As we celebrate St David’s day according to the Orthodox calendar, I greet you all with the feast, wishing you every joy, praying for God to bless you in fulfilling the saint’s words: ‘Be joyful, keep the faith, and do the little things…’
It is in doing the seemingly little things that we remain steadfast in our faith and are then able to do the big things.
Real Christianity is not an impressionistic picture painted in approximate, broad and wide brush strokes, but one in which our faith is realised in the small details of living the Gospel in our daily lives, in our families and communities.
This doesn’t mean that there is necessarily something warm and cosey about these little things, as they often challenge us precisely because they are not vague, but exact, close-up and discernible – in action and in omission!
Common parlance likes to say that ‘the devil is in the details’. Maybe, but so too is FAITH, and St David knew that.
Gwnewch y pethau bychain!
This Friday will see the arrival of the wonderworking Kursk-Root icon in Cardiff, and it will be greeted at St John’s Church in Canton for a moleben with the akathist at 19:00.
We ask the faithful to be ready and waiting and not to be late. Treat the reception as the meeting of the Mother of God, who blesses us with the visit of her icon, through which the faithful have been consoled and healed since it was discovered amongst the oaks of Kursk in 1259. The moleben should commence at 19:00, so please try be in church by 18:45.
Church set-up will be from 18:00, and Father Luke will be there, which may allow time for some confessions before the greeting of the icon.
After the moleben and veneration, the icon will proceed to Cheltenham for a service on Saturday, and then to Telford.
Given the travels of the clergy, the only opportunity for confession with me will be during the day on Thursday on the way to London, so I need to receive confession requests NOW.
I also ask that confessions are precise and succinct, as Deacon Mark and I have to go to London on Thursday, to allow an early departure from London on Friday. This is also true of Sunday confessions now that we are celebrating the Liturgy of St Basil and cannot stall service times. This is the only opportunity in the week for those travelling from England, and we need to be able to fit in as many confessions as possible.
Contrary to what was said in church, I need confession requests for by TOMORROW night: otetzmark@hotmail.com
As announced in church on Sunday, the Great Canon of St Andrew is being chanted in Llanelli on the first four evenings of this week in the Chapel of St David and St Nicholas at 19:00.
Additionally, through the good offices of Father Dean and Georgina, we will chant Great Compline with the Great Canon in the church of St Mary Butetown on Wednesday and Thursday, at 19:00.
On Friday, we will continue our catechesis sessions for learners and ‘refreshers’, preceded by a moleben to St Theodore and the blessing of Kolyva. As on past Fridays, this will be in the parish room at St Mary’s at 19:00.
Saturday, being the second of the month, sees us head to Cheltenham to celebrate the Divine Liturgy, with confessions from 09:15 and the Hours at 10:00, followed by Liturgy as soon as confessions have finished. Location: United Reformed Church, Deep Street, Cheltenham. GL52 3AW.
Will all requiring confessions email me by Thursday please, with Thursday and Friday giving opportunity for confession, and Saturday, if needed? Any Cardiff parishioners heading to Cheltenham may confess there, after Liturgy, in preparation for Sunday.
With Sunday being the Feast of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, may I ask you all to bring an icon, so that we may make a procession / krestny khod around the church, at the end of Liturgy (weather permitting) to celebrate the restoration of the holy icons in 843.
Services will be in St John’s at the usual time, with confessions from 10:15, and the Hours and Liturgy at 11:00. As we will be celebrating the longer Liturgy of St Basil, it is important that we seek to avoid delay. We understand that those coming distances are unable to confess during the week, which makes it imperative that local parishioners confess before Sunday morning.
During Great Lent, priority will be given to those travelling from outside Wales; those travelling from West Wales; and those who have no possibility of weekday or Saturday confessions.
Please communicate with the clergy, so that we are able to make arrangements so that nobody is excluded.
The last notice is the reminder that the Wonderworking Kursk-Root Icon will be making a brief but very welcome visit to Cardiff on Friday 18th March, with a moleben being celebrated in St John’s at 19:00. We will hold a moleben in Cheltenham the following morning, before the Cardiff clergy take the icon to Telford. The visit may be short, but what a joy it will be to honour the Mother of God by receiving her grace-filled icon.
Now, for the head-masterish Lenten bit:
All should be following the Lenten Fast, whether communing or not, and not following a regimen of their own making. If there are personal obstacles to fasting, they need to be discussed with the priest or spiritual father.
