Prayer, troparion, kontakion and magnification of the Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos. Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin (August 28)

In Russian:

Mother of God! You kept virginity at birth, You did not leave the world after your Assumption (Your); You have passed to eternal life, being the Mother of Life (Our Lord Jesus Christ), and with Your prayers you deliver our souls from death.

Dormition- a peaceful death. Repose- movement; the death of a Christian as a transition from the temporal to the eternal. Stomach- life.

This troparion announces that the Blessed Virgin Mary, even after Her repose into heaven, is close to us. Being in heaven, She, as the Mother of God, delivers our souls from death with her prayers before God.

Rising from sleep, before any other occupation, reverently presenting yourself before the Most High God and placing the sign of the cross on yourself, say: In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Therefore, slow down a little, so that all your feelings come to silence and thoughts leave everything earthly, and then say prayers without haste, with attention of the heart.

Here in brief words is the earthly life of Jesus Christ: the Son of God descended from heaven for our salvation, received sinless human flesh from the Most Pure Virgin Mary through the influx of the Holy Spirit on it, and lived on earth as a man for more than 33 years. Until the age of 30, He lived in the poor Galilean city of Nazareth with His mother, Mary, and Her betrothed, Joseph, sharing his household chores and his craft (Joseph was a carpenter). Then He appeared at the Jordan River, where He was baptized by His Forerunner John. After baptism, He spent 40 days in the wilderness in fasting and prayer; here He withstood the temptation of the devil, and from here He appeared into the world with a sermon on how we should live and what we should do in order to receive the Kingdom of Heaven. The sermon and the whole life of Jesus was accompanied by numerous miracles. Despite this, the Jews, rebuked by Him in their lawless lives, hated Him. Their hatred increased to the point that after many torments they crucified Him on a cross between two thieves. Having died on the cross and buried by His secret disciples, He resurrected by the power of His omnipotence on the third day after His death, and after His resurrection for 40 days repeatedly appeared to believers, revealing to them the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. On the 40th day He ascended into heaven in the presence of His disciples, and on the 50th day He sent them the Holy Spirit, enlightening and sanctifying every person. On the part of the Savior, suffering and death on the cross were a voluntary sacrifice of God's justice for the sins of people.

Here, in brief words, is the life of St. Virgin Mary: The parents of the Virgin Mary were the pious elders Joachim and Anna. Being childless, they asked God for their own offspring, promising to dedicate it to God, God heard their prayers, and they had a daughter, who was named Mary. When she was 3 years old, her parents brought her to the temple, where she lived until the age of 14 and was engaged in reading the Holy Scriptures, prayer and needlework. In the 15th year, according to custom, She had to be given in marriage, but She did not want this, because she promised to always remain a Virgin. Then the priests, by the inspiration of God, betrothed (entrusted) Her to her distant relative, who lived in Nazareth, Elder Joseph, so that he would feed and keep Her. Here in Nazareth, Rev. The Virgin received heavenly news from the Archangel about the birth from Her in the flesh of the Son of God, Who was born from Her in the Bethlehem cave. After the death of Jesus Christ, She lived in the house of John the Theologian and was for him instead of a mother. Dormition (death) It followed 15 years after the ascension of Christ to heaven. Her death, according to legend, was miraculous: She died in the presence of the apostles, miraculously brought to the place of Her death on the clouds from different countries. The Lord Himself with holy angels appeared and peacefully took Her soul. On the third day after her Assumption, Her body was taken up to heaven.

Greek word: Paraclete , used in church books to name the Holy Spirit, means not only the Comforter, but also the Intercessor, our Defender before the Heavenly Father.

In Church Slavonic there is no sound "ё", so you should read "your" and not "your", "call", not "call." etc.

The creed is not a prayer, but a statement of faith; however, every Christian should know it firmly by heart and pronounce it every day, thus testifying to his faith in God.

The inscription on the crown of the icon of the Savior: not Russian, but Greek, which means in Russian: existing, eternal. The letters on the cross of our Lord crucified: mean: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.

The inscription on the icon of the Mother of God: , not Russian, but Greek (these are the first and last letters of the words "Mother" and "God") and means: Mother of God.

An oath is an oath taken in the presence of a priest before the cross and the gospel.

The theft of sacred and church things is called sacrilege.

The Ten Commandments, like the Creed, are not prayers. But every Orthodox Christian needs to know them and compare them every day of his life. If we find that during the day we did nothing special contrary to the commandments of God, then we must thank God for this; if they have sinned, they must bring sincere repentance to the Lord and beware of sinning in the future.

The essence of the holiday.

New Testament History and Non-Biblical Evidence.

