Liturgy: Sunday of the Prodigal Son / The Three Great Hierarchs

Sunday of the Prodigal Son / The Three Holy Hierarchs

Beatitudes on 12: Octoechos 4; Triodion 4, from Ode 3; Hierarchs 4, from Ode 6.

1. We offer Thee the cry of the thief, and we pray: Remember us in Thy kingdom, O Savior.

2. For the forgiveness of transgressions we offer unto Thee the Cross which Thou didst accept for our sake, O Thou who lovest mankind.

3. We bow down in worship, O Master, before Thy burial and rising, whereby Thou hast delivered the world from corruption, O Thou Who lovest mankind.

4. By Thy death hath death been slain, O Lord, and by Thy resurrection hast Thou saved the world, O Savior.

5 &6. Utterly beside myself, I have clung in madness to the sins suggested to me by the passions. But accept me, O Christ, as the Prodigal.

7. With the words of the Prodigal I cry aloud: I have sinned, O Father; like him, receive me now in Thine embrace and reject me not.

8. Open Thine arms, O Christ, and in loving-kindness receive me as I return from a far country of sin and passions.

9. Together, O ye three, bless the properties of God: the unbegottenness of the Father, the generation of the Word and the procession of the Spirit Himself.

10. Today hath salvation, radiantly manifest, come to this house; for Christ, honoring His own name, is present in the midst of the two or three gathered together.

11. Immeasurably distant from the heights of heaven is the abyss of the earth; yet divine desire hath borne the saints from the earth higher than the heavens.

12. The three divine preachers, having thee as a new wellspring and source of mysteries, O Virgin, adopt a novel manner of speech with new sources.

Troparia & Kontakia

Tone 2:  When Thou didst descend unto death, O Life Immortal, /

then didst Thou slay Hades with the lightning of Thy Divinity. /

And when Thou didst also raise the dead out of the nethermost depths, /

all the Hosts of the heavens cried out: //

O Life-giver, Christ our God, glory be to Thee.

Tone 4: In that ye share in the ways of the apostles, /

O teachers of the whole world, /

entreat the Master of all, /

that He grant peace to the world //

and great mercy to our souls.

Tone 2:  Thou didst rise from the tomb, O omnipotent Savior, /

and Hades was terrified on beholding the wonder; /

and the dead arose, /

and creation at the sight thereof rejoiceth with Thee. /

And Adam also is joyful, //

and the world, O my Savior, praiseth Thee for ever.

Glory… Tone 2: The sacred heralds of divine proclamation, /

the foremost among the teachers, /

hast Thou received, O Lord, into the enjoyment of Thy good things and into rest; /

for Thou hast accepted their labors and death as surpassing any wholeburnt offering, //

O Thou Who alone dost glorify Thy saints.

Both now... Tone 3: Having foolishly abandoned Thy paternal glory, /

I squandered on vices the wealth which Thou gavest me. /

Wherefore, I cry unto Thee with the voice of the Prodigal: /

I have sinned before Thee, O compassionate Father. /

Receive me as one repentant, //

and make me as one of Thy hired servants.

The Epistle

Reader: The Prokimenon in the 2nd Tone: The Lord is my strength and my song, and He is become my salvation.

Choir: The Lord is my strength and my song, and He is become my salvation.

Reader: With chastisement hath the Lord chastened me, but He hath not given me over unto death.

Choir: The Lord is my strength and my song, and He is become my salvation.

Reader: In the 8^th Tone: Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world

Choir: Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.

Reader: The Reading is from the First Epistle of the Holy Apostle Paul to the Corinthians: [I Cor. 6:12-20 (§135); Heb. 13:7-16 (§334)]

Reader: Alleluia in the 2nd Tone: The Lord hear thee in the day of affliction; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee.

Choir: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!

Reader: O Lord, save the king, and hearken unto us in the day when we call upon Thee.

Choir: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!

Reader: In the 4th tone: The heavens shall confess Thy wonders, O Lord, and Thy truth in the congregations of saints.

Choir: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!

Gospel [Luke 15:11-32 (§79); Matt. 5:14-19 (§11)]

Communion Verse: Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise Him in the highest! Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous; praise is meet for the upright. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!