Daily Vespers in the Great Fast
for
March 28, 2025
(To be prayed Thursday evening)
Our Venerable Father Hilary
the Younger. The Holy Stephen
the Wonderworker.
Propers
(Changeable Texts)
According to the
Gregorian Calendar for Pascha
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Contents
The following Vespers service of the Byzantine Daily
Office is for one’s own personal rule of prayer. If time
is short, it is preferable to say only a few prayers with
attention, rather than to attempt them all in haste and
without concentration.
Sources and Approvals
Contents compiled from approved sources
with Ecclesiastical Approbation
Based on the Common Typicon and Annual Typi-
con of Archpriest David Petras.
Changeable texts from Vespers and the Festal Me-
naion by the Order of Saint Basil the Great and
other publications of the Metropolitan Cantor In-
stitute.
Common texts and troparia from The Book of
Hours (Časoslov), English Translation according to
the First Typical Edition approved Concordat cum
Originali by +Most Rev. Kurt Burnette, Bishop of
Passaic, published by Eastern Christian Publica-
tions, 2022.
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Daily Vespers
18th Kathisma
Station 1: Psalm 119, 120, 121, 122, 123
Station 2: Psalm 124, 125, 126, 127, 128
Station 3: Psalm 129, 130, 131, 132, 133
At Psalm 140
From the Triodion
6. If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt,
Lord, who would survive?
But with you is found forgiveness:
for this we revere you.
Tone 4: Having received the privilege of venerat-
ing your blessed Cross, * by which You saved us,
O Lord, * we praise your mercy and beseech You
to grant us all the joy of your salvation.* Through
penance grant that we may behold * your holy
Passion and glorious Resurrection.
5. My soul is waiting for the Lord. I count
on his word.
My soul is longing for the Lord more
than watchman for daybreak.
Tone 4: Stretched out on the Cross, * You suf-
fered death and conquered Death; * and by your
life-giving word You have raised the dead. * I now
pray to You, O Lord: * Give life to my soul dead-
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Daily Vespers
ened by sin; * grant me compunction and deliv-
erance from my faults* in these days of the most
holy Fast.
4. Let the watchman count on daybreak
and Israel on the Lord.
Tone 4: Having received the privilege * of be-
holding and venerating your holy Cross with joy, *
we now entreat You, O God our Savior,* to enable
us to behold your holy Passion. * Strengthened
through fasting, * we bow low and praise the spear,
* the sponge and the reed of your crucifixion, *
which have delivered us from death * and returned
us to the delights of our life in Paradise. * In
thanksgiving we glorify You.
For the Venerable
3. Because with the Lord there is mercy and
fullness of redemption,
Israel indeed he will redeem from
all its iniquity.
Tone 4: Having lived your life without reproach,
* in patience, gentleness, compunction, * unfeigned
charity, self-control, night-long vigils, * faith, hope,
and compassion, * you dwelt on earth as an angel
in the body, * O blessed father Hilary: * you now
intercede for our souls before God.
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Daily Vespers
Psalm 116
2. Praise the Lord, all you nations,
acclaim him all you peoples!
Tone 4: You were a heavenly man, * an earthly
angel, O blessed father, * a source of compunc-
tion, a river of compassion, * an ocean of miracles,
a corrector of sinners, * a fertile olive tree for our
God, * making the face of the faithful * gleam
with the oil of your deeds * as they acclaim you, O
venerable father Hilary.
1. Strong is the love of the Lord for us;
he is faithful forever.
Tone 4: Your spirit, radiant with the knowledge
of God, * was raised above bodily passions, * with-
out mixing in the mire here below, * but bearing
the image of God, and reproducing the divine
beauty in it, * you did all things in order to re-
semble him completely, * through the work of the
Holy Spirit, * O splendor of monks, O venerable
father Hilary.
From the Octoechos for Friday Evening
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and
to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and forever.
Amen.
Tone 4: When the sun and the moon beheld You
hanging on the cross, O Sun of Truth, my Christ,
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Daily Vespers
they hid their rays; and the foundations of the
earth trembled with fear before Your might. Your
Mother, torn with grief, cried out: Most gracious
Jesus, glory to Your loving-kindness.
+++++++
The First Prokeimenon from the Triodion
Tone 8: Make vows to your God and fulfill them.
Verse: . God is made known in Judah; in
Israel his name is great.
The First Reading
Genesis 10:32 - 11:9
The Second Prokeimenon from the Triodion
Tone 7: I cry aloud to God, cry aloud to God that
He may hear me.
Verse: In the day of my distress I sought the
Lord.
The Second Reading
Proverbs 13:19 - 14:6
+++++++
Apostichera
From the Triodion
Tone 6: Learn this lesson from the Lord, O my
soul, * for your sake He humbled himself even to
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Daily Vespers
death on the Cross: * Exaltation humiliates but
humility exalts. * Do not become arrogant because
of your good deeds; * do not justify yourself by
judging your neighbor as did the boastful Phari-
see. * But remembering your sins with a contrite
and humble heart, * say to the Lord as did the
Publican: * Have mercy on me a sinner, O God,
have mercy on me!
To You have I lifted up my eyes, You Who
dwell in the heavens; my eyes, like the eyes
of slaves on the hand of their lords. Like the
eyes of a servant on the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes are on the Lord our God till He
show us His mercy.
Tone 6: Learn this lesson from the Lord, O my
soul, * for your sake He humbled himself even to
death on the Cross: * Exaltation humiliates but
humility exalts. * Do not become arrogant because
of your good deeds; * do not justify yourself by
judging your neighbor as did the boastful Phari-
see. * But remembering your sins with a contrite
and humble heart, * say to the Lord as did the
Publican: * Have mercy on me a sinner, O God,
have mercy on me!
Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy. We are
filled with contempt. Indeed all too full is
our soul with the scorn of the rich, with the
proud man’s disdain.
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Daily Vespers
Tone 6: Your martyrs did not reject You, * nor did
they renounce your commandments. * Through
their prayers, have mercy on us!
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to
the Holy Spirit, now and ever and forever.
Amen.
Tone 6: When your Mother beheld You crucified,
O Christ, she cried: * What strange mystery do
I see, O my Son? * How are You dying upon the
Cross, * crucified in the flesh, O Giver of life?
+++++++
Troparion
Tone 4: Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos! Mary full
of grace, the Lord is with you! Blessed are you
among women, and blessed is the fruit of your
womb. For you gave birth to Christ, the Savior
and Redeemer of our souls.
Prostration
Glory to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit:
Tone 4: O Baptizer of Christ, remember us all,
that we be delivered from our transgressions; for
you have been given grace to intercede on our
behalf.
Prostration
Now and ever and forever. Amen.
Tone 4: Pray for us, O holy apostles and all you
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Daily Vespers
saints, that we be delivered from danger and afflic-
tions, for we have you as our fervent intercessors
before the Savior.
Prostration
Tone 1: Beneath your compassion we take refuge,
O Virgin Theotokos. Despise not our prayers in
our need, but you, but deliver us from all dangers,
for you alone are pure and blessed.
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Daily Vespers
In consultation with
Very Rev. John Basarab
FOR PRIVATE USE ONLY
Compiled, Designed and Produced by
Eastern Christian Publications
Fairfax, Virginia
www.ecpubs.com
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