Ode 4. Irmos. Foreseeing your birth.

The wealth of fair blessings which you gave me, heavenly Father, I have wrongly squandered, enslaved to citizens of a foreign country, therefore I cry to you, ‘I have sinned against you. Receive me like the Profligate of old, unfolding your arms to me’.

I have become enslaved to every evil and, wretchedly bowed down to the creators of the passions, through negligence I have lost possession of myself. Take pity on me, Saviour, heavenly Father, as I flee to your many mercies.

I have been filled with every shame and dare not look towards the height of heaven, for I have irrationally bowed down to sin. But now as I return I cry aloud in compunction, ‘I have sinned against you. Receive me, King of all’.

You are the help of humankind, the sure hope of all Christians, immaculate Virgin, and the refuge of the saved. Save me by your motherly intercessions and count me worthy of the life to come.

Foreseeing your birth from a Virgin, the Prophet cried out and proclaimed, ‘I heard your report, O Christ, and I was afraid, for you came from Theman and from a holy shaded mountain.’