Canon in Time of Earthquake

between Mary's conception and the maternity of God: for even if in God's mind and in the foreknowledge of mysteries, the conception preceded the maternity by a span of fifteen years, the maternity is the companion of the conception, and the conception is not to be computed without the maternity; for the one who was worthily to become the Mother of God was ^C conceived straightway. Hence, the divine maternity is present with the conception of the future Mother of God, so that it might prematurely ward off and avert any affinity with sin. And not only is the divine maternity present as a companion, but also as an administrator of the Marian conception, for so great a luster of grace and glory sparkles in the most pure conception of the Mother of God, that the divine maternity, which is the matrix of all of Mary's graces, does not disdain to minister, as it were, to the purity of the conception: inasmuch as the singular and illustrious privilege of all graces, granted prematurely to the Virgin in her conception, is born majestically from the divine maternity. For grace then prematurely anticipates nature, so that she might be conceived as the worthy Mother of the Son of God. Therefore the infinite dignity and grace of the divine maternity, as it were a companion and administrator, is present ^D at the conception of the immaculate Virgin Mother of God. This from Celada. How, O chaste Virgin Mother, most dear to God, did you give birth without carnal union? How did you nourish Him who nourishes all creatures? How did He alone know, who is the Creator of the universe, and God? Who can recount your great deeds, O chaste Virgin? For you gave birth in a supernatural manner to God in the flesh; He who, through you, O most chaste Virgin, draws the whole world away from sins. After bearing child, you remained a virgin, O chaste one, for you gave birth to God, O inviolate one, who by His power renewed natures: pray to Him as a suppliant for the salvation of us all. Immaculate Virgin, most dear to God, pray diligently to your Son, that He may not overwhelm me with confusion on the day of judgment, but may count me among His elect sheep. O chaste Virgin who appeared wider than the heavens, you contained in your body God, who cannot be circumscribed; and you gave birth to the same for the redemption of all who praise you with most firm faith. ^A *From the canon for Monday after the fifth Sunday of Easter.* You are truly made the radiant vehicle of the intellectual sun, O chaste and immaculate one; through which those sitting in darkness saw the light of knowledge, calling you glorious as is your due. *From the canon for Wednesday after the same Sunday.* You gave birth to the Lord of all, O Lady immune from every stain, who took on ^B voluntary passion, and ascended to His Father, whom, however, He had not deserted, even though He had taken on flesh. Blessed was your womb made, O most pure one, for you were worthy to contain Him in an ineffable way; who miraculously emptied the womb of the underworld; Him entreat, while we praise you for our salvation. Christ, who preserved you, O Mother of God, an uncorrupted Virgin after childbirth, ascended to the Father, whom He had not left, although He had assumed from you flesh endowed with an intellectual soul, on account of His ineffable mercy. We praise, O chaste maiden, your conception; we praise your ineffable birth-giving, through which we have been liberated from corruption, and perdition, and the dark prison of hell. O wonder-filled miracle! How did you contain God, O most dear to God, who is incomprehensible? Who begged flesh from you, and with great glory today taken up into heaven, deified men? Behold your Son, O Mother of God, having despoiled death by His cross, rose on the third day; and having appeared to His disciples, He departed to heavenly places; with whom we, adoring you, praise and glorify you for all ages. Light shining from Light has arisen from you, O most clean one; and it dissipated the whole darkness of infidelity; and it shone upon those who were sleeping in the night: therefore we all, as is your due, call you blessed forever. ^D (76) For even if being without sin is a great thing, it is greater to abound in grace and virtues, and to be endowed with every perfection. Whence good angels are not distinguished among themselves by the fact that they did not contract guilt, for none of them sinned, but according to the greater or lesser grace of each, they hold a more sublime or more inferior place in that eternal beatitude. Since also the most blessed Virgin Mother of Christ is the supreme of all who live under Christ the Head, as no one will deny, and the supreme attains to the height of the supreme, it is manifest how fitting it is that the Blessed Virgin herself should be immune from every stain, as Christ is. Christ, indeed, by nature, but His Mother by privilege, so that to place the location for Christ in her was fitting. See on this matter Nierembergius in *Theoria*, § 10, not far from the beginning.

