AT VESPERS

Lord, I have cried**, we insert 6 stichera and we sing 3 prosomia of the Apostle, doubling them.**

**Theotokion.**

Tone 4. As noblest of Martyrs.

You handled the Master’s side, all-blessed Apostle, and grasped the summit of blessings; for like a sponge you soaked up streams from there, the source of good things and eternal life, and you watered hearts dried up through ignorance of God, as you well up with the doctrines of the knowledge of God.

By your believing unbelief you confirmed believers when you began to speak of him as God and Lord of all creation, he who bore flesh for us who are on earth and who endured the Cross and death and the holes of the nails and who was pierced by a lance in his side, from which we draw life.

Wondrous Thomas opened up the source of doctrines, Master, for the godly; for when he handled your side he was fittingly initiated into the double energy with the two essences, and he cried out: You are my God and Master, you are the Lord of glory, who became flesh for my sake.

As a servant of the Word and of his ineffable incarnation, Apostle Thomas, you drew from the depth of wisdom; for searching with the reed of the Cross, you caught souls from the depth of deception. Therefore you enlightened the whole inhabited world with the net of your doctrines, and made the clouded souls of the Indians bright with the light of knowledge. And so, as you radiantly enjoy Christ’s glory, implore him to have mercy on our souls.

Mother of God, you are the true vine who gave bud to the fruit of life; intercede, we beseech you, Sovereign Lady, with the Apostles and all the saints that he have mercy on our souls.