Presanctified Liturgy: Wednesday in the 6th Week

Venerable Basil the Confessor, Bishop of Parium

 

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 8 (Special Melody: “O all-glorious wonder…”):

With laudations /

is thy memory splendidly celebrated, /

O holy hierarch Basil; /

and it hath filled with joy /

the assemblies of the Orthodox, /

for thou didst love righteousness, /

the purity of chastity and meekness, /

and didst ever honor stillness //

with excellence and perfection.                    Twice

 

Imitating the divine Paul /

in exiles patiently endured, /

O holy hierarch Basil, /

thou didst reach the end of thy life /

in need and tribulations, /

continually oppressed, /

and ever forced to move; /

but now through God thou hast found habitation and delight //

which is without care and immutable.

 

As a God-pleasing hierarch /

thou now lookest upon the never-waning beams /

of a noetic habitation, /

and, clothed in holiness /

and clad in righteousness, /

thou hast been vouchsafed to behold things which are above the earth; /

and, face to face, O thou who art most rich, /

thou seest the beauty //

of the magnificence of noetic things.

 

Glory… Both now… in the same tone and melody:

Save me, O all-pure Mistress, /

who ineffably gavest birth to Christ the Savior;

for thee alone have I acquired as our intercessor, /

an invincible rampart, /

protection and joy, /

and the divine consolation of my soul. /

Wherefore, deliver me from the worm which sleepeth not /

and from the everlasting fire, //

O Mother of Christ God.

 

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.

 

Reading: Genesis 43:26-31; 45:1-16

 

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.

 

Reading: Proverbs 21:23 – 22:4

 

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