If the fast has been broken this MUST be confessed. There is no self-absolution.
Before communing, the Sunday Fast is to be TOTAL, unless blessed to be otherwise for whatever reason. Despite the late hour of Liturgy and communion, this includes drinking. Again, if there is a problem, talk to the clergy, who are sympathetic and realistic. Again, self-given dispensations are to be avoided, and the usual one is simply defeatism, human weakness, and a self-justified ‘need’.
The Divine Liturgy, is not a ‘drive-by’ event, and unless living at a distance, those communing should be part of the week-by-week life of the Church. If you are local and have not been attending for some time, it is necessary to become part of the worshipping community again before a blessing to receive the Holy Mysteries will be given. This is not intended for our parishioners travelling from England, some of whom cannot make the journey too often, but for those on the doorstep.
According to our fasting traditions, we do not simply turn to sea-food as a Lenten larder. Octopus stew, lobster, crab and tiger prawns are hardly ascetical – whatever may be thought in Mediterranean climes about creatures lacking back-bones This may be normal elsewhere in the Orthodox world, but apart from Lazarus Saturday when ikra/caviar is permitted, and fish on the feast of the Annunciation and Palm Sunday – our Lenten diet should be VEGAN. For those with good reason, economia is applied, but this is given by the Church, not by self-determination and self-dispensation.
Olive oil and wine are permitted on weekends as a consolation with which we celebrate the Sabbath and the Lord’s Day.
Rather than having forty days of dietary substitution (potentially expensive), adults should all be eating as simply and as little as little as possible, unless this is not appropriate due to personal circumstances.
Instead of spending lots of money on substitute foods in the health-food shop or ‘free-from’ aisle of the supermarket, eat cabbage, kasha and potatoes and give the money to support homeless and destitute refugees.
But remember… it is far more important to pray more than eat less! Without this being a season of spiritual struggle and prayer, dietary fasting will have no meaning.
Wishing you all a good struggle during the season.
Here we are on the eve of the Great Fast, at the end of a week which would have normally had a festive character, but this year, few of us have even given a thought to Maslenitsa.
The life of the past week has been blurred by the tears of our communities, and the urgency of prayer has banished other concerns, as our supplications for the suffering Ukrainian people have been focussed by the personal lives and plights of the family members and friends of our parishioners: in Kiev, in Kharkov, in Mariupol, in Odessa and throughout Ukraine.
Doubts may enter our heads in the face of violence, tragedy and suffering, as we question the effectiveness or usefulness of our individual prayers in the geo-political turmoil of the present.
The spider’s web of doubt is the snare to catch us and stop us praying; to stop us struggling; to stop us turning Godwards; at a time when we should struggle through our human weakness by praying as we have never prayed before.
Each of us should pray as if we were the only soul in the world interceding for the Ukrainian people; and each of us should pray as if the whole weight of the Ukrainian land was on our shoulders.
When we pray with such zeal, and urgency, when our prayers are joined with those who pray in Ukraine and throughout the world, then a truly unimaginable force joins earth to heaven, and the power of this prayer is also manifested in how it can change each of us.
The human capacity to love is immense, but so too is the human capacity to hate, and in circumstances like those of today, it is so easy for hate to blind our spiritual eyes, and to deafen our ears to Christ’s command to love.
Hate dehumanises, and consequentially causes us to dehumanise, so that we no longer see the image and likeness of God in others, and it is in this dehumanised blindness and deafness that human beings simply become ‘collateral damage’.
The passions may boil and rise, so that we are subtly but effectively penetrated by the same dark, sinful forces manifest in the violent actions of others. We simply hide our violence and murderous feelings within our thoughts and in a darkening and hardening heart, in which the Light of Christ is smothered by hate, vengeance and intolerance.
As we see great suffering, as strong feelings and reactions are stirred within us, in praying for all caught up in the present tragedy, we must surrender ourselves to God, to allow Him to take us on what may seem an impossible journey to forgiveness, mercy and compassion, as the present events and our fallen instincts pull us in contrary directions.
We must heed the holy fathers in the strict custody of the mind and thoughts, knowing and understanding how easy it is to be drawn away from the path of prayer by what may seem justified and necessary thought, fact finding and analysis – when the greatest, most-powerful and most-loving thing we can do is to abandon ourselves to the Lord in prayer.
