AT GREAT VESPERS

O Joyful Light**, the Prokeimenon of the day and the readings.**

The choirs of believers, Sovereign Lady, proclaim your providence towards us, as we praise your mother’s care. For from of old in your compassion you placed us beneath your Protection, and declared the race of the Orthodox to be your chosen lot. Therefore, O Full of grace, we cry to you: Hail! and magnify the graces of your godly Protecting Veil.

**After the Opening Psalm,** Blessed is the man **, we insert 6 Stichera, and sing the following Prosomia.**

Glory. Both now. **Tone 6.**

Tone 1. O marvellous wonder!

The Reading is from Numbers.

O marvellous wonder! The pure Mother of God each day unfolds her Protecting Veil, and with her motherly care and grace manifestly protects from every assault those who look to her and cry: Hail, Full of grace, protection and help of the your race that faithfully magnifies you, O Virgin.

The Reading is from Exodus.

Ah, your wonders, Pure Virgin! For you marvellously unfolded your Protecting Veil and wondrously protected the Queen of cities; while later by the grace of your light-bearing Protection you openly saved the people that bears Christ’s name from hostile threat. Therefore, raising songs of grateful praise, rejoicing we commemorate your many wonders.

Glory. Both now. **Tone 5.**

Other Prosomia. Tone 4. As noblest of Martyrs.

As we celebrate the memorial of your Protecting Veil, O Immaculate, we magnify your loving-kindness; because you rescue your race from every constraint and grant each day unstinted grace to those who praise the astounding mighty works of your glory and the greatness of its wonders.

Wondrously of old you invisibly unfolded your Protecting Veil and protected the Royal City, but now even more manifestly you protect us, immaculate Maiden, and you guard and keep safe from all affliction your new inheritance. Therefore we sing the praise of the gifts of your Protecting Veil, O Virgin, and your constant help.

In many ways, O Maiden, we know and clearly we have seen the manifestation of your holy Protection, shining out for by proofs and wonders, and with fervent tears we have glorified your abundant goodness, because you save us in dangers and grant joy to the afflicted and the suffering.

Today your faithful people, Mother of God, whom you declared to be a holy nation and a special inheritance, honours the grace of your Protecting Veil, as they sing your songs of thanksgiving. For you have worked wonders and marvels among us in past generations, but now also you protect us and give us strength, you have rescued us from foes who assail us and have filled our souls with joy. Therefore we confess your grace and taking refuge in your radiant Protection, we fervently cry out, ‘Until the end of the age, Queen of all, protect those who unhesitatingly call out to you.

On the day that the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the house of the testimony. And at evening it was over the tabernacle like the appearance of fire until morning. So it was continually. The cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night. And whenever the cloud went up from the tent, after that the people of Israel set out. And in the place where the cloud stopped, there the people of Israel encamped. At the command of the Lord the people of Israel encamped, and at the command of the Lord they set out. ‘For as many days as the cloud overshadows the tabernacle, the children of Israel will remain in camp. Even when the cloud has continued over the tabernacle many days, the children of Israel will keep the charge of the Lord, and they are not to set out. And it shall that whenever the cloud covers the tabernacle for a number of days, in accordance with the word of the Lord they will remain in camp, and in accordance with the command of the Lord they will set out. And it shall be that whenever the cloud remains from evening until morning; and that the cloud goes up in the morning, they will set out by day or by night. When the cloud overshadows it for a month, or longer, the children of Israel shall remain in camp and not set out. Because they will set out at the command of the Lord’. They kept the charge of the Lord, at the command of the Lord by Moses.