The subsequent life of the Mother of God is described only in apocryphal sources that are not included in the Bible and do not have dogmatic authority. According to the Jerusalem Patriarch Juvenaly (5th century): “Although there is no narration in the Holy Scriptures about the circumstances of Her death, however, we know about them from the oldest and most reliable tradition.” Such testimonies include the messages of the Hieromartyr Dionysius the Areopagite (1st century), Meliton of Sardis (2nd century), Epiphanius of Cyprus (4th century). Various reports about the Assumption of the Virgin in the XIV century were collected and summarized by the church historian Nicephorus Callistus. One of the legends testifies to the participation of Mary in the distribution between the apostles of the lands where they were supposed to go for preaching. She was drawn by lot to Iveria (Georgia), with which She subsequently found herself mysteriously connected through the Iberian Icon of the Mother of God. But the angel showed Her a different path - to Athos (north-east of Greece), and this Holy Mountain later became the world center of Orthodox monasticism, a place of special veneration for the Mother of God.
According to another legend, the Virgin Mary quietly lived in the house of Her named son, the Apostle John the Theologian, in Jerusalem and Ephesus (on the western coast of Asia Minor), dividing time between prayers and needlework, and visited places for prayers related to earthly life early departed from her Son - Golgotha ​​and the Holy Sepulcher.

Once, during a prayer at the Holy Sepulcher, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to the Mother of God, saying that in three days She would “depart to Christ God.” Calming Mary to be ready for Her hour of death, the archangel announced to Her: “Your Son and our God, with archangels and angels, cherubim and seraphim, with all heavenly spirits and souls of the righteous, will receive You, Your Mother, into the kingdom of heaven, so that You lived and reigned with Him for an endless time." This announcement became the New Annunciation - a new Entry into the Temple. Just as the Mother of God once held the baby Christ in her arms, so now Her Son, having descended from heaven to his deathbed, takes into His arms the small and fragile soul of Mary, born into a new life. Such, in the form of a swaddled baby, Her soul is depicted on the Orthodox icons of the holiday. To commemorate his words, the archangel handed the Mother of God a branch of the tree of paradise (a branch of a date palm), instructing her to carry it in front of the tomb of the Mother of God during burial. So he informed the Virgin Mary that Her earthly days were numbered. The Virgin Mary informed Joseph of Arimathea about the news received from the Angel - he was one of the disciples of Jesus, but was not among the apostles. At his request and through the prayer of the Mother of God, for several days most of the apostles gathered in Jerusalem to say goodbye to Her.
Having said goodbye to all her loved ones and having made an order regarding Her property, the Mother of God prepared for death. The Blessed Virgin expected the end of her earthly days calmly and even with joy - after all, She knew that there, in Heaven, she would meet Her Son and Her God.
Soon the climax comes: the soul of the Mother of God, separated from the body, again miraculously reunites with it, and the resurrected body leaves for the other world. Here is how St. Dimitry of Rostov describes the last moments of the Mother of God: “Suddenly, in the upper room, the inexpressible light of Divine glory shone, darkening the lamps. Those to whom this vision was revealed were horrified. They saw that the roof of the upper room was open and the glory of the Lord was descending from heaven—the King of glory Himself, Christ, with tens of angels and archangels, with all the powers of heaven, with the holy forefathers and prophets who had once foreshadowed the Blessed Virgin, and with all the righteous souls approached to His Most Pure Mother." After that, the Virgin Mary died peacefully.

The age at which the Mother of God died.

Burial.

The ancient Christian tradition indicates that the Apostles buried the Mother of God in the tomb of Her parents, the righteous Joachim and Anna, in which the ashes of Her husband, Joseph the Betrothed, rested, at the very foot of the Mount of Olives, or the Mount of Olives, near the Garden of Gethsemane, where Christ loved to talk with the disciples and where he was arrested. This place is now an underground Orthodox (Greek) temple.
The most pure body of the Virgin Mary was carried in a solemn procession on a bed through Jerusalem, which was reported to the high priests. The funeral procession was so solemn and crowded that it aroused the wrath of the Jewish high priests. They hated Christ, which means that they did not burn with love for His Mother, Who, by her personal example and persuasive word, herself converted many pagans and Jews to Christianity. The guards sent by them could not disperse the procession thanks to a miracle: “ a cloudy circle, floating through the air, descended to earth and, as if with a wall, surrounded both the holy Apostles and the rest of the Christians". Tradition keeps the story of how the Jewish priest Affonia, passing by the procession, tried to overturn the bed, but an angel cut off his hands that touched the coffin. Affonia was so shocked by this that he deeply repented, and then accepted the Christian faith. After repentance, he received healing and confessed himself a Christian.
The apostles covered the tomb of the Virgin Mary with a stone in the same way as earlier the tomb of Christ, as was customary.

The miracle of the rapture of the Mother of God into Heaven.

Liturgical veneration of the Orthodox Church.

Troparion of the Dormition.

At childbirth, You preserved virginity; at Assumption, You did not leave the world, Mother of God; You passed away to life, being the Mother of Life, and with Your prayers you deliver our souls from death.

Kontakion of the Dormition.

The Mother of God, praying unceasingly and in intercession, unshakable hope, was not held back by the coffin and death; for She, as the Mother of Life, was brought to life by [Christ], Who settled in Her eternally virginal womb.

