Aposticha Prayers

Posted on by Fr. Peter
The Aposticha Prayers for the Vespers on Tuesday Evening of the 3rd Week of Great Lent:

Though I am a creature born on earth, I share in Your image, O Lord, and thus dare to call upon You, the Creator, as my Father. Living as the Prodigal, I have lost the grace of sonship; and forgetful of Your gifts, I have wasted my inheritance. Do not disown me, for You sent Your only-begotten Son to endure Crucifixion and death for my sake in the flesh. In Your love for mankind, being me back from evil and make me Yours again.

To You I have lifted my eyes, to You who live in heaven. Behold: the eyes of the servants are turned to the hands of their masters and the eyes of the maid-servants to the hands of their mistresses: thus do our eyes watch the Lord our God until He takes pity on us.

Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us, for we have been filled with shame: our soul has been filled to overflowing. May scorn befall detractors, and humiliation come to the proud.

The choir of holy martyrs withstood their persecutors as they said: “We are soldiers of the Lord of Powers on high! Even though you give us over to torture and the fire, we shall not deny the power of the Trinity!”

When the law-transgressors suspended You upon the Cross, O Savior who give life to us, Your all-holy Mother stood by You and grieved as she wept: “O beloved Child, Light of my eyes, how can You endure being nailed to the Cross between two criminals, O You suspended the earth over the waters?”

Apostica Prayers

Posted on by Fr. Peter
The Aposticha Prayers for the Vespers on Monday Evening of the 3rd Week of Great Lent:

O loving Father, my folly has stripped me bare of all Your gifts. I have gone far from You and have enslaved myself to a strange citizen. I led unclean beasts to pasture; and eating from their food, I was not filled. Knowing Your tender mercy, I run now to You: in Your tender love for mankind, cover my nakedness and save me!

To You I have lifted up my eyes, to You who live in heaven. Behold; the eyes of the servants are turned to the hands of their masters, and the eyes of the maid-servants to the hands of their mistresses: thus do our eyes watch the Lord our God until He takes pity on us.

Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us, for we have been filled with shame: our soul has been filled to overflowing. May scorn befall detractors, and humiliation come to the proud.

Since the holy martyrs are interceding for us and celebrating Christ in their hymns, every error has been ended and the human race is saved by faith.

Through your word, the Word has shown as a light upon the world from your virginal womb. O most holy Theotokos, pray to Him that our souls may be delivered from the snares of the Enemy.

Busy Days

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Things have been busy here in the Village the last few days. On Monday I rolled on down to my Alma mater, Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. I don’t get back to campus as much as I would like but I took the opportunity to stop by. I was able to see my predecessor and good friend Fr. Eugen Pentiuc. He is writing a response to that Jesus Tomb nonsense that was on the Discovery Channel this past Sunday. Sister Mary Martha has a humorous review of the presentation on her blog as well. As soon as I know more about Fr. Eugen’s paper I will post it here. Fr. is the Old Testament and Linguistics professor at the seminary. I also had occasion to swing by the Convent of the Holy Nativity to pick up some candles and also the Holy Transfiguration Monastery to pick up some incense. I bought a sample of three different kinds of incense and I will post a review after I use them. One of the monks gave me a little tip when using the incense. Don’t put the grains right on top of the charcoal place them along the side. He said they will burn cleaner on the side because the heat is not so extreme. I will try that and let you know how it goes.
Yesterday was supposed to be a quiet day, but at 8:30am my pager went off for a three alarm fire at an apartment building. Now keep in mind that it was only 9 degrees at that time here yesterday and that makes fighting a fire a very difficult situation. Thankfully no one was hurt and only one family was displaced. The family lost everything and the woman was so upset that she lost all of her stuff. It made me think about what I would hate to loose if there was a fire. (Preaching Moment) This is a good time for us to think about out stuff and what we have accumulated and have we made it more important to us than it should be. Now something are important, like clothing, but do we really need all the clothes that we have? (End of Preaching Moment).
So I hope that today is a bit slower. Presanctified Liturgy tonight and then some rest. I will continue to post the prayers from the vespers service and will catch everyone up.
Blessed Lent!

2nd Sunday of Great Lent

Posted on by Fr. Peter

2nd Sunday of Great Lent ~ St. Gregory Palamas

Hebrews 1:10-14; 2:1-3
Mark 2:1-12

This Sunday commemorates the life of St. Gregory Palamas (14th Century). The Church dedicates this Sunday to St. Gregory for his orthodox faith, theological knowledge, virtuous life, miracles and his efforts to clarify the orthodox teaching on the subject of Hesychasm (from the Greek, meaning quiet). Hesychasm was a system of mysticism propagated on Mt. Athos by 14th century monks who believed that man was able, through an elaborate system of ascetic practices based upon perfect quiet of body and mind, to arrive at the vision of the divine light, with the real distinction between the essence and the operations of God. Gregory became noted for his efforts to explain the difference between the correct teaching and this theory. Gregory was dedicated to an ascetic life of prayer and fasting, which are practices of Lent.

From THE GREAT LENT – A Week by Week Meaning
Rev. George Mastrantonis

Aposticha Prayers

Posted on by Fr. Peter
The Aposticha Prayers for the Vespers on Saturday Evening of the 2nd Week of Great Lent:

Your tongue, watchful in teaching, rings in the ears of our hearts and awakens the souls of the slothful, leading us from earth to Heaven. Your words, inspired by God, are a ladder leading us from earth to Heaven. O Gregory, wonder of Thessalonica, pray to Christ without ceasing, that we who honor you may be illuminated with the divine light.

O Virgin who knew not carnal union, O you who ineffably carried God in the flesh, O Mother of almighty God, O woman without stain: accept the prayers of your servants. O you who obtain for all us the cleansing of sins: accept now our supplications, and intercede for the salvation of us all.

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