The Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos
Beatitude
Verses: Feast: 4 from Ode 3; 4 from Ode 6
1. As an unploughed field thou didst manifestly produce the divine Grain. Rejoice, O animate table holding the Bread of life! Rejoice, O Mistress, thou inexhaustible wellspring of the Water of life! 2. Standing before thee with faith, in thy church, we, thy people, await thy mercy, O Mistress. Visit our lowliness, and with thy holy protection defend the Orthodox people from all evil. 3. O far-famed Virgin who wast honorably prefigured by the prophets, with the angels they now do thee homage. Pray thou to God with them, that rejoicing, we may all splendidly celebrate thy holy protection today. 4. Gideon prefigured thee as a fleece, for Christ God descended upon thee like dew. Pray thou to Him, O Theotokos, that He grant victory to our Orthodox hierarchs over all heresies, that, casting them down like the Midianites, they may render glorious thy holy feast. 5. Divinely wise priests, standing in thy church with the pious people, await thy mercy, O Theotokos. Transform our grief into Joy, in that thou gavest birth to the Joy Who hath done away with the sins of all men. 6. To thee doth all the earth offer gifts as to the Queen and Mother of God. Kings and princes bow down in homage, and all the people are glad, protected from all evil by thy supplications, O Theotokos. 7. Daniel described thee beforehand as a great mountain; for from thee was Christ born without seed. He hath destroyed all the falsehood of the demons, and hath filled all the earth with His Faith. To Him do thou pray for us who glorify the feast of thy protection, O Theotokos. 8. O all-pure one, we utter unto thee the cry of the angel: Rejoice, O throne of God, whereon Ezekiel beheld the Lord in the guise of a man, upborne by the cherubim! With them pray thou for us, O Theotokos, that He save our souls. Troparion Tone 4: Today we Orthodox people joyfully celebrate /
thy glorious coming among us, O Mother of God, /and gazing upon thy most pure image, we say with compunction: /Shelter us with thy most precious protection, /and deliver us from all evil, /and pray to thy Son, Christ our God, /that he save our souls. The Epistle
Reader: The Prokimenon in the 3rd Tone: My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit
hath rejoiced in God my Savior.
Choir: My soul doth
magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.
Reader: For He hath looked upon the lowliness of
His handmaiden; for behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me
blessed.
Choir: My
soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.
Reader: My soul doth magnify the Lord.
Choir: And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior
Reader: The Reading is
from the Epistle of the Holy Apostle Paul to the Hebrews: [Hebrews 9:1-7 (§320)]
Reader: Alleluia in the 8th Tone.
Choir: Alleluia,
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Reader: Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline thine ear.
Choir: Alleluia,
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Reader: The rich among the people shall entreat
thy countenance.
Choir: Alleluia,
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Gospel [Luke 10:38-42;11:27-28
(§54)]
Kontakion
Tone
3: Today the Virgin doth stand before us in
church, /
and
with the choirs of saints /
invisibly
prayeth for us to God. /
Angels
worship with hierarchs, /
apostles
rejoice with prophets, //
for
the Theotokos prayeth for us to the Pre-eternal God.