ON THURSDAY MORNING

AT MATINS
After the 1st Reading from the Psalter Kathismata of the Apostles.

Tone 1.

Wise Fishermen of the whole world, as you have received God’s compassion,
now intercede also for us who cry: Lord, save your people and your city, and
through your Apostles free the souls of us who are held fast by troubles.

Verse: Their sound has gone out into all the earth; and their words to the end
of the world.

When the stone had been sealed.

With the net of the word the Fishermen ruined the webs of the rhetoricians by
the rod of the Cross and enlightened the nations devoutly to glorify the true
God; and therefore we cry to you who gave them power: Glory to the Father
and the Son, glory to the consubstantial Spirit, glory to the One who through
them enlightened the world.

Glory. Both now. Theotokion.

Unburned you conceived the fire of the Godhead, and without seed you bore
the Lord, source of life, O Mother of God full of grace; save those who
magnify you.

After the 2nd Reading from the Psalter Kathismata of the Apostles.

The soldiers watching.

Let us the faithful honour with hymns the tuneful trumpets of Christ, the
horses who troubled the sea of godlessness and drew mankind as from the
deep to the inspired harbour of salvation by the grace of the Spirit.

Verse: The heavens confess your wonders, Lord; and your truth in the Church
of the Saints.
 Same melody.

The Light which outside time shone from Light, in time appeared in flesh to
those on earth, and through you, All-blest Apostles, enlightened the world;
therefore we all, enlightened by your divine teachings, honour your sacred
memory.

Verse: God is wonderful in his Saints, the God of Israel.

Of the Martyrs. Same melody.

Let us all beseech Christ’s Martyrs, for they ask for our salvation; and let us in
love approach them with faith; they possess the grace of healing; they ward
off the regiments of demons, as guardians of the Faith.

Glory. Both now. Theotokion.

Same melody.

The godly Disciples and Apostles by their inspired teachings proclaimed your
ineffable birth-giving, O Maiden, immaculate Mother of God, teaching that
you should be fittingly worshipped; but we beg you: with them ask that those
who honour you in faith may be saved.

Canon of the Holy Apostles.

Ode 1. Irmos.

Your triumphant right hand, in a manner fitting God, has been glorified in
strength, O Immortal; for in its infinite strength it broke in pieces the enemy,
and made a strange new way for the Israelites in the deep.

Troparia.

Enlightened by the divine beams of the radiance with triple sun, glorious,
godlike Apostles, you were truly gods; therefore, as is fitting, with faith we
honour you.

When, through compassion, the Word appeared on earth in the solidity of

flesh, having become by faith his best ministers and fulfillers of his
commands, O Apostles, you are ever honoured.
Revered Apostles, with the shining rays of light of the all-holy Spirit enlighten
me, wholly covered by the darkness of sins, and guide me clearly to the way
of repentance.

Theotokion.

Harmony of the Apostles, all-blameless Lady who gave birth to God, as you
are Mother of him who spoke in them in a manner fitting God, with them
intercede that I may be delivered from the fire of Gehenna.

Ode 3. Irmos.

You alone know the weakness of mortals and in compassion took its form;
gird me with power from on high, to cry to you: Holy the living temple of
your ineffable glory, O lover of mankind!

Troparia.

God. alone invisible, was seen in a body and chose you as his Disciples, all-
blessed, glorious Apostles, who to the whole world proclaim his name and his
glory beyond worlds.

To you alone I have sinned, O Christ, against you alone I have offended and
wickedly defiled my soul; in your mercy cleanse me, save me, O Jesu, alone
easily entreated, who have your wise Apostles interceding for me.

As you are compassionate, deliver me, all-praised Apostles, from the

bitterness of passions, thoughts and every sin, making my understanding
sweet by repentance, for you carry in your hearts the divine sweetness.

Theotokion.

With the immaterial Ministers, with all the Powers on high, with Martyrs and
Apostles of Christ, to whom you gave a body from your pure blood, Virgin,
did not know wedlock, implore that your servants may be saved.

Ode 4. Irmos.
Avvakoum with foreseeing eyes perceived you as a mountain overshadowed
by the grace of God, from which, he foretold, the Holy one of Israel would
come, for our salvation and refashioning.

Troubling the seas of godless unbelief by your assaults, glorious Apostles,

Horses of Christ chosen by God, you drowned the spiritual enemy and drew
to salvation those who had been drowned.

Vessels of the divine splendours of the Spirit, with the enlightenment of

repentance make radiant my soul, darkened and home to passions of many
kinds, godlike Apostles, blessed by God.

Clouds that rain down the water of life, water my soul, dried up by the
drought of the passions and make it sprout with the saving ear of virtues,
glorious Apostles.

Theotokion.

Prophets, Apostles, glorious Martyrs, with the Mother of the Redeemer,

entreat insistently that we may be redeemed from sins and eternal
punishment, from temptations, dangers and afflictions.

Ode 5. Irmos.

O Christ, who enlightened the ends of the world by the brightness of your
coming, and made them radiant by your Cross, enlighten with the light of
your divine knowledge the hearts of those who sing your praise with right
belief.

Troparia.

All-honoured Apostles, you have been revealed as mountains dropping down

sweetness and fairest joy, destroying all the bitterness of the devil and making
the faithful glad.