Theotocia omitted: see facsimile containing the note: "Apud Maraccium deinceps leguntur Theotocia... EDIT."

CANON IN THE DANGER OF AN EARTHQUAKE

How to be feared is thy wrath, O Lord, from which thou hast redeemed us, not having allowed our entire stature to fall to the earth; therefore, we praise thee with thanksgiving. Rejoicing in our correction daily, O Master, thou shakest the whole earth like a light leaf, in order to confirm the faithful in thy fear, O Lord. Deliver us all from the most heavy earthquake, and do not allow, O Lord, thy inheritance—which provokes thee, the long-suffering One, with many sins—to perish entirely.

*For the Mother of God.* Suppliantly we cry to thee, Mother of God; showing thy accustomed feelings of compassion toward the city and the people, set us all free from the most heavy earthquake and destruction.

^B Canticum secundum. « Videte, videte. »

The earth, shaken by thy look alone, O King of all, thou hast stricken with fear in our minds; but release, O merciful Master, thy wrath, and do not deliver thy people to complete annihilation. Who shall entreat thee for a people covered with the shame of all kinds of debts and expecting ruin at any moment? Deliver us from it, O Christ, by thy mercy. Thou hast manifested thy terror now, O Christ, by thy fearful look, having shaken the foundations of the earth; but show again, as is thy custom, O merciful One, thy mercy, lest we perish miserably.

*For the Mother of God.* Who, besides thee, O immaculate and pure One, is able to reconcile God, who is angry with us? Therefore, entreat Him, all-holy one, to cease quickly the shaking of the earth, which threatens us with destruction.

^C (1) By the earthquake occurring, souls are shaken and disturbed; the Church raises them up and strengthens them with her prayers. But among all, that one is to be remembered which happened in the time of Theodosius the Younger, and by which such a disaster impended that the citizens of Constantinople, fearing the ruin of buildings, tarried for some time in a field outside the city. Nicephorus records this, and the prayers offered at that time, in lib. XIV, cap. 46: ^D Together with the Emperor Theodosius and the Patriarch Proclus, they occupied themselves with continuous prayers, and a public supplication having been celebrated, all wept together, and from the deep and inner soul invoked the celestial mercy. In the West, however, the most noted one was that which, in the same age, gave cause to St. Mamertus, Bishop of Vienne, for renewing the pious custom of the Rogations: concerning which, Sidonius Apollinaris writes in his first epistle, book v.

CANON IN PERIL OF EARTHQUAKE

Ode III. «There is none holy as O Lord.» ^A The earth is scourged because we are evilly disposed, and are ever stirring up your wrath against us, O merciful Sovereign of all; but spare, O Master, your servants. Having shaken the earth, O Lord, you made it firm again, admonishing and converting our infirmity, wishing us, O all-good One, to be strengthened in your divine fear. Bringing forth bitter death, and most heavy earthquakes, and incurable plagues, let us, brothers, avoid the sins that generate them, and show to God the ways of repentance.

To the Theotokos. You who alone are good, earnestly beseech the all-good Word, that we may all be delivered, O spotless Theotokos, from the present wrath of the earthquake, we pray.

Ode IV. «Christ is my strength.» You shake the earth, O Lord, wishing that we all, O Master, may be confirmed on the foundation of truth, we who are shaken by the assaults of the deceitful warrior. By your divine nod you move all things, and strike the hearts of those who dwell upon the earth, O Master. ^B Calm, therefore, the waves of your just wrath, O Lord. Having no fear of you in our minds, you terrify the whole earth with your trembling, O only compassionate One; but, according to your custom, work wonders of mercy upon us.

To the Theotokos. Knowing you, O Lady, to be the temple of God, we lift up our wretched hands in your holy temple in supplication; behold our affliction, and grant us your help.

Ode V. «By your divine radiance.» And you, my heart, be shaken now, seeing the threat of God impending, and cry out: Spare your people, O Master Lord, and cease your just wrath, O compassionate One. A people and city which you acquired by your own blood, O Jesus, do not give over to destruction while you disturb the earth with a fearful earthquake; the choir of the apostles suppliants you. ^C Departing from your straight paths with a crooked mind, we provoke you, O Master, who are compassionate and oblivious of evils, to anger; but be propitious and merciful to your servants.

