
Ikos: Throughout all the world we hymn thee as an all-glorious martyr who joinest chorus with the angels in the heavens, O Mamas, who before wast manifestly suckled by a deer in the wilderness, and now, as a good shepherd, dost shepherd the rich people of the Lord with a staff of power, guiding them to a place of verdure, where the sweetness of paradise is truly to be found. For this cause thou didst forsake the world, that all may have thee as a fervent intercessor, O Mamas.
Ode 7, Irmos: Once, in Babylon, the fire stood in awe of the condescension of God; wherefore, the youths, dancing with joyous step in the furnace as in a meadow, chanted: Blessed art Thou, O God of our fathers!
Holy Great-Martyr, Mamas, pray to God for us.
The aspect of the furnace was full of the coolness which thou didst need; for, shut up within it for many days, O Mamas, thou wast not consumed, but didst cry out to the Creator: Blessed is the God of our fathers!
Holy Great-Martyr, Mamas, pray to God for us.
In the midst of the flame, O martyr, thou didst have angels as companions, dancing with thee and sharing in ineffable hymnody; and with them thou didst cry out to the Master of all: Blessed is the God of our fathers!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Issuing forth from the furnace, thou wast truly like a never-fading rose, like a most comely bridegroom departing from a bridal chamber, consuming the mindless, but illumining those who beheld thee, chanting: Blessed is the God of our fathers!
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Lo! the prophecy of the divinely eloquent one hath now been fulfilled! For thou didst contain God the Word in thy womb, O Virgin, and gavest birth to the Bestower of life: To Him do we all cry out: Blessed is the God of our fathers!
Ode 8, Irmos: Madly did the Chaldean tyrant heat the furnace sevenfold for the pious ones; but seeing them saved by a higher Power, he cried out to the Creator and Deliverer: ye children, bless; ye priests, hymn; ye people, exalt Him supremely for all ages!
Holy Great-Martyr, Mamas, pray to God for us.
Like Daniel thou didst shut the mouths of the wild beasts with a divine invocation of the Master, O glorious one; thou didst slay a serpent, didst put the ungodly to shame, and livest in gladness as a victor, chanting in the heavens: Ye priests, bless; ye people, exalt Him supremely for all ages!
Holy Great-Martyr, Mamas, pray to God for us.
Stony of heart, the all-iniquitous ones who worshiped stones cast stones at thee, O blessed martyr, as thou didst lift the sacred eyes of thy soul to the unhewn and unshakable Stone; and thou didst fervently chant: Ye priests, bless; ye people, exalt Him supremely for all ages!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
The Judge of the contest, extending the crown of victory from on high to thee as victor when thou hadst passed through thy good contest, O thou who art most rich, called thee to hasten to Him, running the honourable and sweet course, and chanting fervently: Ye priests, bless; ye people, exalt Him supremely for all ages!
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.Supernaturally thou didst conceive Him Who was begotten of the Father without mother, yet thou didst remain virgin even after giving birth, O pure one; for in thee doth the divine Union renew nature and restore the boundaries of existence. Wherefore, in Orthodox manner, we hymn thee for ever as the Theotokos who truly gave birth unto God.
Ode 9, Irmos: Heaven was filled with awe, and the ends of the earth were amazed, that God appeared to men in the flesh, and that thy womb became more spacious than the heavens. Wherefore, the ranks of angels and men magnify thee, the Theotokos.
Holy Great-Martyr, Mamas, pray to God for us.
Thou didst lay down thy life for thy Deliverer and didst ardently hasten to Him, splendidly adorned with the beauties of thy sacred struggles and wondrous contests, O most lauded warrior, thou beacon of the whole world and ornament of the Church.
Holy Great-Martyr, Mamas, pray to God for us.
Thou hast joined the angels, having acquired an angelic life on earth, and with them thou dost in praise joyously chant sacred hymnody to the Trinity with great laudation, O Mamas, deified by divine communion and enriched with glory unsurpassed.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
As thou hast boldness before God, O most blessed martyr, be thou mindful of those who joyously celebrate this thy divine festival and praise thine honourable and sacred suffering with pure faith; and save us from tempest, misfortune and trials.
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Who hath ever heard that among those on earth there was a mother who knew not man yet gave birth to a child, and that the Child to which she gave birth supernaturally was the unoriginate God Who is consubstantial with the all-unoriginate Father? O awesome mystery! O the divine fellowship whereby we have been united to God!
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Troparion, Tone 4: In his suffering, O Lord, Thy martyr Mamas received an imperishable crown from Thee, our God; for, possessed of Thy might, he set at nought the tyrants and crushed the feeble audacity of the demons. By his supplications save Thou our souls.
