Ode 6. The Irmos.

The deepest abyss has surrounded us, there is none to deliver, we have been counted as sheep for the slaughter; save your people, O God, for you are the strength and restoration of the weak.

By the fault of the first-formed man, O Lord, we were grievously wounded; but by your stripes, by which you were wounded for our sakes, O Christ, we have been healed; for you are the strength and restoration of the weak.

You have brought us up from Hell, Lord, by worsting the all-devouring monster of the deep, O All-powerful, and destroying his power by your might; for you are life and light and resurrection.

The Forefathers of the race rejoice in you, immaculate Virgin, for through you they regain Eden, which they lost through transgression; for you are pure both before child-bearing and after giving birth.

Another, of Cross and Resurrection.

The monster from the deep.

Christ God, being Mind dispassionate and immaterial, mingles with the human mind that stands midway between the divine nature and the solidity of flesh; and was wholly united to the whole of me without change, that by being crucified he might hand salvation to the whole of me, who had fallen.

Tripped, Adam falls and is crushed, cheated of his hope of being made divine, but he arises, deified by the union of the Word, by the Passion gains dispassion, and, as the Son, enthroned with the Father and the Spirit, is glorified.

Not leaving the bosom of his Begetter, who is without beginning, he lodges and comes to rest in the bosom of a pure Maiden, he that is without mother incarnate without father, the God of righteousness who reigns as king. His fearful and ineffable generation is without genealogy.

Another, of the Mother of God.

The deepest abyss.

The heavenly Ranks stand beside your Offspring like servants, fittingly struck with amazement at your child-bearing without seed, O Ever-virgin; for you are pure both before bearing child and after giving birth.

The Word, who before was without flesh, who made the universe by his will, who brought the armies of the Bodiless ones into being out of nothing, as All-powerful, became incarnate from you, O All-pure.

The foe has been slain by your life-bearing Fruit, O Full of God’s grace, and Hell has been manifestly trampled down, and we who were in chains have been freed; and so I cry out: Do away with the passions of my heart!

When you come upon the earth.

You rose from the grave in glory as God and raised the world up with you; mortal nature sang your praise as God, and death disappeared; Adam dances, Master, and now Eve, freed from her chains, rejoices as she cries: It is you, O Christ, who grant Resurrection to all.

Let us praise as God of all power the One who rose on the third day, smashed the gates of Hell and roused the age-long dead from the grave, who appeared to the Myrrhbearers, as it was his good pleasure to say to them first of all: Rejoice! and so revealing joy to the Apostles, as alone Giver of life. Therefore with faith the Women proclaim the tokens of victory to the Disciples; Hell groans, Death laments, the world exults and all rejoice together: For you, O Christ, have granted Resurrection to all.