Honorer of the Dormition.

Generations all glorify You, the only Mother of God. The angels, seeing the Assumption of the Most Pure, were surprised how the Virgin ascends from earth to heaven. The laws of nature are defeated on Thee, Pure Virgin: birth remains virgin and death is betrothed to life; by birth remaining a virgin and by death alive, you always save, Mother of God, your inheritance.

Magnification of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos.

We magnify Thee, Immaculate Mother of Christ our God, and gloriously glorify Thy Assumption.

Greek original:

Ἐν τῇ Γεννήσει τὴν παρθενίαν ἐφύλαξας,

ἐν τῇ Κοιμήσει τὸν κόσμον οὐ κατέλιπες Θεοτόκε.

Μετέστης πρὸς τὴν ζωήν,

μήτηρ ὑπάρχουσα τῆς ζωῆς,

καὶ ταῖς πρεσβείαις ταῖς σαῖς λυτρουμένη,

ἐκ θανάτου τὰς ψυχὰς ἡμῶν.

Church Slavonic translation:

At Christmas, you kept your virginity,

In the dormition of the world did not leave you, Mother of God,

You reposed to the stomach,

Mother of the Essence of the Belly,

And with your prayers you deliver

From the death of our soul.

Translation by Olga Sedakova:

When you gave birth, you kept your virginity.

Having rested, You did not leave the world, Mother of God:

For she came to life

Thou true Mother of Life,

And with your intercession you deliver

Our souls from death.

Explanations to the text of the troparion:

1. In the Nativity, in the Assumption - here we mean not the holidays of the Nativity of Christ and the Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos, but the very actions of birth and death. Dormition (sleep) from sleep - fall asleep; the traditional metaphor of death as a dream (just like the Russian “to rest”) takes on a more concrete meaning here. According to church tradition, the coming resurrection from the dead, which the entire human race (including the saints) awaits, is no longer required by her.

2. Reposed to the belly, the mother of the being of the belly. One and the same word, belly (life) has slightly different meanings here. In the first use, the belly means life, eternal life. In the second - Christ, who is life (“I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6)); Who brought into the world "life, and life in abundance" (John 10, 10)). In this sense, we can say about the Mother of God that she gave birth to Life to people.

3. Mother of being - literally: abiding, having become forever.

4. By your prayers - glory. the prayer, which conveys the Greek πρεσβεία, here means “request”, “petition”, and specifically, a petition for pardon.

Sub specie poeticae.

Orthodox liturgical chants dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos are, as a rule, very complex and "dogmatic" more than lyrical. This is especially noticeable when compared with traditional Latin hymnography, with such classical examples as Stella Maris (“Star of the Seas”), Pulcherrima Rosa (“Most Beautiful Rose”), Salve Regina (“Hail, Queen”) ... Perfect purity, wondrous beauty , the incomparable mercy of the Virgin is their lyrical theme.

Orthodox (Greek) hymns address the Mother of God in a different way: in the light of the dogma of the Incarnation of God the Word. They reflect on the part that belongs to Her in this greatest miracle, they contemplate the improbability of what happened. This cannot be accommodated by the human mind and everyday experience, which is constantly reminded by the hymns of the Mother of God (the motifs of “silence of the winds” and “bewilderment of the philosophers”) and about which, as one of these hymns says, “it would be safer to be silent.”

Laudatory chant is silence clothed in words, a kind of huge embroidery. The favorite rhetorical figure here is the connection of the incompatible, an oxymoron: "The bride is not the bride." The contemplation of singers and listeners is offered unimaginable things: a maiden becomes a mother, remaining a maiden; the female womb contains the One Whom the starry world and all creation cannot contain; a mortal, created human being gives birth to "endless life." The hymnographers seem to enjoy the multiplication of a number of "impossibles" that essentially follow from one name: the Mother of God.

We have already spoken more than once about the special intellectualism and "theoreticism" of Byzantine liturgical poetry. With this quality of hers, one can also associate the usual presence of Old Testament images in the Mother of God hymns, in which theologians see a prototype of the Mother of God: the Mother of God is a ladder that Patriarch Jacob saw, a jug of manna from the ancient Tabernacle of the Covenant, an altar, a burning bush, a passage through the Red Sea ... All this - examples of what "does not happen", miracles in which the "nature of the order" (natural law) is canceled. A huge register of such symbolic similitudes contains the Akathist to the Chosen Governor, a model and source of many liturgical texts. The Troparion of the Assumption, which we are talking about, does not include these Old Testament symbols.

His composition is transparent. The first two verses give parallel images of the combination of the incompatible: virgin birth - and death, which does not mean a complete break with the world. These two miracles are presented in one mode: preservation. “She kept her virginity” - “she didn’t leave the world.” Storage, saving, cover - one of the main motives in the veneration of the Virgin. In prayer appeals to Her, there is a hope that with Her help the lost will not be lost. These two verses form, as it were, the theological introduction to the hymn.