If we are honest, we are sometimes reluctant to pray, knowing that prayer will challenge our emotional and psycho-spiritual status quo, and may take us somewhere we do not wish to go or be, when we simply want our decided opinions and adopted position confirmed and approved, even if they are at odds with the radical and challenging demands of the Gospel.
As we see violence and aggression, we face the Gospel-challenge to recognise and affirm that every human being is created in the image and likeness of God, and that our shared humanity is the robe of God Incarnate.
Prayer is vital for this realisation, and we must pray recognising that prayer is the place and time in which we must surrender to God in the struggle not to hate; in the struggle to refrain from anger and violent thoughts; in the struggle to understand how it is possible to forgive inhumanity and tyranny, when we see indescribable suffering and cruelty.
We must pray, believing in the power of prayer and believing that faith may move mountains, but also pray so that Christ may work in us, making the seemingly impossible possible, and for the power of the Holy Spirit to enter and abide in us as the Comforter, the Giver of Life and Treasury of Blessings – to cleanse us of every impurity and grant us the spiritual gifts to counter anger, hate, intolerance, and violent and murderous thoughts.
Even as the war rages in Ukraine, the age-old cosmic battle between good and evil potentially rages within each of us, as the devil seeks to steal our souls through anger, hate, the inner lust for vengeance, and the clamorous scream for retribution in a rebellion against Christ and the counter-intuitive upside-downess of the Gospel of love.
So, as we begin the Fast, through prayer, we must seek the strength and capacity to love those who hate; to be merciful to the merciless; to forgive the unforgiving; to be gentle to the cruel; to face cruelty with compassion; to fight hate with tolerance; to face evil with good; to make our hearts overflow with God’s superabundant mercy.
Yet again, I think of the much-repeated and often-quoted words of Abba Isaac the Syrian:
“What is a merciful heart? It is a heart which is burning with a loving charity for the whole of creation, for men, for the birds, for the beasts, for the demons – for all creatures. He who has such a heart cannot see or call to mind a creature without his eyes being filled with tears by reason of the immense compassion which seizes his heart; a heart which is so softened and can no longer bear to hear or learn from others of any suffering, even the smallest pain, being inflicted upon any creature. This is why such a man never ceases to pray also for the animals, for the enemies of truth, and for those who do him evil, that they may be preserved and purified. He will pray even for the lizards and reptiles, moved by the infinite pity which reigns in the hearts of those who are becoming united with God.”
These beautiful words are closely mirrored by Dostoevsky, on the lips of Father Zosima in The Brothers Karamazov:
“Love a man even in his sin, for that is the semblance of Divine Love and is the highest love on earth. Love all God’s creation, the whole of it and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you have perceived it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day, and you will come at last to love the world with an all-embracing love.”
These words challenge us to the podvig of struggling to love by allowing Christ to love in us and through us, no matter how impossible it may seem for us to love and forgive.
On this Sunday of Forgiveness, many will be shaking their heads asking how they can possibly forgive; how to love, how to even consider loving enemies, and how God can expect us to do so.
The answer is for us to abandon ourselves to God as we immerse ourselves in prayer, so that by His working in us, the seemingly impossible may become not only possible, but a reality, and that like St Isaac we may feel love and compassion for the whole creation, even the offender and transgressor, who has been ensnared by the enemy of mankind.
Bereft of love, we must surrender ourselves to God, bowing down in fervent prayer and asking God to kindle love within our cold hearts, so that they may not only be warmed, but become enflamed with His love, that we may seek God in all things and all places, and see God in all things and all places, no matter how ugly, how broken, how dysfunctional or dangerous.
We must surrender ourselves to God and seek to begin the journey to love and forgiveness, holding our hands out to Christ when we are sinking into the depths that threaten to swallow us, so that He may lead us hand-in-hand over the waves to safety.
Brothers and sisters, let us be united in prayer during the Great Fast, as we have been united in the past sorrowful week, weaving our prayers together as an offering to the Lord, and in these prayers, let us beg Him to help us to forgive and love – becoming mirrors of the great, selfless outpouring of His mercy on mankind, heeding the unequivocal challenge of the Gospel:
“For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
… words that are not easy, but the key to the Kingdom of Heaven.
