AT VESPERS

At Lord, I have cried, Stichera of Com­punction, to the Lord.

Through goodness you brought all things into being, Lord, by your Word and Spirit [1] ; then you made me, a rational animal [2] , that I might glorify your holy name, O All-powerful; but instead I ever dishonour it by my shameful deeds: but spare me I beg.

Tone 1. All-praised Martyrs.

Learn, my wretched soul, of God’s kindness and the incorruptible fatherland, and ever hasten to obtain it by good works. Fix to yourself nothing of things which perish; your destiny is on high, while the body is earth and decays; may what is worse not defeat the better.

Others, of the Bodiless Powers. Same melody.

Come, my most miserable soul, with fervent tears approach the One who is supremely good; before your judgement confess all that you have done; make the Creator have pity on you, poor wretch, and ask pardon, before the Lord shuts the door against you [3] .

Glory. Both now. Theotokion. Same melody.

Bodiless Angels, who stand before the throne of God and blaze with the rays that shine from there, who gleam eternally with light outpoured, and are named the second lights, intercede with Christ that peace be given to our souls and his great mercy.

At Lord, I have cried we insert Prosomia of Compunction to the Lord.

Immortal Angels of God, all-blessed ones, who from the first life have truly received life that cannot be destroyed, and, as revered beholders of eternal glory, have become filled with the light of eternal wisdom and revealed as torches in close serried ranks.

Tone 1. Joy of the heavenly hosts.

Archangels, Angels, Principalities, Thrones, Dominions, six-winged Seraphim and many-eyed Cheru­bim, the godlike instru­ments of wisdom, Powers and most godly Rulers [4] , intercede with Christ that peace be given to our souls and his great mercy.

Others of the Forerunner. All-praised martyrs.

Mary, the unblemished chariot [5] of purity that surpasses every mind, direct me, who am held fast and hemmed in by many sins, to the broad plain of repentance by your all-powerful protection, for, as Mother of the One who is strong in every way, you can do this.

Glory. Both now . Theotokion. Same melody.

Wholly drowned in a sea of sins and held fast in an abyss of offences, I cry to you, Master supremely good, ‘Ransom me from troubles and from trials of many different kinds, and from the unquenchable fire’.

At Lord, I have cried we insert Prosomia of the Cross.

Sunk deep in despair and full of hostile thoughts, in my wretchedness I have put all my hopes in you, O Word of God: ransom me from invisible and visible foes.

Tone 1. All-praised Martyrs.

You took pity, O Creator, on every creature through your love for humankind, and your ineffable poverty, O Word of God, who take away the sin of the world [7] as you as compassionate. Take away my burden also and lighten my most heavy yoke [8] .

Of the Mother of God, to the same melody.

Wondrous Prophet, Baptist and Forerunner of Christ, through your prayers make my heart, which is dried up through offences, flow with ever-flowing rivers of tears I beg you, so that I, who am much-pained, may be saved and magnify him who magnified you.

Glory. Both now. Theotokion. Same melody.

Blest Prophet, I place all my hopes and the life of my expectation in you. You baptized Christ Jesus, the abyss, who takes away the offences of the world; implore him, John, I beg you, to cleanse my heart and save me.

At Lord, I have cried we sing prosomia of the Holy Apostles.

Herald of the grace of Christ, godly Forerunner, who proclaimed repentance [9] beforehand to all the nations, guide my wretched and fevered soul to cleave to repentance and ever to do the wishes of the Lord, that with faith and love I may glorify you.

Tone 1. All-praised Martyrs.

Pure Virgin, you alone were declared the dwelling of the Light which shone out from the Father [10] ; therefore I cry to you: Make bright my soul, darkened by the passions, with the light of the virtues, and make her dwell in tents of light on the day of judgement, O Immaculate.

Others, of St Nicholas. Joy of the heavenly hosts.

You stretched out your immaculate palms on a Tree, O Christ, and covered your fingers with blood, for you wished, O Lover of humankind, to redeem the work of your hands: Adam who by his transgression was held fast by the kingdom of death and whom you raised by your all-mighty power.

Glory. Both now. Theotokion. Same melody.

By being nailed to the Cross as man, Christ our God, you made human nature divine; by slaying the serpent you freed us from the curse which came from the tree [11] , as you are compassionate becoming a curse [12] yourself and granting the world blessing and your great mercy.

At Lord I have cried Stichera of the Cross.

All honour being your due in that other world, compassionate Master, you were well-pleased to be dishonoured, undergoing the shameful death on the Tree, through which the human race plucked immortality and regained its former life, when you died in the flesh, O All-powerful.

Tone 1. Joy of the heavenly hosts.

From agonising pain in the feet, paralysis of knees, fracture of limbs and joints, weakness of hands and feet, rescue me, O All Pure, and from the harm that comes from different fluxes, keeping me undefiled by all of these by the love of my God and Fashioner.

Of the Mother of God. Same melody.

Wretch that I am, I bowed down beneath dreadful passions, and I have done wholly profligate deeds of shame, whose base images and fantasies even now batter, confuse and turn me to sensual enjoyment of them in the sensations of my heart. But do you, O Pure one, save me.

Glory. Both now. Cross-Theotokion. Same melody.

My life has become full of many temptations, O All-pure, from the many evils with which I have offended; but ransom me from both and give me both a mind and a life that are without offence and a sober reason, that in faith I may call you blessed and glorify your godly name.

