AT VESPERS

After the Opening Psalm we recite the first Section of Blessed is the man*.* At Lord, I have cried we insert 6 Idiomel Stichera, doubling the first two.

As shameless Herod’s birthday was being celebrated the terms of the oath to the wanton dancing girl were fulfilled; for the head of the Forerunner was struck off and brought in on a dish like a delicacy for those at table. O hateful banquet, full of impious behaviour and bloodthirsty murder! But we, as we fittingly honour the Baptist as greatest among the offspring of women, call him blessed.

Both now. **Theotokion.**

Tone 6. By Monk John.

**Same Tone.**

Both now. **Theotokion.**

Glory. **Tone 6. By Monk John.**

She danced, the disciple of the all-evil devil, and took your head, O Forerunner, as her wages. O banquet filled with blood! If only you had not sworn, lawless Herod, offspring of falsehood. But if you had sworn, if only you had not kept your oath; for it was better to have lied and attained life, than to speak truly and to cut off the head of the Forerunner. But we, as we fittingly honour the Baptist as greatest among the offspring of women, call him blessed.

Both now. **Theotokion**

Entrance, O Joyful Light, the prokeimenon of the day and the Readings.

**Same Tone.**

Verse: The righteous will flourish like the palm tree; be increased like the cedar in Lebanon.

You should not, Herod, have condemned to death the one who denounced your adultery, the result of satanic love and the insane passion of lust for a woman. You should not have perilously handed over his all-honoured head to a lawless woman because of an oath made for a dance. How did you dare to accomplish such a murder? How was the wanton dancing girl not consumed by fire in the middle of the banquet as she brought this head in on a dish? But we, as we fittingly honour the Baptist as greatest among the offspring of women, call him blessed.

Verse: The just will rejoice in the Lord and hope in him; all the upright in heart will be praised.

**Same Tone.**

Glory. **Tone 8.**

Once again Herodias rages, once again she is deranged. O deceitful dance and revelry with deceit! The Baptist was beheaded and Herod was troubled. At the prayers of your Forerunner, Lord, grant peace to our souls.

And Dismissal.

As shameless Herod’s birthday was being celebrated the terms of the oath to the wanton dancing girl were fulfilled; for the head of the Forerunner was struck off and brought in on a dish like a delicacy for those at table. O hateful banquet, full of impious behaviour and bloodthirsty murder! But we, as we fittingly honour the Baptist as greatest among the offspring of women, call him blessed.

Who will not call you blessed, All-holy Virgin? Who will not hymn your child-birth without labour? For the only-begotten Son, who shone from the Father beyond time, came forth from you, pure Maiden, ineffably incarnate. By nature he is God, by nature he became man for our sakes, not divided in a duality of persons, but known without confusion in a duality of natures. O honoured and all-blessed, implore him to have mercy on our souls.

The Reading is from the Prophecy of Isaias.

Thus says the Lord: Comfort, comfort my people, says God. Priests, speak to the heart of Jerusalem. Comfort her, because her humiliation has been completed; for her has sin has been abolished, because she has received from the Lord’s hand double for her sins. A voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God. Every valley will be filled and every mountain and hill made low; what is crooked will become straight, and the rough ways will be made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Go up onto a high mountain, you who bring good tidings to Sion; lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem. Lift it up, do not be afraid. I the Lord God, I, the God of Israel, will hearken and will not forsake them; but I will open rivers from the mountains and springs in the middle of plains. I will turn the wilderness into water meadows and the thirsty earth with water courses. Let the heavens rejoice from on high and let the clouds rain justice. Let the earth sprout and blossom with mercy and justice. Announce a voice of gladness to the end of the earth and let this be heard: Say that the Lord has delivered his servant Jacob. And if they thirst through deserts, he will bring water for them from a rock. Rejoice you barren who have never given birth, break out and shout, you who have never known birth pangs, for the children of the deserted are more than those of her who has a husband.

The Reading is from the Prophecy of Malachy.