Canon I, the composition of John the Monk, in Tone VIII
Ode I, Irmos: Having traversed the water as though it were dry land, and escaped the evil of Egypt, the Israelite cried aloud: Let us chant unto our Deliverer and God!
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
Let us hymn the sacred forerunner, the prophet who appeared from the womb of a barren woman unto Him Who ineffably is borne in the Virgin’s womb.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
Having transcended the boundaries of nature, thou didst preserve the laws of righteousness, denouncing an iniquitous union, undaunted by the king’s cruelty.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
Nurtured by the law as with milk, thou didst oppose the vile adultery, sealing the legitimacy of lawful union like a seal of the law.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
The ranks of angels and men praise thee unceasingly, O Mother unwedded; for thou didst bear the Creator in thine arms as a babe.
Canon II, the composition of Andrew of Crete, in the same tone
Irmos:Let us chant unto Christ, Who overthrew the tyranny of Pharaoh in the sea, and led Israel over to dry land, for He hath been glorified forever.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
The beauteous lamb of the wilderness, the fruit of Zachariah, and the scion which Elizabeth bore beyond hope, commandeth the faithful to celebrate his honoured memory beforehand.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
O birthday full of blood! O abominable feast! For Herod mingled drunkenness with slaying, and his table was full of vile murder.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
O ye faithful, let us hymn the Baptist who denounced iniquitous Herod and endured decapitation, slain for his zeal for God.
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Thou gavest birth to the infinite Word of God, Who made His abode within thee, O pure Theotokos, and ineffably became incarnate of thee in twofold nature, as thine only Son.
Ode III, Irmos: O Lord, Fashioner of the vault of heaven and Creator of the Church: establish me in Thy love, O Summit of desire, confirmation of the faithful, Who alone lovest mankind.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
As mediator standing between the old and the new covenant of the Gospel preachings, thou didst denounce the iniquitous union of the tyrant, and, rejoicing, didst accept a glorious death.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
Instructed beforehand by her iniquitous mother, the girl said unto Herod, who was befuddled with drunkenness: “Give me the head of John on a platter, that I may present to my mother the gift she desireth!”
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
The shameless tyrant, unable to endure the reproof of thy God-bearing tongue, O glorious prophet, gave thy precious martyr’s head to the girl as a reward for her dancing.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Having made thy bodily abode within the Virgin, O Lord, Thou didst appear unto men, in that it was fitting that they behold Thee. Her didst Thou show to be the true Theotokos and the help of the faithful, O thou Who alone lovest mankind.
Irmos:None is as holy as the Lord, and none is as righteous as our God, Whom all creation doth hymn, singing: None is righteous save Thee, O Lord!
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
“None greater than John hath arisen among those born of women!” cried Christ the Truth; for in the womb the created being recognised the One Who had created him, and proclaimed Him with his mother’s voice.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
Having first pointed to the Lamb with his finger, he next denounced Herod with his tongue, and, lastly, poureth forth miracles upon us through his head, as from a created vessel.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Thy nativity was glorious, thy life blameless, and thy departure honourable, O Baptiser of Christ. Thy pointing to Christ was awesome, thy death was precious, and thy burial full of glory.
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
As God, O Only-begotten One, thou didst abase Thyself, that Thou mayest save those whom Thou hadst created, for whose sake Thou didst become man, incarnate of the Virgin; and transforming my whole nature, Thou hast brought it to Thy Father.
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
Sessional Hymn, Tone VIII, Spec. Mel. “Of the Wisdom…”: Having shone forth by the judgment of God from a barren woman, and loosed the bonds on the tongue of thy father, thou didst show forth the Sun Who illumineth thee as the morning-star, and to the people in the wilderness didst proclaim the Creator, the Lamb Who taketh away the sins of the world. Wherefore, thou didst denounce the king with zeal, O ever-memorable and most lauded John, and thine all-glorious head was cut off. Pray thou to Christ God, that He grant remission of offences unto those who with love celebrate thy holy memory. (Twice)
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Theotokion: All of us, the generations of men, call thee blessed, who, as a Virgin, alone among women, gavest birth without seed to God in the flesh; for the fire of the Godhead made its abode within thee, and thou didst nourish the Creator and Lord with milk as a babe. Wherefore, we, the generation of angels and men, glorify thine all-holy nativity as is meet and together cry out to thee: Entreat Christ God, that He grant remission of offences unto those who with faith worship thine all-holy birthgiving.