If we believe that Christ is risen from the dead; if we believe that he changed water into wine; if we believe that He healed the blind and deaf, the possessed, the halt and lame; if we believe that He walked upon the waves; if we believe that He raised the dead… we must believe that He can lead each of us to forgiveness and love, against all the odds and every obstacle, and that as the Creator He is able to make us anew and renew a right spirit within us.
As we enter the Great Fast, let prayer be the path to this renewal and the radiant reflection of Christ, in each and every one of us.
Dame Edith Sitwell reciting her beautiful religious poem “Still Falls the Rain (the Raids, 1940, Night and Dawn)”.
Still falls the Rain – Dark as the world of man, black as our loss – Blind as the nineteen hundred and forty nails Upon the Cross.
Still falls the Rain With a sound like the pulse of the heart that is changed to the hammer-beat In the Potter’s Field, and the sound of the impious feet
On the Tomb: Still falls the Rain
In the Field of Blood where the small hopes breed and the human brain Nurtures its greed, that worm with the brow of Cain.
Still falls the Rain At the feet of the Starved Man hung upon the Cross. Christ that each day, each night, nails there, have mercy on us – On Dives and on Lazarus: Under the Rain the sore and the gold are as one.
Still falls the Rain – Still falls the Blood from the Starved Man’s wounded Side: He bears in His Heart all wounds, – those of the light that died, The last faint spark In the self-murdered heart, the wounds of the sad uncomprehending dark, The wounds of the baited bear – The blind and weeping bear whom the keepers beat On his helpless flesh… the tears of the hunted hare.
Still falls the Rain – Then – O Ile leape up to my God: who pulles me doune – See, see where Christ’s blood streames in the firmament: It flows from the Brow we nailed upon the tree
Deep to the dying, to the thirsting heart That holds the fires of the world, – dark-smirched with pain As Caesar’s laurel crown.
Then sounds the voice of One who like the heart of man Was once a child who among beasts has lain – “Still do I love, still shed my innocent light, my Blood, for thee.”
Despite the pain and sorrow that each present day brings, we rejoice that as a parish we can come together in unity and prayer, supporting our parishioners whose family and friends are directly involved in the current war in Ukraine.
We have been praying, and will continue to pray the canon in honour of the Protecting Veil of the Mother of God, commending the whole world to the care of Our Lady, who is ‘more spacious than the heavens’, knowing that beneath her omophorion there is a safe-place and refuge for all – and in our ROCOR parish, that is Ukrainians, Russians, Moldovans, Romanians, Belarusians, and British members of the faithful.
Just as the knights and warriors of previous centuries, took off their swords when entering the house of God, so we leave our geo-politics and our passports at the door of the church, as we unite to pray for the suffering, the wounded and dying, the terrified, the injured and maimed, the hungry, the homeless and destitute.
In Church we should only have one I.D. through the water of baptism and the chrismal ‘seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit’: we are simply Christians, who bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
We pray for all leaders; for all who make the ‘big’ decisions of the world; for the Lord and His Most Holy Mother to bring the light of reason and understanding to the powerful and equally to the powerless; as our prayer is offered with an urgency and a fervour that we may have never felt before, and with compassion, forgiveness, humility, and love.
“For prayer our teacher is the Lord Himself, but we must seek to humble our souls. He who prays aright has the peace of God in his soul. The man of prayer should feel tenderly towards every living thing. The man of prayer loves all men and has compassion for all, for the grace of the Holy Spirit has taught him love.”
Given the severity of tomorrow’s weather forecast and the cancellation of train services, our catechesis session and confessions are cancelled.
Deacon Mark would face an hour-long drive in each direction in dangerous weather, and my journey to Cardiff would be made difficult, if not impossible.
Confessions will now be heard at Fr Deacon Mark’s office on Saturday, beginning at 16:30, and I will contact those who have emailed requests, giving times.
We do not want parishioners to take unecessary risk, and look forward to returning to St Mary Butetown to resume our catechesis and discussion on Friday 25th February at 19:00, having heard confessions in church from 18:00.
“Let the gates of heaven be opened today; for the unoriginate Word of the Father, receiving a beginning under time, without abandoning His divinity, is of His own will borne by His Virgin Mother into the temple of the law as a babe forty days old. And Symeon taketh Him in his arms, crying: ‘Let Thy servant depart, O Master, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation! O Lord Who hast come into the world to save the human race, glory be to Thee!”