The next four verses of the troparion develop its main theme: death and life. The death of the Mother of God is not death, but a transition to life (eternal life), to that new Life that She gave birth to while remaining a mortal being. The word "death" appears only in the last line, and does not refer to the death of the Mother of God, but to "us", more precisely, to "our souls", who, through her intercession, are saved from death. Her life after death not only does not stop, but becomes a source of life for "our souls." The theme of the Court is connected with the theme of intercession, intercession, petition, "surety" of the Mother of God. At the Judgment of Christ, She acts as a lawyer, as a petitioner for pardon for the condemned. Here the Latin and Greek traditions of the hymnography of the Theotokos converge, with the differences of which we began. And in the Western tradition, She is first of all the Protector, the "lawyer" at the "righteous court", the hope of those who have no other hope.

In the Holy Scriptures we meet one source of this thousand-year-old image of the “intercessor for the people before the Son”: the story of the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. The sympathy of the Mother of God for people who did not have enough wine, and a request to the Son to correct this situation, become an impetus to the beginning of His miracle-working, to the first “appearance of glory”, to the beginning of His mission as the Savior. The Lord performs the first miracle at the request of the Mother (John 2:1-11).

Priest Fyodor Ludogovsky:

In the Orthodox Church, there are many holidays dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos. If we follow the chronology of events, then the first of them is the conception of the Virgin by the righteous Anna (December 9/22); then - the Nativity of the Mother of God (September 8/21), Entry into the Temple (November 21 / December 4), Candlemas (February 2/15), Annunciation (March 25 / April 7), Assumption (August 15/28). Then follow the festivities established in memory of the appearances of the Blessed Virgin, about the miracles performed by Her in different eras of church history: this is the Feast of the Intercession (October 1/14), and the memory of the Sign of the Virgin in Veliky Novgorod (November 27 / December 10), and celebrations in honor of dozens of icons of the Mother of God.

The main among all these holidays can be considered the Assumption - just as the main day of memory of the saint is usually the day of his death, just like the main Lord's holiday - Easter, the remembrance of the death and Resurrection of Christ.

Dormition is often called the Mother of God Easter, but such a name seems undesirable: the long-standing and unrelenting tendency to “pull up” the veneration of the Mother of God to the level of veneration of the Savior is quite obvious (this can be seen in everything - from spelling to hymnography) - but such a desire is in conflict with the dogmatic teaching of the Orthodox Church : The Lord Jesus Christ is God and man, Creator and Savior; The Mother of God is only a person, although she has contained the Divine in herself. Her ministry was absolutely exceptional, our salvation would have been impossible without her; however, Her human nature did not change, She, like all people, was subject to death. Therefore, I would like to hope for a more sober attitude to the veneration of the Mother of God - as well as to the veneration of many saints.

The Feast of the Assumption has a one-day fore-feast (immediately after the giving of the Transfiguration of the Lord); his afterfeast lasts eight days. The Dormition of the Theotokos is the last twelfth feast in the church year, beginning September 1/14 and ending in August. Two weeks after the giving of the Dormition, the prefeast of the first twelfth feast of the year, the Nativity of the Virgin, begins.

http://olgasedakova.com/Poetica/1468

The Sunday service of the Octoechos in all eight tones or chants in Slavonic and Russian, which includes hymns of small vespers, great vespers, midnight office, matins and liturgy. Translated from Greek by teacher of the Tobolsk Theological Seminary Ivan Lovyagin. SPb., Synodal printing house. 1988.

O.A. Sedakova. Dictionary of difficult words from worship. Church Slavonic-Russian paronyms. Greek-Latin study of Yu.A. Shichalin. M. 2008.

Slav. Warm, warm - hot, hot (zealously, diligently). In Russian, it is customary to speak of bitter, not hot tears.

The first meaning of preaching, in tssl. - inform, tell, bring news. So the preacher here is the messenger. The significance of the sermon as teaching comes later.

As noted (see G. Prokhorov's works on this), in the Russian Orthodox tradition, the foundation of theologizing for the "ordinary" parishioner is liturgical poetry, and non-systematic theological works.

At the same time, she adds a moment that is not in the narrative: a certain teaching of angels. Magdalena does not have time to hear the answer of the angels, she only explains to them that she is looking for and cannot find where the Body of the Buried was moved. Christ Himself is responsible for the angels.

Muscle - arm, forearm and shoulder. Generally speaking - the strength of the hand. I leave this word without translation, although the Russian "muscle" has a different meaning. By replacing the muscle with a “hand”, we lose the connection with the traditional symbolism of chants (see further in the commentary).

Trampled - literally stepped on, stood up with his foot. The ancient gesture of the winner, placing a foot on the neck or on the chest of the vanquished. An ancient iconographic canon is known, where Christ is depicted as a warrior standing on the chest of a serpent - death. The Lord conquers death, “the last enemy” (“the last enemy that will be destroyed is death”, 1 Corinthians 15:26), reigning over the universe after Adam’s fall, by His death on the cross.

