The Ascension of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ

St. John the Theologian

Note: The service for St. Arsenius may be chanted Monday evening at Compline.

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); Apostle 4 (The beholder of ineffable revelations); G: Apostle (O ye race of man); 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 Apostle.

Litia stichera: Feast 6 (As Thou ascendest unto the Heavens); Apostle 3 (Rivers of theology); G: Apostle (Reclining against the breast of Christ); N: Feast (O Lord, having fulfilled the mystery).

Aposticha: Feast (Thou wast born as Thou Thyself didst will); G: Apostle (O apostle of Christ, evangelist and theologian); N: Feast (God is gone up in jubilation).

Troparia: Feast (Thou hast ascended in glory) x2; Apostle (O beloved apostle of Christ God) x1.

Matins: God is the Lord, Tone 4; Troparia: Feast (Thou hast ascended in glory) x2; G: Apostle (O beloved apostle of Christ God); 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: Feast (1st Canon) 6 Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee.

Apostle 4 Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian, pray to God for us.

Feast (2nd Canon) 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 (Who can recount thy mighty works), Ikos, and Sessional hymn of the Apostle (Having reclined against the breast of Wisdom); 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 Apostle has the usual refrains.

Exapostilarion: Feast (While Thy disciples looked on Thee, Thou ascendest); G: Apostle (As a son of thunder); N: Feast (While Thy disciples looked on Thee, Thou ascendest).

Praises, Tone 1, on 6: Feast 3 (Let us that are in the world now keep feast angelically); Apostle 3 (O all-wise and blessed John); G: Apostle (O evangelist John); N: Feast (Thou wast born as Thou Thyself didst will). After the Great Doxology: Troparion of the Apostle; 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 Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian, of our holy and God-bearing fathers and of all the saints…; First Hour.

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

Liturgy: The Typical Psalms. Beatitudes on 8: Feast 4, from Ode 3, first Canon; Apostle 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; Apostle; G: Kontakion of the Apostle; N: Feast.

Prokimenon, Tone 7: Be Thou exalted above the heavens, O God. & Tone 8: Their sound hath gone forth.

Epistle: Acts 1:1-12 (§1); 1 John 1:1-7 (§68).

Alleluia, Tone 2 & Tone 1.

Gospel: Luke 24:36-53 (§114); John 19:25-27, 21:24-25 (§61).

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. & Their sound hath gone forth.

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 Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian, of all the holy, glorious, and all-praised Apostles, of our father among the saints, John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, and of all the saints...