Thus says the Lord Almighty: See, I am sending my Angel, my messenger, before your face, who will prepare your way before you. And the Lord whom you seek will come to his temple. And who will endure the day of his entrance? And who will withstand at his appearing? Because he will enter like fire in a smelting furnace and like the lye of launderers. And he will come to you in judgement; and he will be a swift witness against the wicked and against adulteresses and against those swear falsely in his name and those who do not fear him, says the Lord Almighty. Because I am the Lord your God, and I have not changed and you, children of Jacob, have perverted the laws and not kept them. Therefore turn back to me and I will turn back to you, says the Lord Almighty. And all the nations will call you blessed and you will know that I am the Lord who discern between just and lawless on the day on which I make a peculiar possession of those who love me. Know then and remember the law of Moses my servant, as I gave him commandment on Horeb, to all Israel ordinances and judgements. And see, I will send you Elias the Thesbite, before the great and manifest day of the Lord comes; he will turn again the heart of father to son and of a man to his neighbour, lest when I come I smite the earth grievously, says the Lord Almighty, God the Holy One of Israel.

The Reading is from the Wisdom of Solomon.

A just man if he comes to his end will be at rest. A just man who dies will condemn the ungodly who are alive; for they will see the end of a just man and will not understand what they counselled concerning him. For the Lord will break the ungodly, render them voiceless and cast them headlong, and he will shake them from the foundations and they will be utterly worsted in sorrow, and their memory shall perish. They shall come with fear at the accounting of their sins, and their iniquities will convict them to their face. Then the just will stand with much boldness in the face of those who afflicted him and made his toils of no account. When they see this they will be troubled with great fear and will be amazed at the wonder of his salvation. For they will say as they repent and with anguish they will groan and say: Is this he whom we fools once made a laughing stock and a byword of reproach? We reckoned his life folly and his end dishonour. How has he been numbered among the children of God and his lot with the Saints? Therefore we have erred from the way of truth and the light of righteousness has not shone on us and the sun has not dawned on us. We have been filled with paths of lawlessness and destruction and journeyed through trackless paths, but have not known the way of the Lord.

**At the Aposticha, Idiomel Stichera.

Tone 2.**

Herald of repentance, John Baptist, when your head was struck off you sanctified the earth; because you made clear God’s law to the faithful and utterly destroyed lawlessness. As you stand before the throne of Christ the King of heaven, implore him to have mercy on our souls.

For the law of the Lord your head was struck off, all-holy John. With blameless boldness of speech you rebuked the impious king when he transgressed the law. And so the hosts of Angels marvel at you; the choirs of Apostles and Martyrs glorify you; we too honour your yearly memorial, as we glorify the Holy Trinity, who crowned you, blessed Forerunner.

The Prophet from a Prophet, who became greater than the Prophets, who was sanctified from his mother’s womb for the service of the Lord, had his head struck off today by a lawless king; and both before his execution and after it clearly rebuking the maiden who danced licentiously, he put the regiment of sin to shame. And so we cry out: Baptist John, as you have freedom to speak, intercede insistently for our souls.

Forerunner of the Saviour, you rebuked kings that they should not act lawlessly; and so the little darling of a lawless woman persuaded Herod to cut off your head, and therefore from the rising of the sun to its setting your name is to be praised. As you have freedom before the Lord intercede insistently for our souls.

Virgin without bridegroom, who conceived God ineffably in the flesh, Mother of God Most High, accept the supplications of your servants, O all-blameless, who bestow on all cleansing from faults. Now accept our entreaties and implore that we may all be saved.

**Apolytikion. Tone 4.**

The just is remembered with praises, but for you the Lord’s testimony suffices, O Forerunner; for you were declared more praiseworthy than the Prophets, because you were found worthy to baptize in running streams the One they had proclaimed. Therefore, having struggled bravely for the truth with joy, you preached to those in Hell a God who had appeared in flesh, who takes away the sin of the world, and grants us his great mercy.

All your mysteries are beyond understanding, all beyond glory, Mother of God; sealed in purity and guarded in virginity you were recognised to be truly a Mother, in giving birth to the true God. Implore him that our souls may be saved.