Guard hours. Liturgical hours. Diagram of the construction of the great clock and the order of their service

Prayers that sanctify a certain time of the day; consist of three psalms, several verses and prayers, selected accordingly for each quarter of the day and for the special circumstances of the Savior's suffering. They enter the daily liturgical circle; contained in the Book of Hours.

• first hour (corresponds to 7 o'clock in the morning) - sanctifies the coming day with a prayer, recalls the expulsion from paradise of Adam and Eve and the coming of Christ at the judgment of Caiaphas. This service arose later than the other three, which were known in ancient times.
• third hour (9 o'clock in the morning) - the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles is remembered.
• sixth hour (12 hours) - the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is recalled
• ninth hour (3 pm) - the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross is recalled.

Types of watches

Everyday

The services of the hours are performed every day and are therefore called daily or ordinary services. Each hour also has an hour (inter-hour), read, as a rule, in private, and not in the temple. For the sake of convenience, the performance of the hours is combined with other divine services, namely: the 1st hour with matins, the 3rd and 6th with the liturgy, the 9th with Vespers (among the Old Believers, the 9th hour is read before the liturgy, after the 6th hour, and the hour of the 9th hour is connected with the evening).

Chin of daily hours: blessing, usual beginning, three psalms ( 1st hour: 5, 89, 100; 3rd hour: 16, 24, ; 6th hour: 53, 54, ; 9th hour: 83, 84, 85)

Lent

Lent hours are performed on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday throughout Holy Forty days, on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week, on Wednesday and Friday of Cheese Week (if these days of Cheese Week do not coincide with the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord or with a temple holiday).

The service of hours, performed during Great Lent, has its own characteristics in comparison with the daily hours.

1. At every hour after the reading of the three prescribed psalms, an ordinary kathisma is read (except for Mondays and Fridays at the first hour and Fridays at the ninth hour; the kathisma is also not read at the first and ninth hours on Great Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday).
2. At each hour, the guard troparion of the hour is sung three times, with prostrations to the ground.
3. At the sixth hour, the reading of the parimia is supposed.
4. At the end of each hour, there is a prayer of Saint Ephraim the Syrian “ Lord and Master of my belly ...”, With great (earthly) bows.
5. The third, sixth and ninth hours are performed together before the pictorial ones.

Tsarist

In contrast to the daily and Lenten hours, they do not go back to monastic services, but to the "chanting succession" underlying the Rule of the great church of St. Sophia in Constantinople, at the services of which the emperor of Byzantium was present.

They are performed on the eve of the holidays of Christmas and Epiphany, on the so-called Christmas Eve (January 6 and January 18), and are dedicated to these sacred events, as well as on Good Friday - for the sake of the Passion of the Lord. The Psalms for the Royal Hours are not psalms that are read behind the daily hours, but they are special for each of the three days when these hours are read. In addition to the psalms, at every hour (and they are performed in a row, from the first to the ninth), a paremia is read - a passage from the Old Testament containing a prophecy about a day to be remembered, a text from the Apostle and the Gospel. In addition, special troparia are sung.

The succession of the Royal Hours is contained not in the Book of Hours, but in the Menaion for services on Christmas and Epiphany Eve and in the Lenten Triodion for the hours of Great Friday.

If any of the Christmas Eves falls on a Saturday or Sunday, then the royal hours are transferred to the previous Friday, and there is no liturgy on that day.

Easter

In Catholicism

The concept of "hours" in Catholic practice includes, in addition to the 1st (canceled after the Second Vatican Council as having a later origin), 3rd, 6th and 9th hours, as well as the rest of the daily cycle - Vespers, Compline, " praises "(approximately corresponding to the Orthodox midwife, at present - matins), matins (at the present time - the" hour of readings "which has no time reference). Both are usually read as a private prayer rule, in parish churches they are practically never performed. At the same time, in practice, instead of the third, sixth and ninth hours, one is most often chosen (corresponding to the real time of day at which it is read), which is commonly called the "daytime".

January 4, 2013 In the Narva Voskresensky Cathedral, the bishop of Narva and Chud Lazar followed the Royal Hours.

His Grace was co-served by the clergy of the Cathedral.

reference

THE GREAT HOURS

The great clock is a combination of all four clocks in one service with the addition of the rank of pictorial ones. The great hours include prokeimenes, apostolic and evangelical readings with a paremia in front of them, as well as special troparia and two psalms each timed specifically for the holiday.

The name of the "royal" great clock received only in Russia - in the ancient Typicons they do not have such a name. This name was given to the "royal" clock because, according to the existing tradition, during their performance they were necessarily present: in ancient Byzantium - emperors, and in Russia - tsars. More correct and in agreement with the ancient Typicons is the naming of the great clock.

At 1 o'clock, only the 5th psalm remains from the usual psalms. A special Psalm 44 depicts the beauty and majesty of the Messiah, and Psalm 45 depicts God's salutary intercession of His city. The stichera depict the preparation of Bethlehem for the great event that is to take place in it, and the confusion of the righteous Joseph at the sight of the Blessed Virgin not idle. The prokeimenon for 1 hour speaks of the eternal adoption and the endowment of the power of the Messiah (Ps. 2: 7-8). The Apostle tells about the greatness and superiority of the Son of God over the Angels (Heb. 1: 1-10), the Gospel - about the circumstances immediately preceding the Nativity of Christ, and the very event of Christmas (Matthew 1: 18-25).

At 3 o'clock, Psalm 50 is joined by Psalm 66, depicting the coming salvation of all who knew God, and Psalm 86 - about the glory of Zion, imparted to him by the appearance of the Messiah in it. The first two stichera depict the humiliation that the Son of God took upon Himself through His birth on earth; in the last stichera, as a continuation of the stichera of 1 hour, it is said about how righteous Joseph overcame by faith his bewilderment regarding the non-celebration of his holy betrothed. Prokeimenon speaks of the very birth of the Messiah (Ps. 9, 6). Paremia announces the prophecy of the manifestation of God on earth (Var. 3.36-39). The Apostle tells about the coming of faith, about adoption by faith in God and about union with Christ (Gal. 3: 23-29). The Gospel contains a more detailed story than in the first hour about the event of Christmas itself (Luke 2, 1-9).

At 6 o'clock, Psalm 90 is left, to which the following psalms are added: 71 - depicting the Messiah as the Eternal King, His royal dignity will be recognized by the pagan nations (prophecy about the worship of the Magi), and Psalm 131, depicting God's favor to the family of David, which will be expressed in the preservation of the throne for him forever and in the election of Zion for God's stay. The stichera call on the entire universe to receive a worthy acceptance of the coming Lord. Prokeimenon - about the pre-eternal birth of the Messiah and His graying at the right hand of God (Psalm 109: 3). Paremia - Isaiah's prophecy about the birth of the Messiah from the Virgin (Isa. 7, 10-16; 8, 1-5; 8-10); The Apostle - about the pre-eternity of the Son of God (Heb. 1.10-2.3). The Gospel continues the description of the circumstances of the birth of the Savior, telling about the adoration of the Magi (Matt. 2: 1-12).

At 9 o'clock, Psalms 109 and 110 are added to the 85th psalm. The first of them depicts the eternal birth of the Messiah, His sitting at the right hand of God and priestly dignity, in the other - the deliverance of His people by God and the conclusion of the Covenant with them.

