THE OFFICE OF VESPERS

Vespers on Cheese-Fare Sunday and the Other Days of the Great Fast

    On Cheese-fare Sunday, and on the rest of the Sunday evenings of the 40-day Fast, everything up to the entrance and O Joyful Light . . . is according to the rules set forth in the Triodion, without prostrations. Then one of the two great prokeimena (read alternately on the Sunday evenings of the Fast) is read.

    After the prokeimenon, the holy doors are closed and immediately, Vouchsafe, O Lord . . . is read, followed by three little reverences; then the litany, Let us complete our evening prayer. At the Trisagion which follows Lord, now lettest thou . . . , three little reverences are made. After Our Father, the priest says, For thine is the kingdom, and the choir sings the troparia; O Theotokos Virgin, Hail .... O Baptizer of Christ . . . , and Pray for us . . . and then Beneath thy tenderness of heart . . . and all the rest as indicated above for Tuesday and Thursday up to and including the three reverences at, the prayer of Ephraim.

    Then the dismissal from Glory to thee, O Christ God, our Hope, glory to thee.

    On the other days of the Great 40-day Fast, except when the Presanctified Liturgy is celebrated, everything is as above for Tuesday and Thursday, except that, in place of the one daily prokeimenon, two prokeimena from the Triodion are used, with one reading after each of them. O Lord and Master . . . , and then the prayer, O all-holy Trinity . . . , and the rest as on Wednesday and Friday.

    If the Annunciation of the All-holy Theotokos falls on one of the fast days of the 40-day Fast: on Sunday evening at Great Vespers with All-night Vigil, everything will be according to the usual rule for Feasts of the Theotokos; on other days, there is no kathisma.

    After the entrance, the prokeimenon of the day from the Horologion, the readings of the day, and three for the feast. Then Vouchsafe, O Lord . . . , and after Lord, now lettest thou . . . , the troparion of the feast, the litany, Have mercy on us, O God, according to thy great mercy, we pray thee, hearken and have mercy, and the rest; then three reverences, and the great dismissal.

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