(Doxasticon of the feast on “Lord, I have cried…”)
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Dear brothers and sisters, Greetings as we celebrate the feast of the Meeting of the Lord, and the Synaxis of St Symeon the God-Receiver and the Righteous Prophetess, Anna.
As we celebrate the Meeting, we are struck by the quietness, we might even say the outward ordinariness of the background events of this feast.
A husband and wife of rather different ages, take their child to the Temple where the required purification rituals are performed for the mother, and where the child, as the first-born, is redeemed with the prescribed sacrificial offerings for those of poor means.
There would have been countless other families that day, performing these rituals after the birth of children, and amidst the solemnity of Temple-worship with its liturgical prayer and sacrifices, there would be little to draw the eyes of anyone to these parents, including the Virgin-Mother, her spouse and their Divine-Child.
The priests and Levites went about their liturgical business, totally ignorant that Christ who is Yahweh, the Eternal-Logos and their Creator had been carried into the precincts of the Temple. There was no triumphant greeting with the sounding of trumpets, and the Temple choirs chanting alleluias with the accompaniment of cymbals. No. The Messiah entered the Temple unnoticed and unknown.
And yet, the eyes of the righteous Symeon were drawn straight to this baby, for Whom he had waited decade after decade of his long life – awaiting the moment in which he could finally say that his eyes had seen salvation in the fragility of a baby only forty days old.
He knew that this salvation had been long prepared by Almighty God, and that the child he took in his arms was not only the glory of the Lord’s chosen people, Israel, but was born as the Light to enlighten the nations of the world outside the Abrahamic Covenant and the Law of Moses.
The prophetess Anna, having encountered the Messiah, “spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.”
How many baby boys had Symeon encountered and looked upon in the Temple during his long life, awaiting the prompting of the Holy Spirit to open the luminous eye of his heart, so that he finally could say, “At last… I have seen the Christ” ?
But – without the God-inspired testimony of St Luke, this theophany in which the two elderly righteous-ones recognised Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah, the witness and testimony of Symeon and Anna could have been lost – such is its quietness, at odds with the prophetic fulfilment, forestalling the testimony of the Forerunner and the self-revelation of the Lord’s ministry before His Passion and Resurrection.
The quietness of this theophany, is one that should prompt us to look into our own hearts, recognising that knowledge of theological facts is meaningless without understanding and illumination by the Holy Spirit, which make it possible for us to penetrate the depth of God’s love revealed in Christ, and the spiritual reality of our discipleship as His children and heirs of His promise; and, for each of us, the sanctuary of our heart should be the place where the divine-encounter of Syneon is mirrored.
Luke’s narrative of the Meeting of the Lord is a Gospel of true gnosis, but that knowledge can only come through living in prayer and contemplation.
This is how illiterate and totally uneducated men and women have, through the centuries, declared the deepest eternal theological truths, revealed to them by the Spirit of Truth, whom we ask to “come and enlighten us” each time we pray.
We may read volume after volume of theological writings, dogmatics, apologetics or canons, but the real encounter with Christ as the living Truth, only comes through understanding and illumination, and that very understanding and illumination ordinarily comes only through active spiritual living, in prayer, fasting and realising the Gospel in our lives – and above all through the Grace of God.
Though we are – of necessity – in the world, we must endeavour not to be chained and defined by what is worldly. We must rather be constantly seeking the heavenly, the holy, and eternal, placing our search for the face of Christ (in the Gospels, in the life of the Church, in our neighbours) above the entertainments and distractions of the world, which we have been called to put aside in the waters of baptism, where we should have died to the world and put on Christ.
Symeon and Anna had already abandoned their ties to the world, to externally commune with the Lord in the precincts of the Temple, and to internally commune with Him in the temple of the heart. From this communion came their recognition of the Lord, and in this feast we encounter them as true theologians, who prayerfully contemplated Truth, and were made complete by physically and spiritually gazing upon the face of the Incarnate-God.
Upon seeing the Saviour, St Symeon was ready to ask the Lord to let him depart this life, as he had received everything he desiredand needed in the momentary encounter with Christ.
If only this was true of us, and that knowing the Lord and being joined to Him through Baptism, being healed by Him in the Mystery of Repentance, and partaking of Him in the Mystical Supper was enough for us: for in these Holy Mysteries, each of us can say to the Lord, “mine eyes have seen Thy salvation…”
Inspired by Symeon and Anna, let us strive to struggle to live spiritually, as though we were already citizens of heaven, so that our spiritual eyes may be opened, that we may humbly and quietly struggle for the true knowledge and true understanding of inner-revelation.
