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Event Information:
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Wed24Jan2024
Our Venerable Mother Xenia the Roman.
VESPERS
Kathisma Reading
The prescribed psalms are chanted.
At Psalm 140
Tone 1
If You mark iniquities, Lord, who can stand?* But with You forgiveness is that You may be revered.
When You were nailed to the cross as man, O Christ our God,* You made mankind divine and slew the serpent, the origin of evil.* You set us free from the curse of the tree;* and in Your compassion, You Yourself took on the curse.* You conferred blessings and great mercy on the world.
I have waited for You as You have commanded; my soul patiently relies on Your promise,* for it has trusted in the Lord.
You are above all honour, O Master,* yet You were pleased to suffer shame.* O Most Compassionate One,* You endured a humiliating death upon the wood.* Therefore, by Your death in the flesh, O Almighty One,* mankind reaped immortality and received the newness of life.
From the morning watch until night* let Israel trust in the Lord.
O most precious Cross,* purification of all the faithful and power of kings,* you have sanctified all those who venerate you and glorify Christ,* who, in His compassion, stretched out His immaculate hands upon you,* and gathered all people into one from the ends of the earth.
Tone 8
For with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him there is plentiful redemption;* and He shall redeem Israel from all its iniquities.
First, you transformed your love:* You made yourself faithful by the higher action of your mind.* You departed from the crookedness of pleasure's vanity* and becoming a stranger, blessed one,* you rightly walked by the hard ascent of virtue.
Praise the Lord, all the nations;* proclaim His glory, all you people.
You hastened to the godly haven,* calmly passing through the waves of the storm of life.* You steered the ship of your soul without foundering* through the bitterness of pleasures, most honoured one,* loaded with spiritual cargo!
Strong is the love of the Lord for us;* eternally will His truth endure.
You became a stranger in godly emulation* of Him Who for our sake came from on high to raise up the fallen. * Unknown, you lived among your relatives, wise one!* You ever pray to God, Xenia, on behalf of the faithful.
Tone 1, Glory… Now…
When you beheld your Son and Lord* with arms outstretched upon the cross* and His side pierced with a lance,* O Pure Mother weeping, you cried out:* How intensely You suffer, O Lover of mankind* who takes away the suffering of all.
Aposticha
Tone 1
The cross was planted upon the place of the skull;* and from the everlasting spring that flowed from the side of the Saviour,* it brought forth for us the Flower of Immortality.
I have lifted up my eyes to You enthroned in heaven. Behold, as the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters, as the eyes of a maid are on the hands of her mistress, so are our eyes on the Lord our God until He has mercy on us.
The precious cross of the Saviour* is our unshakable wall;* for all of us, who have put our hope in it, are saved.
Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us; for we have been filled with shame; our soul is all too full of the mockery of the rich, of the contempt of the proud.
How beautiful is the manner of your exchange, O Saints;* for you have given your blood and received heaven.* Truly, you have done well!* You have obtained immortality by forsaking corruptible things.* Making a single choir with the angels,* you sing unceasingly the praises of the consubstantial Trinity.
Tone 1, Glory… Now…
When she beheld the Lamb hanging on the cross,* the undefiled Virgin lamented and cried:* O my Child, what is this strange and most glorious sight?* How is it that He who holds all things in His hands* is nailed in the flesh to the wood?
Troparion
In Tone 8
The divine image was faithfully preserved in you, O mother,* for taking up the Cross you followed Christ.* By your deeds you have taught us to see beyond flesh which passes* and care for the soul, a thing immortal.* And so, O venerable woman, Xenia,* your spirit rejoices with the angels.
Glory… Now…
When the Mother beheld upon the cross* the Lamb, the Shepherd, and the Savior of the world,* she exclaimed tearfully:* The world rejoices at the sight of its redemption,* but my heart is afire as I see your pain on the cross,* which You accept for the sake of all, O my Son and my God!
DIVINE LITURGY
Troparia and Kontakia
Troparion, Tone 8: The divine image was faithfully preserved in you, O mother,* for taking up the Cross you followed Christ.* By your deeds you have taught us to see beyond flesh which passes* and care for the soul, a thing immortal.* And so, O venerable woman, Xenia,* your spirit rejoices with the angels.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and for ever and ever. Amen.
Kontakion, Tone 2: For love of the Lord, O venerable woman,* you scorned the desire for rest and enlightened your soul through fasting,* for you have mightily conquered the beasts.* Through your prayers thwart the rage of fiends.
Prokeimenon, Tone 4
God is wonderful in His saints,* the God of Israel.
verse: Bless God in the churches, the Lord from the fountains of Israel. (Psalm 67:36,27)
Epistle
2 Peter 3:1-18
Alleluia, Tone 1
verse: With expectation I have waited for the Lord, and he was attentive to me, and He heard my prayer.
verse: He brought me out of the pit of misery and the mud of the swamp. (Psalm 39:2,3)
Gospel
Mark 13:24-31
Communion Hymn
The just man shall be in everlasting remembrance;* of evil hearsay he shall have no fear*. Alleluia, alleluia,* alleluia. (Psalm 111:6)