The world here conveys the Greek kosmos, the universe, that is, the whole creation, and not just the human world.

Mercy, great mercy here, as in other similar verses (the granting of great mercy is usually spoken of in connection with some special events) should be understood specifically, not as a general property of the Lord, but as a special act of mercy. The meaning is close to “sacrifice” (cf. in the liturgical anaphora, the mercy of the world is a peace sacrifice).

In our comments, I will not delve into the analysis of new poetry. I will only note that its language is largely the language of quotations (as a rule, taken from other sources). There are poets who are more inclined to such “centronicity”, there are those who resort to referring “accidentally and at random”, but no poet can escape the fact on which poetry stands: the word has a genealogy, there is a history of existence.

Sometimes the hymns talk about the triple structure of the world: "heaven and earth and the underworld." Water (sea) plays a special role in this cosmology. Note that all these spaces (including the sea) are presented primarily as inhabited, populated. So by saying heavenly, the troparion means those who dwell in heaven, the angels.

We keep this and all subsequent verbs (it is seen - it is brought - it is supposed) in a reflexive form, uncharacteristic for the Russian language, with the meaning of the passive voice, in order to convey the special nature of this action, active and passive at the same time: He does so that the following is done with him ...

Or: laziness, negligence (bad faith), postponing things for later. Words idle, argos, idleness in the Church Slavonic language they carry a stronger meaning than in Russian, the meaning of "emptiness", "emptiness", "meaninglessness".

It is difficult to explain why περιεργία is disorderly, excessive activity; concern for insignificant matters, interference in other people's affairs - here Slavic despondency is transmitted. Despondency is usually conveyed by the Greek. acedia.

In the pre-Nikonian Slavic text, this place is occupied by the love of money. One can assume the existence of various Greek prayer lists, where in place of φιλαρχία (lust for power, desire to excel) there could be filarguria (love of money, greed) close to it in literal composition. Which of these options is the original, it is difficult to determine. It is worth noting that the liturgical texts emphasize the particular gravity of the sin of the love of money, unambiguously explaining Judas' betrayal by his love of money ( "estate zealot").

In the pre-Nikonian text "get away from me"("take away, separate from me"). This distinction also probably goes back to different Greek prayer lists. Usually they ask for their own sins and vices in prayers in this way: get away from me or deliver me from. Disputes in connection with these two options ("don't let me" or "drive me away") were about the fact that God cannot "give" a person passions and vices. However, in our text, give, "give", δῷς·, used in relation to bad properties, is contrasted with two other verbs with the meaning "grant": χάρισαί (literally, "give by grace") and δώρησαί (bestow, reward). In such a comparison, "give" can be understood as "to allow", "allow" - cf. "God forbid!".

Chastity - σωφροσύνη - in later perception is associated mainly with virginity or moral purity, but its real meaning is the possession of a sound (whole, intact) mind, sanity, the ability to distinguish between good and evil.

Humility in the pre-Nikon list, humility in the new one. The compound word ταπεινοφροσύνη means "modesty", "recognition of one's own smallness, insignificance". In the ancient sense, such “modesty” is a negative characteristic, something like “cowardice”. In Christian humility one of the highest virtues, the opposite pride. Prot. Alexander Schmemann, in his interpretation of the Lenten Prayer, notes that one of the main manifestations humility- Willingness to accept the truth.

Patience, ὑπομονῆ, perseverance, constancy. endure in Slavic, as well as in Greek, includes the meaning of "expect", "expect with hope". Wed “These are all who endure with one accord in prayer and supplication” (Acts 1:14).

Literally "stumbles", failures, mistakes, πταίσμα. In Russian and in other Slavic languages, formations with a root have been preserved sin, which do not carry religious connotations and mean "mistake", "miss". Wed Russian flaw.

Κατακρίνειν - to condemn in the sense of "to pass judgment". To express critical remarks, even to slander, is not yet to condemn. On the contrary, one can treat someone “tolerantly”, precisely on the basis of condemnation in this sense: they say, what to take from this! This is where the judgment is made.

There is an excellent work by S. S. Averintsev about the poetry and spiritual image of Ephraim the Syrian: Between “explanation” and “covering”: the situation of the image in the poetry of Ephraim the Syrian. - S.S. Averintsev. Poets. School "languages ​​of Russian culture" M., 1996. P. 97-121. And in this work, and in his general essay on Syrian literature (“From the banks of the Euphrates to the banks of the Bosporus” - A pearl of great value. Translations by S.S. Averintsev. Spirit and Litera, Kyiv, 2003) Averintsev - for the first time in domestic and world science - says about a special place that belongs to the Syrian spirituality in Russian culture. Averintsev does not discuss the hypothesis that the Great Lenten Prayer, the Syriac text of which is unknown, is a pseudo-epigraph.

