Sunday, April 12, 2009

The Enterence of Our Lord into Jerusalem


Vesper's sticheron - Matins doxastikon (Tone 6)
Six days before the Feast of Passover Jesus entered Bethany.
His disciples asked Him:
"Where should we prepare for Thee to eat the Passover?"
He answered "When you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you.
Follow him into the house which he enters
and tell the master of the house: The Teacher says to you:
Here I shall eat the Passover with my disciples."

From Vespers
By Your command, O loving Lord, You have raised Lazarus Your friend from death!
His flesh had been given over to corruption! He was in the power of death four days!
By this You have foretold Your Holy Ressurection for us!
Today, You mount an untamed colt as Your charriot, foretelling the conversion of the gentiles.
Your beloved Israel offers You a hymn of praise from the mouths of innocent children,
as they see You enter the holy city, O Christ, six days before the feast of Passover.

Prayer at the Blessing of Palms
O Lord our God, Who sits upon the Cherubim, You have reaffirmed Your power by sending Your Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to save the world through His cross, burial, and resurrection. When He came into Jerusalem to suffer His voluntary passion, the people that sat in darkness and in the shadow of death took boughs of trees and branches of palms as signs of victory, thus foretelling His resurrection. Do You, Yourself, O Master, keep and preserve us who, in imitation of them, carry palms and branches in our hands. As we join the crowds and the children who sang Hosanna to you, may we, with hymns and spiritual songs, attain the life-giving resurrection of the third day.

Doxastikon of the aposticha from Holy Monday Matins (Tone 8)
The serpent found a second Eve in the Egyptian woman
and plotted the fall of Joseph through words of flattery.
But, leaving behind his garment, Joseph fled from sin.
He was naked but unashamed, like Adam before the fall.
Through his prayers, O Christ, have mercy on us.

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