The first stichera describes the grief of mothers after the killing of babies by Herod; the second contains the answer of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Joseph's bewilderment about Her non-idleness. In the third concluding stichera, the event of the Nativity is illuminated in the light of the exhaustion of Christ revealed in it. The stichera ends with a call to the worship of Christmas and a prayer for the coming Epiphany. Prokemen points to the spiritual many children of Zion (Psalm 86: 5). Paremiah presents a comprehensive picture of the Messiah's ministry, for it was determined by His sonship to God (Isaiah 9: 6-7). The Apostle tells about the main goal of the incarnation of the Son of God - His high priestly ministry (Heb. 2: 11-18). The Gospel, like the Apostle, speaks of the beating of infants, which was a foreshadowing of the suffering and death of the “Infant Mary” (Matthew 2: 13-23).

SCHEME OF THE GREAT HOURS CONSTRUCTION AND THE ORDER OF THEIR SERVICE

Each of the Great Hours (1, 3, 6 and 9) has the following construction:

1. Three psalms. Of the psalms usual for a given hour, only one is preserved, the other two are replaced by psalms specially dedicated to the celebrated event.

2. At the usual place for "Glory" the troparion of the forefeast is sung "Sometimes I wrote with Elder Joseph." On "And now" reads the constant Mother of God of the hour.

3. Before the Trisagion three stichera are sung (twice), dedicated to the holiday. Then it reads: prokeimen, paremia, Apostle, Gospel.

4. After the Gospel, the Trisagion is read according to "Our Father" and so on in order, as on an ordinary clock.

The great hours end with the rite of pictorial ones, which can be performed instead of the Liturgy. Therefore, the succession of the pictorial ones, as if depicting the Liturgy with their prayers and chants, is also called the "Liturgy" in the liturgical books.

The rite of the iconic ones has a different ending on the great clock, depending on whether the Liturgy is celebrated on that day or not.

If on this day the Liturgy is served together with Vespers, then the Symbol of Faith, Psalm 33 (“I will bless the Lord for all time”) is not read on the pictorial ones, “Be the Name of the Lord” is not sung, because all this happens at the Liturgy.

COMPARATIVE DIAGRAM OF FINE

If there is no Liturgy: Reader: after the 9th hour prayer reads ps. 102: "Bless, my soul, the Lord." "Glory" - ps. 145: "Praise, my soul, the Lord." And now: "Only Begotten Son", "In Thy Kingdom."	If there is a Liturgy: Reader: The same.
Reader: "Heavenly Face".	Reader: The same.
"Glory": the same. “And now”: Creed; "Loosen up, leave." Prayer: "All-Holy Trinity". Chorus: "Be the name of the Lord." Reader: "Glory, and now."	The Creed is not readable. Reader: "And now": "Loosen up, leave": According to Our Father: the kontakion of the forefeast. Prayer: "All-Holy Trinity" Not sung. Not readable.
Ps. 33: "I will bless the Lord at all times." Priest: Wisdom. Chorus: “It is worthy” (before “and the Mother of our God”). Chorus: Finishes The Most Honorable Cherub. And there is a small day's release	Priest: Wisdom. Chorus: "It is worthy to eat." Priest: "Most Holy Theotokos, save us." Chorus: "The Most Honorable Cherub". Priest: "Glory to Thee, Christ God." And there is a small day's release.

ORDER FOR READING THE CLOCK

The priest puts on an epitrachelion and a rug for carrying the Holy Gospel, then - in a phelonion; the deacon puts on the surplice. The lectern is delivered in advance in the middle of the church, opposite the royal gates.

The priest preceding the deacon leaves the altar through the royal doors, holding the Holy Gospel in his hands, the deacon - a censer and a candle. The priest places the Holy Gospel on the lectern and creates the beginning according to custom. In front of the analogue, on which the Gospel lies, a candlestick with a burning candle or a lamp is placed.

The reader in the middle of the church after the exclamation of the priest begins 1 hour: “Amen. Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee. " After the exclamation “For Thy is the Kingdom,” the priest, preceding the deacon with a candle, performs a complete censing: he censes the Holy Gospel, the altar, the iconostasis, the entire temple and the people.

At 3 and 6 o'clock, before the reading of the Gospel, the deacon burns around the lectern, censes the iconostasis, the primate, the clergy and all those praying.

At 9 o'clock, the priest, preceding the deacon, performs a complete censing of the entire church, as in the first hour (according to the Rule, one deacon is instructed to cense the entire church).

After the reading of the Holy Gospel at 9 o'clock, the priest preceding the deacon with a candle takes the Gospel to the altar; the deacon closes the royal doors and closes them with a veil before the start of the pictorial. At the end of the pictorial, when singing “It is worthy to eat,” the royal gates are opened, and the priest makes a release (after the release, the royal gates are closed again).

1. A great asset of the three greatest holidays of the liturgical year - the service of the Great (otherwise - Royal) Hours. They are performed, as you know, on Great Friday of the Passion of the Lord, on Christmas Day and on the eve of the Holy Epiphany. These sorrowful days, the days of Divine humiliation - kenosis, accompanied by the strictest fasting, are directed not so much to the penitential experience of the sacred remembered events, as to the actual communion of the faithful with the Lord - in liturgical - and therefore real - the meeting of heaven and earth, eternity and time. This kind of communion, in principle, is laid down both in the very idea of \u200b\u200ba spiritual holiday (“The seventh day - to the Lord thy God”), and in the Eucharistic sense, for what, if not participation in the Sacrament of the Sacraments - communion - reveals a holiday to us in its possible fullness? We are also talking about the special atmosphere of the great days, when the temporal clearly fades, almost disappears, giving way to the eternal, once accomplished. Such services are expected for a whole year, we try to prepare ourselves for them, so that with the ear of feasible humility we can again hear what was once heard, and if the Lord willing, then what was not heard before. How bitter it can be to observe that it is precisely these services filled with great meanings that are either scarce in worship, or, even worse, completely omit.

If we consider the three services of the Royal Hours together, then we will notice, first of all, a certain hierarchy of holidays following the days of these services. It is there: Easter - Christmas - Baptism. The sorrow of the land of the preceding days is dissolved by the joy of the sky of the festive days. The fuller the joy of the holiday, the deeper the sorrow of that great day when we celebrate the Royal Hours. In the center of earthly pain on Good Friday is the Lord Himself. On the eve of Christmas, the divine service testifies to us of the Birthing Virgin, Who “is not a single dwelling place” ...

On the eve of the appearance of God to John on the Jordan River, a great abyss of human sin opens to the Forerunner and the Baptist, calling, according to the psalmist, the abyss of Trinitarian philanthropy ... This is how the mental small Deesis of the Royal Hours is composed: in the center is the Lord Jesus, and the forthcoming ones are the Mother of God and the Baptist John ...

The Lenten Triode testifies to the Hours of Great Friday as the creation of St. Cyril of Alexandria. We are not surprised, because such a height of perception of the sacred texts of Scripture could only be shown by a truly great pillar of the Church and, which is typical, by a representative of the Alexandrian school of theology, who sees the mysterious behind the literal, the hidden and sublime for the ordinary and familiar. And in the image of this, the central of the three services under consideration, the other two deesis incline to it and in their measure reveal to us the wondrous secret of the worship of heaven - Divine indulgence.

