The All-night Vigil Service -- The Evening SacrificePrefaceThe Christ denounced the scribes of His time for elevating rituals and rites to the level of exalted religious virtues, and He taught that the only service to God which is appropriate is that which is "in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). Denouncing the legalistic attitude toward the Sabbath day, the Christ said that :the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." (Mark 2:27). The Savior’s harshest words were directed against the Pharisaical devotion to traditional ritual forms. On the other hand, Christ Himself visited, taught, and prayed in the Temple of Jerusalem, as did His apostles and disciples. Not only did Christianity not abandon ritual, but in time, in its historical development, it established its own complex system of worship. Does this not constitute a self-contradiction? Is not private prayer sufficient for the Christian? Faith expressed only in one’s soul becomes an abstraction rather than a living faith. In order for faith to become a living faith, it must be realized in life. Participation in church religious rites is the realization of faith in our lives, and whosoever not only contemplates faith but lives it , of necessity participates in the liturgical life of the Church of Christ, attends Church, knows and loves the order of Church services. In his book Heaven on Earth: Worship in the Eastern Church, Archpriest Alexander Men, explains as follows, the need for external forms of worship: "…All of our life, in its most diverse manifestations, is clothed in rituals. The word "ritual" comes from the verb "to dress in," "to clothe." Joy and sorrow, daily greetings, approval, delight, and indignation, all assume external forms in human life. Therefore, what right do we have to strip these forms from our feelings toward God? What right do we have to reject Christian art, Christian rituals? The words of prayers, the hymns of thanksgiving and repentance, which poured forth from the depths of the hearts of great theologians, great poets, great melodists, are not without benefit for us. Immersion into them is schools for the soul, educating it in genuine service to the Eternal One. Worship services lead us to enlightenment, to the elevation of man, it ennobles his soul. Thus, Christianity, serving God " in spirit and truth:, preserves both rituals and rites…." Christian worship in the broad sense of the term is collectively known as "liturgy," i.e. communal activity, common prayer, while the science of worship is known as "liturgics." Christ said, "Where two or three are gathered in My Name, there I am." (Matthew 18:20). One may call divine services the focus of a Christian’s entire spiritual life. When a multitude is inspired by common prayer, they find themselves surrounded by a spiritual atmosphere which enables true prayer. At that point, the faithful enter into a mystical, sacramental communion with God, a state essential to genuine spiritual life. The holy fathers of the Church teach that just as a branch broken from a tree dries up because it is deprived of sap it needs to continue to exist, so a person severed from the Church no longer receives that strength, that grace, which lives in the divine services and mysteries of the Church, and which is essential for man’s spiritual being. Fr. Paul Florensky, a famous Russian theologian of the early years of this century, called divine services "the synthesis of sciences" because within the temple, all of the substance of man’s being is ennobled. Everything in an Orthodox church is essential: its architecture, the smell of incense, the beauty of icons, the singing of the choir, the homily, and the actions performed. The actions carried out in Orthodox divine services are distinguished by their religious realism, an immediacy placing the faithful in close proximity to the principal events of the Gospel, and as it were removing the barriers of time and space from between those who pray and the events commemorated. During Nativity services, we not only remember the birth of Christ, but Christ actually mystically is born. Likewise, He is resurrected on Holy Pascha. One can make analogous statements about His Transfiguration, His Entry into Jerusalem, the Mystical Supper, His Passion, Burial and Ascension, and about all of the events in the life of the Most-holy Mother of God, from her birth to her dormition. Through its divine services, the life of the Church is revealed to be the mystical accomplishment of God’s Incarnation. The Lord continues to live in the Church and in the same human image which, once manifested, continues to exist throughout all time, and to the Church is given the ability to bring to life recollections of divine events, to endow them with power, so that we might become their new witnesses and participants. Thus all of the divine services together acquire the meaning: the life of God, and the temple - his dwelling. [This begins] a series of commentaries on the meaning and structure of the All-night Vigil. We hope that our work will help our parishioners to appreciate and love this marvelous divine service of the Orthodox Church. In the service of the All-night Vigil, the Church conveys to the faithful a sense of the beauty of the setting sun and turns their thoughts toward the spiritual light of Christ. The Church also points the faithful towards prayerful consideration of the coming day and of the eternal light of the Heavenly Kingdom. The All-night vigil is a service presenting the border between the day which has passed and the coming day. St. Basil the Great described the aspirations which guided the ancient composers of evening hymns and prayers as