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AT THE MIDNIGHT OFFICE Canon to the Trinity, of which the Acrostic is: Trinity, I praise you, the single Godhead. By Metrophanes Ode 1. Tone 3. Irmos. Only source of Lordship beyond understanding, and single triple source of Godhead, now count me worthy of your radiance that shines with threefold light, that I may sing your praise, who are praised without ceasing by the mouths of Angels with thrice-holy hymns. All the ranks of the Immaterial Beings reverently sing your praise, as creative cause, single, with triple light, most clearly sovereign; with them we multitudes of humans sing in harmony, and faithfully glorify with mouths of clay. Mind and Word and Spirit the theologians call you fittingly by means of symbols, signifying a birth without passion of the Son from you, O God, Father unbegotten, monarch of all things, and the divine procession of the Spirit. Theotokion. When as lover of humankind by nature, Word of God, you took to yourself the being of humankind, you shone with the triple, only sovereign light of the one Godhead, and showed to all that the most pure Virgin who gave birth to you has been glorified. Ode 3. Elias of old, by ordering the water to be poured three times on the logs of wood, disclosed the triple hypostasis of the single Lordship of God. The transient nature of those born of earth praises you, the one immutable Creator with triple lights, and cries out to you: Master, from change of every kind deliver me and save me. Speaking with words equal to those of Prophets, famed Apostles and heralds of the faith, we believers glorify you, Trinity equal in operation, O God of all things. Theotokion. Christ came down from his high throne, as he loves humankind, to raise up humankind through you, All-pure, and made the light with triple sun shine for all. Kathisma. Christ, beyond being and only Lord and radiance of the Father who is eternally without beginning, and Spirit most divine, have mercy on your servants; for we have all sinned, but we have not deserted you. Therefore we beseech you, Lord in Three Persons, as you possess authority, from every calamity save what you fashioned. Glory. Both now. Theotokion.God, who is beyond being and Lord, was incarnate from you, through his goodness taking on our being and remaining what he was. Therefore as we honour him as God and man, we proclaim you, O all-pure, to be Mother of God without wedlock, as we glorify the mighty wonder of your conceiving without seed. Ode 4. A double shoot has sprung from the Father as from a root, the Son and the right Spirit, shoots of one nature and divinely planted, and flowers like him without beginning, as being three lights of the Godhead. ( Twice)Serried ranks of spiritual Beings ceaselessly sing your praise, God beyond understanding. With them we glorify you as we say: Trinity beyond being save your servants as you love humankind. Theotokion. You have drawn us to your love, most merciful Word of God, who without change became incarnate for our sake and led us into the mystery of the one Godhead with triple light. Therefore we glorify you. Ode 5 Isaias when he saw in image the one Lordship, God in three persons being glorified by the unsullied voices of the Seraphim, was sent to go and proclaim the Being with triple light and the Unity with triple sun. (Twice) Unity with triple sun, who once brought to subsistence from non-being the nature of all things invisible and visible, rescue from temptations and trials of every kind those who faithfully praise you as one God and count them worthy of your glory. Theotokion. O Virgin, with love we sing your praise who have become the light-bearing and pure bridal chamber of God, and we have called you blessed. For Christ was born from you with two natures and two wills, being one of the Trinity and Lord of glory. Ode 6. As an alien in a foreign land Abraham was counted worthy to welcome in type the single Lord beyond being in three persons, in human form. ( Twice)Direct the hearts of your servants to the unapproachable light and the brilliance of your glory, O Lord of triple sun, and grant that our souls may picture to themselves your ineffable glory. Theotokion. Open to me the gates of the light who was conceived from your womb, O all-pure, that I may see the ray with triple light of the Godhead, and glorify you the Sovereign Lady filled with light. Kathisma. We hymn the might with triple sun of the divine, consubstantial nature, and let us cry out with voices that sing the thrice holy hymn: Holy are you, Father eternally without beginning; Holy are you, Son likewise without beginning, and Holy Spirit, our one God without division, Maker of all and lover of humankind. Glory. Both now. Theotokion. The same.A mighty wonder, how the uncontainable was confined within your womb, all-pure Maiden, and was incarnate and appeared as a man without undergoing mixture or division of the divine and unchanging Godhead. And so we ever proclaim you faithfully to be Mother of God and we glorify you. Ode 7. Show me to be wholly a shining temple of your Godhead with triple light, O Master, and by your light-giving rays to be higher than dread sinful blackness and passions, O God of our Fathers. We proclaim one form of the Godhead in three hypostatic and separate identities, of Father, Son and Spirit, as we cry: Blessed are you, the God of our Fathers. God in three persons appeared to Abraham at the oak of Mambre, and through mercy he was given as reward for his hospitality Isaac. That God we now glorify him as God of our Fathers. Theotokion. The Creator of all things, becoming man in his goodness, appeared on earth from your virgin and immaculate womb, and made us divine, blessed Mother of God, all-pure, all-immaculate. Ode 8. Of the Father who has no beginning, as from a root, likewise without beginning have sprung up the Word and the Spirit, as shoots of the Godhead beyond being. They have revealed the one glory and power of the Trinity, whom all we believers praise to the ages. ( Twice)With your beacon fires you train the heavenly Ranks to raise the hymn with never-silent thrice-holy songs, O Father, Word, one with him in form, and Spirit, might equal in strength and with triple light; therefore we sing your praise to all the ages. Theotokion. The oracles of the Prophets seeing from afar your Offspring, Mother of God, praised him as born without seed and beyond nature, Sovereign Lady; and with one accord we sing his praise as Lord, and highly exalt him to all the ages. Ode 9. The godlike Ranks of Bodiless Powers yearn to mount on wings and to see plainly the glory with triple light, but they greatly reverence the unapproachable light and without ceasing cry aloud their hymn. In unison with them we glorify you, O Trinity, one single being. ( Twice)With boundless love we too who are on earth, who have received from you a spiritual and rational soul, from our whole heart sing your praise, O Master, God of all things, in truth one single nature yet triple in persons. And so, Compassionate, as you are great in mercy, have compassion on us. Theotokion. Show me to be a light formed temple of your single Divinity of triple light, that in purity I may worship you, the Creator of all things; show me to be one who in spirit contemplates your ineffable glory, at the prayers of the only Mother of God; whom fittingly we magnify as greatly glorious. |
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