Though the responsibilities and pressures of our lives may not retreat, their place in our lives may be radically changed as we seek the face of our Lord, who is our salvation and life; whose light may lead us through every uncertainty and sorrow, because He is all we need in the profound simplicity and quietness of Christian-living.
On this coming Tuesday, we will observe the Feast of the Meeting of the Lord in the Temple with the celebration of the Hours and the Divine Liturgy in the Lady Chapel of St John’s Church, Canton.
Since the recent reordering, the Lady Chapel has reflected our parish presence in St John’s, with icons in situ throughout the week, and in its dimensions remind us of the Little Oratory at Newman Hall, where Orthodox services were celebrated until the end of last summer.
I hope that we may begin to celebrate weekday feasts in the Lady Chapel, and then enjoy social time together.
The Hours will be chanted at 9:30, followed by the Divine Liturgy and the traditional Blessing of Candles, should parishioners wish to take advantage of this ancient tradition of the feast, remembered as Candlemas in the British Isles.
Luke 18:9-14.And He spoke also this parable unto certain men who trust in themselves that they are righteous, and despise others. “Two men went up unto the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. And the Pharisee stood and prayed thus to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like the rest of mankind, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or as this publican. I fast twice in the week. I pay tithe of all that I gain.’ But the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up even his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful unto me the sinner.’ I tell you that this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For every one that exalts himself shall be abased, and he that abases himself shall be exalted.”
This weekend, we begin the season of the Lenten Triodion with the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, with the canon of the Sunday posted here for praying outside the service of the Temple.
THE CANON OF THE PUBLICAN AND THE PHARISEE, FROM THE TRIODION:
Ode I, Irmos: When Israel walked on foot in the sea as on dry land, * on seeing their pursuer Pharaoh drowned, * they cried: * Let us sing to God * a song of victory.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
By parables Christ hath led all mankind to a life of amendment: Raising up the Publican from humbleness, he showed the Pharisee who exalted himself to be humbled.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
From humility cometh an exalted honour, but from pride we see a grievous fall; let us, then, strive to emulate the good actions of the Publican, and hate the evil ones of the Pharisee.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
Every good deed is rendered useless through pride, while every evil is cleansed by humility. Wherefore, let us in faith embrace humility, and utterly abhor the ways of vainglory.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
The King of all, wishing His own disciples to be humble-minded, taught them to emulate the sighing of the Publican and his humility.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
I groan as did the Publican, and with never-silent lamentations O Lord I now draw near to Thy loving compassion, do Thou be merciful to me who doth now pass through life in humility.
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
O lady, I dedicate to thee my understanding and my counsel, my expectation, my body, soul and spirit. From grievous adversaries and temptations, and from every threat to come, do thou deliver and save me.
Ode III, Irmos: There is none as holy as Thou, * O Lord my God, * who hast exalted the horn of The faithful O good One, * and strengthened us upon the rock * of Thy confession.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
From the dung-hill of the passions the humble are lifted up on high, while from the height of the virtues the high-minded suffer a grievous fall: let us flee such an image of wickedness.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
Vainglory doth nullify the riches of righteousness, whereas humility scattereth a multitude of passions; bestowing this upon us, show us to be like the Publican O Saviour.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
Like the Publican let us also beat our breasts and cry out in compunction, “O God cleanse us sinners,” that like him we may receive forgiveness.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
Zealously, O ye faithful, let us increase in meekness, and with humility let us live out the days of our lives in suffering of the heart, weeping and prayer, that we may receive forgiveness from God.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Let us cast away, ye faithful, the high-minded boasting and hurtful pride of the Pharisee, and his most wicked, repugnant to God, malice.
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
In thee, my only refuge, have I set my trust: let me not fall away from my good hope, but grant me thy protection, O pure One, and deliver me from every evil snare of my wicked enemies.
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.