Ode IV, Irmos: Thou art my strength, O Lord, Thou art my power; Thou art my God, Thou art my joy, Who, without leaving the bosom of the Father, hast visited our lowliness. Wherefore, with the Prophet Habbakuk I cry unto Thee: Glory to Thy power, O Thou Who lovest mankind!
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
He who was unable to endure the censure of boldness and the forthrightness of piety, who incurred the retribution of the law, who was depraved by vile pleasures, having bound him who is enrolled immaterially in the heavenly choirs before the end, placed him under guard.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
The wretched voluptuary, sick with spiritually harmful drunkenness and the burning of fornication, having been bound by the dancing of a girl’s feet, became the murderer of the prophet; for he conceived drunkenness, the mother of fornication, and begat grievous iniquity.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
Of a truth, in thee the divine voice did not prove false; for thou art the greatest among the prophets, in that thou wast vouchsafed to prophesy from thy mother’s womb, as a fœtus not fully formed, and seeing God the Word Whom thou hadst prophesied, thou didst baptize Him in the body.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Thou art the boast of the faithful, O thou who knewest not wedlock; thou art the intercessor and refuge of Christians, their bulwark and haven. For thou bearest entreaties to thy Son, O most immaculate one, and savest from misfortunes those who with faith and love know thee to be the pure Theotokos.
Irmos: O Word, with divine vision the prophet perceived Thee Who wast to become incarnate of the Theotokos alone, the mountain overshadowed; and with fear he glorified Thy power.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
Thou didst make clear to us the kingdom of Christ, didst show the people the paths of repentance, and didst denounce the iniquitous Herod, O wise John, thou great preacher.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
Unable to bear reproof, Herod was overcome with wrath, jealousy and bitterness, O Baptist; and he marked the day of his birth by cutting off thy head, O preacher of Christ.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
Be glad, O Baptist, that thy soul may make merry; for here thou didst denounce the ungodly Herod, while in hades thou didst preach to the souls, saying: “Our salvation draweth nigh!”
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
The earth marvelleth at thy life, O John; heaven proclaimeth thine unjust murder; and the Church, chanting, declareth the multitude of thy virtues.
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Born of the immaculate Virgin Mother, O Thou Who hast put on my whole nature save for sin, Thou didst preserve her pure even after she gave birth.
Ode V, Irmos: Wherefore hast Thou turned Thy face from me, O Light never-waning? And why hath a strange darkness covered me, wretch that I am? But turn me, and guide my steps to the light of Thy commandments, I pray.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
Inspired by the enmity of her mother, the yet more savage offspring of a savage lioness demanded as the price of her foul demonic dancing the head of the forerunner and herald, which the wild beasts themselves reverenced in the wilderness.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
O Thine ineffable and unapproachable judgments, O Thou Who lovest mankind! For the vile girl won with her dancing him who, while yet in his mother’s womb, was a receptacle of the Holy Spirit, and grew in chastity and purity.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
When he who with love and ardor preferred his intercourse with iniquity, he permitted the murder of the prophet to be added to his birthday drinking and with love of pleasure mingled a cup full of the holy blood of the prophet.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Possessing maternal boldness before thy Son, O all-pure one, disdain not thought of kinship with us, we pray, for thee alone do Christians set before the Master as a merciful cleansing.
Irmos:O Lord Who by divine knowledge brought the ends of the earth into the light out of the night of ignorance, enlighten me with the dawning of Thy love for mankind.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
The forerunner, the lamb of the wilderness and treasure of the whole world, prepareth a spiritual banquet for us today.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
O John, thou didst denounce Herod, the cruel lover of Herodias, the slave of lust and violator of the laws.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Herodias danceth, and John is bound and slain. O the drunkenness of Herod! O the mindlessness of his soul!
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Rejoice, O pure one, thou divine mountain from whence the Stone was quarried without aid of men’s hands, thou mountain of curds which provided God the Word with a body!
Ode VI, Irmos: Cleanse me, O Saviour, for many are my transgressions; and lead me up from the abyss of evils, I pray, for to Thee have I cried, and Thou hast hearkened to me, O God of my salvation.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
Bringing tribulation upon thyself for the commandments of the law, O blessed one, with reproofs thou didst chastise the one who was committing iniquity; for thou wast not a reed shaken by the winds of the enemy.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
Thy head, dripping with the blood of thy slaughter, was offered as a prize for a lustful display, but continued to denounce Herod as one who committed incest, even after thine end.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
Clad in camels’ hair while in the wilderness, thou didst live as splendidly as a king therein; and bearing royal adornment therein, thou didst gain dominion over the passions.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
May we be delivered from grievous transgressions through thy supplications, O pure Theotokos, and may we receive divine radiance from the Son of God Who was ineffably incarnate of thee, O all-pure one.