Pushkin sensitively picked up this "pairing" in the introduction to the transcription of the prayer: "The hermit fathers and the wives are blameless / To fly with their hearts in the region of correspondence, / To strengthen it amid the valley storms and battles ...". Fathers and wives, the two purposes of prayer are for heaven and for earth.

In Pushkin's arrangement, which occupies seven lines, written in iambic Alexandrian six-foot with paired rhyming, all the words included in the prayer are actually preserved. "On my own" Pushkin added only a clarification to "arrogance": "this snake of the heart." However, the "hidden" symbol of his arrangement is different. The last request for prayer has been moved forward, and the request for revival becomes the final one:

And the spirit of humility, patience, love

And revive chastity in my heart.

The last word of the poem is "revive". Everything that concerns the theme of the Lord - Tsar - servant, central to the prayer of Ephraim the Syrian, in Pushkin goes into the shadows or completely disappears.

Slavic "council" Greek. Βουλὴ means "plan", "decision".

One could say in Russian: Girl, Κόρη: a very young creature. Here is the same contrast of eternity and young age, as in Christmas hymns: "A young child, eternal God."

So in Greek - and so it is transmitted in Slavonic! "Greeting" in Slavic - "kiss". Lobzati refers to a physical action. In the iconography of the Annunciation, such a plot twist is not found. The gospel narrative does not speak of the embrace of an angel.

The polysemantic Slavic "red" here conveys ὡραῖος, mature, in bloom.

In Greek "kings". The theme of the Cross is often associated in hymns with the theme of the earthly Orthodox king. The source of this is probably the vision of the Emperor Constantine (“In hoc signo vinces” “By this win”, the sign of the Cross in the sky during the battle), from which a new era of Christianity began, the end of persecution and the gradual transformation of Christianity into the state religion. The cross began to be understood as a pillar of the Christian state (“residence”), its authorities and people.

In Greek - Resurrection.

See about this my work “Paradise: the theme of Christian thought” http://www.pravmir.ru/raj-tema-xristianskoj-mysli/

You can read about the life and work of this unique songwriter: Cassia the Monk (T.A. Senina). Venerable nun Cassia, hymn-writer of Constantinople. - Vertograd No. 1 (80) 2004, 3, 17-29.

Boris Pasternak. PSS. T.4. C. 411.

This verse μετὰ πάσης ἀρχῆς καὶ ἐξουσίας allows for a double reading: it can be understood as the names of two angelic ranks of the heavenly hierarchy (our version) - or, “with a capital letter”, as a description of the angelic hosts “with all their superiors and powers”, as translated by hierome . Ambrose (Timroth).

In B. Pasternak’s “August”, the phenomenon of the Light of Tabor is presented as a common, regular phenomenon:

Ordinarily light without flame

Comes on this day from Tabor.

Wed about this in Pasternak's "Doctor Zhivago": "... a girl ... secretly and secretly gives life to a baby, gives birth to life, the miracle of life, the life of all," the Belly of all, "as it is later called. — Boris Pasternak. Collected works in five volumes. Volume three, Doctor Zhivago. M., Hudlit, 1990, p.460.

In general, theological intricacies remain "behind the scenes" of Western hymns to the Virgin. But there are exceptions. In the theological hymn to the Theotokos, sung by Dante Bernard of Clairvaux in the final song of the Divine Comedy, we hear a completely Byzantine rapture with dizzying "impossibility": "Vergine Madre, figlia del tuo figlio... tu se'colei che l'umana natura Nobilitasti si, che 'l suo fattore Non disdegno di farsi sua fattura” – “Virgin Mother, daughter of her Son… You are the one in which human nature has become so ennobled that its Creator did not consider it unworthy to become its (human nature) creation.” (Par. XXXIII, 1-6).

The image of the “daughter of one’s own Son” echoes the ancient iconography of the Assumption, where Christ stands before the bed of the deceased Mother of God and holds her soul in the form of a little girl, exactly repeating the pose of the Mother of God holding the Baby. In a clear way, the Mother returns to her original status - she is again a child of the Creator.

Troparion- a genre of church hymnography, a short chant expressing the essence of the celebrated event. Early troparia were written in rhythmic prose, in the 4th-5th centuries. poetic troparia appeared.

Troparion, tone 1

Kontakion- a genre of church hymnography, created by St. Roman the Melodist; in its original form it was a poem of 20-30 stanzas. In its modern form, the kontakion is a short chant, very close in form and content to the troparion, so that the troparion and kontakion together complement each other.

Kontakion, tone 2

magnificence- a short solemn church chant, sung by the clergy in the center of the temple in front of the festive icon during the most solemn part of the all-night vigil on the eve of the holiday. The singing of magnificence is picked up by the choir, and then by all those gathered in the temple, and they sing it until the priest burns the whole temple.

We magnify Thee, Immaculate Mother of Christ Our God, and gloriously glorify Thy Assumption.

The magnification of the feast of the Assumption glorifies the Most Holy Theotokos as the Mother of Christ, who has already revealed Himself to be God for all.