2. The structure of the service hours is well known. The Great Hours, by introducing several important additions to this rite, in fact fundamentally change the main intonation of the usual readings of the first, third, sixth and ninth hours. The mentioned additions are as follows: 1. Stanza; 2. After the stichera - prokimen; 3. Paremia; 4. Reading from the Apostle; 5. Reading the Gospel. This entire block is sung and recited after the Mother of God. There are other notable changes that give this worship a special flavor. This is, firstly, a special selection of psalms (only a few - one at each hour - remain in place). Then the ringing and burning incense draws attention, imparting a solemn character to the service. Note also that on Good Friday the troparia on the Clock change, but on Christmas Eve this does not happen (as for the kontakions, they are unchanged in all three cases). However, these are details, and we will talk about them later. But the main thing here, as it seems to us, is a special emphasis on the texts of Holy Scripture (not excluding the psalms, which, in the ordinary reading of the hours, rather give the mood for prayer, and when singing the Great Ones - with amazing power, not even figuratively, but really - in liturgical "day" - reveal what is remembered as happening). Therefore, in all three rituals under consideration, the liturgical time, determined by the ordinal number of the hour and, accordingly, by its constituent texts, on the one hand, and what is truly "now" happening, on the other hand, is surprisingly accurate (this is especially true of the main, Great Friday hours ). Now let's turn to how the above-mentioned principles of the construction of the Royal Hours are reflected in the specific texts of these services.

3. Let's start with the “Legend of the Hours of the Holy and Great Heel”. To what was noted about the liturgical "day" in this rite, one can also add an observation about every text of Scripture read in the Great days. This refers to the sound of these texts from the First Person, that is, from the Lord Himself. The Psalms of the Royal Hours in this perception have a special place. This is not so much the testimony of the Eternal God about the events foreseen by Him and through the prophets announced to the world - as the personal prayers of Christ to the Father. These are, firstly, prayers before the judgment of the world, and in fact - over the world, when the prince of this world will be exiled (John 12:31). In accordance with the order of the liturgical time, this topic is revealed in the psalms of the first hour (it is clear what is connected here and in the future with the completely non-arbitrary introduction of additional capital letters into the sacred text): in the morning hear My voice ... My enemy, for the sake of you, correct My way before You. As if they were at the mouth of their truth, their heart was vain, their throat was opened, their tongues were flattering. Judge them, God, let them fall away from their thoughts (Ps 5: 4,9-11), - and again: How are the tongues wandering, and people have learned in vain? The king of the zemstvo appeared, and the princes gathered together on the Lord and on His Christ (Ps 2: 1-2). And further, in the last psalm of the first hour, where already the most important place is occupied by the words about the Savior's terribly approaching sufferings on the Cross, about the torments of God-forsakenness, the theme of preparing the Eternal Judge for the judgment that has to expel the prince of this world is still heard: God, My God, look at Mi, you have left Me ... I am a worm, and not a man, vilification of people and humiliation of people ... Everyday Me, the little ones, the fat youths won Me. Opening your mouth on Me, like a lion, rapture and roar ... When all my bones are consumed ... You, Lord, do not remove Your help from Me, take My intercession. Deliver my soul from arms (Ps 21: 1-20). Further - stichera. The central of them in meaning - on “Glory and now” - also focuses our attention on the events preceding the Cross and death, and here is the same judgment on the servants of the world-ruler of darkness: “Whoever eats you unlawful, enduring, you have cried out, Lord: if and strive for the Shepherd, and squander two and ten sheep, my disciples, I can better than two ten legions represent the Angels. But I will be longsuffering, that it may be fulfilled, even that My prophets have revealed to you, unknown and secret: Lord, glory to Thee. " The paremia from the prophet Zechariah continues the same theme of the events preceding the Cross, as if explicitly describing and explaining the story of Judas' betrayal and despair: ... you set my bribe thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord speaks to Me: put me in the furnace, and see, if it is tempted to eat, in the same way I would be tempted about them. And I received thirty pieces of silver and put them into the temple of the Lord in the furnace (Zech 11: 12-13). The prophetic word about the voluntariness of the sufferings of Christ is amazingly testifying here. He humbles himself to the point of attributing what Judas and the chief priests with pieces of silver did to Himself (it is clear that the Lord Jesus Himself stands behind the image of the prophet). About the same and more - about the sins of the whole world, which Christ takes upon Himself - the prokeimenon preceding the paremias: "His heart has gathered iniquity to Himself." But the apostolic reading from the Epistle to the Galatians is addressed exclusively to the glory of the Cross and our communion with Christ Crucified (Gal 6: 14-18). This prepares us to listen to Matthew's Gospel of the Passion (Matthew 27). It must be said that all Evangelists are represented in the readings of the Royal Hours of Good Friday, for, unlike many other important events of the Lord's earthly life, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John write about the most important - Passion and Resurrection. By the way, we will hear from Matthew about the initial blasphemy of both crucified robbers (Luke will tell about the subsequent repentance of one of them, but this is at the sixth hour). At the first hour, again, as in the 21st Psalm, we will hear the prayer of God forsakenness, but this time directly from the Gospel: Or, Or, lima sawahfani (Mt 27:46). And in this repetition - evidence of reality: what was there and then, is revealed in liturgical service to us here and now. Now - when the first hour of the Passion has passed ...

The third hour is coming, the hour of the judgment of men over God, returning, as it is said, the judgment of this world. About this - selected psalms: Judge, O Lord, those who offend Me, conquer the struggling Me ... let them be ashamed and ashamed of those who seek My soul: let the evil Mi who thinks return and be ashamed ... who remain on Me as a witness of unrighteousness ... tempting Me, imitating Me by imitation, and gnashing their teeth on Me ... Shame together with those who rejoice in My evil ... may the Lord be exalted, wanting peace for His Servant(Ps 34: 1-27). And further: Like the mouth of a sinner, and the mouth of a flattering one opened against Me, the verb in Me with a flattering tongue, and hated words hated me ... instead of a hedgehog to love Me, a slander Me, I pray. And put evil on Me for good, and hatred for My love (Ps 108: 3-5). The same 108th Psalm utters the verdict-curse before others to Judas, but to the entire congregation, which soon, after being torn apart by the veil, will be deprived of Divine grace: “Let the devil become at his right hand ... always judge him, let him go out condemned, and let his prayer be into sin ... may his days be mali, and may his bishopric take in ”. In the last words, which came true by the imminent suicide of the traitor and later by the lot of Matthias the Apostle, there is, I think, a different meaning, addressed to the Old Testament Church, the “episcopacy” of which is accepted by the New Testament Church, Christ. And then we hear Psalm 50, a bottomless repository of spiritual meanings ...