follows: "Our fathers did not wish to receive the grace of evening light in silence; rather, they offered thanks as soon as it appeared." In participating in the All-night vigil, the faithful in a sense prayerfully bid farewell to the past and welcome the future. Moreover, in the All-night Vigil they are prepared for the Divine Liturgy and for the Mystery of the Eucharist. As its name suggests, the All-night Vigil is a service which in principle lasts all night. True, in our times, such services, lasting all night, are infrequent, and take place for the most part in monasteries such as those upon Mount Athos. In parish churches, ordinarily an abbreviated form of the All-night Vigil is served. The All-night Vigil transports the faithful into a time long ago, into the services of the earliest Christians. For the earliest Christians, their evening meal, their prayers and commemorations of the martyrs and of the deceased, as well as the Liturgy comprised one whole, traces of which even today have been preserved in various evening services of the Orthodox Church. These traces include the blessing of bread, wine, wheat and oil, as well as those times in which the Liturgy is combined in one whole with Vespers - e.g. the Liturgy of the Pre-sanctified Gifts, celebrated during Great Lent, the Liturgy on the eve of the feasts of the Nativity of Christ and of the Baptism of our Lord, the Liturgy of Great Thursday, Great Saturday, and the night Liturgy on the Resurrection of Christ. In fact, the All-night Vigil consists of three services: Great Vespers, Matins, and the First Hour. Sometimes the first part of the All-night Vigil consists not of Great Vespers, but of Great Compline. Matins is the central and most substantial part of the All-night Vigil. Reflecting on what we hear and see in Vespers, we are transported into the historical times of Old-testament humanity, and experience in our hearts that which they experienced. Knowing what is depicted in Vespers and Matins makes it easy for us to understand and memorize the flow of Church services, the order in which they proceed, as well as the hymns, readings, and religious rites which they encompass. Part I. Great VespersIn the Bible we read that in the beginning, God created heaven and earth, that the earth was unstructured ("without form," as the Holy Bible states), and that moving silently above it was the Life-giving Spirit of God, infusing the earth with living powers. Great Vespers, the beginning of the All-night Vigil, takes us back to this onset of creation. The service begins with a silent, cruciform censing of the Throne, the Altar Table. This action is one of the most profound and significant moments in all of Orthodox worship. It is an image of the movement of the Holy Spirit within the core of the Holy Trinity. The very silence of the cruciform censing gives us an indication of the Divine eternal rest, which was before the world existed. It symbolizes the fact that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, Who sends the Holy Spirit from the Father, is the "the Lamb, sacrificed from the creation of the world." Likewise, the cross, the weapon of His salvific sacrifice, also has an eternal, cosmic, pre-creation significance. In one of his homilies for Great Friday, the 19th Century Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow emphasized that "The Cross of Christ…. Is the earthly image and shadow of the heavenly Cross of Love." The opening DoxologyAfter censing, the priest stands before the Throne, while the deacon, having gone through the Royal Doors to the ambo, and standing facing the West (i.e. towards the faithful), announces: "Arise!" Then, turning to the East, he continues "O Lord, bless!" With the censer, the priest makes the sign of the Cross before the Throne, and says "Glory to the holy, consubstantial, indivisible and life-giving Trinity, now and ever, and unto ages of ages." The meaning behind these words and actions rests in the fact that the deacon, concelebrating with the priest, invites those who have gathered here to stand at prayer, to be attentive, and to "take heart." The priest confesses the Beginning and Creator of all, the consubstantial and life-giving Trinity. At the same time, in making the sign of the Cross with the censer, the priest demonstrates that it was through the Cross of Jesus Christ that Christians were made worthy to comprehend to some extent the mystery of the Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. After the doxology "Glory to the Holy…" the clergy within the altar glorify Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the All-holy Trinity, by singing "O Come let us worship God our King…the very Christ, our King and God." The Introductory PsalmThen the choir sings verses from the 103rd psalm, the "Introductory Psalm," beginning with the words "Bless the Lord O my soul," and ends with "In wisdom hast Thou made them all." This psalm hymns the universe created by God, the visible and invisible world, and has been an inspiration to poets from among many different peoples and historical periods. An example is the well known restating of the psalm in verse by the poet Lomonosov. Its themes also resound in Derzhavin’s ode entitled "God," and in the "Prologue to the heavens" by Goethe. The principal feeling permeating this psalm is one of man’s admiration for and contemplation of the beauty and orderly symmetry of the world made by God. God "ordered" the unformed earth during the six days of creation. Everything became beautiful ("God saw that it was good"). The 103rd psalm also expresses the idea that even the least noticeable thing in nature holds within it wonders no lesser than the most grandiose. Censing