Sessional Hymns, Tone IV: Humility exalted the Publican who was overcome with shame at his evil deeds, * when he cried to the Creator, “Be merciful:” * but exaltation brought down from righteousness the wretched Pharisee who spoke boastfully. * Therefore, let us earnestly desire that which is good ** and avoid that which is evil.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Of old humility exalted the Publican * who cried aloud with tears, * “Be merciful,” and he was justified. * Let us all follow his example, * for we have fallen into the depths of evil. * Let us cry to the Saviour from the depths of our hearts: ** We have sinned, be merciful, O Thou Who alone lovest mankind.
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Be swift to receive our prayers, O Lady, * and bring them to thy Son and God, all-immaculate Sovereign Lady. * Deliver from tribulations those who flee to thee. * Destroy the wiles and subdue the arrogance ** of those who godlessly war against thy servants, O most pure One.
Ode IV, Irmos: Christ is my power, * my God and my Lord, * the holy Church divinely singeth, * crying with a pure mind, * keeping festival in the Lord.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
The Word, set an example showing that the path to exaltation is humility, having humbled Himself even unto taking the form of a servant, thereby instructing all, that he who humbleth himself shall be exalted on high.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
The righteous Pharisee exalted himself and fell, wickedly rejecting humility, but through humility the Publican was exalted and justified.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
He who was without need of virtue was deprived of them, and shown to be foolish. Yet the riches of humility justified him who was in most need of them, whose humility let us emulate.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
O Lord, Thou didst forewarn all that Thou dost resist the high-minded, but grantest Thy grace to the humble. O Saviour send down now Thy grace upon us, for we have humbled ourselves.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
The Saviour and Master, ever leading us to blessed exaltation, hath shown us that it is humility that raises one on high, for with His own hands He didst wash the feet of the disciples.
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
O Virgin, who hast given birth to the unapproachable Light, by thy light-giving effulgence disperse the darkness of my soul, and taking me by the hand, guide my life into the path of salvation.
Ode V, Irmos: Illumine with Thy divine light, I pray, O Good One, * the souls of those who with love rise early to pray to Thee, * that they may know Thee, O Word of God, * as the true God, * Who recalleth us from the darkness of sin.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
Let us make haste to follow the Pharisee in his virtues and to emulate the Publican in his humility, and let us hate what is wrong in each of them: foolish opinion and the fall into self-destruction.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
The righteousness of the Pharisee proved to be vain and was condemned, for it was yoked to prideful opinion; However the Publican became a co-companion of humility, the virtue which exalts one on high.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
The Pharisee thought to drive swiftly in the chariot of the virtues; but the Publican outran him on foot, for he had yoked humility to compassion.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
Pondering with our minds the parable of the Publican, let us all emulate him with tears, offering to God a contrite spirit, seeking the remission of our sins.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Let us cast far away the wicked haughtiness and boasting of the Pharisee, that we may not be stripped of divine grace.
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
A staff of strength grant unto all, O good one, who flee unto thee, grant them victory in the midst of all enemies and deliver them from every evil circumstance.
Ode VI, Irmos: Beholding the sea of life surging with the tempest of temptations, *
I run to Thy calm haven, and cry to Thee: * Raise up my life from corruption, * O Most Merciful One.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
The Publican along with the Pharisee ran the race of life, but the one was overcome by high-mindedness and shipwrecked, while the other was saved by humility.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
Changing to a humble course of life, let us emulate the fervent wisdom of the Publican and flee the deadening conceit of the Pharisee; and we shall live.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
Let us fervently follow the ways of Jesus the Saviour and His humility, if we desire to reach the tabernacle of everlasting joy and to dwell in the land of the living.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
O Master, Thou hast shown to Thy disciples the humility that raiseth men on high, for girding Thy loins with a towel, and washing their feet Thou didst prepare them to follow Thine example.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
The Pharisee passed his life in virtue and the Publican in sin; but the former was brought low by his pride, while the latter was raised on high by his humble-mindedness.
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
I was formed naked in innocence and simplicity; but the enemy hath clothed me in the raiment of transgressions and the grossness of the flesh. But by thine intercessions, O Maiden, I have been saved.
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 Triodion, Tone IV Let us flee from the proud-speaking of the Pharisee * and learn from the Publican the loftiness of words of humility, * and with penitential lamentation let us cry aloud: “O Saviour of the world ** be merciful to us, and cleanse us Thy servants’.
Ikos: Let us all humble ourselves, brethren; sighing and lamenting, beating our conscience, that at the eternal judgment we may be numbered with the faithful and the righteous, and receive forgiveness. Let us pray that we behold the place truly peaceful, where there is neither pain, nor sorrow, nor sighing from the soul, in the wondrous Eden fashioned by Christ, for He is God coeternal with the Father.
