Ode 9. The burning bush.

Having in yourselves, blessed Fathers, Christ who of old spoke the things of God, and being now united purely to the Pure, establish his Church, which you truly made firm by mighty sweat and toils.

Another. At this heaven was amazed.

Having welded together all spiritual knowledge, and examined together by the Divine Spirit the heavenly and revered Creed, the revered Fathers under God’s inspiration traced it out. In it, clearly following the teachings of the Apostles, they most distinctly teach that the Word is without beginning with his Begetter and most surely consubstantial. They are re­nowned, truly all-blessed and godly-minded.

You have become a type and rule for the whole Church of the thrice-blessed Trinity, teaching it to acknowledge as divine the incarnation of Christ, prophetically driving out the present blasphemy concerning the one uncreated Godhead.

The Resurrection Exapostilarion and then the following of the Fa­thers.

Having received the spiritual brilliance of the Holy Spirit, and divinely inspired, the good heralds proclaimed the supernatural oracle, brief in words, but rich in meaning; the blessed defenders of Gospel teachings and the godly traditions, whose revelation they clearly  received from on high, and, enlightened, they set forth the Faith taught them by God.

You rightly abolished the whole bul­wark of impiety, holy Fathers, by teaching the difference of energy and fittingly declaring it to be natural, undivided, uncreated and all-effecting and all-powerful.

At Lauds we sing 4 Stichera of the Resurrection and 3, Prosomia, of the Fathers, doubling the first.

Having collected together all their skill as shepherds, and stirred up their most just anger, the godly Shepherds, as Christ’s truest servants, the most sacred initiates of the inspired proc­lamation, most justly drove off the fierce and ravening wolves with the sling of the Spirit, having cast as from a sling from the body of the Church those fallen as though sick of a deadly and incurable sickness.

You became the mouth God, O Saints, and proclaimed, as is right, that the One who is by nature unapproachable is communicated by en­ergies and radiances alone.

Tone 6. Having invested all.

Both now. You are most blessed…

You are a golden flourish and godly conclusion to my song, O All-praised. Returning from flight, I have offered it to your Son, revered Lady, as a prayer of thanksgiving, uniting with it my hymn to you, All-pure, as you are cause of blessings.

Verse: Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our Fathers.

[1] In fact the doctrine of the two wills and ‘energies’ in Christ was only defined at the 6th Council at Constantinople in 681.

Crafty Severos passed through the unsullied Church and by the vote of the devout Fathers he justly received the penalty for his blasphemy and babble, and condemned he is thrown out of the company of the Teachers.

Verse: Gather to him his Holy Ones, those who have .set forth his covenant.

[2] Monothelite Patriarch of Constantinople from 638-641 and for the first six months of 654.

Why do you confound the natures of Christ and introduce mixture and blending, attaching the passion of the Cross and the burial to the impassible Godhead of the Only-begotten Word of God, wretched Severos? Therefore we abominate your appalling blasphemy.

Glory. **Tone 8.**

[3] Patriarch of Constantinople from 610-638. Propounded the doctrine of Two Natures but only one mode of activity, *energeia* , in Christ. He was the author of the *Ekthesis* which put it forward. His doctrine was condemned in 681.

Creator born from a Virgin, hurl down the arrogance and insolence of the hostile and the counsels of the heretics; but as God establish the company of the faithful unshaken, exalting their horn and strengthening them by faith, that we may all magnify you.

The choir of holy Fathers, having hurried together from the ends of the whole world, proclaimed the doctrine of the one essence and nature of Fa­ther, Son and Holy Spirit, and clearly delivered to the Church the mystery of the divinity. Praising them with faith, let us call them blessed as we say: O godly host, inspired warriors of the Lord’s battle-line; brightly shining stars of the spiritual firma­ment; impregnable towers of the mystical Sion; sweet-scented flowers of Paradise; pure golden mouths of the Word; Nicea’s boast, the whole world’s ornament, intercede insis­tently on behalf of our souls.

[4] Pope of Rome from 625-638. In a letter supporting Patriarch Sergios he used the expression ‘one will’ in speaking of Christ. This doctrine of ‘Monothelitism’ was condemned and Honorius anathematised at the Council of 681.

As today we feast the memory of the godlike Fathers, we pray you, Most Compassionate, at their intercessions: Deliver your people, Lord, from all harm of heresies, and count us all worthy to glorify Father, Word and all-holy Spirit.

Great Doxology and Dismissal.

[5] Archimandrite of a monastery in Constantinople, he taught that there was only one nature in Christ ‘after the union’ .This doctrine of Monophysitism was condemned at the 4th Council of Chalcedon. He also taught Christ’s human nature was not consubstantial with ours.

With the two wills and natures, All-blameless, but with one person you gave birth ineffably to God, who for our sake willingly made himself poor, even to a Cross, and granted us the grace of the wealth of his Godhead by his Resurrection from the dead.

[6] St Cyril’s successor as Patriarch of Alexandria from 444-451, he supported the doctrine of Monophysitism. He was deposed at the Council of Chalcedon.

[7] Patriarch of Antioch 512-518, when he was deposed for denouncing the Council of Chalcedon as Nestorian. A moderate Monophysite, he condemned Eftyches. He died in exile in 538.

[8] This sticheron speaks of the Trinity, not of the incarnate Christ.

[9] The traditional number of the Fathers of the 1st Council of Nicea.

[10] Patriarch of Alexandria 412-444. Chief opponent of Nestorios at the Council of Ephesus.

[11] The traditional number of the Fathers at Chalcedon.