At the Aposticha. Prosomia.

Verse: Now, Master, you release your servant in peace, according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples. [4]

Tone 2. O House of Ephratha.

Verse: A light to bring revelation to the nations, and the glory of your people Israel.

Today the Saviour was brought as a babe into the temple of the Lord, and the Elder receives him with aged arms.

Glory. Both now . Theotokion.

Christ, the burning coal foreseen by godly Isaias, in the hands of the Mother of God, as in a pair of tongs, is now given to the Elder. [5]

Apolytikion. Tone 1.

As Symeon held the Master in his arms with fear and joy, he asked release from life, as he sang the praise of God’s Mother.

Verse: Now, Master, you release your servant in peace according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples.

The All-Pure cried, ‘Symeon, receive as a babe in your arms the Lord of glory [6] and the salvation of the world’.

Verse: Light for revelation to the nations and the glory of your people Israel.

Hail, full of grace, [7] Virgin Mother of God, for from you there dawned the **S**un of righteousness, [8] Christ our God, who enlightens those in darkness. [9] Be glad too, righteous Elder, for you received in your embrace the Liberator of our souls, who grants us also resurrection.

Glory. Both now . Tone 8.

Tone 7. By Monk Kosmas. [25]

Apolytikion. Tone 1.

Adorn your bridal chamber, O Sion, and receive Christ the King. Greet Mary, the gate of heaven, for she is shown to be the Cherubim Throne. [26] She carries the King of glory. The Virgin is a cloud of light, bearing in the flesh a Son before the Morning Star. [27] Symeon took him in his arms and proclaimed to peoples that he is the Master of life and death and the Saviour of the world.

The Mother who has not known wedlock, bearing in the Temple him who shone forth from the Father before the ages and in the last times from a virgin womb, brought the one who gave the Law on Sinai and who obeys the ordinance of the Law to the Priest and just Elder, who had been told that he would see Christ the Lord. When Symeon received him in his arms, he rejoiced and cried out, ‘This is God, co-eternal with the Father, and the Redeemer of our souls.’

Mary the Mother of God, carrying in her arms the one who rides on the chariots of the Cherubim [28] and who is praised in song by the Seraphim, gave the Giver of the Law incarnate from her without wedlock, fulfilling the order of the Law, into the hands of the Priest and Elder. As he carries Life, he asks release from life, saying, ‘Master, now release me to reveal to Adam that I have seen a babe, who is without change God before the ages and the Saviour of the world.’

By Andrew of Crete.

He who rides on the Cherubim and is hymned by the Seraphim is being brought today into God’s Temple according to the Law and enthroned on aged arms. By Joseph he receives gifts befitting God, as a pair of turtle doves the unblemished Church and the newly chosen people of the nations; as Author of the Old and New Covenants, two young pigeons. Symeon, having received the fulfilment of the oracle concerning him, blessed Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, and foretold the symbols of the Passion of the One born from her. From him he asks for his release, crying out, ‘Now you release me, Master, as you promised me; for I have seen you, the pre-eternal light, Saviour and Lord of the people that bears Christ’s name.’

Hail, full of grace, Virgin Mother of God, for from you there dawned the **S**un of righteousness, Christ our God, who enlightens those in darkness. Be glad too, righteous Elder, for you received in your embrace the Liberator of our souls, who grants us also resurrection. [29]