Ode VII, Irmos: An Angel made the furnace bedew the holy Children. * But the command of God consumed the Chaldeans * and prevailed upon the tyrant to cry: * O God of our fathers, Blessed art Thou.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
Exalted by the works of self-justification, the Pharisee was grievously snared in the nets of vainglory, boasting madly; but the Publican was lifted on high on the light wings of humility, and drew near to God.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
Using humility as a ladder, the Publican was raised on high to the heights of heaven; but by the putrid foolishness of pride the wretched Pharisee fell into the abyss of Hades.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
The enemy doth catch the righteous and despoil them through vainglory, blinding sinners in the nets of despair. But let us emulate the Publican and hasten to escape from both these evils.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
In our prayer before God, let us fall down with tears and fervent sighs, emulating the Publican in his lofty humility; and singing in faith: “O God of our fathers, blessed art Thou”.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Thou hast forewarned Thy disciples, O Master, teaching them not to be lofty of wisdom, but to be numbered with those who are humble-minded. Therefore, O Saviour, in faith we cry aloud to Thee: O God of our fathers, blessed art Thou.
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
O thou beauty of Jacob, divine Ladder which of old he beheld stretching from earth to heaven, thou holy Virgin, who hath brought down from on high God made flesh, and doth bring mortal man up to heaven.
Ode VIII, Irmos: Thou didst make flame bedew the holy children, * and didst burn the sacrifice of a righteous man with water. * For Thou alone, O Christ, dost do all as Thou willest, * Thee do we exalt throughout all ages.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
The humble-minded sighing of the Publican found the mercy of the Lord, and he was saved; but by the evil tongue of boasting, the Pharisee fell from righteousness.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
O ye faithful, let us avoid the self-will of the Pharisee; who called himself pure, rather let us strive to emulate the Publican’s goodness, who gained forgiveness with humility.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
O ye faithful, let us utter the words of the Publican in the holy temple, “God be merciful,” that with him we may obtain forgiveness, and be delivered from the vile boasting of the Pharisee.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
Let us all emulate the sighing of the Publican and, speaking to God with warm tears, let us cry out: “O Lover of mankind, we have sinned, but in Thy merciful compassion, do Thou cleanse and save us.”
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
God accepted the groaning of the Publican and having justified him, hath shown unto us all, that He is quickly turned to compassion by the sighings and tears of those who ask for the forgiveness of sins.
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
I know of no other intercessor save thee, I offer thee, O pure and all-immaculate One, as my mediator before Him Whom thou didst bear. Do thou show me to be free from all that doth grieve me.
Ode IX, Irmos: It is impossible for mankind to see God * upon Whom the orders of Angels dare not gaze; * but through thee, O all-pure one, * did the Word Incarnate become a man * and with the Heavenly Hosts * Him we magnify and thee we call blessed.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
Christ hath set before us as a path to exaltation and an image of salvation, the humility of the Publican: which, let us strive after by rejecting disdainful pride and gaining God’s mercy through humble-mindedness.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
Let us cast away pride and learn the righteousness of the humble-minded; let us not seek to justify ourselves, but rather let us abhor the delusion of vainglory, and with the Publican let us pray to God.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
Let us offer the Creator entreaties for mercy, as did the Publican,. Let us avoid the ungrateful prayers of the Pharisee and the boastful words with which he judged his neighbor, that we may gain God’s mercy and light.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
Weighed down by a great multitude of sins, I have surpassed the Publican in an excess of evil, having embraced the self-adulating madness of the Pharisee, wherefore I am utterly devoid of all that is good: O Lord, spare me.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me.
O Lord, grant blessedness to those who for Thy sake are poor in spirit, and who follow Thy teachings, bringing unto Thee a contrite heart. Receive and save them who worship Thee.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
ay we never pray unto Thee as did the Pharisee, may we enter the Temple justified by sighing and tears, with a heart that is broken and humbled, laying aside the heavy yoke of sin and thus be cleansed.
Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Grant us to hymn, glorify, and bless thee, to worthily honour thee, O most pure one; glorifying thy birth-giving, O only-blessed one, for thou art the praise of Orthodox Christians, and their divinely-acceptable intercessor before God