Worthy- church chant sung at the liturgy during the Eucharistic canon. At the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, “It is worthy to eat ...”, at the liturgy of St. Basil the Great “Rejoices in you ...”, but on the twelfth holidays, which is the Assumption, instead of “It is worthy to eat ...”, refrains and irmos are sung 9 th song of the canon, which is why the name “worthy” came to be.

Choruses

Irmos of the 9th song

In the troparion "In the Nativity Thou Preserved Her Virginity," the hymnographers seem to enjoy the multiplication of a number of "impossibility" arising from one name: Mother of God. The Virgin becomes the Mother; a woman gives birth to Him whom the whole world cannot contain, a mortal woman is born into eternal life. The priest Theodore LUDOGOVSKY and the poet Olga SEDAKOVA comment.
Dormition. Russia, XIV century

Troparion, tone 1:
At Christmas, you kept your virginity,
in the dormition of the world did not leave you, Mother of God,
you died to the stomach,
Mother of the Essence of the Belly,
and by your prayers you deliver
from the death of our soul.

Greek original
Ἐν τῇ Γεννήσει τὴν παρθενίαν ἐφύλαξας,
ἐν τῇ Κοιμήσει τὸν κόσμον οὐ κατέλιπες Θεοτόκε.
Μετέστης πρὸς τὴν ζωήν,
μήτηρ ὑπάρχουσα τῆς ζωῆς,
καὶ ταῖς πρεσβείαις ταῖς σαῖς λυτρουμένη,
ἐκ θανάτου τὰς ψυχὰς ἡμῶν.

Translation by Olga Sedakova
When you gave birth, you kept your virginity.
Having rested, You did not leave the world, Mother of God:
For she came to life
Thou true Mother of Life,
And with your intercession you deliver
Our souls from death.

Comparing the Assumption with Easter is fraught with a serious dogmatic mistake, warns priest Theodore LUDOGOVSKY:

- In the Orthodox Church there are many holidays dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos. If we follow the chronology of events, then the first of them is the conception of the Virgin by the righteous Anna (December 9/22); then - the Nativity of the Mother of God (September 8/21), Entry into the Temple (November 21 / December 4), Candlemas (February 2/15), Annunciation (March 25 / April 7), Assumption (August 15/28). Then follow the festivities established in memory of the appearances of the Blessed Virgin, about the miracles performed by Her in different eras of church history: this is the Feast of the Intercession (October 1/14), and the memory of the Sign of the Virgin in Veliky Novgorod (November 27 / December 10), and celebrations in honor of dozens of icons of the Mother of God.

The main among all these holidays can be considered the Assumption - just as the main day of memory of a saint is usually the day of his death, just like the main Lord's holiday - Easter, the remembrance of the death and Resurrection of Christ.

The Dormition is often called the Mother of God Easter, but such a name seems undesirable: the long-standing and unrelenting tendency to “pull up” the veneration of the Mother of God to the level of veneration of the Savior is quite obvious (this can be seen in everything - from spelling to hymnography) - but such a desire conflicts with the dogmatic teaching of the Orthodox Church : Lord Jesus Christ - God and man, Creator and Savior; The Mother of God is only a person, although she has contained the Divine in herself. Her ministry was absolutely exceptional, our salvation would have been impossible without her; however, Her human nature did not change, She, like all people, was subject to death. Therefore, one would like to hope for a more sober attitude to the veneration of the Mother of God - as well as to the veneration of many saints.

The Feast of the Assumption has a one-day fore-feast (immediately after the giving of the Transfiguration of the Lord); his afterfeast lasts eight days. The Dormition of the Theotokos is the last twelfth feast in the church year, beginning September 1/14 and ending in August. Two weeks after the giving of the Dormition, the fore-feast of the first twelfth feast of the year, the Nativity of the Virgin, begins.

What is safer to be silent about?

Explanations to the text of the troparion:

1. In Christmas, in dormition- here we mean not the holidays of the Nativity of Christ and the Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos, but the very actions of birth and death. Dormition(sleep) from sleep- fall asleep; the traditional metaphor of death as a dream (just like the Russian “to rest”) takes on a more concrete meaning here. According to church tradition, the coming resurrection from the dead, which the entire human race (including the saints) awaits, is no longer required by her.

2. Reposed to the belly, the mother of the being of the belly. The same word stomach(life) has slightly different meanings here. In first use stomach means life, eternal life. In the second - Christ, who is life (“I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6)); Who brought into the world “life, and life in abundance” (John 10:10)). In this sense, it can be said about the Mother of God that she gave birth to Life to people.

3. Mother of being- literally: abiding, become forever.

4. by your prayers- glory. prayer, which conveys the Greek πρεσβεία, here means “request”, “petition”, and specifically, a petition for pardon.