You recognised Christ who came as a stranger to his own, and joined
yourselves truly to him. And so rescue me from the harm of the Stranger,
godly Apostles of the Word.
Heal the secret wounds of my soul at the holy intercessions of those who
proclaimed in the world your divine coming, O Compassionate, your
sufferings and your Resurrection from the tomb.

Theotokion.

With all the Bodiless ones, Virgin Mother of God, implore God the Word to
free your servants from irrational deeds and pleasures that bring death.

Ode 6. Irmos.

The deepest abyss has surrounded us, there is none to deliver, we have been
counted as sheep for the slaughter; save your people, O God, for you are the
strength and restoration of the weak.

Troparia.

You caught the nations in spiritual nets to know the One who was made
known for the refashioning of mortals, O Apostles blessed by God.

My wretched soul, my miserable soul, my unrepentant soul, repent and cry

out to Christ: I have sinned, be merciful, O Lover of mankind, at the prayers
of the Apostles, for you are supremely good.

All-powerful Christ, who Israel of old drew waters from a rock for Israel,
dissolving my hardness, make me carry channels of tears at the prayers of the
Apostles, for are most merciful.

Theotokion.

O Virgin, entreat as Fashioner and God the One who through loving-kindness
was well pleased to be born from you, to save from temptations and disasters
those who ever hope in you.

Ode 7. Irmos.

We the faithful recognise you, O Mother of God, as a spiritual furnace; for as

he, the highly exalted, saved the three Youths, so he wholly refashioned me,
humanity, in your womb, the God of our Fathers. praised and glorified above
all.
 Troparia.

Jesus the Lord, being source of life, sent out like rivers the Disciples watering
with streams of the knowledge of God all that lies beneath the sun, and
singing: God of the Fathers, praised and highly exalted.

Carrying in their hearts a spiritual fire, the divine grace of Christ, O Disciples,
you burnt up the matter of godlessness. Therefore consume my material
passions, God of the Fathers, praised and highly exalted.

Deliver me from the punishment of the fire, O God, at the entreaties of your
Disciples, and do not cast me away from your presence, who cry out to in
repentance: God of the Fathers, praised and highly exalted.

Theotokion.

Draw me out from corrupting sins and passions, you who were born without
corruption from the Mother of God, granting incorruption to those who sing:
O God of the Fathers, praised and highly exalted.

Ode 8. Irmos.

In the furnace as in a smelter the Israelite Youths shone with the beauty of
godliness brighter than gold as they said: All you works of the Lord, bless the
Lord, praise and highly exalt him to all the ages.

Troparia.

The great Sun unfurled you as his beams into the whole inhabited world, O
Apostles, shedding light on believers who cry out: All you works of the Lord,
bless the Lord, praise and highly exalt him to all the ages.

As spiritual shepherds, as lambs of the Shepherd, as sheep of the Lamb and

God our Redeemer, O Apostles who saw God, intercede without ceasing that
I may be delivered from the spiritual wolf and from the bitter portion of the
goats.

Most miserable soul, groan and cry out to the Lord: I sinned above all others,
and I have been utterly lawless. Cleanse me, save me, like the Harlot, like the
Publican, like the Thief, O Compassionate, at the acceptable intercessions of
the Apostles.

Theotokion.

Mother of God, with Angels and with Apostles, Martyrs and prophets,
implore Christ to save those who cry: All you works of the Lord, bless the
Lord, praise and highly exalt him to all the ages.

Ode 9. Irmos.

The burning bush that was not consumed was a type of your child-bearing;
quench for us now the raging furnace of temptations we pray, O Mother of
God, that we may unceasingly magnify you.

Troparia.

Revealed as godlike and light-giving lamps of the holy Spirit, Blessed

Apostles, you enlightened the whole inhabited world with the light-giving
rays of your revered and all-wise preaching, so diminishing the darkness of
idols.

Being godly branches of the spiritual vine, glorious Apostles, you sprouted
with godly grape clusters which pour out the wine of salvation. And so rescue
me from the drunkenness of pleasures.

Wretch that I am, I tremble when I consider that fearful judgement seat of
yours, O Christ, for now I am beset with shameful and filthy deeds, and
before sentence I am condemned. And so, at the prayers of your Apostles,
take pity on me.

Theotokion.

You alone made mortals divine by bearing the Word incarnate. Implore him
with the Apostles and Martyrs, all-holy Virgin, Bride of God, for all of us who
with faith call you blessed and who honour you.

Aposticha of the Apostles.

The harmonious lyre of the Apostles, struck by the Holy Spirit, has abolished
the rites of the loathsome demons, and by proclaiming the one Lord has freed
the nations from the error of idols and taught them to worship the
consubstantial Trinity.

Joy of the heavenly hosts.

Let us together sing the praises of Peter and Paul, Luke, Matthew, Mark, John,
Andrew, Thomas, Bartholomew, Simon the Canaanite, James, Philip; and let
us fittingly praise the whole assembly of the Disciples.

Of the Martyrs

Be glad in the Lord, you Martyrs, because you have fought the good fight; you
have stood against Kings and defeated tyrants; you were not frightened by
fire and sword; when wild beasts were devouring your bodies you raised a
hymn with the Angels to Christ and received the crowns from heaven, asking
that peace be given to the world and his great mercy.

Glory. Both now. Theotokion.

Joy of the heavenly hosts.

Like the Prophets let us hymn the Virgin as golden jar of the manna, bush
unburned, table and throne, golden lampstand that holds the lamp, unhewn
mountain, ark of sanctification and gate of God.