The Lord's taking upon Himself the sins of the whole world, the judgment of the sin of the One Sinless One, “who made our sins the torment of His Pure Conscience” (words of the Holy Martyr John Artobolevsky) is the main theme of the psalm, and it sounds from the First Person: Have mercy on me, God and so on, well known. But David's and our words of repentance are now spoken by He, who has outlived ours as His (Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh), Born seedlessly, gives Himself for those who confess: in sins give birth to me my mother... And in this intertwining of His victorious sacrifice over sin and our repentance is salvation for the faithful who partake of Him. And almost the first consolation on the great day of mourning we hear the words of this originally Christ's prayer: May the walls of Jerusalem be built (Ps 50:20). Yes, the sacrifice of righteousness on the cross will rebuild in heaven the city of the Great King, the heavenly and most beautiful Jerusalem ... The singing of the troparion of the hour returns to the judgment of Christ and its saving meaning for us: “Lord, condemning Thee to the death of the Jew, the Life of all ... but by will you endured, let us free us from the work of the enemy, Christ God, glory to Thee. " And then - stichera. They are dedicated to the events of the “formerly honest cross” - the denial of Peter, the desecration of the Lord by the Roman soldiers, the way of the cross - via dolorosa. The reality of the great and terrible minutes is completely palpable: we see and refer to ourselves, and stand, and accompany the Christ drawn to the cross: “For fear for the sake of the Jews, Thy friend and neighbor Peter denied Thee, O Lord, and, weeping, crying out to my face: do not shut up my tears So you will keep the faith, Generous, and will not keep it: also accept our repentance and have mercy on us. " The time is coming for the Scripture readings. Prokimen clearly sounds from the lips of the Lamb voluntarily going to the slaughter: "For I am ready for wounds, and My illness is before Me." And Isaiah's prophecy just as clearly testifies about the judgments taking place during these liturgical minutes, as it is said - human and God's:

The Lord gives Me the language of teaching, hedgehog to understand, whenever it is appropriate to cut the word: put My morning in the morning, put My ear, hedgehog to hear, and the punishment of the Lord opens My ears, but I do not resist, nor against the verb. My splashes in the wounds for the wounds, and cuddle Mine for the hammering, but have not turned my face away from the flock of spitting ... And who judge with Me? May he draw near to Me ... behold, you all give rise to fire and strengthen the flame ... you will have time in sorrow (Is 50: 4-6,8,11).

The Apostolic Epistle, as in the first hour, goes beyond the liturgical time and, as if with a single thought, addresses the meaning of the sacrifice made by the Lord, and prepares us again, so that we “hear the Holy Gospel”: Christ to us who are weak, in time will die for the wicked ... If you oppose God who was reconciled with the death of His Son, much more that we who are reconciled will be saved in His belly (Rom 5: 6-10). And at the end of the reading from the Apostle - again the comforting message - the word about salvation. The Gospel fragment of the third hour - from Mark - is much shorter than Matfeyev. For the first hour is the very beginning, early in the morning, and by the third hour the time has decreased somewhat, and the number of events described is less. But here, too, let us listen to the details, and this enumeration of the myrrh-bearing wives, which is named at the end, seems to last in eternity, in the Book of Life, by all the true disciples of Christ from time immemorial ...

The bell strikes six times - this is the Midday of Passion that darkened the sun. And again, our first attention is to the psalms. They are shorter than on the previous hours, but they simply and clearly testify that our salvation is taking place at Calvary. From all mankind - Christ's prayer to the Father: God, in Thy name save Me ... the fortresses and seek out My soul ... Consume them with Thy truth ... for you have delivered Me from all sorrow, and My eye beholds my enemies (Ps 53: 3,5,7,9). And then - the Crucifixion - in front of the psalmist's gaze: from a person of unrighteousness, please me, those who think of the comma of my foot, - and a solar eclipse too: Lord, Lord, the power of my salvation, you overshadowed my head on the day of battle, - and victory is not far off: Know how the Lord will create judgment on the poor and revenge on the poor (Ps 139: 4,8,13). The usual sixth hour of the 90th Psalm brings to the world from the Heavenly Father the message of victory over hell: Don't be scared of ... the midday demon. Thousands will fall from your land, and tma at your right hand ... step on the asp and basilisk, and cross the lion and the serpent ... with Him I am in sorrow ... I will show Him my salvation(vv. 5-7,13-16). The next troparion of the hour is the grateful answer of the Church to Her Divine Founder: “You have made salvation in the midst of the earth, Christ God, on the Cross you stretched out your most pure hand, gathering all the tongues, calling: Lord, glory to Thee”. The stichera and verses to them are here - a song of love filled with tears of repentance for everything to the Conqueror of death: “This saith the Lord as a Jew: My people, what have I done to you? Or why are you cold? Your blind ones, your cleansing lepers, you have raised your husband on your bed. My people, what have I done to you? Or what will you reward Me? For manna, bile, for water, oset: for a hedgehog to love Me, to nail Me to the Cross. To whom I hate nothing else, I will call My tongues, and they will glorify Me with the Father and the Spirit, and I will give them an eternal belly ”, and further:“ Give me gall for my food and give Me ozta for my thirst ... The law-governors of Israel, the Jew and the Pharisee, the apostolic face cries out to you: behold the Temple, for whom you will destroy: behold the Lamb, for whom you crucified, you will betray the grave: but you are risen to His power. Do not flatter, Jew: There is such a thing, Who is saved in the sea and in the desert. That is the Belly, and the Light, and the World are world. " Ahead is one of the most important readings of the Royal Hours - the prophecy of the Old Testament Evangelist Isaiah about the Child of the Lord suffering for the sins of the world. Preparing to accept this, the Church in sacred trembling exclaims the prokeimenon: "Our Lord, our Lord, as your name is wonderful throughout all the earth," and the verse: "As your splendor is above heaven." There are texts from which everything in the world can be forgotten, which cannot be reduced, to which there is nothing to add, they must be listened to and heard. Let us also listen, let us hear:

This is how the Lord says:… behold, My child will understand, and he will be exalted and glorified exceedingly. As many will be terrified of You, so Your appearance will be rendered undesirable from man, and Your glory from the sons of men. Thus, the tongues of the people will be amazed about Him, and the king will block their lips: as if they do not rise up about Him, they will see, and if they do not hear, they will understand. Lord, who has faith in our hearing? And to whom was the arm of the Lord revealed? By proclaiming, as if Serving before him, as a root in a thirsty earth, there is no sight to Him, below glory: and by seeing Him, and not the name of the sight, nor kindness. But His appearance is dishonorable, diminished more than all the sons of men: a man in an ulcer and known to endure an illness, as if turned away from His Face, was dishonorable, and was not imputed. This one bears our sins, and hurts about us, and we are imputed to Him to be in labor and in an ulcer from God and in anger. The same ulcer was fast for our sins and was tortured for our iniquity, the punishment of our peace on Him, with His ulcer we are healed. All like sheep are lost: man from his way, get lost, and the Lord gave up His sin for our sake. And the One, who was bitter by the time, and does not open His mouth: as the sheep is led to slaughter, and as the lamb is silent before the one who shears Him, so it does not open His mouth. In His humility, His judgment will be taken, but who is His generation to confess? As if His belly would be taken from the earth, for the sake of the iniquities of My people, He was led to death. And I will give the wicked one instead of His burial, and the rich one instead of His death: as you do not do iniquity, below will be found flattery in His mouth. And the Lord wants to cleanse Him from the plague: if it is given about sin, your soul will see a long-living seed. And the Lord wants with His hand to take away the disease from His soul, show Him the light and create with reason, justify the righteous good by serving many, and You will bear their sins. For this, for the sake of That, he will inherit many and share the strong, His soul was betrayed to death, and imputed with the wicked, and You bore the sins of many, and for their iniquity was betrayed. Rejoice, non-fruitful, shouting and crying, not revolting, as many empty children are more than one who has a husband (Is 52: 13–54: 1).

