Ode 7. Irmos. Imitating the Cherubim.

I have bowed down miserably to the pleasures of the body and I have become wholly enslaved to the inventors of the passions; and I have become a stranger to you, lover of humankind. But now I cry with the voice of the Profligate, ‘I have sinned, O Christ, do not despise, for you alone are merciful’.

I call out, ‘I have sinned’, and I dare not even look towards the height of heaven, O King of all; for in foolishness I alone have angered you, rejecting your commandments. Therefore, as you alone are good, do not cast me away from your presence.

At the prayers of the apostles, prophets, ascetics, honoured martyrs and the just, pardon me all the things by which I have offended, and angering your goodness, Christ my Lord, that I may sing your praise to all the ages.

Mother of God, you are revealed as more radiant than the Cherubim and Seraphim and all the heavenly host. With them, O all-blameless, entreat the One to whom you gave a body, God the Word of the Father without beginning that we may all be found worthy of the good things that last for ever.

Imitating the Cherubim, the Youths in the furnace, danced as they cried out, ‘Blessed are you, O God, for with truth and judgement you have brought all these things upon us because of our sins; you who are highly praised and glorified to all the ages.’