Irmos: As Thou didst deliver the prophet from the uttermost abyss, O Christ God, in that Thou lovest mankind deliver me from my sins, and direct my life, I beseech Thee.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
Honouring the decapitation of thine honoured and most praised head, O forerunner of Christ, we glorify thine ever-laudable and universal memory, O all-blessed one.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
O the vile feast! O the bitter birthday! O the drunkenness of the abominable and iniquitous Herod! For he was held fast by iniquity and, reviled, he was persuaded to slay the prophet.
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
The new Egyptian woman, dancing wantonly in the midst of the feast, asked for the head which had denounced her mother, the paramour of Herod.The Son of the Virgin is now shown to have first been the Son of the Father, Who is not understood to be different in any fashion from the visible Son; and He hath remained One, perfect in both His natures.
Kontakion, Tone V: The glorious beheading of the forerunner was part of God’s dispensation, that he might proclaim to those in hades the coming of the Saviour. Let Herodias, who demanded the iniquitous murder, therefore lament; for she loved not the law of God nor the age of life, but rather this false and transitory one.
Ikos:The birthday of Herod was shown to all to be unholy when, into the midst of those who feasted, the head of the faster was borne as though it were food. Joy was joined to grief and laughter transformed into bitter lamentation. For, bearing the head of the Baptist on a platter, the girl entered in among them all, as she said. And because of Herod’s oath lamentation fell upon all who reclined there with the king. She did not gladden them, nor even Herod himself. For he said: They sorrowed not with true grief, but with that which is feigned and transitory.
Ode VII, Irmos: Once, in Babylon, the fire stood in awe of the condescension of God; wherefore, the youths, dancing with joyous step in the furnace, as in a meadow, chanted: Blessed art Thou, O God of our fathers!
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
Armed with lustful desire and grievous drunkenness, striking against the Baptiser of Christ, the immovable tower of abstinence and indestructible city of chastity, the iniquitous Herod was shattered.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
Her mind beguiled by the suasions of her mother, she who was the pupil of the devil was neither afraid nor ashamed, nor in anywise reluctant to bear thy precious head shamelessly on a platter.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
Sent forth like an angel, thou didst shine forth like a beacon; as a prophet thou didst preach Christ Who appeared as the Lamb of God; and as a martyr thou wast beheaded, proclaiming Him to the dead in hades.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Delivered from the ancient fall and condemnation by thy birthgiving, O Virgin Mother, we ever glorify thee as the manifest cause of our liberation, with thy Son Who gave Himself as deliverance for us.
Irmos:O Lord God of our fathers, Who in the beginning founded the earth and established the heavens by Thy word: blessed art Thou forever!
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
Preaching the law of God, John was not afraid to teach the impious and iniquitous Herod to be chaste; for the fire of sin burned within him.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
O the head which manifestly set forth the law and cried to Herod from out of the ground: “It is not fit for thee, who committest iniquity, to wear the purple robe of kingship as a garment of tyranny!”
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
The iniquitous Herod, armed with vile weaponry, committed an iniquitous deed with an oath, drunk at the banquet he was holding for himself.
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Though incorporeal, the Creator of all became immutably incarnate; and being not subject to time, He was known to enter time through the Virgin, remaining as He had been, and becoming what He had not been, without confusion.
Ode VIII, Irmos: Madly did the Chaldæan tyrant heat the furnace sevenfold for the pious ones; but, beholding them saved by a higher Power, he cried out to the Creator and Deliverer: Ye children, bless; ye priests, hymn; ye people, exalt Him supremely for all ages!
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
Going before Thy nativity and divine suffering, in the nethermost parts of the earth John, as the voice of the Word, becometh, through the sword, the prophet and herald of Thy coming there, crying: Exalt Christ supremely for all ages: ye dead as Life-bestower; ye blind, as Giver of light; ye captives, as your Deliverer!
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
He who from a barren woman preceded the Offspring of the Virgin hath now, through the cutting off of his head, become the precursor of the voluntary crucifixion of the Creator of all, crying to those in hades: Ye children, bless; ye priests, hymn; ye people, exalt Him supremely for all ages!