The time for the apostolic reading is coming. It again makes us understand the meaning of the great things that are happening - by the Calvary Sacrifice we gain kinship with God and - there is no fear of the faithful, unless: let us not offend His Love: Before the children have partaken of flesh and blood, and the One sincerely partakes of the same, may death abolish the possessing power of death, that is, the devil ... in the hedgehog to cleanse the sins of men. In a little more suffering, he himself was tempted, maybe the tempted help (Heb. 2: 14,17-18). And then - very briefly - the Gospel of Luke about the repentance of the prudent one, and it echoes in your robber's soul: “Remember us, Savior, in Your Kingdom” ...

The ninth hour ... The Lord dies on the Cross, descends in body into the grave, in soul into hell. Complete censing of the temple ... We listen to the psalms. They are about the terrible and mysterious victory of God taking place in the depths of hell: Save Me, O God, as if you have entered the water to my soul ... come to the depths of the sea ... as for thee for the sake of those who have endured reproach ... do not turn Thy Face away from Thy Child, for I am grieving, soon hear Me. Take in my soul, and deliver you ... your salvation, O God, may he take me in ... God will save Zion ... and those who love your name will dwell in him (Ps 68). And then: O Lord, my help ... may all who seek You, O God, rejoice and rejoice in You, O God ... Thou art my deliverer, O Lord, do not obey (Ps 69: 2,5-6). And finally - psalm 85 - the high priestly testimony prayer:

... Thy mercy is great on Me, and thou hast delivered My soul from the hell of the underworld. God, the law-breakers have rebelled against Me, and the host of the sovereigns have sought my soul, and have not offered it to you before you. And Thou, O Lord my God, generous and merciful, long-suffering and many-merciful and true, look at Me and have mercy on Me, give Thy power to Thy Servant and save the Son of Thy Servant. Work with Me a sign for good, and let them see those who hate Me, and be ashamed: for you, Lord, helped Me and comforted Me (vv. 13-17).

Here, as we see, the Mother-Servant of God is mentioned - and for the sake of Her Son and God - salvation for us. Meanwhile from the sixth hour, tma spread all over the earth until the ninth hour (Mt 27:45). And the troparion and stichera now - about this, and more - about our hope: “Seeing the robber of the Head of Life hanging on the Cross, say: if God were not incarnate, Who crucified with us, if the sun (its own) rays would not have hidden, lower the earth shook trembling. But bear with all, remember me, Lord, in Thy Kingdom ”, - and further:“ You can see the Creator hanging on the Cross with horror and the earth, the sun is darkened, the day is packed into the night, and the earth from the graves sends the bodies of the dead: with them we worship you, save us ”. And then “in the middle of the church” we sing the great lamentation and hope of the Great Day: “This day it hangs on a tree, Hanging the earth on the waters: a crown of thorns is imposed on, Like the angels the King: he will put on a false purple robe, clothe the sky with clouds: choking is pleasant, Like in the Jordan free Adam: nail the Bridegroom of the Church: the Son of the Virgin is made a copy. We worship Thy Passion, Christ. We worship Thy Passion, Christ. We worship Thy Passion, Christ. Show us your glorious Resurrection. " Let's pay attention in this perfect text to the roll call with the holidays of Christmas and Epiphany (Son of the Virgin, free Adam in Jordan). Thus, the Cross fulfills the kenotic path of the Son of God from incarnation and baptism to Golgotha \u200b\u200band the depths of hell - only to find you, Adam. It seems that now everything should be silent. Yes, be silent to hear His cry, to heed His hope. This is in the prophecy of Jeremiah:

Lord, tell Me, and I will understand: then I will see their undertakings. But I, as if the lamb was gently led to slaughter, did not understand, as if thinking of me was a wicked thought, saying: come and put a tree in His bread and we will destroy Him from the land of the living, and let His name not be remembered to that, -

what, as if the path of the wicked is ripening, having taken hold of all the creation of iniquity? .. Thou hast planted them, and rooted, Thou didst create children and create fruit: near Thou art their mouth, far from their womb ... wickedness of those living on it? .. The shepherd has corrupted my grapes, defiled my part, give the part that I desire into the impassable wilderness ... and it will be ... I will turn and have mercy on them, and I will give them some possession and sometime into my land (Jer 11:18 –12: 15).

How not to respond to what you have heard, how to depart from such a God by deed, word, thought? .. And the Apostle warns the strictest:

Let us approach with a true heart ... let us keep the confession of hope unswerving: there is a promise that is faithful ... by the will of God, we sinners by accepting the mind of the truth, to whom no sacrifice is found for sin. Fearful is a certain hope of judgment and fire, jealousy, to eat someone who wants to resist ... a pot will be worthy of torment, who is like the Son of God, and having taken away the blood of the coveted filth, it will be sanctified by it, and reproached the Spirit of grace. Vemy bo Rekshago: Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord ... it is terrible to eat a hedgehog in the hand of the Living God (Heb. 10: 22–31).

And again - the Passionate Gospel, now according to John, and, like Matthew, - from the morning hours. After this reading - about the coming to the Cross of the Mother of God and the beloved disciple, after having sounded from the purest lips: "You are perfect," we take the Book of Divine and Perfect Human Life to the altar and sing with grateful lips and hearts, as in the previous hours, such a short and so much containing a kontakion of Passion: “For us for the Crucified, come, let us all remember. Mary's sight on the tree and the verb: if you endure the crucifixion, you are the Son and My God ”. We fulfill the Hours by reading pictorial ones, tremblingly blessing (Ps 102) and praising (Ps 134) the Lord, bringing to every commandment of blessedness he heard from Him and before our eyes a robber prudent voice: "Remember us, Lord, in Thy Kingdom." And, wounded by the heart, we kiss the ulcers of the purest Feet and - we remain in the terrible and saving silence of Easter of the Crucifixion ...

* * *

4. On Christmas Eve, as a rule, in the morning, the Royal Hours are celebrated, in which the gradual entry of the Church into the Feast is clearly traced. This is heard both in the selected three psalmies of every hour, and in the stichera sung here, and in the Old Testament prophecies about Christmas, and in the apostolic readings - these solemn hours acquire their full meaning in the Gospel narratives about the sacred event of the Feast. And with a cursory glance at the order of the texts, we see that the psalms that are unchanged for the Royal Hours, as on Good Friday, are the same: the 5th at the first hour, the 50th at the third, 90th at the sixth and 85th at the ninth ... They only sound in the spirit of another day, another sacred memory-reality. This is revealed in a single and wonderful troparion of all hours and the Vigil: “Writing sometimes with Elder Joseph, / like from the seed of David, in Bethlehem, Maryam, / a seedless Birth. / Nasta is the time of Christmas, / and there is no place for a dwelling, / but, like a red chamber, the nativity scene was shown to the Queen. / Christ is born before the fallen resurrect image ”.