of the ChurchDuring the singing of this psalm, censing of the entire temple takes place, while the Royal Doors are open. This rite was introduced into the Church so that the faithful might be reminded of the movement of the Holy Spirit above God’s creation. The open Royal Doors are at this point a symbol of paradise, i.e. of the state in which the first people lived - in direct communion with God. Immediately following the censing of the temple, the Royal Doors are closed, just as Adam’s original sin closed to mankind the gates of paradise, and separated him from God. All of the rituals and hymns with which the All-night Vigil begins, reveal to us the cosmic significance of the Orthodox temple, the temple which represents a true image of the structure of the world. The altar and the altar table represent paradise and heaven, over which the Lord reigns. The clergy represent the angels who serve God. The central part of the temple represents the earth and mankind. Analogous to the way in which paradise was returned to man by the redeeming sacrifice of Jesus Christ, so the clergy descend from the altar and to the faithful. They wear shining vestments as a reminder of the Divine light with which the garments of Christ shone on Mt. Tabor. The Lamplighting PrayersImmediately after the priest censes the church, the Royal Doors are shut, a reminder that with Adam’s original sin the gates of paradise were shut to him, and he was estranged from God. Now fallen mankind, standing before the closed gates of paradise, prays for its return to the path toward God. Representing the repentant Adam, the priest steps before the closed Royal Doors. Standing as an image of repentance, with head uncovered, and without the resplendent riza in which he had celebrated the festive beginning of the service, he silently reads the seven "lamp-lighting prayers." In these prayers, which, composed in the 4th century, comprise the most ancient part of the Vespers, we hear man’s recognition of his helplessness and his plea for direction onto the path of truth. The prayers are characterized by lofty eloquence and spiritual depth. The seventh prayer states: "O great and most high God, Who alone hast immortality, and dwellest in light unapproachable; Who hast fashioned all creation in wisdom; Who hast divided the light from the darkness, and has set the sun for dominion of the day, the moon and stars for dominion of the night, Who hast vouchsafed unto us sinners in this present hour to come before Thy presence with thanksgiving and to offer unto Thee evening doxology! Do Thou Thyself, O Lover of mankind, direct our prayer as incense before Thee and accept it as a sweet-smelling savour; grant unto us that the present evening and the coming night be peaceful. Clothe us with the armor of light. Deliver us from the terror by night and from everything that walketh in darkness. And grant that the sleep which Thou hast given for the repose of our infirmity may be free from all fantasies of the devil. Yea O Master, Giver of good things, may we, being moved to compunction upon our beds, remember Thy name in the night, and enlightened by meditation on Thy commandments, arise in joyfulness of soul to the glorification of Thy goodness, offering prayers and supplications to Thy loving-kindness for our own sins and for those of all Thy people, whom do Thou visit in mercy, through the intercessions of the Most-holy Theotokos…." It is Church practice that during the reading of these lamp-lighting prayers, the candles and lamps within the temple are lit, an action symbolizing hopes, revelations and prophecies in the Old Testament regarding the coming Messiah, the Savior, Jesus Christ. The Great EkteniaNext, the deacon recites the "Great Ectenia" An ektenia is a series of short prayerful requests or pleas addressed to the Lord, regarding the secular and spiritual needs of the faithful. An ektenia is an especially fervent prayer read on behalf of all of the faithful. The choir, also acting on behalf of all of those present at the service, responds to these petitions with the words "Lord have mercy," a phrase which, while short, is nonetheless one of the most perfect and complete prayers which can be pronounced by man. It says all that there is to say. "The Great Ektenia," known for its opening words; "In peace let us pray to the Lord," is called the "Litany of peace." Peace is an essential condition for any prayer, whether individual or communal church prayer. In the Holy Gospel according to Mark, the Christ speaks of a spirit of peace as the basis for any prayer: "And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any; that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses…" (Mark 11:25). St. Seraphim of Sarov said "Acquire the spirit of peace, and thousands around you will be saved." This is why at the beginning of the Vigil and in most services, the Church invites the faithful to pray to God with a calm, peaceful conscience, having reconciled ourselves to our neighbor and to God. Further in the Litany of Peace, the Church prays for peace throughout the world, for the unification of all Christians, for our native land, for the temple in which the service is taking place, and in general for all Orthodox churches and for those who enter them not only out of curiosity, but, as it is said in the ektenia " with faith and reverence." We remember those travelling, the sick, the imprisoned, and we hear a request to be saved from "all tribulation, wrath and necessity." In the closing petition of the Litany of peace we state: "Calling to remembrance our most holy, most pure, most blessed, glorious Lady Theotokos and Ever-virgin Mary with all the saints, let us commit