Hymns and Readings for Sunday

Sixth Sunday of the Cross
Twentyfirst Sunday after Pentecost
21 October 2007

TROPARIA AND KONTAKION
(THEME HYMNS OF THE DAY AND CONCLUDING SEASONAL HYMN)

TROPARION OF THE RESURRECTION IN TONE FOUR

The women disciples of the Lord, having learnt from the Angel the joyful announcement of the Resurrection and having rejected the ancestral sentence proudly told the Apostles: Death is despoiled, Christ God is risen, bestowing on the world great mercy.

KONTAKION OF THE VIRGIN IN TONE TWO

O never-failing Protectress of Christians, and their ever-present Intercessor before the Creator, despise not the petitions of us sinners, but in your goodness extend your help to us who call upon you with confidence. Hasten, O Mother of God, to intercede for us, for you have always protected those who honor you.

LITURGY OF THE WORD

PROKIMENON

Sing praise to our God, sing praise;
sing praise to our King, sing praise.

All peoples, clap your hands;
cry to God with shouts of joy.

THE READING FROM THE EPISTLE OF ST PAUL TO THE GALATIANS

BRETHREN: We who know that a man is not justified by works of the law but through the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law, because by works of the law shall no one be justified. But if, in our endeavour to be justified in Christ, we ourselves were found to be sinners, is Christ then an agent of sin? Certainly not! But if I build up again those things which I tore down, then I prove myself a transgressor. For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

ALLELUIA

In You, O Lord, I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame.

Be a rock of refuge to me,
a mighty stronghold to save me.

THE READING FROM THE HOLY GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST LUKE

AT THAT TIME: As Jesus stepped out on land, there met Him a man from the city who had demons; for a long time he had worn no clothes, and he lived not in a house but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before Him, and said with a loud voice, ‘What have You to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beseech You, do not torment me.’ For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him; he was kept under guard, and bound with chains and fetters, but he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the desert.) Jesus then asked him, ‘What is your name?’ And he said, ‘Legion’; for many demons had entered him. And they begged Him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside; and they begged Him to let them enter these. So He gave them leave. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled, and told it in the city and in the country. Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. And those who had seen it told them how He who had been possessed with demons was healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Him to depart from them; for they were seized with great fear; so He got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with Him; but He sent him away, saying, ‘Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.’ And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.

HIRMOS IN TONE SIX
(a “Megalynarion” [Hymn to the Virgin] sung after the Consecration)

It is truly meet to bless you, O Theotokos, who are ever-blessed and all-blameless and the Mother of our God; more honored than the Cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim: you who without stain did bear God the Word, you are truly Theotokos: we magnify you.

COMMUNION HYMN

Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD from the heavens,
Praise Him in the heights! Alleluia.