So, the first hour - preparation and the events leading up to Christmas, and again the texts of Scripture (though not always and not so clearly) sound from the Person of Christ - now the Infant entering our fallen world (there is a parallel with the initial Great Friday hour). We hear these themes in the psalms (sometimes they are the testimony of the Church about what is happening): Lord, instruct Me in Thy righteousness, My enemy, for the sake of mine, correct My way before You. (Ps 5: 9), and also: present the Queen at your right hand, in the robes of the gilded robes are full of (Ps 44:10), and further: abolish and understand that I am God: I will ascend into the town, I will ascend to the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us, our God intercessor Jacob (Ps 45: 11-12), and in the stichera addressed to the objects of the Nativity coming to life: “Bethlehem, prepare yourself, beautify yourself, manger, nativity scene, accept: Truth is coming. The shade of the past, and God appeared as a man from the Virgin, imagining as we are and deifying the flesh. Thus, Adam is renewed, with Eve he is calling: goodwill appear on earth to save our generation, ”and to his living witnesses:“ This is Joseph saying to the Virgin: Mary, what is this, I see in You? I am perplexed, and amazed, and terrified by the mind; otai ubo from me wake up soon. Mary, why do I see this in You? For honor - shame, for joy - sorrow, instead of boasting hedgehog, you brought me reproach. To whom I no longer tolerate human reproach, for from the priest from the Church of the Lord, like the blameless Thy, and what is visible ”. The prophecy of Mikheino testifies to Bethlehem, prepared for the Divine entrance into the world: This is how the Lord says: And you, Bethlehem, the house of Euphraths, do you have little food, hedgehog to be in thousands of Judas? Out of you, an Elder will come forth for Me, to be a prince in Israel, but He proceeded from the beginning of the ages (Mic 5: 2). The Apostle Paul echoes to the Old Testament (a fragment from the Epistle to the Hebrews is read here), generalizing the ancient texts and making sense of them in Christ: Many parts and many more ancient God, spoken by the father in the prophet, in the last days of this verb to us in the Son, in whom put an heir to all, make him and forever. This is the radiance of glory and the image of His hypostasis, bearing all things with the verb of His power (Heb. 1: 1-3). Then the Gospel of Matthew tells about the angelic apparition to the confused Betrothed of the Virgin Joseph and actually about the Birth of the Lord Jesus (Matthew 1: 18–25), and we respond with joy with a kontakion of the Forefeast: “Virgin today the Eternal Word in the den is coming to give birth inexpressibly: rejoice, the universe, hear , glorify with the Angels and the shepherds who wants to appear the Child of Mlado, the Eternal God. "

The third hour comes. We glorify Him who was born with psalms for our sake, we comprehend to the best of our strength the greatness of His condescension, before the Humble one we humble ourselves: God, bless us and bless us, enlighten Thy face on us and have mercy on us: know Thy way on earth, Thy salvation in all tongues (Ps 66: 2-3) Mati Sion says: Man and Man were born in him (Ps 86: 5), Have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy great mercy and according to the multitude of Thy compassions, cleanse my iniquity (Ps 50: 3). The same themes are in the stichera: “This is our God, no one will be credited to Him, born of the Virgin, and from mankind will gain; in the manger of the poor, the Only Begotten Son is seen lying as a man and wrapped in swaddling clothes, like the Lord of glory. And the magician proclaims the star to His worship. And we sing: Holy Trinity, save our souls ”. The Prophet Baruch, foreseeing Christmas and the earthly life of the Savior, shares the happiness of knowing God with the Church of God - New Israel: This our God ... appear on earth and live from men ...Blessed Esma, Israel, as God's pleasing to us is reasonable essence (Var 3: 36–4: 4). And the Apostle Paul writes to the Galatians about the same happiness, but greater, and the Born Christ gives it: The law pestun us into Christ, that we may be justified by faith. The faith that has come is no longer under the pestle of Esma. You are all sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus (Gal 3: 24-28). The Gospel of Luke, read then, is a testimony of a sacred event and an angelic response to it: Glory in the highest, and about the first human response - the shepherds of Bethlehem (Luke 2: 1–20).

The sixth hour ... Human wisdom bows reverently before the Divine Wisdom - the incarnate Christ. The psalms testify to this and predict a future victory on the Cross over the primordial enemy and the father of lies: His righteousness and abundance of peace will shine in those days ... and it will be given to Him from the gold of Arabian (Ps 71: 7-15) The Lord swears by the truth to David, and he will not reject it: of the fruit of thy womb I will sit on thy throne. (Ps 131: 11), and Step on the asp and the basilisk and cross the lion and the serpentme (Ps 90:13). The same admiration and sacred wonder - in the stichera: “Hear, Heaven, and inspire the earth, let the foundations move, let the underworld tremble: as if God and the Creator put on a building in fleshly clothes, and who created a creature with a mighty hand, the womb would see the building. Oh, the depth of the wealth and wisdom and reason of God! For His destinies are untested and His ways are not investigated. " The Old Testament Evangelist - the divine Isaiah is amazed at the divine ways and thunderingly proclaims them: Behold, the Virgin will receive and bear a Son in her womb, and they will call His name Immanuel; They have to take away butter and honey, before you take him away or if you please the evil one, he will choose the good ... God is with us, understand, you heathens, and repent. Hear even to the last of the earth (see Isa 7: 14–8: 9). The Apostle Paul responds to divine revelation, warning us: How do we run away, about a fraction of negligent salvation, a hedgehog has conceived a better, speak from the Lord (Heb. 2: 3). The Gospel of Matthew tells about the adoration of the Magi and about the gifts to the Born, one of which - myrrh - also points to His impending death, life-giving for us (Matt 2: 1-12) ...

The ninth hour is already, as it were, turned into the future, and we will behold the redemptive feat of the Lord who is being born now: Speech of the Lord of my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I will make Thy enemies Thy footstool. (Ps 109: 1), deliverance of the ambassador by his people (Ps 110: 9), thou hast delivered my soul from the hell of the underworld (Ps 85:13). In the last, 85th psalm, the theme of Herod's current bloodthirsty rebellion against the Lord and His Christ is still heard: Save My soul ... the transgressors have rebelled against Me, and the host of sovereigns will seek My soul (Ps 85: 2,14). In general, in the development of the Christmas narrative - from the ignorant Divine secrets of people, reproaching the seedless burden of the Most Pure Virgin, from the human dwellings closed before Her, Who gives birth, - to Herod's envious curiosity and his mad ferocity - the image of Golgotha \u200b\u200bis already seen, and her time is approaching every hour. That is why we hear the stichera by the echo of Good Friday (“You can see the horror”) to the same sad 7th voice: “Surprised by Herod, / in vain the Magi's piety, / and, conquering with anger, / years will experience distance; / mothers are desperate to visit, / and the untimely age of babies is reaped by the mountaineer, / the nipples are drying up, / and the sources of milk are kept, / velie byache fierce. / The same piously, faithfully, converging, / let us bow down to Christ's Nativity ”. And we answer, as it were, with the same memorable Great Friday song, with the quietest cry, to the great and inscrutable Divine condescension, to the all-conquering Divine love: “This day is born of the Virgin / keep all the creature with his hand, / with swaddling clothes, like earthly, he is wrapped, / God is inviolable as a being ... / In the manger reclining / confirming Heaven with a word in the beginning, / feeding on milk from the nipples, / Alone in the desert, the manna is clothed by people, / the Church Bridegroom calls upon the magi, / the Son of the Virgin accepts these gifts. / We adore Your Christmas, Christ; / we worship Thy Christmas, Christ; / We adore Your Christmas, Christ: / Show us Your Divine Epiphany ”. The paremia from Isaiah the prophet returns us to the pre-holiday joy: Having given birth to us, Son, and given to us (Isa 9: 6). Apostolic reading reveals the great meaning of the mystery of God's incarnation as a sincere unity, kinship between the Creator and the beloved creation, manifested in Christ, who came to sympathize with us and to resurrect with Himself: Even before the children partake of the flesh and blood, and that sincerely partake of the same, let death abolish ... the state of death ... must be like the brethren in everything, may the high priest be merciful and faithful in those, even to God, to cleanse the sins of men. In a little more suffering, he himself was tempted, maybe the tempted help (Heb. 2: 14-18). Then we listen to the Gospel about the horror created by Herod, about the mourning of Rachel, but also about the first martyrs for Christ - the babies of Bethlehem (Matt 2: 13-23). And, completing the Hours, we sing the kontakion of the Vigil: "The Virgin is now the Eternal Word / in the nativity scene comes to give birth inexpressibly: / rejoice, the universe, having heard, / glorify with the Angels and the shepherds / who wants to appear, the Child Mlado, the Eternal God." The hour has not yet come for this child (cf. John 2: 4), and it is fitting for Him to grow (cf. John 3:30) - until the appearance on the Jordan, until Golgotha \u200b\u200band the Resurrection ...