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
When thy body was deprived of thy head, O forerunner, thy masterly soul was parted from thy flesh; but the divinity of Emmanuel was never separated from his flesh, and not a bone of God the Master was broken. Wherefore, we exalt Him supremely for all ages.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
O all-pure Virgin, bearer of the Lord, by thy merciful entreaty cleanse thou the wounds and sores of my soul, and raise me up who am fallen. Save, O save me, the prodigal, O most immaculate one! For thou art mine intercessor and help, who alone art pure and blessed for all ages.
Irmos: The Lord Who was glorified on the holy mountain, and by the fire in the bush revealed to Moses the mystery of the Ever-virgin, hymn ye and exalt Him supremely for all ages!
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
Him who proclaimed the coming of Christ to those in hades, exclaiming with faith: “The Lord of glory cometh, loosing men’s pangs!”, let us exalt supremely for all ages.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
Herod imprisoned thee in a dungeon, O John, thou second Elijah, and, having bound thee with iron chains, slew thee, the faithful and sacred proclaimer of repentance and the kingdom.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
O feast full of blood! O food mingled with murder! O banquet replete with vainglory! O the inhumanity and vile murder of the iniquitous Herod!
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Wholly above and wholly below, in the bosom of the Father and with Thy Mother, wholly God and wholly man by nature, One in hypostasis yet dual in nature art Thou, O Merciful One.
Ode IX, Irmos: Every ear trembleth to hear of the ineffable condescension of God, for the Most High willingly came down even to the flesh, becoming man through the Virgin’s womb. Wherefore we, the faithful, magnify the all-pure Theotokos.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
The evil horde and the devil, its commander, were afraid of thy divinely eloquent tongue which proclaimed Christ, O prophet, and through the agency of a wanton girl prevailed upon Herod to cut off thy head; but we magnify thee as the baptiser of Christ.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
The valley of humble nature hath been exalted, and the hill of deadly pride hath been laid low; for the voice of the Light crying in the wilderness hath cried out in the dwellings of hades: “Lift up, ye gates, for the King of all shall enter!”
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
Human passions tremble, and the demons flee in fear from the overshadowing of the grace given thee by God. But deliver thy flock, which ever magnifieth thee with faith, O forerunner of the Lord, from temptation by both.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
Draw Thy bow, and prosper and reign, O Son of the Mother of God, subduing the Moslems who wage war against us and granting victory to our Orthodox hierarchs over all heresies, through the entreaties of her who gave birth to Thee, O Word of God.
Irmos:Thy birthgiving, O Ever-virgin, which was revealed to the law-giver on the mountain in the fire and the bush, for the salvation of us, the faithful, do we magnify with unceasing hymnody.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
Again doth Jezebel exult over Elijah; again doth the Egyptian woman seek after Joseph; for the vile Herodias hath now been seen to devise the death of the prophet and baptiser of the Saviour.
Holy and Great John, Forerunner of the Lord, pray to God for us.
Beheaded by Herod, O John, thou wast sent to the souls in hades, to proclaim Him Who had come to save all of the faithful who had died, from the time of Adam on.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
O John, honoured martyr of the Lord, lampstand of the Light, voice of the Word, herald of the Lamb of God, lamb of the wilderness: pray that those who hymn thee be saved.
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Thou alone among women wast shown to be a virgin even after giving birth; thou alone among women wast shown forth as the Theotokos; thou alone hast loosed the pangs of Eve and caused the primal curse to wither away.
Troparion, Tone II: The memory of the righteous is celebrated with hymns of praise, but the Lord’s witness is sufficient for thee, O forerunner. Thou wast truly shown to be more honourable than the prophets, in that thou wast counted worthy to baptise in the streams Him Whom thou didst proclaim. Wherefore, having suffered, rejoicing, for the truth, even unto those in hades thou didst proclaim God, Who had manifested Himself in the flesh, Who taketh away the sin of the world and granteth us great mercy.
Dear brothers and sisters, a blessed and joyful feast of the Hawaiian-Iveron Icon of the Mother of God. 
Dear brothers and sisters,
Dear brothers and sisters, 
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
In His Divine Humility and sacrificial, self-effacing love, God’s salvific plan – of which the serpent was warned – required both sonship and motherhood: a Divine-Human birth in the fulness (not simply the appearance) of human nature and existence; a Saviour born in the flesh as the New Adam, and from the womb of the New Eve.
Dear brothers and sisters, 
Greetings for the feast of the Holy Martyr Mamas: a shining beacon of holiness and complete abandonment to God, despite his young years.
The Holy Great Martyr Mamas was born in Paphlagonia, Asia Minor in the third century of pious and illustrious parents, the Christians Theodotus and Rufina. The parents of the saint were arrested by the pagans for their open confession of their faith and locked up in prison in Caesarea in Cappadocia.
