Hymns and Readings for Sunday

MATERNITY OF ST ANNA
FEAST OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
9 December 2007

Tone Three - Eothinon Six

Troparia and Kontakion
(Theme hymns of the day and concluding seasonal hymn)

TROPARION OF THE RESURRECTION IN TONE THREE

Let all in Heaven rejoice and all on earth be glad. For the Lord has exerted power with His arm: By death He has trampled upon death and has become the first-born from the dead. He has delivered us from the bosom of Hades and has granted to the world great mercy.

TROPARION OF THE MATERNITY OF ST ANNA IN TONE FOUR

Today the bonds of barrenness are loosed: God has heard the prayers of Joachim and Anna. He has promised against all hope the birth of the Maiden of God from whom the Infinite Himself is to be born as a man, He who had orders an Angel to cry out to her: “Hail, O Full of Grace! The Lord is with you!”

KONTAKION OF THE MATERNITY OF ST ANNA IN TONE FOUR

The mystery which was hidden from eternity and unknown to the angels has been revealed through you, O Theotokos, to those on earth; for God took flesh in a union without commixture, and willingly took up the Cross by which He elevated the first man and saved our souls from death.

PROKIMENON
(Responsory from the Psalter)

Terrible is God in his sanctuary, the God of Israel,
He gives power and strength to his people.
Blessed be God!

Bless God in the great congregation, the LORD,
O you who are of Israel's fountain!

THE READING FROM THE EPISTLE OF ST PAUL TO THE GALATIANS

BRETHREN: It is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, the son of the free woman through promise. Now this is an allegory: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written, "Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and shout, you who are not in travail; for the children of the desolate one are many more than the children of her that is married."

ALLELUIA

When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears,
And delivers them out of all their troubles.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous;
But the LORD delivers him out of them all.

THE READING FROM THE HOLY GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST LUKE

AT THAT TIME: He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And there was a woman who had had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years; she was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her and said to her, "Woman, you are freed from your infirmity." And he laid his hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight, and she praised God. But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day." Then the Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger, and lead it away to water it? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?" As he said this, all his adversaries were put to shame; and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.

HIRMOS (MEGALYNARION AFTER THE CONSECRATION)
INSTEAD OF “IT IS TRULY FITTING…”
ODE NINE OF THE SECOND CANON OF THE FEAST IN TONE TWO

The Son of the Eternal Father, our Lord and our God, took flesh from the Virgin and appeared to us to bring light to those in darkness and to gather together those who were scattered. O Theotokos, worthy of all praise, we magnify you!

Today let the prophets, the chosen ones, rejoice, for their prophecies announcing the grace of God, have begun to be fulfilled in the venerable conception of the pure Mother of God who will bring forth the joy of the world.

The throne of glory has been prepared for the Lord; the gate of salvation has now been announced, the passage reserved for the Master and Creator alone. Through her, we shall attain eternal life.

With Anna, Joachim cries out: You alone have heard our voice in supplication, O Lord and Creator; in granting an end to our sterility You have given us the Root of immortality. We glorify you!

The ladder is now prepared: by it, the Lord and Creator will come down to lift up the human race. Heaven rejoices with the angels! The human race exults with all creation because of the grace of deification.

I sing of your unequaled good will, O Lady: you are my illumination, my glory and my pride, my source of wisdom, the cause of my joy, my expectation and my hope, my fortress, my rampart and my defense.