AT VESPERS
Anastasis liturgical translations — translated by Ephrem Lash
Glory. Both now.
Lord, I have cried, **we insert 6 Stichera and sing the following Prosomia of the Forefeast.**
Tone 4. As noblest of Martyrs.
Let us devoutly intone songs for the Forefeast of the revered Baptism of our God; for see, in flesh, as a human, he is about to approach his Forerunner and to ask for saving Baptism for the refashioning of all those who with faith receive sacred enlightenment and share in the Spirit.
Christ is revealed; God appears; David wrote it clearly in prophecy; and he comes to the slave, asking for Baptism; River Jordan, be filled with joy. Earth and sea, hills and mountains, and hearts of mortals, all of you now leap for joy, as you wait to receive the immaterial light.
O all-powerful, you are a river of peace and a stream of delight, as it written; how then will a river’s streams receive you as you go down into it naked, Lord, who wrap the heavens with clouds, stripped naked all the evil of the foe and clothed those born of earth with incorruption.
Christ the truth comes to the Jordan to be baptised by John, who says to him, ‘I need to be baptised by you; and do you come to me? I who am grass dare not touch the fire. But sanctify me, Master, by your divine Epiphany’.
Translated by Ephrem Lash. Edition lash.en.anastasis.