ourselves and one another and all our life unto Christ our God…." This formulation encompasses two profound and basic Orthodox theological concepts: the dogma of the prayerful intercession of the Mother of God at the head of all of the saints, and the lofty ideal of Christianity, the dedication of ones life to Christ our God. The Great Litany/Litany of Peace ends with the priest’s doxology, which , just as at the beginning of the Vigil, glorifies The Holy Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The PsalterAs Adam stood repentant before the gates of paradise and prayed to God, so, before the closed Royal Doors, the deacon begins the Great Ectenia with the words: "In peace let us pray to the Lord…" However, Adam had just heard God promise that the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent, that the Savior would come into the world, and so Adam’s heart burned with hope in salvation. This hope is expressed at the All-night Vigil in the hymn which follows. As if in answer to the Great Ectenia, a Biblical psalm resounds: "Blessed is the man…" This psalm, the first psalm of the Psalter, constitutes as it were a direction and warning to the believer against taking erroneous, sinful paths in life. In monasteries not only the first psalm, "Blessed is the man," but rather the entire first kathisma of the Psalter is chanted. The Greek word "kathisma" means "sitting," for according to Church rules, it is permitted to sit during the readings of the kathismas. The Psalter, which consists of 150 psalms, is divided into 20 groups of psalms known as kathismas. Each kathisma in turn is divided into three parts, or "Glories," for each part ends with the words "Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit." The entire Psalter, all 20 kathismas, is read over the course of the services in each week. During Great Lent, the 40-day period preceding Pascha, a period during which Church prayer intensifies, the Psalter is read twice each week. The Psalter was incorporated into the liturgical life of the Church in the earliest days after the Church was established. It occupies a position of great honor within that life. St. Basil the Great, writing in the 4th century, stated:
In his book In the World of Prayer, Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky writes about the significance of the Psalter in Orthodox worship:
Thus it is no surprise that the psalms take up such a large part of divine worship services. Each rite begins with psalms – some with only one, but most with three. An enormous number of verses from the Psalter may be found throughout all of the liturgical cycles." After the first psalm is sung, the "Small Ectenia" is pronounced: "Again and again in peace let us pray to the Lord." This Ectenia, a shortened form of the Great Ectenia, contains two petitions:
The "Small Ectenia" concludes with the priest’s reading of one of the doxologies appointed in the order of service. It is known from the history related in the Bible that the voices of sorrow and hope which had first sounded at the gates of paradise after the first people’s fall into sin, continued to sound until the very coming of the Christ. In the Vigil, sinful mankind’s sorrow and repentance is expressed in the verses of penitential psalms, which are sung to special melodies and with particular solemnity. The Psalm "Lord I Have Cried Unto Thee" and the CensingAfter the singing of "Blessed is the Man," and the Small Ectenia, we hear verses from Psalms 140 and 141, psalms beginning with the words Lord, I have cried unto Thee, hearken unto me." These psalms, which relate fallen man’s longing for God, his striving to truly serve God, constitute the most characteristic, distinguishing feature of any Vesper service. In the second verse of Psalm 140, we encounter the words “Let my prayer be set forth, as incense before Thee,” (This prayerful sigh is known for its especially moving musical setting in the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts sung during Great Lent). The censing of the entire church takes place while these verses are sung. What does this censing signify? The Church answers through the words of the psalm already mentioned: “Let my prayer be set forth as incense before Thee, the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice…” i.e. may my prayer ascend unto Thee (God), like smoke from the censer, and may the upraising of my hands be as an evening sacrifice to Thee. This verse reminds us of that time in the ancient past when, according to the Law of Moses, in the evening of each day a sacrifice was offered in the tent of meeting, i.e. in the portable temple used by the people Israel while moving from the bondage of Egypt to the Promised Land. The sacrifice was marked by the lifting up of the hands of one bringing the sacrifice, and by censing of the altar in which the Holy Tablets of the Law, received by Moses from God on the summit of Mt. Sinai, were kept. The ascent of smoke from the burning incense symbolizes the prayers of the faithful, ascending to Heaven. When the deacon or priest censes in the direction of the faithful, they respond by bowing their heads, as a sign that they recognize it to be a reminder: that the prayer of the believer, like the smoke of incense, must easily rise up to Heaven. Censing the people likewise opens up a profound truth – that the Church sees in each person the image and likeness of God, a living icon of God, sees that betrothal of Christ received in the mystery of Baptism. During the censing of the church, the singing of “Lord I have cried…” continues, and our parish conciliar prayers join in it, for we are no less sinners than were the first people. From the depth of our