AT VESPERS

On “Lord, I have cried…”, 6 stichera: 3 for the myrrh-bearer, in Tone VIII: Spec. Mel.: “O all-glorious wonder…” —

Now & ever…: Theotokion, or this stavrotheotokion: Spec. Mel.: “Having set all aside…” —

Bearing myrrh with tears, O Mary Magdalene, on reaching the divine sepulcher thou didst see an angel of glory who proclaimed the divine resurrection of the Bestower of life and the deliverance of all. Wherefore, thou didst hasten to make announcement to the eleven, saying joyfully: “Leap up, for Christ hath arisen!”

Serving Christ God, Who became like unto us for our sake, O all-lauded one, and setting thy soul and mind afire with continual radiance, thou becamest light. And, beholding the strange vision of Him hanging upon the Cross, thou didst say, weeping: “How is it that Life now accepteth a voluntary death?”

We celebrate thy sacred memory, O thou who learned of Christ and who preached His precepts for the deliverance of men’s souls, O most glorious Mary; and we venerate with faith the shrine of thy relics, which poureth forth inexhaustible grace and enlightenment upon those who have recourse to it with love, O blessed of God.

And 3 stichera of the hieromartyr, in Tone IV: Spec. Mel.: “Thou hast given a sign…” —

Thou didst offer thyself wholly unto Him Who, for thy sake, endured His salvific suffering, O all-lauded father, and thou didst strive with diligence to be well-pleasing to Him in the blood of martyrdom and to cleave unto Him. Hence, crowned by Him, thou hast been glorified and enriched by the working of miracles, O all-wise one.

By thine endurance of suffering, O Phocas, thou didst overthrow the arrogance of the iniquitous and the worship of the demons, manifestly proclaiming the Savior of all, illumining the thoughts of the faithful and dispelling the darkness of the vainglory of idolatry with the enlightenment of thy miracles and the splendor of thy struggles, O blessed of God.

We who are beset by misfortunes, by the waves of life and the abyss of transgressions, and are assailed by the tempest of grief, having thee as a haven of salvation, pray with faith: By thy supplications save us who honor thy holy memory from every evil circumstance, entreating the Lord and Master, Who loveth mankind.

Glory…, the composition of Anatolius, in Tone VI —

Being the first to behold the divine resurrection of the First Cause of good things, Who in the goodness of His heart hath deified our nature, O Mary Magdalene, thou didst show thyself to be also the first evangelist, crying out to the apostles: “Set aside your grief, and take courage! Come ye and behold the risen Christ Who granteth the world great mercy!”

The unblemished ewe-lamb, the immaculate Mistress, when of old she beheld her Lamb upon the tree of the Cross, exclaimed maternally and, marvelling, cried aloud: “O my Child most sweet! What is this new and all-glorious sight? How hath the thankless assembly betrayed Thee to the tribunal of Pilate? How doth he condemn Thee to death, Who art the life of all? Yet do I hymn Thine ineffable condescension, O Word!”