VESPERS IN THE ORTHODOX TRADITION

The Vespers service (the first service of each liturgical day, that is a day counted from sunset to sunset) is meant to remind us of the Old Testament period, the creation of the world, the first human beings fall into sin, of their expulsion from Paradise, their repentance and prayer for salvation, the hope of mankind in accordance with the promise of God for a Saviour and ending with the fulfillment of that promise. The service begins with the opening of the Royal Doors and the silent censing of the Altar Table and the entire sanctuary so that clouds of incense fill the depths of the sanctuary. This action is one of the most profound and significant moments in all of Orthodox worship. It is an image of the movement of the Holy Spirit within the essence of the Holy Trinity. The very silence of this censing gives us an indication of the Divine eternal rest, which was from before the world existed. The silent censing represents the beginning of the creation of the world. Without form, and void, the Spirit of God was simply, silently hovering: brooding over the original material earth breathing upon it a lifecreating power. But the all-powerful, CREATING WORD of God had not yet been pronounced, or spoken it had not yet begun to echo and resound over His new Creation, calling plants and light and stars and mountains into being. The 103rd Psalm (the Proemial Psalm) describes this creation of the world by His omnipotent brooding Logos, and glorifies the wisdom of God. God brought order to the unformed, dis-ordered earth during the six days of creation, and everything became beautiful, i.e., good. (God saw that it was good, Genesis 1:10; cf. 12, 18, 21, 25 [LXX].) The 103rd Psalm also expresses the idea that even the least noticeable thing in nature holds within it the most wondrous of wonders. All the rituals and hymns at the beginning of the All-night Vigil [Vespers] reveal to us the cosmic significance of the Orthodox temple the temple that represents a true image of the structure of the world. The altar and the Holy Table represent paradise and heaven, over which the LORD reigns. The central part of the temple represents the earth and man. The clergy descend from the altar and to the faithful in much the same way that paradise was returned to man by the redeeming sacrifice of Jesus Christ. They wear shining vestments as a reminder of the Divine Light with which the garments of Christ shone on Mount Tabor. And so as Psalm 103 is chanted, the priest comes out from the sanctuary and completes the censing of the entire church and the faithful therein with the Royal Gates left open. This sacred action not only remembers the creation of the world, but also the blessed life in Paradise of the first human beings, when the Lord God Himself walked among them. The open Royal Gates both signify and remind us that at that time the gates of Paradise were open for all people. During the chanting of the verses of psalm 103, the deacon censes the entire church once more. The Royal Gates are shut immediately after the priest censes the church, as a reminder that with Adam's ancestral sin, the gates of paradise were shut to him, and he would now be a stranger to God. Now fallen man, standing before the closed gates of paradise, prays for a return to the path to God. The priest, representing the repentant Adam, steps before the closed Gates. Standing there as an image of

repentance, with head uncovered and without the resplendent phelonion in which he had celebrated the festive beginning of the service, he silently reads the seven Prayers for The Light. These prayers, composed in the 3rd/4th century, make up the most ancient part of Vespers; in them we hear man's recognition of his helplessness and his plea for direction back onto the path of truth back onto the Way of Life. It is the practice of the Church that during the reading of these Prayers for The Light candles and lamps within the temple are lit, an action that ties the faithful present today in Gods temple with their early fathers and mothers from the ancient church. The deacon now comes out from the sanctuary and also stands before the closed Royal Gates, and he intones the Great Litany asking for peace from above, and for God to send down to us from on high the peace of Heaven, that He save our souls, that He help, save and have mercy on Adam and all of His lost creatures now wandering in exile outside the Paradise for which they were made. Yet we should never forget that despite the dire consequences of his disobedience, Adam also heard God promise that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent and that the Savior someday would come into the world, and so his heart held-on to the hope of the salvation and restoration that would someday come but just the same, this was the hope for something yet to come, the hope of one standing outside of Paradise. And so for now, the doors remain closed. The censing at this time signifies the sacrifices of the Old Testament temple ritual and the prayers of the people as well, all rising in hope, along with the incense, to God. This hope is further expressed in the hymn that follows. As if in answer to the Great Ektenia (Litany), the First of Davids Psalms is sung: Blessed is the man... This psalm embodies both directi on and warning to the believer. In most churches only few verses of this psalm are chanted followed by Alleluia. In the monasteries, however, not only are all the verses chanted, but the entire first kathisma of the Psalter is sung.* This section of the vespers service, beginning with the closing of the Royal Gates, through the petitions of the Great Ectenia and the chanting of the psalms, represents the miserable state of mankind to which it was subjected by the fall of our forefathers into sin. With the fall, all the deprivations, pains and sufferings we experience came into our lives. We cry out to God, Lord, have mercy and request peace and salvation for our souls. We feel contrition for following the ungodly counsel of the Devil. God is asked for the forgiveness of our sins and our deliverance from troubles, and all hope for mercy is placed in Him. Next, the Old Testament verses of the psalms of Lord, I have cried [Psalms 140-141] are alternated with New Testament hymns composed in honor of the saint or feast of the day. In the second verse of Psalm 140, we find the words Let my prayer arise in Thy sight as incense and let the lifting up of my hands be [to Thee] as an evening sacrifice, that is to say, may my prayer ascend like smoke from the censer, and may the raising of my hands be as an evening sacrifice to Thee. This verse reminds us of that time in the ancient past when, according to the Law of Moses, in the evening of each day, a sacrifice was offered in the tabernacle, that is, in the portable temple used by the people of Israel