hearts, together, we pronounce the concluding words “Hearken unto me, O Lord.” The Stichera for “Lord I Have Cried” Among the following penitential verses of the 140th and 141st psalms are “Bring my soul out of prison… Out of the depths I have cried unto Thee, O Lord, O Lord, hear my voice.” Later, voices of hope in the promised Savior resound. Hope amid sorrow is heard in two hymns that follow “Lord I Have Cried,” the so-called “Stichera for Lord I Have Cried.” While the verses proceeding the stichera speak of Old Testament darkness and sorrow, the stichera themselves (those refrains which supplement the verses), speak of the joy and light of the New Testament . Stichera, liturgical songs composed in honor of a feast or a saint, are of three types: 1) Stichera for “Lord I Have Cried,” which as we have already noted are sung at the beginning of Vespers; 2) those sung at the close of Vespers between verses taken from the psalms are known as Aposticha; and 3) those toward the close of the second part of the vigil, sung together with psalms in which the invocation “praise ye” is often encountered, are known as the Stichera for the Praises. Resurrection stichera glorify the Resurrected Christ, and festal stichera tell of the reflection of His glory in various sacred events or spiritual struggles of the saints, for ultimately all of church history is tied to Pascha, to Christ’s victory over death and hell. By following the sticheron text, one can recognize who or what event is being commemorated and glorified in the services of a given day. The OctoechosLike the psalm "Lord I Have Cried," stichera are distinguishing features of the All-night Vigil. In Vespers, between six and ten stichera are sung in a specific "tone." Since antiquity, there have been 8 tones, composed by St. John of Damascus, who struggled at the Lavra (monastery) of St. Sabbas the Sanctified in Palestine during the 8th century. Each tone encompasses several melodies to which specific prayers in the divine services are sung. The tones change weekly. The cycle of the so-called Octoechos moves through the 8 tones over the course of 8 weeks, and then begins anew. An anthology of all of these melodies is contained in the liturgical book known as the Octoechos or the Book of Eight Tones. The tones comprise one of the characteristics most readily apparent in Orthodox Liturgical music. DogmatikaThe Nativity of the Son of God was the answer to the repentance and hope of the people of the Old Testament. A special “Theotokion” sticheron, sung immediately after the stichera for Lord I have Cried, tells us of this. This sticheron is known as a “Dogmatikon,: or a “Theotokion-dogmatikon.” In the dogmatika - of which there are eight, one for each tone - there is contained praises of the Theotokos and teachings of the Church about the incarnation of Jesus Christ and about the combining in Him of two natures - Divine and human. What sets apart the dogmatika is their profound catechetical meaning and their sublime poetry. Here is an English rendering of the Dogmatikon of the 1st Tone: “Let us praise the Virgin Mary, glory of all the world and doorway to heaven, who begotten of man hast borne the Lord: and who, adornment of the faithful is sung by the angelic hosts. For she hath been shown forth as Heaven and Temple of the Godhead. She it is who breaking down the middle wall of enmity, ushered in peace and threw the Kingdom open. Therefore with her as anchor of our faith, we, in the Lord born of her, have a Defender. Make bold therefore, ye people of God, make bold for He, Almighty, will defeat your enemies.” This dogmatikon sets forth in concise form the Orthodox teachings about the human nature of the Savior. The principal theme of the dogmatikon of the first tone is that the Mother of God was begotten of ordinary people, and herself was an ordinary person, and not a superhuman one. It follows that despite its sinfulness, humanity nonetheless maintained its spiritual essence to the extent that in the person of the Mother of God, it was worthy of taking into its heart Divinity - i.e. Jesus Christ. The Holy Fathers of the Church taught that the Most Holy Theotokos is mankind’s justification before God. In the person of the Mother of God, humanity was raised to heaven, and God, in the person of Jesus Christ, born of her, came down to earth. Here, considered from the perspective of Orthodox Mariology (teachings with respect to the Mother of God) is the actual purpose of Christ’s Incarnation. In English translation, the Dogmatikon of the 2nd tone states:
The meaning of this Dogmatikon lies in the fact that through the Virgin Mary, there came into the world grace and liberation from the weight of the Old Testament law, which was a mere “shadow,” a symbol of the future good things of the New Testament. Moreover, the Dogmatikon of the 2nd tone underscores the “ever-virginity” of the Theotokos, depicted in the Old Testament symbol of the burning yet unconsumed bush. This “burning and unconsumed bush” was the thorn bush which Moses saw at the base of Mt. Sinai. According to the Bible, the bush burned but was not consumed, i.e. it was embraced by flame, but itself did not burn. The Little EntranceThe singing of the dogmatikon at the Vigil represents the uniting of earth and heaven. During the singing of the dogmatikon, the Royal Doors are opened to show that heaven, in the sense of man’s communion with God, was closed by Adam’s sin, was opened once more with the coming to earth of Jesus Christ, the Adam of the New Testament. At this point, the “evening or “little” entrance takes place. The priest, preceded by a deacon, comes out of the Altar through the North, deacon’s, door, just as the