At Lord, I have cried we insert Stichera from the Menaion and of the Saint of the Monastery. If there is nothing in the Menaion, the following Prosomia.

The Virgin, when she saw your unjust slaughter, O Christ, cried out to you in bitter grief, ‘My sweetest Child, how are you suffering unjustly? How hanging on the Tree, you that hung the whole earth on the waters? Do not, compassionate Benefactor, leave me alone, your Mother and your servant.

Tone 1. All-praised Martyrs.

Glorious Apostles of Christ, disciples called by God, teachers of the whole world, having found the Lord, the Mediator between God and men, you were divinely joined to him and you proclaimed him clearly in the world as perfect God and perfect man.

Others, of the Mother of God. To the same melody.

All-wise Apostles, intercede that I may shake off the folly of my soul, as you have been declared to be truly initiates and revealers of wisdom. Lighting the light of the Paraclete and burning out the rottenness of my mind, make me worthy to call you blessed.

Glory. Both now . Theotokion .

Apostles, who saw God, flooded the whole round world with divine teachings and dimmed the darkness of the idols, enlighten my soul, darkened by the passions; and now intercede that our souls may be given God’s peace and great mercy. [14]

Flying around the flowers of the Church, like a nestling from the nest of the Angels on high, thrice-blessed Nicolas, you ever cry to God on behalf of all of us in the constraints of dangers and temptations, and you free us by your prayers.

Surveying the beauties of things unseen, you understood that dread glory, O holy of holies. Therefore you make manifest to us the heavenly utterances of those ever-living contemplations, most holy one.

By practical virtues you made the beauty of your sacred vestment more resplendent, god-bearing Father. Therefore you minister to us the wonders of those far-famed contemplations, rescuing us from dangers.

Virgin Mother of God who did not know wedlock, who gave birth to God in the last times and who was revealed again after childbirth to be a pure virgin, throne [15] and gate [16] and mystical table [17] and lampstand [18] formed of light.

Of old the Forefather tasted death through a tree [22] ; but now through a precious Tree all the faithful are ransomed from the condem­nation of death. All that has breath [23] , let us glorify him who was willingly crucified for us, and who has given light to the ends of the earth [24] .

Hardened in heart, wholly in despair with evil thoughts and being condemned, I cry out to you: Word of God, alleviate my hidden offences and the disordered move­ments of my thoughts, for you are compassionate.

We boast in your Cross, O merciful Christ; and, as through it we utterly destroy the enemy’s deceit, we sing your praise without ceasing: for willingly lifted up on it in your goodness, O Compassionate, you have wrought our salvation in the midst of the earth [25] .

O All-holy Virgin, I ever declare you to be my salvation; in you I am confident of being saved. Snatch me then from every harm, corruption and passion; from unlooked for evil; and above all from the merciless instinct for avarice.

Again I call on you, Virgin, Sovereign Lady, against this passion of love of money, for truly I fear its attacks more than those of a wild beast. For love of money [26] , even in little thrifty things, is condemned for them.

Mother of God, give me mighty strength each day to look with a joyful purpose and generous disposition on paupers and strangers and the multitudes of poor, to embrace non-possession which can make me God’s own.

When the blameless Virgin saw the Lamb suspended on a Cross, she cried out in lamentation, ‘My sweetest Child, what is this new and wondrous sight? How are you, the One who holds all things in the hollow of your hand, nailed in flesh to a tree?’

Of old I died by eating from a tree, urged on by the advice of a serpent, and was exiled, wretch that I am, from your glory. And so, poor fool, I have been put to death by sin. Then, Lover of mankind, alone easily reconciled, make me an inhabitant of Paradise.

Having abandoned all things, my soul, consider your last hour, and make sure you are prepared for your departure, lest sudden death, finding you unprepared, come and take you. And so, ever watchful, pray [28] to the Lord and weep.

Slay the thought of the passions that trouble me, and calm my disordered movements by your divine authority, my God, for you are easily reconciled, compassionate and lover of humankind, granting me, in your compassion, forgiveness of faults, through the wealth of your loving kindness.

Holy Bride of God, make me holy, sanctified and sober, meek, still, well-ordered, upright and  devout, true, courageous, prudent, long-suffering, good, fair and measured, blameless, unblemished and without censure, and beyond all these a partaker in Paradise.

Most pure Virgin, I have become fuel for shameless prodigality, an investigator of transgression, a teacher of passions, a guide to lust, entertainer of licentiousness, advocate of intemperance, and I have also taken pleasure in the thought of them. But deliver me from all destruction.

Dread torrents of sin dreadfully buffet me, pains of Hell [29] surround me, the spiritual snare of death awaits me. Merciful Lady, I cry out to you with grief in my heart, ‘Hasten, snatch me now from the death of despair and from the destruction of Hell.

L et us hymn the whole world’s glory, engendered from humankind and who gave birth to the Master, the Gate of heaven [30] , Mary the Virgin, the song of the Bodiless Powers and adornment of the faithful; for she has been proclaimed Heaven and Temple of the Godhead. She, by destroying the middle wall of enmity [31] , has brought peace instead and thrown open the King’s palace. Therefore, holding fast to her as anchor of the faith, we have as champion the Lord born from her. Take courage therefore, take courage, people of God [32] ; for he will make war on the foe as All-powerful.