The Ascension of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ

Ss. Cyril and Methodius

Great Vespers: Priest exclaims Glory to the holy. Choir: Amen. Priest: O come let us worship. The choir sings the select verses of Psalm 103.

Great Litany. Blessed is the man.

Lord I have Cried, Tone 6, on 10: Feast 6 (The Lord was taken up into the Heavens); Saints 4 (With what wreaths of praise); G: Saints (Come, ye who love the feasts of the Church); N: Feast (Not being separated from the bosom of the Father).

Entry; O Gladsome Light; Prokimenon of the day, Tone 5: O God, in Thy name save me.

3 Readings for the Feast & 3 Readings for the Saints.

Litia stichera: Feast 6 (As Thou ascendest unto the Heavens); Saints 3 (Ye shone forth in the firmament of the Church – from the Vespers Aposticha); G/N: Feast (O Lord, having fulfilled the mystery).

Aposticha: Feast (Thou wast born as Thou Thyself didst will); G: Saints (Rejoice, O sacred pair); N: Feast (God is gone up in jubilation).

Troparia: Feast (Thou hast ascended in glory) x2; Saints (As ones equal in character to the Apostles) x1.

Matins: God is the Lord, Tone 4; Troparia: Feast (Thou hast ascended in glory) x2; G: Saints (As ones equal in character to the Apostles); N Feast.

After each Kathisma: Sessional hymns of the Feast.

Polyeleos and Magnification of the Feast: We magnify Thee, O Christ the Giver of life, and we honor Thy divine Ascension with Thy most pure Flesh into heaven. Psalm verse: Clap your hands, all ye nations; shout unto God with a voice of rejoicing.

Sessional hymns of the Feast (Having come down from Heaven unto the things of earth).

Hymn of Ascents, First Antiphon, Tone 4: From my youth.

Prokimenon of the Feast, Tone 4: God is gone up in jubilation.

Matins Gospel: Mark 16:9-20 (§71).

Having beheld the resurrection x1; Psalm 50; G: Through the prayers of the apostles; N: Through the prayers of the Theotokos; Have mercy on me, O God; and the Sticheron of the Feast (Today the hosts on high, beholding our nature in the Heavens); Save, O God, Thy people.

Canon: 1st Canon of the Feast 6 Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee.

Saints 4 Holy Equals-of-the-Apostles, Methodius and Cyril, pray to God for us.

2nd Canon of the Feast 4 Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee.

Irmos of the feast: Let us sing unto the only Savior and God.

Katavasia of Pentecost, Covered by the divine cloud.

After Ode 3, Kontakion (Let us honor our sacred pair of enlighteners), Ikos, and Sessional hymn of the Saints (Thou didst liken the holy consubstantial Trinity to the Sun); G/N: Sessional Hymn of the Feast (Having mounted upon heaven’s clouds).

After Ode 6, Kontakion (When Thou didst fulfill Thy dispensation for our sake) and Ikos of the Feast.

At Ode 9, we do not sing More Honorable. We instead sing the refrains of the Feast: Magnify, O my soul, Christ the giver of life, Who ascended from earth to Heaven, with the canon of the feast. The canon of the saints has the usual refrains.

Exapostilarion: Feast (While Thy disciples looked on Thee, Thou ascendest); G: Saints (Celebrating your memory); N: Feast (Repeat).

Praises, Tone 1, on 6: Feast 3 (Let us that are in the world now keep feast angelically); Saints 3 (O divinely wise Cyril and Methodius); G: Saints (O ye people, piously celebrating); N: Feast (Thou wast born as Thou Thyself didst will). After the Great Doxology: Troparion of the Saints; G/N: Feast; the two remaining Litanies and Festal dismissal: May Christ our true God, Who in glory did ascend from us into heaven and sit at the right hand of God the Father, through the intercessions of His most pure Mother, of the Holy Equals-of-the-Apostles Methodius and Cyril, of our holy and God-bearing fathers and of all the saints…; First Hour.

Hours: Troparion: Feast; G: Saints; Kontakion: Feast & Saints, alternating.

Liturgy: The Typical Psalms. Beatitudes on 8: Feast 4, from Ode 3, first Canon; Saints 4, from Ode 6.

At the entrance, the deacon (or priest if there is no deacon) says the Festal Introit in place of the usual O come, let us worship: God is gone up in jubilation, the Lord with the voice of the trumpet. And immediately the Troparion of the Feast (Thou hast ascended in glory); Saints (As ones equal in character to the Apostles); G: Kontakion of the Saints (Let us honor our sacred pair of enlighteners); N: Feast (When Thou didst fulfill Thy dispensation for our sake).

Prokimenon, Tone 7: Be Thou exalted above the heavens, O God. & Tone 7: Precious in the sight of the Lord.

Epistle: Acts 1:1-12 (§1); Hebrews 7:26-8:2 (§318).

Alleluia, Tone 2.

Gospel: Luke 24:36-53 (§114); Matthew 5:14-19 (§11).

Instead of It is truly meet, we sing the refrain Magnify, O my soul, Him Who hath ascended from earth to heaven, Christ the Giver of life, with the Irmos of the first canon of the ninth Ode (Thee that art above understanding and word, the Mother of God).

Communion Hymn: God is gone up in jubilation. & In everlasting remembrance shall the righteous be.

Instead of We have seen the True Light, we sing the Troparion of the Feast.

Festal Dismissal: May Christ our true God, Who in glory did ascend from us into heaven and sit at the right hand of God the Father, through the intercessions of His most pure Mother, of the holy, glorious, and all-praised Apostles, of our father among the saints, John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, of the Holy Equals-of-the-Apostles Methodius and Cyril, of our holy and God-bearing fathers and of all the saints...…

Great Vespers: No Kathisma.

Lord, I have cried, Tone 5, on 6: St. Epiphanius 3 (Rejoice, O instructor of fasters – Menaion, May 12th); St. Germanus 3 (O Germanus, thou didst firmly cast down); G/N: Feast (Thou was born as Thou Thyself didst will).*

Entrance with the censer, O Gladsome Light; The Great Prokimenon, Tone 7: Our God is in heaven and on earth; all things soever He hath willed, He hath done.

Aposticha: Feast (As Thou ascendest unto the Heavens – from the stichera at Lord I have cried, with the festal refrains written at the Aposticha); G/N: Feast (Having beheld Thine ascents).

Troparia: Saints (O God of our fathers); G/N: Feast (Thou hast ascended in glory); Festal dismissal.

*“If there be two saints, we sing the stichera of the saints on 6; G: Saint; N: Feast, and if no [glory], G/N: Feast. The stichera of the feast in the Triodion we sing at the Aposticha with the refrains of the Feast; G: Saints, if there be [a doxasticon], and if none, G/N: Feast. The Aposticha of the Triodion is not sung.” – Typikon, Chapter 50, The Note “Let it be known how the Menaion is combined with Triodion throughout all of Pentecost.”