Presanctified Liturgy:
Friday in the 4th Week
Tone
7:
My
soul’s dignity I have enslaved to the passions; /
I
am become like the beasts, /
and
have no power to lift mine eyes to Thee, Most High. /
But
with my head bowed like the publican, /
I
pray to Thee, O Christ, and cry aloud: //
God
be merciful to me and save me.
Twice
Tone
6:
Thy
martyrs, O Lord, /
denied Thee not and forsook not Thy commandments: /
At
their intercessions //
have mercy upon us.
Those
who suffered martyrdom for Thee, O Christ, /
endured great torments: /
at
their prayers and intercessions, //
O
Lord, preserve us all.
Thy
victorious martyrs, /
when they contended on this earth, endured great torments; /
but
now they dwell in heaven /
and
have received a perfect crown, //
that they may offer intercession for our souls.
Thy
Cross was for the martyrs /
an
invincible weapon, O Lord. /
They
saw death before them; /
but,
looking to the life that is to come, /
they were strengthened by their hope in Thee. /
At
their intercessions //
have mercy upon us.
Tone
4 (Special Melody: “Thou hast given a sign…”):
Desiring
a blessedness which passeth understanding, /
thou didst reckon abstinence to be
food, /
poverty to be wealth, lack of acquisition to be abundant possessions, /
and
humility to be glory, O wondrous one. /
Wherefore,
thou didst also receive thy desire /
in
accordance with thine understanding, //
abiding in the tabernacles of the saints, O Basil. Twice
Thou
didst complete the immutable course of abstinence, /
and
didst keep the Faith. /
Wherefore,
thou hast been adorned with a crown of righteousness, O father, /
which Christ hath prepared for thee, /
awarding thee recompense in accordance with thy merits, /
and
bestowing upon thee honors and rewards for thy pangs. /
Him
do thou beseech, O divinely inspired one, //
that He save our souls.
All
love of pleasure which enslaved thy body /
didst thou cast off, O divinely wise one, /
harrowing thy senses with the pangs of abstinence, /
with terrible living conditions, the endurance of temptations, /
and
the withstanding of evil circumstances; /
and
thereby thou hast received never-ending delight, //
everlasting sweetness and ineffable joy.
Glory… Tone 6:
The
creative ordinance was my beginning and foundation. /
For
Thou hast willed to fashion me as a living creature /
from natures visible and invisible: /
Thou
hast made my body from the earth, /
and
given me a soul by Thy divine and quickening breath. /
Therefore,
O Savior, grant rest to Thy servants in the land of the living, //
in
the tabernacles of the righteous.
Both now… Tone 6:
Who doth not call thee
blessed, O all-holy Virgin? /
Who will not hymn thine
all-pure birthgiving? /
For the only-begotten Son /
Who shone forth timelessly
from the Father, /
came forth, ineffably incarnate, from thee, the pure one;
/
and being God by nature, /
He became man by nature for
our sake, /
not divided into two Persons, /
but known in two natures without confusion. /
Him do thou beseech, O pure
and most blessed one, //
that our souls find mercy!
Tone
4: O
Shepherd of
Stichos:
Thou
that sittest on the cherubim, manifest Thyself.
Lesson:
Genesis 12:1-7
Tone
4: Rejoice
in God our helper.