LITURGY OF THE PRESANCTIFIED GIFTS
At Psalm 140
In Tone 1
- Lead my soul forth from prison* that I may give thanks to Your name.
In You, born of the Virgin, the harlot recognized her God;
ashamed of her sinful deeds, she sighed and wept, and said:
O Lord, loosen my debt to You, as I unloosen my hair.
Grant Your love to the one who loves You, despite all my unworthiness;
and I shall exalt Your love for all,
harlots and publicans alike,
O Lover of humankind and their Benefactor.
- The just shall gather around me* when You have been good to me.
The harlot mixed her tears with the precious myrrh,
as she poured them over Your most pure feet,
which she covered with kisses;
thus You showed her to be justified.
O Lord, who suffered for us,
grant us Your forgiveness and save us.
- Out of the depths I cry to You, O Lord;* O Lord, hear my voice!
While the sinful woman was offering You her ointment,
Your disciple conspired against You.
She rejoiced to pour out the precious myrrh,
while he hastened to sell the One who is beyond price.
As she came to recognize her Lord,
the disciple separated himself;
she was set free,
while Judas became enslaved to the Enemy.
She was ennobled through repentance,
while he was disgraced by his vile actions.
O Saviour, who suffered for us,
grant us Your forgiveness and save us.
- Let Yours ears be attentive* to the voice of my prayer.
O the misery of Judas!
He saw the sinful woman kiss the feet of the Lord,
and he shamefully thought of his kiss of betrayal.
She loosened her hair,
while he let himself be bound up by passion;
instead of the fragrance of myrrh, he bore the odour of his perverse and evil ways;
for jealousy does no know how to seek what is good.
O the misery of Judas!
O Lord, keep our souls from falling like him.
In Tone 2
- If You mark iniquities, Lord, who can stand?* But with You forgiveness is that You may be revered.
The sinful woman hastened to buy the precious myrrh,
in order to anoint her Saviour.
She said to the merchant:
Give me the myrrh that I might anoint the One
who washed me of all my sins.
In Tone 6
- I have waited for You as You have commanded; my soul patiently relies on Your promise,* for it has trusted in the Lord.
Drowning in the abyss of sin,
the harlot found in You a harbour of salvation.
She poured out myrrh with her tears, and said:
O Lord, You can forgive sins,
but You await the repentance of sinners.
Behold me, O Master, for I am sinking in the storm of sin;
in Your great goodness, save me.
- From the morning watch until night* let Israel trust in the Lord.
Today Christ comes to the house of the Pharisee,
and the sinful woman falls at His feet.
She bows before Him and says:
Behold, I am drowning in the abyss of sin;
I have lost all hope because of my deeds.
In Your goodness, do not turn away from me;
but grant me forgiveness, O Lord, and save me.
- For with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him there is plentiful redemption;* and He shall redeem Israel from all its iniquities.
The harlot loosened her hair for You, O Lord,
while Judas reached out his hand to the godless ones.
One acted to receive Your forgiveness, the other to gain money.
Therefore, we cry out to You:
O Lord, sold for our deliverance, glory to You.
- Praise the Lord, all the nations;* proclaim His glory, all you people.
Filled with the odour of sin, the woman drew near to You, O Saviour;
she poured out her tears over Your feet and thus proclaimed Your Passion.
“O Master, how shall I dare to raise my eyes to You,” she cried.
Yet You came to save the fallen;
You raised Lazarus from the tomb;
so lift me also from the abyss of death.
O Lord, accept me in my misery and save me.
- Strong is the love of the Lord for us;* eternally will His truth endure.
She who was rejected because of her life,
and who was accepted because of her conversion,
came to You, bearing myrrh, and saying:
Do not cast me out, O Son of the Virgin, for I am a wretched one;
O Joy of the angels do not despise my tears;
but receive me in repentance, and in Your goodness, accept me a sinful one.
In Tone 8, Glory… Now…
O Lord, the woman who had fallen into a multitude of sins,
recognized Your divinity and thus joined the ranks of the myrrh-bearing women;
before Your burial, she offered You myrrh with her tears:
“Alas,” she said, “Woe is me!
The stinging night of pleasure seizes me;
the dark and moonless love of sin grasps me.
Accept the stream of my tears and my copious weeping, O Lord,
for You make the waters fall from the clouds into the sea.
Incline Your ear to the cry of my heart,
for You incline the heavens in Your ineffable condescension.
Allow me to kiss Your most pure feet,
and to dry them with the locks of my hair;
for these are the feet that Eve heard in Paradise,
and, trembling at their approach, she hid herself.
O Lord, who can search out the number of my sins?
Who shall search the depth of Your judgments, O Redeemer and Saviour of our souls?!
In Your infinite love, do not despise Your servant.”
Prokeimenon I, Tone 4
To the God of heaven give thanks* for His love endures forever.
verse: Give thanks to the God of gods, for His love endures forever.
Reading I
Exodus 2:11-22
It came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren and saw their burdens. He also saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren of the sons of Israel. So he looked this way and that, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When he went out the second day, he saw two Hebrew men fighting, and he said to the one who did the wrong, “Why are you hitting your neighbor?” He replied, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” So Moses was alarmed and said, “Surely this thing is known.” Thus when Pharaoh heard this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian; and he sat down by a well.
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, who fed the sheep of their father Jethro; and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. Then the shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.
When they came to Reuel their father, he said to them, “How is it you came so soon today?” They replied, “An Egyptian delivered us from the shepherds; and he also drew enough water for us and watered our sheep.” So he said to his daughters, “And where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.” Then Moses dwelt with the man, and he gave Zipporah his daughter to Moses. So the woman conceived and bore Moses a son, and he called his name Gershom; for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.”
Prokeimenon II, Tone 4
Your love, O Lord, is eternal,* do not discard the work of Your hands.
verse: I thank You, Lord, with all my heart.
Reading II
Job 2:1-10
Then again as it so happened another day, the angels of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and the devil also came among them to present himself before the Lord. The Lord said to the devil, “Where did you come from?” Then the devil said before the Lord, “I came here from walking around under heaven and going about all the earth.” Then the Lord said to the devil, “Have you considered my servant Job, since there is none like him on the earth: an innocent, true, blameless, and God-fearing man, and one who abstains from every evil thing? Moreover he still holds fast to his integrity, though you told me to destroy his possessions without cause.”
Then the devil answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin. Whatever a man has he will pay in full for his life. Yet truly, stretch out Your hand and touch his bones and his flesh, and see if he will bless You to Your face.” So the Lord said to the devil, “Behold, I give him over to you; only spare his life.” Thus the devil went out from the Lord and struck Job with malignant sores from head to foot. So he took a potsherd to scrape away the discharge and sat on a dunghill outside the city.
When a period of time passed, his wife said to him, “How long will you hold out, saying, ‘Behold, I will wait a little longer, looking for the hope of my salvation’?
Gospel
Matthew 26:6-16
At that time, when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to Him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on His head as He sat at the table. But when His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor.”
But when Jesus was aware of it, He said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for Me. For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always. For in pouring this fragrant oil on My body, she did it for My burial. Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.”
Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?” And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver. So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him.