Son of God, preceded by St. John the Forerunner, appeared to mankind in the world. The choir concludes the evening/little entrance by singing the prayer “O Gentle Light”, expressin words what the priest and deacon have depicted in the action of the entrance - the gentle, humble light of Christ, appearing almost unnoticed, in the world. The Prayer “O Gentle Light”In the cycle of chants used in the services of the Orthodox church, the hymn “O Gentle Light” is known as the “evening hymn” for it is sung during all vesper services. In the words of this hymn the children of the Church “having come to the setting of the sun, having beheld the evening light, sing the Father, Son and Holy Spirit God.” It is apparent from these words that the chanting of “O Gentle Light” was intended to coincide with the appearance of the soft light of sunset, a time when the soul of the believer should be close to feeling the touch of another kind of light, a light from above. This is why in ancient times Christians, observing the setting of the sun, poured out their feelings and turned in prayerful attitude of soul to their “Gentle Light,” to Jesus Christ, Who is described by the Apostle Paul as the brightness of the glory of the Father (Hebrews 1:3), by the Old Testament prophet as the true Sun of Righteousness (Malachi 4:2), the true light which according to the Holy Evangelist John appeared in the world to dispel spiritual darkness (John 1:4,9,), a light which is eternal, an unsetting sun. St. Cyprian of carthage, who lived in the 4th century, wrote “Inasmuch as Christ is the true sun and the true day, when we pray at the setting of the sun and ask that light come to us, we are praying for the coming of the Christ, who possesses the grace to offer us eternal light.” Like the psalm “Lord I have Cried” and the New Testament stichera, the prayer “O Gentle Light,” which appeared in the epoch when the Church of Christ was in the catacombs, is the third distinguishing feature of the Vespers. The prayer “O Gentle Light” also contains one of the most important of Orthodox dogmas, confesssion of Christ as the visible face of the Most-holy Trinity, a dogma which is the foundation for the practice of venerating icons. The little word “vonmem”After the the chanting of O Gentle Light, the clergy serving in the altar utter several short words: “vonmem,” peace be unto all,” “wisdom.” These words are uttered not only during All-night Vigil, but during other services as well. These liturgical words, repeated several times in church, can easily escape our notice. They are little words, but they their content is great and significant. “Vonmem” is an imperative form of the verb “to heed” One may translate it as “Let us be attentive,” “let us pay heed to.” In our daily life, to be attentive is important. Yet the capacity to be heedful does not always come easily. Our intellect is predisposed to being forgetful and unfocused. It is difficult to force oneself to be attentive. The Church is aware of our weakness, and so it takes it upon itself to remind us “Let us attend!” Let us be heedful, let us be careful, let us gather our wits, let us strain to focus our mind, our memory, on what we are hearing. Even more importantly: let us so set our heart that nothing going on in church will slip by. To take heed means to unburden ourselves, to free ourselves of memories, empty thoughts, concerns, or to use an expression from our liturgical language, to “put aside all earthly cares…” The Greeting “Peace Be Unto All!”The little expression "Peace be unto all!" is first heard during the All-night Vigil immediately following the small entrance and the prayer "O Gentle Light. Among ancient peoples, the word "peace" was a form of greeting. The Romans used the word "pax" as a greeting, while Israelis to this day greet one another with "shalom." This form of greeting was used as well during the earthly life of the Savior. The ancient Hebrew word "shalom" has a variety of meanings, and caused New Testament translators considerable difficulty until they ultimately settled on the word "irinei." The word "shalom" has several shades of meaning in addition to its direct meaning. For example, it can mean "to be complete, healthy, unharmed. Its fundamental meaning is a dynamic one. It means "to live well," to have well-being, to be healthy, satisfied, etc., understood both in the material and the spiritual sense, both individually and communally. Figuratively, the word "shalom" meant good relations among various individuals, families, and peoples, between man and wife, between man and God. For this reason, its antonym or opposite in meaning was not necessarily "war," but most likely was everything that could interrupt or destroy individual well-being or good communal relations. In this broader sense, the word "peace," "shalom," represented a special gift given by God to Israel for the sake of His Covenant, His agreement with them. For this reason, the word was employed in an entirely specific, priestly, blessing. It is precisely in this sense that the word of greeting was used by the Savior. With it he greeted the apostles, as St John states in his Gospel: ...the first day of the week [after the Resurrection of Christ] came Jesus and stood in the midst [of His disciples] and saith unto them: Peace be unto you!" And then: "Jesus said to them again: 'Peace be unto you. As my Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.’" This was not simply a kind of formal greeting, one we so often hear in ordinary human discourse. Christ actually sends His disciples out into the world, knowing that they are to go through the abyss of hatred, persecution, and martyric death. This is that peace of