AT VESPERS

Glory. Both now.

Lord, I have cried, **we insert 6 Stichera, and sing Prosomia of the Forefeast.**

Tone 4. You have given us a sign.

This is our God, no other will be reckoned with him, the Prophet cried out in spirit; for he has found every way of knowledge; while after these things he will appear to mortals wearing flesh; for he hastens to be brought to birth of a Virgin, Child of God; he who is by nature unapproachable becoming approachable by me .

Your womb, all-blameless Mother of God, is acknowledged to be a heap of grain of a threshing floor, which carries ineffably, beyond mind and beyond reason a ear of grain untilled; which you bear in a Cave of Bethlehem, and is about to nourish all creation by grace with divine knowledge and to rescue humanity from a famine which destroys the soul.

The unblemished Heifer comes forth to a holy Cave, carrying the fatted Calf, to give him birth in a marvellous manner, to swaddle him as a mortal and lay him in a manger as an infant. Creation celebrates in advance as it harmoniously magnifies the one who has wrought such marvels upon earth.

Tone 6.

Sion, keep festival; Jerusalem, be glad; City of Christ God receive the Creator, contained in a Cave and in a Manger; Open to me your gates, and entering by them I shall see swaddled as a babe the one who holds creation in his grasp, whom Angels hymn with unceasing voice, the Lord, the Life-giver, who saves our race.