while they were moving from the bondage of Egypt to the Promised Land. The sacrifice was marked by the raised (uplifted) hands of the one bringing the sacrifice, and by the censing of the altar that contained the Holy Tablets of the Law, which had been received by Moses from God on the summit of Mt. Sinai. The last verse sung is called the Theotokion, or Dogmatikon, since it is sung in honor of the Mother of God, and in it is declared the dogma of the Incarnation of the Son of God from the Virgin Mary: the coming of the One, true Light into this darkened world outside of Paradise the birth of the WORD (logos)Who will speak (once again)
THE WORD OF

CREATION, and the dead will rise, Who One Who

will save His people, enlighten the darkened Gentiles, reopen Paradise for a thief and restore our fallen parents, and us with them. During the chanting of the Theotokion, the Royal Gates are again opened, and the Vespers Entrance is made. At this time the choir chants a hymn to the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ: O Gladsome Light. In the hymn, the Son of God is called the Gentle Light that comes from the Heavenly Father, because He came to this earth not in the fullness of His Divine Glory but in the gentle, quiet radiance of this glory a radiance that shone in a simple wooden manger inside a cave near Bethlehem, apparent only to those ready to see and accept it. This hymn also says that only with reverent voices, and not with sinful mouths, can He be worthily exalted and the necessary glorification accomplished. This Entrance reminds the faithful how the Old Testament righteous (in harmony with the promise of God that was revealed to them in prototypes and prophecies) lived always looking-for, expecting the coming of the Saviour, and how He appeared in the world for the salvation of the human race, in a way clearly prophesied yet still missed by nearly all. Knowing this, St. Basil the Great said: Our fathers, following the ways of the first Christians, did not wish to receive the grace of the evening light in silence; rather, considering it a most sacred moment, they offered thanks as soon as it appeared. The censer, at the Vespers Entrance, takes our prayers (by the intercession of our Lord the Saviour and from the intercessions of all the saints and angels) and offers them to God like incense. It also signifies the Presence of the Holy Spirit in the church. The blessing with it, in the sign of the Cross (made before the Royal Doors) shows that by means of the Cross the doors into Paradise will be opened again. Christ is praised as the Light Who illumines man's darkness the Light of the world and of the Kingdom of God. This is the gladsome, joyful, redeeming Light that, like the Almighty WORD, heard only in the still small voice, is seen now in the quiet light as the day gently turning into night. It further reminds us that the mere, simple presence of light is sufficient to dispel all darkness which will, indeed, be the case when the day without evening at last comes for the faithful. At this time, the prokeimenon of the day is chanted, and on the more important feasts there are readings from the Old Testament Scriptures in which there is a prophecy or a prototype which relates to the event being celebrated, or in which teachings are given, relative to the saint commemorated that particular day.

Vespers ends with the reading of the prayer of St. Simeon the God-Receiver: LORD, now lettest Thou

Thy servant depart in peace. This prayer is followed by the prayers of the Trisagion and the Lord's
Prayer, and the singing of the troparion in the tone for the day [Sunday] and/or the Feast and to the Theotokos. The Service of Vespers leads to the good and right kind of meditation on Gods word and the glorification of His unsearchable love for His Creation and His People. It instructs and allows us to praise God for the particular events or persons whose memory is celebrated and made present [that is, made alive] to us in the Church. It also prepares us for the sleep of the night and the dawn of the new day to come. On the eves of the Divine Liturgy, it begins the movement into the most perfect communion with God in the sacramental mysteries of the Divine Liturgy.
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* The Psalter was incorporated into the liturgical life of the Church in the earliest days after the Church was established. It occupies a position of great honor within Church life. St. Basil the Great, writing in the 4th century, stated: The Book of Psalms includes useful material from all of the other books of scripture. It has prophecies regarding the future, it calls to mind past events, it sets out the laws of life, and it offers rules for action. The psalms bring peace to the soul and order to the world. They give expression to the deepest emotions in the widest possible array. The Psalter quenches restless and troubling thoughts is comfort from daily toils. The psalm is the voice of the Church and it is perfect theology... Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky writes about the significance of the Psalter in Orthodox worship: Within the Church, the Psalter is, so to speak, Christianized. Here, many Old Testament concepts and expressions take on a new, more complete meaning. For this reason, the Holy Fathers and spiritual strugglers love to use the words of the Psalter that speak about defense against our enemies and express their thoughts on the battle with the enemy of our salvation and with the passions. Thus it is no surprise that the psalms take up such a large part of divine worship services. Each service begins with psalms, some with only one, others with three. An enormous number of verses from the Psalter are to be found throughout all of the liturgical cycles.