Presanctified Liturgy: Wednesday in the 6th Week
St. Hilarion the New
Tone 5:
I am rich in passions and clothed in the deceitful robe of hypocrisy, /
and I rejoice in the sins of self-indulgence. /
There is no limit to my lack of love. /
I neglect my spiritual understanding, /
that lies at the gate of repentance, /
starved of all good things, sick through want of care. /
O Lord, make me like Lazarus poor in sin, /
that I be not tormented in the flame /
that never shall be quenched, /
and pray in vain for a finger to be dipped in water /
and laid upon my tongue. /
But in Thy love for mankind //
make me dwell with the Patriarch Abraham. Twice
Your souls, O holy martyrs, /
were filled with an insatiable love; /
not denying Christ ye endured great sufferings and torment, /
and ye cast down the tyrants’ pride. /
Ye kept the faith unaltered and unharmed, /
and now ye have gone to dwell in heaven. /
Since ye have boldness before Christ, //
pray that peace be given to the world, and to our souls great mercy.
When Thou wast journeying in the flesh, O Jesus, /
on the other side of the Jordan, /
Thou hast said to Thy companions:
“My friend Lazarus is already dead, /
and now has been committed to the tomb. /
And so for your sakes I rejoice, my friends, /
for by this ye shall learn that I know all things, /
since I am God, inseparable from the Father, /
though in my visible appearance I am man. /
Let us go then, to bring him back to life, /
that death may feel the defeat /
and utter destruction that I bring upon it, //
bestowing my great mercy on the world.
O ye faithful, let us follow the example of Martha and Mary, /
and as intercessors let us send to the Lord our acts of righteousness, /
that He may come to raise up from the dead our spiritual understanding, /
which lies insensible within the tomb of negligence, /
lacking all feeling of the fear of God /
and having no vital energy. /
So let us cry: As once by Thy dread authority, O merciful Lord, /
Thou hast raised up Thy friend Lazarus, /
so now give life to all of us, //
and grant us Thy great mercy.
Tone: 6:
Lazarus has now been two days in the tomb, /
and He sees the dead from all the ages. /
There he beholds strange sights of terror, /
a multitude that none can number, the prisoners of hell. /
His sisters bitterly lament, looking upon his tomb. /
But Christ comes to bring His friend to life, /
that a single hymn of praise may be offered up with one accord by all: //
Blessed art Thou, O Savior, have mercy upon us.
Tone 4 (Special Melody: “Thou hast given a sign…”):
Having acquired a blameless life, /
patience and meekness and love unfeigned, /
boundless abstinence, /
standing all-night, divine compunction, /
faith and true hope in compassion, O father, /
thou didst live on earth like an angel in the flesh, /
O blessed Hilarion, //
intercessor for our souls. Twice
An earthly angel and a heavenly man /
wast thou, O venerable one, /
a wellspring of compunction, /
a stream of compassion, /
an abyss of miracles, a surety for sinners, /
a truly fruitful olive-tree of God, /
anointing with the oil of thy labors /
the faces of those who praise thee with faith, //
O wondrous Hilarion.
Illumined with divine understanding, /
thy mind transcended the passions of the body, /
and was aloof from earthly things, /
bearing the image of God /
and depicting divine beauty within itself. /
Through the activity of the Spirit, /
thou art recognized as wholly godly, //
O Hilarion our father, //
thou adornment of monastics.
Glory… Both now… in the same tone and melody:
With the showers of the all-holy Spirit /
bedew my thoughts, O all-pure one, /
who gavest birth to Christ, the Drop Who by His compassions /
washeth away the iniquities of men /
which are infinitely past count; /
dry up the flux of my passions, /
and by thy supplications ever vouchsafe unto me //
a torrent of the food of life.
Prokimena and Old Testament Readings
Tone 4: I will be well-pleasing before the Lord * in the land of the living.
Stichos: I am filled with love, for the Lord will hear the voice of my supplication.
Tone 4: My vows unto the Lord will I pay * in the presence of all His people.
Stichos: I believed, wherefore I spake; I was humbled exceedingly.