Preparation of the Feast of the Annunciation

Because the Feast of the Annunciation is one of the Twelve Great Feasts (Solemnities and Holy Days of Obligation in the Byzantine Tradition), and because this year it falls on a Sunday, it takes precedent over the otherwise appointed celebration. This being so, the Paramony (Eve of the Feast) also takes proper readings.

Prokimenon

v. My soul magnifies the Lord.

r. For He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.

The Reading from the Epistle to the Hebrews

Brethren: Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the Holy Place yearly with blood not his own; for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Alleluia

v. Come and see what God has done: he is terrible in his deeds among men.

v. Their bodies were buried in peace, and their name lives to all generations.

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St Mark

At that time: Jesus went on with his disciples, to the villages of Caesare'a Philip'pi; and on the way he asked his disciples, "Who do men say that I am?" And they told him, "John the Baptist; and others say, Eli'jah; and others one of the prophets." And he asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered him, "You are the Christ." And he charged them to tell no one about him. And he began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

Kinonikon

I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD.