service files lenten_vespers_2.md

THE HOLY AND DIVINE LITURGY

In the Litany for those to be Enlightened I follow Professor Phountoulis in reading the invitation to them as ‘Draw near‘, in Greek *proselthete*, and not ‘Depart‘, in Greek *proelthete*; a difference of a single letter.

PRESANCTIFIED GIFTS

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

There are numerous small differences between the various Typica for the service of the Presanctified, particularly at the end of the Ninth Hour and end of the Typika. The arrangement given here represents, in the main, the use of the Holy Mountain, as given in the editions of the Holy Monastery of Simonos Petra, prepared with the assistance of Professor Phountoulis.

Those who use non-Orthodox versions of Holy Scripture, that is most current versions, should note that the Church‘s text of the prayer of the Thief in St Luke‘s Gospel is ‘Remember me, Lord, when you come in your kingdom‘, not ‘into your kingdom‘. The reference is to the Lord‘s Second Coming ‘in glory with the holy Angels‘. In the view of many non-Orthodox scholars this is the correct text.

In the troparia following the Beatitudes I have put ‘Lord Sabaoth‘, not ‘Lord of Sabaoth‘, or ‘Lord of hosts‘, because the Fathers, among them St Basil the Great, although they know the meaning of the Hebrew, point out that this is one of the Hebrew words that the translators of the Septuagint did not translate, and regard it as a sacred title of God.

The Triodion, in its long rubric after Monday of the First Week, describes the ritual for the Presanctified and it specifies ‘Three metanias‘ at ‘Blessed be the name of the Lord‘ after the prayer behind the Ambo. I have therefore included it here.

It is also interesting to note that the same long rubric says, on the subject of the Litany for those preparing for Enlightenment, quite clearly, ‘It is to be known that the Diakonika for those to be enlightened and the prayer are started from the Wednesday of the Mid-Fast and said until Great Wednesday, not only at the Presanctified, but also on Saturdays and Sundays at the Liturgies of Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Basil‘. The Slavonic Triodion, on the other hand, in a rubric for the Wednesday of the Fourth Week, expressly excludes Saturdays and Sundays. The rubric in the Greek Triodion is likely to be the more ancient.