|
Office
in honor of
the All-Holy
Mother of God,
Searcher
for the
Lost
Compiled from the hymnodic tradition of the Byzantine Church
and from original compositions
by a monk of
Holy Resurrection Monastery
OFFICE OF GREAT VESPERS
STICHERA
On “Lord, I have cried”
Tone 3
Prip. If You mark iniquities, O Lord, who can stand?
But with You forgiveness is that You may be revered.
6. “O Child! Why have you treated us so?”
Asked the All-Holy searching Mother.
“Why send us far from your divine face,
O my sacred Son?
You, whom Eve fled in the garden,
I have sought through every street in Jerusalem;
as our fathers hungered for You in the wilderness,
I have longed for your return to my beating heart,
comfort me your grieving Handmaid,
You who love mankind.”
Prip.
I have waited for You as You have commanded;
my soul patiently relies on your promise, for it has trusted in the Lord.
5. “Why seek me but in my Father’s House?”
Answered the God-made-Man, her Son:
“Why seek the living God among the dead streets?
O most Holy Mother,
All generations will bless your sacred error today,
for losing Me, the world has found Me,
safe in the embrace of my Father’s Home,
revealing in human words the Word of God,
so that—following you into my arm’s clasp—
all may come to know my love for mankind.”
Prip. From the morning watch until night let Israel trust in the Lord.
4. “I have sought you early in the morning,”
replied the maiden Mother,
“I have made my heart a watcher for the Dawn,
O my sacred Son.
Now, where angels fed me from my youth
the teachers of the law are fed by the Law-Giver.
My mind bends beneath this mystery
and my pondering heart falls silent:
this strange finding pierces me like a new loss;
teach me, your Mother, You who love mankind.”
Prip. For with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him there is plentiful redemption;
and He shall redeem Israel from all its iniquities.
3. “For love, my hand opened Adam’s side,”
answered her Son and God,
“but for sin, Adam will open my side with a spear,
O most holy Mother,
and search the Abyss of Mercy
in the flesh and blood formed in your womb.
I school you now for the black day,
when my broken body will pierce your heart,
so that you may teach the universe to weep,
and wake Adam to my love for mankind.”
Prip. Praise the Lord, all the nations;
proclaim his glory, all you people.
2. “I who was bewildered by Gabriel’s splendor,”
said his loving Mother,
“stand amazed before your Face like mine,
O my sacred Son,
your Face upon which Gabriel dares not gaze.
I search for one to help, and find no-one,
I look for words to speak and cannot.
Yet I spread out my hands to You
and bow my neck for your embrace,
adoring forever your love for mankind.”
Prip. Strong is the love of the Lord for us;
eternally will his truth endure.
1. “I will arise and return with you to Nazareth,”
answered the Word in the Temple,
“and I will rise from my three-day burial,
O most holy Mother.
I, who fill the cosmos with my Presence
empty myself into your care,
so that all the lost who wish to find Me
may call on you in your home,
and, touching you, who hold Me in your arms,
touch Me who loves mankind.
Tone 8
Prip. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
Winging over the floods, a dove found no rest,
but Noah’s hand bobbing on the ark,1
until olive grew once more on the dry hill.
So the Father’s Dove found no life on earth
until He plucked a thorn wreathed about the Word’s head,
and recognized in bare Golgotha
a new Ararat’s saving slopes.
Prip. Now and ever and forever. Amen.
Dogmatikon in Tone 8.
In his love for mankind,
the King of Heaven appeared on earth and dwelt among us.
For He took flesh from the pure Virgin,
and, being thus incarnate, came forth from her.
The only Son of God remained one Person,
but He now possessed two natures.
For this reason, we profess that He is truly perfect God and perfect man.
Therefore, we beseech you, O Virgin Mother:
Implore Christ, whom we proclaim as God,
to have mercy on our souls.
PROKIEMENON
Of the day
READINGS
1. 1 Genesis 28: 10–17
2. Ezekiel 43:27–44
3. Proverbs 9:1–11
LITIJA STICHERA
Tone 4
Lovely Lady, unconsumed yet burning Bush,
unwed Bride, canny Widow searching out her coin,
sweep me from the corners of my despondency.
I am lost and forgotten in all the world,
but you are mindful of the lost:
remember me to the Son you bore
and lead me to His Father’s House.
Jacob lost his Rachel in her last childbirth,2
sundered by their community in ancient Eve;
and the whole creation groans in labor3
until you, O new Eve, painlessly bear the last pain-filled Man
Whose death washes away all travail
in the baptism of water and His blood.
All-Holy, searching Lady,
first finder of God in the flesh,
born in star lit Bethlehem;
Lady, refuge from all danger,
guide us in our lumbering search,
making loud our lowing cries for Christ’s mercy.
Tone 3
Prip. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
Christ, the Fruit of Mary’s womb, we put on in baptism,4
He is of one essence with the Father,
yet distinct in person,
and from Him is the Spirit sent forth5
on all the faithful in the Chrism of mercy.
Prip. Now and ever, and forever. Amen.
The Law stoned the man in search of sticks,
though the wilderness Sabbath froze his bones;6
but now Mary’s Son has gathered His wheat
and made the Sabbath a feast,7
treading the high places in victory,
bowing heavens to the earth,
warming us with His fiery love.
APOSTICHA
Tone 6
Narrow the space between losing and finding,
between the strength of the feeble and the breaking of the mighty,
between the going down to Hades and the rising up again,
between the bringing low and the lifting up.
Narrow the space, O Mother of God:
the breadth of your Son’s Body.
Prip.
Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear.
The Son of Mary searched the fig-tree,
and cursed the arid plant.8
Rejoice, O barren race,
for the Lord stopped not His search,
but dug even until hell to heal our stock,
clearing away the pestilence of death,
husbanding us to plenty again.
Prip. The rich among the people will seek your favor.
Pure One, prefigured in the Burning Bush;
then the spark ignited the sky for the Israelites,9
now the fire of your motherhood has overcome the universe with flames:
pray your hot prayers for the coldest hearts,
and save your servants who are lost
in the lightlessness of sin’s bitter night.
Tone 3
Prip. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Adam was lost to the Father.
Eve, seeking shadows, wandered far from the Son.
To the Spirit the dry ground gave up
nothing but dead men’s bones.10
So journeyed the undivided Trinity to rended humanity,
bowing the heavens and coming down.11
Prip.
Now and ever, and forever. Amen.
O God, heal Adam,
close our wounds, bind our hearts,
O Opener of Sides, love’s Well.
Adam’s first wound was mended by Eve’s birth,
then burst open by his deathly leap into hell;
Now the new Eve holds up the soft Balm,
Whose open side closes ancient hurts.
TROPARION
Tone 4
Within the Temple, O Temple of Life
you found Him whom the universe cannot contain,
silencing the teachers by the word of God
which is above the wisdom of the wise.
O all-pure Mother of God,
cease not seeking your children who are lost;
that we may treasure Christ in our hearts,
and find eternally our Father’s House.
(Three times)
Scripture
References:
1 Genesis 8:9
2 Genesis 35:16-20
3 Romans 8:22
4 Galatians 3:27
5 cf. John 20:22
6 Numbers 15:32-36
7 Mark 2:23
8 Matthew 21:19
9 cf. Exodus 3:2 & 13:21
10 Ezekiel 37:1
11 cf. Psalm 144:5
|