AT SMALL VESPERS

Glory. **Tone 4.**

**At** Lord, I have cried **we insert 4 Stichera and chant 3 of the Resurrection and one by Anatolios in Tone 5, as at Great Vespers.**

**Dogmatic Theotokion. Tone 5.**

O Lord, as you passed by on the way, you found a man blind from birth. Your Disciples were amazed and asked you, saying, ‘Teacher, who has sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ But you, my Saviour, cried out to them, ‘Neither has he sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God might be revealed in him. I must do the works of him who sent me, which none can do’. So saying you spat on the ground, made clay, and anointed his eyes, and said, ‘Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam’. When he had washed he became whole and cried out to you: ‘I believe Lord’. And he worshipped you. Therefore we too cry out: Have mercy on us!

**Theotokion. Same Tone**

Let us honour the Maiden, revered and worthy of God, in honour higher than the Cherubim, for the Creator of all things, when he wished to become man, made his dwelling ineffably in her, O strange deeds and wondrous mysteries! Who would not be amazed on hearing this, that God becomes man? There was no change in him. He passed through the gates of virginity and no diminution was left in her, as the Prophet says; No man will ever pass through it, except the Lord, the God of Israel, who has great mercy.

**Theotokion. The same Tone.**

Christ has risen**, at** Lord, I have cried **we insert 10 stichera and we sing 7 of the Resurrection and 2 Idiomels of the Blind Man, doubling the first.**

Resurrection Stichera. Tone 5.

Through your precious Cross, O Christ, you have shamed the Devil; and by your Resurrection you have blunted the sting of sin and you have saved us from the gates of Death; we glorify you, Only-begotten.

He who gives resurrection to the human race like a sheep was led to the slaughter; the princes of Hades trembled before him, and the gates of pain were lifted up; for Christ, the King of glory had come in, saying to those in chains, ‘Come forth!’ and to those in darkness ‘Reveal yourselves!’

A mighty wonder! The immortal Creator of things invisible, having suffered in the flesh for love of mankind, arose. Come families of the nations and let us worship him; for we, delivered from error by his compassion, have learned to praise one God in three Persons.

Stichera by Anatolios.

We offer you our evening worship, O light that knows no evening, who at the end of the ages, as in a glass, shone on the world through the flesh and went down as far as Hades; abolished the darkness there and showed the light of the resurrection to the nations. Giver of life, O Lord, glory to you!

Let us glorify Christ, the author of our salvation; for by his rising from the dead the world has been saved from error. The Angel choir rejoices, demons’ deception flees, fallen Adam rises, the Devil has been overthrown.

The members of the guard were instructed by the transgressors: ‘Conceal Christ’s Rising. Accept money and say: While we slept the body was stolen from the tomb’. Who ever saw, who ever heard of a corpse being stolen? Moreover one embalmed and naked and that also abandoned its grave-clothes in the tomb? Do not be deceived, you Jews; hear the sayings of the Prophets and know that he is truly the redeemer of the world and all-powerful.

O Lord, our Saviour, who despoiled Hades and trampled on death; who enlightened the world by your precious Cross, have mercy on us.

Idiomel Stichera of the Blind Man. Tone 2.

The man born blind reasoned with himself, ‘Was it through my parents’ sin that I was born blind? Or was I born because of the unbelief of the nations as an accusation? I am not competent to ask when it is day, when night. My feet cannot detect the stumbling blocks of the stones. I have not seen the sun shining, nor him who fashioned me in his image. But I beg you, Christ God: Look on me and have mercy on me. (

**Twice**) ****

The Same Tone.

As Jesus was passing by from the temple, he found a man blind from birth, and moved with compassion for him put clay on his eyes and said to him, ‘Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam’. He, having washed, gained his sight and gave glory to God. But his next of kin said to him, ‘Who opened the eyes which none of those with sight could cure?’ But he cried out and said, ‘A man called Jesus, he it was said to me: Wash in the Pool of Siloam; and I gained my sight. He is truly Christ Messias of whom Moses spoke in the Law; he is the Saviour of our souls’.

O Lord, as you passed by on the way, you found a man blind from birth. Your Disciples were amazed and asked you, saying, ‘Teacher, who has sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ But you, my Saviour, cried out to them, ‘Neither has he sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God might be revealed in him. I must do the works of him who sent me, which none can do’. So saying you spat on the ground, made clay, and anointed his eyes, and said, ‘Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam’. When he had washed he became whole and cried out to you, ‘I believe Lord’. And he worshipped you. Therefore we too cry out: Have mercy on us!

In the Red Sea was once depicted an image of the bride who knew not wedlock. There Moses the parter of the waters; here Gabriel the servant of the wonder. Then Israel marched dry-shod through the deep; now the Virgin has given birth to Christ without seed. The Sea after the passage of Israel remained untrodden; the Blameless after bearing Emmanuel, remained incorrupt. O God, who exist and pre-exist, and who appeared as a man, have mercy on us.

At the Liti the Sticheron of the Saint of the Monastery.

Considering his whole life to be night, the Blind man cried out to you, O Lord: ‘Open my pupils, Son of David, our Saviour, that with all I too may hymn your power’.

Assent to the supplications of your servants, O Most Pure, by ending the assaults of our dangers and delivering us from every tribulation: for we have you as our only safe and sure anchor and we have gained your protection; may we who call for your aid, Sovereign Lady, not be put to shame; hasten to the entreaties of those who cry out to you in faith: Hail Sovereign Lady, the help of all, the joy and protection and salvation of our souls.