Presanctified Liturgy: Wednesday in the 1st Week

St. Theophylact the Confessor

 

Tone 8:

While fasting with the body, brethren, let us also fast in spirit. /

Let us loose every bond iniquity; /

let us undo the knots of every contract made by violence; /

let us tear up all unjust agreements; /

let us give bread to the hungry /

and welcome to our house the poor who have no roof to cover them, //

that we may receive great mercy from Christ our God.    (Twice)

 

If there be any virtue and if there be any praise, /

rightly are these things ascribed to the saints. /

They bowed their necks beneath the sword, /

for Thy sake who hast bowed the heavens and come down. /

They shed their blood for Thee, /

who hast emptied Thyself and taken the form of a servant; /

they humbled themselves even unto death, /

following the example of Thy poverty. /

At their prayers have mercy upon us, O God, //

according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies.

 

Tone 2:

Jesus, the true spiritual Sun, /

sent you out as lightning into all the world, /

and by the brightness of your divine preaching. /

O ye apostles and eyewitnesses of God, /

He has dispersed the darkness of error /

and given light to those held fast in the evil gloom of ignorance. /

Entreat Him to send down upon us also //

His illumination and great mercy.

 

Elijah, glorified by fasting, /

rode in the divine chariot of the virtues /

and was carried up to the height of heaven. /

Eagerly follow his example, O my humble soul, /

and fast from every evil, /

from envy, strife and passing pleasure. /

So shalt thou escape the harsh and everlasting agony of Gehenna, /

crying out to Christ: //

Glory be to Thee, O Lord.

 

Tone 5:

Apostles of God, fervent intercessors for the world, /

defenders of the Orthodox, /

ye who have the power to draw near with boldness unto Christ our God: /

we beseech you, intercede on our behalf, /

that unhindered we may keep the holy season of the Fast /

and receive the grace of the consubstantial Trinity. /

O great and glorious preachers, //

worthy of all reverence, pray for our souls.

 

Tone 1 (to the special melody “O all-praised martyrs…”):

Watched over by divine guardians, /

thou wast preserved unharmed, O father Theophylact; /

and thou didst show thyself to be an unshaken pillar of the Church, /

undaunted by the trials of the snares of the heretics. /

And now do thou pray, //

that peace and great mercy be granted to our souls.          Twice

 

O blessed father Theophylact, /

beholding God accessibly and visibly, /

and delighting in Him through a higher union, /

and deified by this communion, /

rejoicing, thou didst receive the Blessed One Whom alone thou didst desire,/

O most honored hierarch, //

making thine abode now with the angels.

 

Having departed the earth, O father Theophylact, /

thou didst soar aloft to heaven, O blessed one, /

and wast vouchsafed to live in the heavenly mansions, /

because of the persecution which thou didst endure for Christ. /

Him do thou now beseech, //

that He grant peace and great mercy to our souls.

 

Glory... Now and ever... Same Tone and Melody:

Heal thou my soul which hath been grievously afflicted by evil passions, /

O all-holy one who gavest birth unto Christ, /

the Healer and Savior of all, /

Who hath healed every wound inflicted by the devil’s malice, //

and hath abolished death for us.

 

Prokimena and Old Testament Readings

 

Tone 5: Thou, O Lord, shalt keep us and shalt preserve us * from this generation, and forevermore.

 

Stichos: Save me, O Lord, for a righteous man there is no more.

 

Reading: Genesis 1:24-2:3

 

Tone 6: Look upon me, hear me, * O Lord my God.

 

Stichos: How long, O Lord, wilt Thou utterly forget me? How long wilt Thou turn Thy face away from me?

 

Reading: Proverbs 2:1-22

 

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