which the Apostle Paul spoke in his epistles, the peace not of this world, the peace which was one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. The peace which is of Christ, for "He is our peace. This is why during services the bishops and priests so often bless the people of God with the sign of the Cross and with the words "Peace be unto you!" The ProkeimenonAfter all of the faithful are greeted with the Savior's words "peace be unto you," there follows the "prokeimenon." The "Prokeimenon" is a short excerpt from Divine Scripture, read together with one or more other verses which supplement the meaning of the prokeimenon. The Sunday prokeimenon (in the 6th tone), is read during Vespers on the eve of the Resurrection (i.e. Saturday evening). It is first read in the altar, and then repeated by the choir. The ParemiaThe Paremia literally means "lesson," and consists of an excerpt or excerpts from the Old or New Testament. Such readings, which the Church determined should be read on eves of great feasts, contain prophecies about the event or person commemorated, or words for praise for the feast or saint. While usually 3 paremoi are read, sometimes there are more, i.e. on Great Saturday, the eve of Pascha, there are 15. The Augmented LitanyWith Christ's coming into the world, shown to us in the action of the small evening entrance, the closeness of God to man and their prayerful communion are strengthened. This is why immediately after the prokeimenon and the reading of the paremoi, the Church offers to the faithful to intensify their prayerful communion with God through the augmented litany. The several petitions in the augmented litany remind us of the content of the first vesperal Litany, the Great Litany. However, the augmented litany also includes prayers for the dead. The augmented litany begins with the words "Let us all say with all our souls and all of minds..." To each petition, the choir responds on behalf of all of those praying, with a thrice repeated "Lord have mercy.” The Prayer “Vouchsafe, O Lord”After the Augmented Litany, the prayer “Vouchsafe, O Lord” is read. A portion of this prayer, composed in the Syrian Church during the 4th century, is read in the Great Doxology during Matins. The Litany of SupplicationImmediately after the prayer “Vouchsafe, O Lord,” the concluding Litany of Supplication is intoned. In response to each petition except for the first two, the choir asks “Grant this, O Lord,” making a request more daring than “Lord have mercy,” the penitential response heard in the earlier litanies. In the first litanies of Vespers, the faithful pray for the welfare of the world and the Church, i.e., for external welfare. In the Litany of Supplication, one hears prayers for success in spiritual life, i.e., for a sinless conclusion to this day, for a Guardian Angel, for forgiveness of sins, for a peaceful, Christian death, and for us to be able to give to Christ a good account of our lives at the Dread Judgment. Bowing of the HeadsAfter the Litany of Supplication, the Church calls the faithful to bow their heads unto the Lord. At this moment, the priest addresses God with a special “secret” prayer, which he reads silently. It contains the idea that those who have bowed their heads expect help not from men, but from God, and ask Him to guard the faithful from every enemy, external and internal, i.e., from unkind thoughts and from dark temptations. “Bowing of the heads is an external sign that the faithful put themselves under God’s protection. The LitiaOn Great Feasts and on days commemorating especially honored saints, this is followed by the Litia. The term “Litia” means intensified prayer. It begins with the singing of special stichera in praise of the feast or saint of the given day. As the singing of stichera begins, the clergy go in procession through the North deacon’s door of the iconostasis, out of the Altar. The Royal Doors remain shut. A candle is carried at the head of the procession. When the Litia is celebrated outside the church building, e.g., during times of civil distress or on days marking liberation from such distress, the Litia is incorporated into a Moleben and Procession of the Cross. There can also be a Requiem Litia, done in the narthex after Vespers or Matins. Michael Skaballanovich, a pre-Revolutionary liturgist, writes that “in the Litia, the Church steps out of its blessed milieu and, with the goal of mission to the world, into the external world or into the narthex, the part of the church which abuts this world, the part which is open to all, including those not yet part of the Church or excluded from Her. From this stems the universal character of Litia prayers, embracing all people.” During the Litia, the deacon reads the prayer “Save, O God, Thy people,” as well as four other short petitions. They are comprised of entreaties for the salvation of the people, Church and civil authorities, for the souls of Christians, for the cities, for this land and all believers living herein, for the reposed, as well as entreaties that we be preserved from foreign invasions and from civil war. Each of these five petitions, intoned by the deacon, end with repeated singing of “Lord have mercy.” During the Litia, the faithful display a sense of heightened humility. In the Litia, a host of saints are invoked by name, underscoring one of the basic dogmas of Orthodoxy – our veneration of, and prayerful communication with, the saints. The Litia is marked by repeated, frequent intonation of the words “Lord have mercy,” to saturate with them the heart, mind and soul of those who pray. Multiple repetition is intended to focus our attention on the meaning of the prayer, a theme which the Church