For this holy habitation....
For healthiness of weather....
For them that voyage, that journey....
That this water may be hallowed by the might, and operation, and
visitation of the Holy Ghost.
That there may come down into this water the cleansing operation of the
supersubstantial Trinity.
That this water may be to the healing of soul and body, and to the
turning aside of every opposing might.
That the Lord God may send down the blessing of Jordan, and hallow this
water.
For all them that need help and assistance from God.
That we may be illuminated with the illumination of understanding by the
consubstantial Trinity.
That the Lord God may declare us sons and inheritors of his kingdom,
through partaking of this water, and through being sprinkled therewith.
For our deliverance from every affliction....
Help us, save us, have mercy on us....
Commemorating our most holy, most pure....
_Choir._ To thee, O Lord.
_Exclamation._
For to thee is due all glory....
_Then this prayer._
O Lord our God, mighty in counsel, and wonderful in works, Maker of all
creation, who keepest thy covenant and thy mercy towards them that love
thee and that keep thy commandments, who acceptest the piteous tears of
all them that are in need; for for this cause thou didst come in the
form of a servant, not terrifying us with phantoms, but vouchsafing true
bodily healing, and saying, Behold, thou art made whole, sin no more:
yea, thou didst with clay restore the eyes of the blind, and didst bid
him wash, and by a word didst make him see, O thou that breakest the
waves of adverse passions, and driest up the salt sea of this life,
and quellest the billows of lusts that are hard to be endured; do thou
thyself, O man-loving King, who hast given unto us to be invested with a
snow-white robe by water and the Spirit, by the partaking of this water,
and by being sprinkled therewith, send down upon us thy blessing, which
taketh away the defilement of passions. Yea, O Blessed One, we pray thee
to visit our infirmities, and to heal our spiritual and bodily weaknesses
by thy mercy: through the prayers of our altogether most pure, most
blessed Lady, the God-bearing ever-virgin Mary; through the might of the
honourable and life-effecting cross; through the intercessions of the
honourable heavenly bodiless hosts; of the honourable glorious prophet,
forerunner, and baptist, John; of the holy glorious and all-praised
apostles; of our venerable and god-bearing fathers; of our fathers in
the saints, the great hierarchs and ecumenical doctors, Basil the great,
Gregory the theologian, and John Chrysostom; of our fathers in the
saints, Athanasius and Cyril, patriarchs of Alexandria; of our father in
the saints, Spyridon, wonderworker of Trimythes; of our father in the
saints, archbishop Nicolas, wonderworker of Myrlicia; of our fathers
in the saints, Peter, Alexis, Jonas, and Philip, wonderworkers of all
Russia; of the holy and glorious great martyr, George, the triumphant;
of the holy and glorious great martyr, Demetrius, the myrrh-emitter: of
the holy and excellently victorious martyrs; of the holy and righteous
god-progenitors, Joakim and Anna; of the holy glorious and unmercenary
wonderworkers, Cosmas and Damian, Cyrus and John, Pantelimon and
Hermolaus, Sampson and Diomed, Mocius and Anicetus, Thalaleus and
Tryphon; and of the holy, _name_, whose memory we keep, and of all thy
Saints.
And preserve, O Lord, thy Servant, our Most Pious, Autocratic, Great
Lord, THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER ALEXANDROVITCH, of all Russia. _Thrice._
And His Consort, the Most Pious Lady, THE EMPRESS MARIA THEODOROVNA.
And His Heir, the Right-believing Lord, the Cesarevitch and Grand Duke,
NICOLAUS ALEXANDROVITCH, and all the reigning House.
Save, O Lord, and have mercy upon the Most Holy Governing Synod, give
unto them spiritual and bodily health, and be gracious in all things to
this thy ministration of the christian polity. Remember, O Lord, every
episcopate of the right-believers, that rightly divide the word of thy
truth, and every priestly and monastic order, and their salvation.
Remember, O Lord, them that hate and them that love us, our ministering
brethren here present, and them that for a blessed cause are absent and
have desired us, unworthy ones, to pray for them. Remember, O Lord, our
brethren that are in bonds and afflictions, and have mercy upon them
according to thy great mercy, delivering them from every need. For thou
art the fountain of healing, O Christ our God, and to thee we ascribe
glory, with thine unbeginning Father, and with thy most holy, and good,
and life-creating Spirit, now and ever, and to ages of ages.
_Choir._ Amen.
_Priest._ Peace to all.