And it came to pass in the first month in the second year since the children of Israel had set out from Egypt, at the new moon the tabernacle was erected. And Moses erected the tabernacle; he laid its capitals, put in its bars, and raised up its pillars. And he spread the curtains over the tabernacle, and put the covering of the tabernacle over it, as the Lord had commanded Moses. And he took the testimonies and put them into the ark, and put the poles under the ark, and put the covering of the veil on it and covered the ark of testimony, as the Lord had commanded Moses. And he put the table in the tabernacle of testimony, on the north side, outside the veil of the tabernacle. And he set the bread of the on it before the Lord; as the Lord had commanded Moses. And he put the lampstand in the tabernacle of testimony, on the south side of the tabernacle, and set up its lamps before the Lord; as the Lord had commanded Moses. And he put the golden altar in the tabernacle of testimony before the veil, and on it he burnt incense that had been compounded; as the Lord had commanded Moses. And he set the altar of burnt offering at the door of the tabernacle. And he set the court round the tabernacle of testimony. So Moses finished the whole work. Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of testimony, and the tabernacle was filled with the glory of the Lord. And Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of testimony because the cloud overshadowed it, and the tabernacle was filled with the glory of the Lord. Whenever the cloud went up from the tabernacle, the children of Israel would move off with their baggage. but if the cloud did not go up, then they did not move off until the day that the cloud did go up. For the cloud was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all Israel at every stage of their journey.

The Reading is from the Prophecy of Ezekiel.

It shall be from the eighth day and upwards, the Priests shall make your holocausts upon the altar, and those for your salvation; and I shall accept you, says the Lord. And he turned me back by the way of the outer gate of the Holy Place, which looks towards the east, and it was shut. And the Lord said to me: This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no one shall pass through it, because the Lord, the God of Israel, will enter through it, and it shall be shut. Therefore this prince shall sit in it to eat bread. By the way of the Elam of the gate he shall enter, and by that way he shall go out. And he brought me by the way of the gate towards the North, opposite the House; and I saw, and behold the whole house of the Lord was full of glory.

At the Liti, Idiomels.

Tone 1.

Every country of the Orthodox, rejoice, for you are protected by the Protecting Veil of the all-praised Mother of God. For invisibly she, the Mother of the unsetting Light, unfolding it like a cloud of light, wraps you around, protects you from every side and turns back the regiments of enemies both perceptible and immaterial. Therefore with triumphant voice proclaim the grace you have been given, and resoundingly praise the Virgin who protects you, crying aloud, ‘Hail, Full of grace, the Lord is with you, he who through you grants the world his great mercy!’

Tone 2.

As a radiant Queen you appeared to venerable Andrew, manifesting yourself invisibly in the church of Vlachernae, Mother of God, and you protected the queen of cities by unfolding your Protecting Veil, while you have filled us with joy by the exercise of your aid. But, Virgin all-praised, our protection and help, keep our race safe, we beg, from every assault.

Tone 3.

Of old the cloud covered the tabernacle of witness, foreshadowing, O Virgin, the mystery accomplished by you. But now your Protecting Veil, formed like lightning, covers and overshadows, as a bird her nestlings, the people that bears the name of Christ, and that fervently has recourse to you. And this you made manifest to the royal city though an ineffable appearance. Revealing your goodness towards us. Therefore, as we celebrate the memory of this, we proclaim the benefits you have shown us and your solicitude for us, because you save us at each moment from every affliction.

Tone 4.

Your Protecting Veil, Virgin Mother of God, shining out more brightly than the rays of the sun, glorious and astounding, wondrous and saving, works for our preservation. For of old, working marvels beyond nature, it saved the Queen of cities many times from unexpected dangers and disasters. Now too, All-immaculate, by your rich goodness, it rescues us from every constraint, and grants refreshing dew and gladness of heart in afflictions. As we acclaim it wonders, we bring you our festive praise, from our souls cry out, ‘Do not take your defence from us, pure Maiden, but protect and guard us, who are your inheritance.

Today the Queen of all, the Virgin Mother, spreading out her Protecting Veil formed of light, like a mother protects our race. Come, then, Orthodox peoples, let us with pure minds contemplate the Mother of God’s abundant providence for us. Because she is near us in good times and in afflictions, and she safely guides us to the aim of our calling on high, and, as Mother of God, she obtains for us grace and mercy and eternal salvation.