5. The third Great Hours in order and importance precede the feast of the Epiphany.

Their structure and the sequence of the revealed meanings of the upcoming holy event are in many respects similar to the order discussed by us above. There are, of course, some distinctive features here. Let's dwell in more detail on both the similarities and differences. First of all, we recognize the pre-Christmas coincidence of the troparia of all clocks, which means that their single leitmotif is: “Sometimes the Jordan River returned to the mercy of Elisha, I ascended to Elijah, and I split the waters here and there, and his path was dry, even wet, into the image of truly Baptism, as we the current life is passing the procession: Christ appears in the Jordan to sanctify the waters ”. We will observe this deesis symmetry of the Royal Hours of the two Christmas Eves more than once in the future.

The Psalms of the first hour, as always, are a preparation: the Lord - to descend into Jordan and go out to preach, and ours - to correct the paths of Christ through repentance, so that we hear His saving word. Also on other clocks, later, the theme of water, the element of life, the element of purification, invigorating, but also terrible, deadly dangerous for those immersed in it by impudence or unreason will be encountered. Now for us, in the image of those who came to be baptized to John, it is time to listen to reproofs, to repent and, perhaps, to hear in the Psalm reading the voice of Jesus Christ approaching the Jordan: God, though Thou art not iniquity, do not sit down with You, deceitful: the iniquities will remain below Thy eyes ... destroy all that speak lies, the Lord abhors a bloody and flattering husband (Ps 5: 5-7), and - from the First Person: In the morning I will appear to Ty, and behold Me (Ps 5: 4), and further on Baptism: i was raised on the water at peace (Ps 22: 2), and about the coming three years of preaching: If I go in the middle of the shadow of death, I will not fear evil ... Your mercy will marry Me all the days of My belly (Ps 22: 4-6). About the same - and about more - about the visible Easter ahead - the last psalm of the hour: Establish Me, O Lord, in Thy path, and guide Me on the right path, My enemy, for the sake of ... I believe you see the good Lord on the lands of the living (Ps 26: 11-13). Further behind the troparion are the stichera of consecration of water (the creation of St. Sophronius of Jerusalem): "Today the waters are sanctified nature ..." and others, well known. And behind them - the prophecy of Isaiah (as in all the hours of this clock) and again - the theme of water and - an indication of the Coming to be baptized in it: And the desert Jordan will rejoice ... and My people will see the glory of the Lord and the height of God ... behold, our God renders judgment, He will come and save us ... sprouting in the desert water and wilds in a thirsty land ... there will be a clear path, and a holy path will be called ... praise, and joy, and gladness ... run away sickness, sorrow and sighing (see Isa 35: 1-10). Then - the apostolic sermon from the book of Acts, pointing to the words of the Baptist John about the coming Messiah, about the ancient prophecies fulfilled in Jesus and about the peak of His path - suffering, death and resurrection (Acts 13: 25–32). The Epiphany visibly brings Passion and Easter closer, which is reflected in the order of the Royal Hours. Further - the Gospel reading from Matthew about John's baptism, about his conviction, thus - about the preparation of the penitent for the meeting of Christ, coming out to preach the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt 3: 1–12).

In the rite of the third hour there are similar motives, but one hour of the service is already over, the appearance of God on the Jordan has approached, and we hear in the psalms the theme and hope of the Feast: The voice of the Lord on the waters, the God of glory to the thunder, the Lord on the waters of many ... The Lord will give strength to His people, the Lord will bless His people with peace (Ps 28: 3,11), and we offer prayer to the Lord Who Appears:

In the same way my soul desires for springs of water, my soul desires for You, O God. My soul thirsts for strong, living God when I come and appear to the face of God ... remember Thee from the land of Jordan ... The abyss (mercy) the abyss (sins) calls (to repentance) in the voice of Thy abysses ... Thou woe, my soul, me? Trust in God, for we will confess to Him, the salvation of my face and my God (Ps 41: 1–2,7–8,12).

And finally, the meeting of man and God on the waters of the Jordan, from us the Baptist and the Holy Trinity, - and the immortal psalm of David - in John's and our lips: Have mercy on me, God ... cleanse my iniquity, wash me ... cleanse me from my sin (Ps 50: 3-4), and so on until the end of days. “Do not be afraid to baptize Me,” the Lord will answer to John with the words of the kontakion of the forefeast: “to save the primordial Adam, who has come,” - that means us too. In the meantime, in anticipation of the sacred event, we chant the stichera to the Approaching One: “Coming with the flesh to the Jordan, Lord, be baptized even in the image of a Man, a Livelihood Giver, and those who have deceived us, as if he is well-groomed, having delivered all the snares and snares of the serpent, enlighten, we bear witness from the Father, the Divine Doves appear to You, but instilled into our souls That, Humanitarian ”. And we listen to His calls through the great Isaiah - this is not to reduce, to add to this:

This is what the Lord says: Wash yourself and cleanse, take away deceit from your souls before my eyes, stop from your deceit. Learn to do good, seek judgment, deliver the offended, judge the sira and justify the widow. And come, and we will be tortured, saith the Lord. And if your sins are like crimson, like snow, I will whiten; If there will be, like scarlet, like a wave, I will whiten. And if you want and listen to Me, you will take down the good land. If you don’t want, listen to Me below, you will girdle the sword, the mouth of the Lord is this verb (Isa 1: 16–20).

And again - the book of Acts, and Paul testifies about the ministry of the Baptist as the Forerunner of Christ, and those who heard John and listened to the Apostle are baptized: this new people is God's people. The Gospel of the hour - from Mark - about John's baptism and the prophecy about the One Coming after him. Having fulfilled the prescribed prayers of the third hour, we begin the sixth.