considers especially important for man’s spiritual growth. Like a musical leitmotif, often-repeated prayer accompanies us out of the church and into daily life. “Lord have mercy” – But three words; and yet, how profound! First of all, in calling God Lord, we affirm the fact of His rule over the world, over mankind, and, the most important, over ourselves, over those who pronounce“Lord” means ruler, master. For this reason we refer to ourselves as “servants” or “slaves” of God. There is nothing shameful in such a title. Slavery is intrinsically a negative phenomenon, for it robs man of his earliest gift from God, the gift of freedom. Since it is a gift given by God to mankind, man’s serving God is in fact acquisition of perfect freedom in God. It is good to treasure, keep, and cultivate the prayer “Lord have mercy.” After the deacon has read the petitions and the priest has read of the prayer “O Master plenteous in mercy,” and during the singing of the “Aposticha,” verses consisting of glorification of the saint or feast of the given day, the clergy and faithful enter the church. At this time, a table is placed in the center of the church. On the table are five loaves of bread, as well as wheat, wine, and oil. All are subsequently blessed in token of the ancient custom of distributing food to the faithful, some of whom had come from afar, so that they might gain the strength to participate in the lengthy worship services. Five loaves are blessed in memory of the Lord’s feeding of the 5000 who listened to his sermon. Later, during Matins, after the faithful have venerated the Festal Icon, the priest anoints them with the blessed oil. The prayer “Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart”After the aposticha, the prayer “Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, O Master,” is read. These are the words of praise uttered by St. Symeon the God-receiver as, on the 40th day after Our Lord’s Nativity, he took into his arms the Divine Infant Christ in the Temple of Jerusalem. In this prayer, the Old Testament elder thanks God for enabling him, before his death, to see Salvation – Christ, which was given by God as glory to Israel and for the enlightenment of the gentiles and of the entire world. In English, the prayer states: “Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, O Master, according to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples; a light of revelation for the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel.” Vespers, the first part of the All-night Vigil, is drawing to a close. Having begun with a commemoration of the opening pages of Old Testament history, the creation of the world, it ends with the prayer “Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart,” symbolizing the conclusion of the history of Old Testament. The Thrice-HolyImmediately following the prayer of St. Symeon the God-receiver, the “trisagion” or “thrice-holy” prayers are read. They include “Holy God,” “O Most-holy Trinity,” and “Our Father,” ending with the doxology uttered by the priest “For Thine is the kingdom…” Following the “Thrice-Holy” the “troparion” is sung. A troparion is a short, concise hymn addressing the saint being commemorated on the given day, or about the holy event celebrated on that day. The specific distinguishing feature of the troparion is that it concisely delineates either the person being glorified or an event associated with him. At Resurrection Vespers (i.e. on Saturday evening), the troparion to the Mother of God “O Theotokos, Virgin, rejoice!” is sung three times. This troparion is sung at the conclusion of Resurrection Vespers because the joy of Christ’s Resurrection was announced after the joy of the Annunciation, when the Archangel Gabriel advised the Virgin Mary that She was to give birth to the Son of God. The words of this troparion consist in large part of the words of greeting spoken by the Angel to the Mother of God. In the event that a litya is part of the All-night Vigil, the priest or deacon moves around a table on which are loaves of bread, wheat, oil and wine, censing them three times as the troparion is being sung three times. Then the priest reads a prayer in which he asks God to “bless the bread, wheat, wine and oil, and multiply them throughout the world and to enlighten those who eat of them.”Before reading this prayer, the priest slightly elevates one of the loaves, and with it make the sign of the Cross over the remaining loaves. This action is done in remembrance of the Christ’s miraculous feeding of the 5000 with five loaves of bread. In the past, the bread and wine which was blessed was then distributed to the faithful in order to strengthen them for the service of the “all-night” service, which in fact continued for the entire night. In contemporary worship, the blessed bread is cut into little pieces and later distributed during Matins, during the anointing of the faithful with oil; we will discuss this later. The rite of blessing of the loaves dates back to a practice of the earliest times of Christians, and is a remnant of the “Agape” “Love-Feast” observed by the first Christians. Upon the conclusion of the litya, and in recognition of God’s mercy, the choir sings “Blessed be the Name of the Lord from henceforth and for evermore…” This is also the concluding stikheron of the Divine Liturgy. The priest closes Vespers, the first part of the All-night Vigil, from the ambo, extending to the faithful the ancient blessing in the name of the incarnate Jesus Christ, with the words “The blessings of the Lord be upon you, through His grace and love for mankind, always, now and ever, and unto ages of ages.” © 1999 by Archpriest Victor Potapov |