To the Theotokos. Now is the time for help, now is the need for reconciliation with your Son and Lord, O pure One, that He may show mercy to us who have transgressed, and deliver us from the impending wrath.

Ode VI. «The sea of life.» Having no confidence, O Master, to entreat your majesty, we, who are humble, stir up your elect angels to fervent intercession for us; through them, therefore, snatch us from your wrath. Now we have acknowledged, O Lord, that you have had mercy upon us, and… ^D

^A you have not utterly overwhelmed us beneath the earth with a grievous collapse for having offended in many ways. Therefore, we worship you with thanksgiving, O Christ. You command the foundations of the earth to be shaken, that we, the humble, may cease to be shaken from the state of higher virtues, and may be firmly established by your fear, O Word.

To the Theotokos.

Ode VII. “The dewy furnace.”

To the Theotokos.

Ode VIII. “From the flame to the saints.”

To the Theotokos.

Ode IX. “It is impossible for men to see God.”

Lord of times and seasons, with a single moment of time you had determined to destroy your servants, had you not been withheld by your great clemency. We, who are without excuse, offer you thanks, O only lover of mankind. ^A From earthquake, from the sword, from bitter capture, and from the incursion of nations, O Christ, and from collapse, and famine, and affliction, O merciful Master, deliver your city and every region that faithfully sings your praises. The earth sighs with a voiceless cry: "Why do you pollute me with many evils, all you men, while our Master, sparing you, scourges me alone? Come to your senses, and in repentance appease God."

*Theotokion.* You who did not endure the corruption of decay in bearing, O Virgin, deliver us all from death, from earthquake, and from affliction, calming the Master’s indignation by your maternal intercession, O most favored by God. ^B

LAUDATION OF THE HOLY APOSTLE BARTHOLOMEW BY JOSEPH the HUMBLE AND LEAST

1. The hilarity which this festive joy brings to our souls is the blessed Apostle Bartholomew, who, being a divine apostle and illuminated with such splendor of light and with the pure flashes of the Holy Spirit as cannot be explained in words, offers light even to us, who commemorate his holy and glorious memory. Come, therefore, praising him as much as we can with divine voices, let us take pleasure in his divine story, and with praises let us honor a man superior to any honor. Let us praise the apostle praised by God himself. Let us call him "blessed" who is always blessed. Let us celebrate the glory of him whom divine glory has exalted. Let us see who he was before, and what he became afterwards; how he, who was formerly an unlettered man and lived a life of poverty, became wise in every way and adorned with the riches of all goods; how he moved from earthly to heavenly, from the least became the greatest, and from a fisherman of fish became a fisherman of men. ^C

II. And so, when God himself, having become man, bore our body out of the bowels of his mercy, and made a choice of his disciples, he—I mean, he who foreknows all things before they come to pass—chose the most celebrated apostle Bartholomew and co-opted him as a true and faithful friend to himself. O excellence of divine vocation! O great and singular felicity! O what a master he found here, who initiated him into the greatest mysteries and made him wise! O blessed soul, worthy to be a dwelling that might dwell with God, and with God and the almighty Lord might take food, and be instructed by sacred doctrine, by prayer, and by a faculty surpassing all!

III. But later, when he saw his master nailed to the cross, buried, and, after the resurrection, ascending to the heavens, and was gifted with the gift of the most holy Spirit, just like the rest of the apostles, like some valiant soldier, armed on all sides with most powerful weapons, he rushed forth against hostile war; and while he struck the enemies themselves most powerfully, for those who were eager to come to life itself, he secured salvation. He stretched out the nets of his prayer, captured the Gentiles themselves delivered from the deep, and preserved those he had brought to life; ^D he overturned the temples of idols and erected churches of God; he renewed human hearts that had been turned to sterility with the plow of heavenly doctrine; and he cultivated them in such a way that, like fertile fields, they could bear fruit. He kindled the torch of miracles and put to flight the darkness of human affections; in whatever parts he wandered, like a certain star of justice preaching the sun, and emitting a brilliant radiance, he destroyed the shadows of deceit; and by his prayer he put to flight the demons themselves, but by his supplications he cured diseases...