Exapostilarion: Automelon—
Irmos: In the shadow and the writings of the law do we behold an image, O ye faithful: every male child which openeth the womb is consecrated to God. Wherefore, we magnify the first-born Word of the unoriginate Father, the first-born Son of the Mother who kneweth not man.
On the Praises, 4 stichera, in Tone IV: Spec. Mel.: “Thou hast granted a sign…”—
The ancients were wont to offer a pair of new-born doves and two young birds, but the godly elder and the chaste prophetess Anna serve in their stead, magnifying the only-begotten Son of the Father, Who was born of the Virgin and is borne into the temple.
He Who loveth mankind,/ fulfilling the law of the Scriptures,/ is now borne into the temple;/ and the elder Symeon receiveth Him in his arms, crying:/ “Now Thou lettest me depart to Thy blessedness,/ for today I have seen clad in mortal flesh/ Him Who hath dominion over life// and mastery over death!” Twice
Thou hast imparted unto me the joy of Thy salvation, cried Symeon. Accept Thou Thy servant, for I am weary of the shadow, as a mystic and sacred preacher of the new grace, magnifying Thee in praise!
Thou didst show Thyself/ to be the Light of revelation,/ the Sun of righteousness/ seated upon a light cloud,/ fulfilling the shadow of the law,/ and revealing the beginning of the new grace./ Wherefore, Symeon, seeing Thee, cried out:/ “Set me free of corruption,// for I have seen Thee today!”
The aged Anna, chaste and venerable, prophesying in sacred manner, openly confessed the Lord in the temple, and she magnified the Theotokos, proclaiming her to all present.
Without being separated from the bosom of the Father in Thy divinity,/ incarnate, as Thou didst so will,/ Thou wast held in the embrace of the Ever-virgin,/ and wast given into the arms of Symeon the God-receiver,/ O Thou Who holdest all things in Thy hands./ Wherefore, he cried aloud with joy:/ “Now Thou lettest me, Thy servant, depart in peace,// for I have seen Thee, O Master!”
Set by the Spirit in the sanctuary, the elder doth take the Master of the law in his arms, crying out: “Now loose Thou the bonds of my flesh in peace, as Thou didst say; for with mine eyes have I beheld the revelation of the gentiles and the salvation of Israel!” Thrice
Glory…, Now & ever…, the composition of Germanus, in Tone VI—
O Christ our God, Whose good pleasure it was to sit today in the arms of the elder, as in the chariot of the cherubim: in that Thou lovest mankind, deliver and save us who hymn Thee, calling us forth from the tyranny of the passions.
Great Doxology. Litanies. Dismissal. First Hour.
Translated by Isaac Lambertsen. Edition menaion.en.lambertsen.