Ode 4. Irmos.

**Of the Mother of God. Another Irmos.**

Of the Martyrs.

The Prophet Avvakoum, under­standing the unsearchable divine counsel of your incarnation from the Virgin, O Most High, cried out: Glory to your power, O Lord.

Cross Theotokion.

To free me from the bonds of sin, O Lover of mankind, willingly you were bound and died as a malefactor on a cross. Glory to your abundant com­passion.

You bore marks of nails, O Word of God, and a shameful death, so mak­ing immortal the nature of mortals put to death by passions. Glory to your abundant compassion.

About to inherit the joy of God, filled with joy in soul in the all-holy Spirit, you endured torments and most vio­lent death.

Hands and heads severed, the tongues that spoke of God cut out, deprived of sight, torn limb from limb, O Martyrs, you remained in­separable from Christ.

Now that you have been  pierced by the lance, O Master, the record of Adam’s debt has been torn up, cried the Mother of God, as she stood by the Cross, O Lord, and lamented in her grief.

**Troparia.**

You became more beautiful than all the loveliness of the Angels, O Maiden, for you bore their Maker and Lord, who took flesh from your im­maculate blood and who delivers all who glorify him.

Rejecting every stain of the former eating, we are fed on the Bread of life from heaven which dawned from the earth of the Virgin; let us hymn her as cause of good things.

The holy Mother of God, the unsul­lied Tabernacle, the Gate of light, Table and golden Jar, the unhewn, shaded Mountain, who contained the Creator is called blessed.

O Bride of God, the streams of your gifts and springs of healing and distri­butions of divine wealth are given out from the open hand, source of life, of the Almighty who was born from your womb.