Ode IX

Exapostilarion —

Irmos: Let every mortal leap for joy, enlightened by the Spirit; and let the nature of the incorporeal intelligences keep festival, honoring the sacred feast of the Mother of God, and let them cry aloud: Rejoice, O most blessed Theotokos, pure Ever-virgin!

Rejoice, O lamp bearing the never-waning Light, who in thy birthgiving dispellest the darkness of polytheism and deliverest men from the abyss of hell! Rejoice, O Theotokos Hodegitria, mediatress of all good things!

Theotokion: Joyously do we cry out to thee the cry of the archangel: Rejoice, O joy of the angels, honor of the apostles, preaching of the prophets, crowning of the martyrs!

Great Doxology. Troparia. Litanies. Dismissal. First Hour.

Irmos: Christ, the Chief Cornerstone uncut by human hands, Who united the two disparate natures, was cut from thee, the unquarried mountain, O Virgin. Wherefore, in gladness we magnify thee, O Theotokos.

Rejoice, O noetic and animate ground from whence came the heavenly Grain, which sprang forth for the faithful and delivered the whole world from soul-destroying famine! Rejoice, O vineyard who gavest birth to the Grapes of life, O pure Theotokos Hodegitria!

Rejoice, thou who art an all-comely garden of mystic flowers! Rejoice, O Virgin Mother Theotokos, thou understanding of the invisible ones, who by purity didst strangely triumph! Rejoice, O Hodegitria, universal wonder and report!

By thy help preserve the remaining time of our life unharmed, O Virgin Maiden, and vouchsafe that we who hasten to thee may receive a goodly end, and may cry: Rejoice, O most blessed Theotokos, pure Hodegitria!

Let the most hymned Mother of God, who gave girth to Christ our God, be honored: the opening of the gates of paradise, the cleansing of the whole world, our restoration to life. This is what was spoken of by the prophets. Let us worship God, the Savior of our souls!

Glory…, Now & ever… —

Come, ye faithful, and with a pure conscience let us exalt the Mother of our God, who bore within her womb Christ, the divine infant Savior. As she hath maternal boldness before Him, she prayeth unceasingly for us, and granteth her servants rich mercy.

On the Praises, 4 stichera, in Tone IV: Spec. Mel.: “As one valiant among the martyrs…” —

To all who with faith have recourse unto thee hath Christ, thy Son and God, shown thee to be guide for the lost, a haven of salvation amid storm and abyss, amid temptations and griefs, O Mistress. Him do thou entreat, that those who acknowledge thee to be the true Theotokos and guide may be delivered from evils and misfortunes. Twice

By thy birthgiving thou hast destroyed corruption and all the ancient sickness, O most hymned one, who gavest birth to the Life of the world, Who hath destroyed death; and thou healest the illnesses of those who with faith hymn thy miraculous image, bow down before it with love, and honor thee as the pure directress.

We know thee to be a wellspring of life, O most hymned one, a bestower of miracles and healings of passions of soul and body, speedy remission; and knowing thee to be an inexhaustible sea of mercy and compassions, we all fall down before thee, entreating release from sorrow and the torment which is to come.

Glory…, Now & ever…, in Tone VIII —

O Good One, Who ridest upon the cherubim and art hymned by the seraphim, Thou didst descend from heaven as the prophets said, and madest Thine abode in the womb of the pure divine Maiden, to whom the angels mystically sang: Rejoice, O joyous Virgin, who in manner past recounting didst receive in thy womb God Whom leadeth the world from unbelief unto faith. Glory to Thee, O Christ, Who alone art merciful and lovest ­mankind.

Ye were shown to be vessels of the Word containing all His effulgence, the foremost of the honored servants who ministered to the needs of the saints, O all-wise ones, who enjoy ineffable glory with the Word.

Today all creation doth celebrate your memory, O Timon, Parmenus and Nicanor, together with Prochorus, the preacher of God, worthily blessing you, O all-blessed eye-witnesses of God.

As godly disciples of the Word ye have been taken up in great glory, and ye rejoice now with choirs of the incorporeal angels. With them ever pray that we find mercy, O glorious ones.