Triodion
"Cheesefare Week" Monday Matins
(after the 2nd reading of the Psalter):
Sessional hymn
Tone 1
The gateway to divine repentance has been opened:
Let us enter eagerly!
Let us purify our bodies
And observe abstinence from food and passions
As obedient servants of Christ
Who calls the world to the heavenly kingdom!
Let us offer this tithe of the year to the king of all
That we may gaze with love upon his resurrection!
Glory...
The gateway to divine repentance...
Now and ever...
Theotokion
You carried in your arms, most holy Virgin,
Your creator: God made flesh!
Stretch out those arms towards him,
Entreating him to deliver us from all passion, danger and temptation
As we praise you with love and cry aloud:
Glory to him who dwelt in you!
Glory to him who came forth from you!
Glory to him who frees us through your child!
(we sing the three-canticle Canon: odes 1,8, and 9)
Apostikha
Tone 3
If we embrace the days of fasting with perseverance,
They will prove profitable throughout our lives.
The demons are vanquished by the bold attacks of abstinence,
For the angels guard all those who strive to cleanse themselves!
If we embrace the days of fasting with perseverance...
Come, all people!
Let us honor the memory of the martyrs:
They became a spectacle for both angels and men;
They received from Christ the crowns of victory,
And now they ceaselessly pray for our souls!
Glory to the Father... Now and ever...
Theotokion
You conceived without seed
By the power of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore we praise you in song:
Rejoice, most holy Virgin!
Triodion
"Cheesefare Week" Monday Vespers
(on "Lord I call...": the prescribed stichera from the octoechos and Menaion)
Apostikha
Tone 8
Let us hasten to cleanse the pollution of our sins
Through fasting, charity, and love for the poor,
That we may enter the wedding feast of Christ the bridegroom,
Who offers us great mercy!
Let us hasten to cleanse the pollution of our sins...
Entreat our God, martyrs of the Lord,
And beseech great bounties for our souls,
And purification of our many transgressions!
Glory to the Father... Now and ever...
Theotokion
Let us praise in song the mother of our God,
The pure and glorious Theotokos.
Let us cry out with the voice of the angel:
Rejoice, holy mother!
You gave birth in the flesh to the Son of God!
Rejoice, temple of the Holy Spirit!
Never cease to pray for the salvation of our souls!