SUB SPECIE POETICAE

Orthodox liturgical hymns dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos are, as a rule, very complex and "dogmatic" more than lyrical. This is especially noticeable when compared with traditional Latin hymnography, with such classical examples as Stella Maris (“Star of the Seas”), Pulcherrima Rosa (“Most Beautiful Rose”), Salve Regina (“Hail, Queen”) ... Perfect purity, wondrous beauty , the incomparable mercy of the Virgin is their lyrical theme.

Orthodox (Greek) hymns address the Mother of God in a different way: in the light of the dogma of the Incarnation of God the Word. They reflect on the part that belongs to Her in this greatest miracle, they contemplate the improbability of what happened. This cannot be accommodated by the human mind and everyday experience, which is constantly reminded by the hymns of the Mother of God (the motifs of “silence of the winds” and “bewilderment of the philosophers”) and about which, as one of these hymns says, “it would be safer to be silent.”

Laudatory chant is silence clothed in words, a kind of huge embroidery. The favorite rhetorical figure here is the connection of the incompatible, an oxymoron: "The bride is not the bride." The contemplation of singers and listeners is offered unimaginable things: a maiden becomes a mother, remaining a maiden; the female womb contains the One Whom the starry world and all creation cannot contain; a mortal, created human being gives birth to "endless life." The hymnographers seem to enjoy the multiplication of a series of "impossibles" that essentially follow from one naming: Mother of God.

We have already spoken more than once about the special intellectualism and "theoreticism" of Byzantine liturgical poetry. With this quality of hers, one can also associate the usual presence of Old Testament images in the Mother of God hymns, in which theologians see a prototype of the Mother of God: the Mother of God is a ladder that Patriarch Jacob saw, a jug of manna from the ancient Tabernacle of the Covenant, an altar, a burning bush, a passage through the Red Sea ... All this - examples of "what does not happen", miracles in which the "nature of the order" (natural law) is canceled.

A huge register of such symbolic similes contains an akathist "Choose Governor", sample and source of many liturgical texts. The Troparion of the Dormition, which we are talking about, does not include these Old Testament symbols.

His composition is transparent. The first two verses give parallel images of the connection of the incompatible: virgin birth - and death, which does not mean a complete break with the world. These two miracles are presented in one mode: preservation. "She kept her virginity" - "she did not leave the world." Storage, saving, cover - one of the main motives in the veneration of the Virgin. In prayer appeals to Her, there is a hope that with Her help even the lost will not be lost. These two verses form, as it were, the theological introduction to the hymn.

The next four verses of the troparion develop its main theme: death - and life. The death of the Mother of God is not death, but a transition to life (eternal life), to that new Life that She gave birth to while remaining a mortal being. The word "death" appears only in the last line, and does not refer to the death of the Mother of God, but to "us", more precisely, to "our souls", who, through her intercession, are saved from death. Her life after death not only does not stop, but becomes a source of life for "our souls."

The theme of the Court is connected with the theme of intercession, intercession, petition, "surety" of the Mother of God. At the Judgment of Christ, She acts as a lawyer, as a petitioner for pardon for the condemned. Here the Latin and Greek traditions of the hymnography of the Theotokos converge, with the differences of which we began. And in the Western tradition, She is first of all the Defender, the “lawyer” at the “righteous court”, the hope of those who have no other hope.

In the Holy Scriptures we meet one source of this thousand-year-old image of the “intercessor for the people before the Son”: the story of the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. The sympathy of the Mother of God for people who did not have enough wine, and a request to the Son to correct this situation, become an impetus to the beginning of His miracle-working, to the first “appearance of glory”, to the beginning of His mission as the Savior. The Lord performs the first miracle at the request of the Mother (John 2:1-11).

Notes:
1 Wed about this in Pasternak's "Doctor Zhivago": "... a girl ... secretly and secretly gives life to a baby, gives birth to life, the miracle of life, the life of all," the Belly of all, "as it is later called. — Boris Pasternak. Collected works in five volumes. Volume three, Doctor Zhivago..M., Hudlit, 1990, p.460.

2 In general, theological intricacies remain "behind the scenes" of Western hymns to the Virgin. But there are exceptions. In the theological hymn to the Mother of God, which in the final song of the Divine Comedy is sung by Dante Bernard of Clairvaux, we hear a completely Byzantine intoxication with dizzying "impossibility":
“Vergine Madre, figlia del tuo figlio… tu se'colei che l'umana natura Nobilitasti si, che 'l suo fattore Non disdegno di farsi sua fattura” - “Virgin Mother, daughter of her Son… You are the one in whom human nature is So ennobled that her Creator did not consider it unworthy to become her (human nature) creation. (Par. XXXIII, 1-6).
The image of the “daughter of one’s own Son” echoes the ancient iconography of the Assumption, where Christ stands before the bed of the deceased Mother of God and holds her soul in the form of a little girl, exactly repeating the pose of the Mother of God holding the Baby. In a clear way, the Mother returns to her original status - she is again a child of the Creator.

Priest Theodore LUDOGOVSKY, Olga SEDAKOVA