_Choir._ And to thy spirit.
_Deacon._ Bow your heads to the Lord.
_Choir._ To thee, O Lord.
_And the priest secretly the prayer._
Incline thine ear, O Lord, and hearken unto us, thou who didst vouchsafe
to be baptized in Jordan, and didst hallow the waters; and do thou bless
us all, who through the bending of our necks indicate the representation
of service; and count us worthy to be filled with thy sanctification
through the partaking of this water; and may it be unto us, O Lord, for
the healing of soul and body.
_Exclamation._ For thou art our sanctification, and to thee we ascribe
glory, and thanksgiving, and worship, with thine unbeginning Father, and
with thine all-holy, and good, and life-creating Spirit, now and ever,
and to ages of ages.
_Choir._ Amen.
_Then, taking the honourable cross, he blesseth the water thrice, dipping
it and raising it perpendicularly in the form of a cross, and singing the
present troparion in tone i thrice._
O Lord, save thy people, and bless thine inheritance, granting victory to
our Right-believing EMPEROR, _name_, over enemies, and preserving thine
estate by thy cross.
_And after this they sing this troparion, tone ii._
Make us worthy of thy gifts, O God-bearing Virgin, overlooking our
iniquities, and vouchsafing cures unto them that in faith receive thy
blessing, O thou most pure.
_Then the priest kisseth the honourable cross, as also do all the people,
and he sprinkleth all with the sanctified water, and the altar, and the
whole church. And the people sing the present troparia, tone iv._
Having a fountain of remedies, O holy unmercenary ones, ye bestow
healings unto all that are in need, as being counted worthy of mighty
gifts from the ever-flowing fountain of our Saviour; for the Lord hath
said unto you, as unto co-emulators of the apostles, Behold, I have given
unto you power over unclean spirits so as to cast them out, and to heal
every sickness and every wound. Therefore in his commandments having
virtuously liv’d, freely ye receiv’d, freely ye bestow, healing the
sufferings of our souls and bodies.
Attend unto the supplications of thy servants, thou altogether undefiled
one, quelling the uprisings of evils against us, and releasing us from
every affliction; for thee we have alone a sure and certain confirmation,
and we have gained thy mediation that we may not be put to shame, O
Queen, who call upon thee, Be instant in supplication for them that
faithfully exclaim to thee, Hail, Queen, thou aid of all, the joy and
safeguard, and salvation of our souls!
Accept the prayers of thy servants, O Queen, and deliver us from every
necessity and grief.
_And, after the sprinkling, the ectenia._
Have mercy upon us, O God....
Furthermore let us pray for the preservation of this holy habitation,
and of every city and country, from famine, pestilence, earthquake,
flood, fire, sword, invasion of strangers, and civil war, that our good
and man-loving God may be gracious and favourably disposed to turn away
from us every rage that riseth against us, and to deliver us from his
impending and righteous threatening, and to have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy, _xl_.
_And the priest exclaimeth,_
Hear us, O God our Saviour, thou hope of all the ends of the earth....
_and the rest_.
_Choir._ Amen.
_Priest._ Peace to all.
_Choir._ And to thy spirit.
_Deacon._ Let us bow our heads to the Lord.
_Choir._ To thee, O Lord.
_Priest, this prayer with a loud voice._
O most merciful Master, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, through the prayers
of our all-holy Lady, the God-bearing ever-virgin Mary; through the might
of the honourable and life-effecting cross; through the intercession
of the honourable heavenly bodiless hosts; of the honourable glorious
prophet, forerunner, and baptist, John; of the holy glorious and
all-praised apostles; of the holy glorious and excellently victorious
martyrs; of our venerable and god-bearing fathers; of our fathers in
the saints, the great ecumenical doctors and divines, Basil the great,
Gregory the theologian, and John Chrysostom; of our father in the saints,
archbishop Nicolas, wonderworker of Myrlicia; of our fathers in the
saints, Peter, Alexis, Jonas, and Philip, wonderworkers of all Russia;
of the holy and righteous god-progenitors, Joakim and Anna, _and of the
holy, name, whose is the temple_, and of all thy Saints, make our prayer
acceptable unto thee; grant unto us forgiveness of our iniquities; cover
us with the shelter of thy wings; remove far from us every enemy and
adversary; give peace to our life; O Lord, have mercy upon us, and upon
thy world, and save our souls, as being good and the lover of mankind.
_Choir._ Amen.
_And the dismissal._
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_Chapter XXI._