The first in those born as wives, who wants to bow down, but does not have the dignity and the shoe-belt to untie Christ's, John cries out to himself and to us: “Come, let us worship ... Christ Himself, the Tsar and our God,” - let us humble ourselves before Him who humbles us for the sake of man and for our salvation. And let us listen to the words of the divine psalmist. David declares about his Lord, who appeared in the Jordanian waters and has to complete our deliverance:

But God, our King, before the age made salvation in the midst of the earth. Thou hast established Thou by Thy power the sea, Thou hast erased the heads of the serpents in the water, Thou hast crushed the head of the serpent ... Thou hast destroyed the springs and streams, Thou hast dried up the rivers ... Do not forget Thy poor souls to the end ... May the humble, disgraced, poor and poor praise thy name (Ps 73: 12-21). Seeing Thee of the water, God, seeing Thee of the water and fearing, perturbing the abyss ... The voice of Thy thunder in the wheels, illuminating the lightning of Thy universe, the earth moved and trembled. Thy path is in the sea, and Thy paths are in many waters, and Thy footsteps are not known. Thou hast instructed Thy people as a sheep (Psalm 76: 17-21).

After baptism, the Lord will come out to preach, but first - temptation from the father of lies, the original enemy, the slanderer and apostate. Psalm 90 - preparation for battle: Don't be scared of ... the midday demon. Thousands of people will fall from your country and darkness at your right hand, but they will not come close to you ... By your angel, the commandment about you to keep you in all your ways... A thief and perverter of the holy word, the devil will quote there, on the mountain of temptation: They will take you in their arms, but not when they knock your foot against a stone... But the answer will be the Divine with authority: "Do not tempt!" And thus will the psalm insight be fulfilled: Step on the asp and the basilisk and cross the lion and the serpent (Ps 90: 5-13; cf. Mt 4: 5-7). Further - stichera, and they are about this mysterious battle between heaven and hell: “This is how the Lord speaks to John: prophecy, come to baptize Me, who created you, and enlightening grace, and cleansing everyone. Touch the Divine My top and do not doubt. Leave the rest now, for you have come to fulfill all righteousness. You do not hesitate at all, for the lurking in the waters of the warrior, the prince of darkness, I try to destroy, ridding the world of its nets now, giving as if the Lover of Man is an eternal Belly ”. And again - the paremia of Isaiah, and we listen to him, who shares with us the joy of Christ: draw water with gladness from the source of salvation ... Sing out ... the Name of the Lord, as high create. Announce this throughout the earth (Is 12: 3-5). The Gospel of the hour will soon tell about Christ's baptism, therefore, now, when the event has taken place in the divine service time, the voice of the Apostle does not turn back to John, but forward - to us, and already announces our baptism. And this apostolic song of renewal, the song of Great Saturday and our baptism, and the covenant for life - is also impossible to shorten:

Brethren, trees were baptized into Christ Jesus; they were baptized into His death. Let us be buried for Him with baptism into death: even as Christ has risen from the dead with the glory of the Father, so we will walk in the renewal of life and begin. If you are conscious of the likeness of His death, then we will also be resurrection. This is leading, as our old man will be crucified with Him, may the sinful body be abolished, as if we do not work for sin. Deceased bo free from sin. If we die with Christ, we believe, as if we will live with Him: Leading, as Christ has risen from the dead, to whom he no longer dies, death to whom does not possess. The hedgehog will die, die one sin, but the hedgehog lives, God lives. Likewise, think of yourself dead because of sin, but living God, in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 6: 3-11).

And we listen to the Gospel of Mark - about the Theophany on Jordan, about the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, and already about His first sermon: Repent and believe in the Gospel (Mark 1: 9-15). And, having sang the glory of the Lord, and later - the kontakion of the Forefeast, we soon begin the ninth hour ...

In the liturgical time, the time has come, in the likeness of the Lord, coming out of the Jordanian water to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom, and we must prepare for going out into the world for a testimony of Christ, born of a Virgin, baptized by John, Crucified and Risen. The Psalms provide proper verbal food: The Lord will reign ... confirm the universe, he does not move anymore ... marvelous are the heights of the sea, marvelous in the high ones The Lord ... Your house befits a shrine, Lord, in the longitude of days (Psalm 92: 1-6) - therefore we have no fear, clothed in the Almighty, and:

The sea in sight and run away, Jordan return back ... What is it, the sea, as if you ran away, and you, Jordan, as if you returned back? .. From the face of the Lord the earth moved, from the face of the God of Jacob, turning a stone into a lake of water and insects water sources. Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Thy Name give glory ... Our God in Heaven and on earth, all the trees in delight, create ... and give the earth to the son of man. The dead will not praise Thee, Lord ... but we will bless the Lord alive from now on and forever (Ps 113: 3-26).

Christ strengthened the Apostles, all of the saints from the age, true heroes of the Spirit, for the Gospel testimony - in a word, more with life and death. And he strengthens us in the measure of our small strength for the same testimony, so that the inspired words that we hear now from the psalmist may be fulfilled in His own words: All the heathens, the trees you created, will come and worship before You, O Lord, and glorify Your Name, as you are great and work wonders, You are God alone (Psalm 85: 9-10).

The Lord will encourage us with the tremendous word of Isaiah the prophet, and the prokimn that precedes it: “The Lord is my enlightenment and my Savior, whom shall I fear?” And the apostolic admonition to Titus the disciple, like God's dew, will refresh the soul. In the meantime, singing the stichera, let us return mentally to Jordan, marvel at the divine humility manifested there with the heavenly forces: “Horror can you see the Creator's heaven and earth, naked on the river, and Baptism from a slave for our salvation, who accepts, like a slave. And the faces of Angelsia marvel at fear and joy, with them we also worship You: save us, Lord ”. And we will not ignore John, who was diminished for the sake of Christ and thus venerated by Him, the greatest of those born as wives, and let us trust in his many-power prayer: “Thy hand, which touched the purest top of the Lord, Thou didst show us, with the same finger, Thou hast, lift up about us to Him, Baptist, as having much boldness, for the painful prophet of all, from Him you are testified. And your eyes, seeing the All-Holy Spirit, as if descended in the form of a dove, raise up to Him, the Baptist, and do us mercifully, and come, stand with us, seal the singing and pre-start the celebration. " Then the Feast will come in our souls, and we will hear and will not forget the prophetic words about the perfect memory of God-Love:

This is how the Lord says: in the time of pleasant obedience to You and on the day of salvation, help Ti ... and dakh Ty in the everlasting covenant of tongues / hedgehog to build the earth and inherit the heritage of the desert. The verb that exists in bonds: go out! / and to those in darkness: open up! .. Let the Heavens rejoice, and the earth rejoice, let the mountains belch gladness and the hills the truth, as if God had mercy on His people and His humble people to comfort. Speech Zion: forgive me, Lord, and God forgot me. Will the wife forget her food? Or will he not have mercy on the offspring of his womb? If the wife will forget these, but I will not forget you, - says the Lord (see Is 49: 8-15).

And the Apostle Paul turns to Titus an inspiring word, which we will hear on the Feast itself:

Child Tita, the grace of God, saving all mankind, appears to punish us, but rejected wickedness and worldly lusts, chastely and righteously and piously, we will live in the present day, waiting for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of the Great God and our Savior Jesus Christ ... love for mankind, appear our Savior not of righteous deeds, as we did, but according to His mercy ... that, justified by His grace, we will be heirs according to the hope of eternal life (Titus 2: 11-14; 3: 4-7).

The triumph of the pre-holiday Great Hours is captured by the Gospel reading of Matthew, which testifies to the noble confusion of John and the incomprehensible humility of Jesus, who has borne everything - the incomparable and unique earthly life among sinners, the Cross, death and hell, may the primordial Adam be saved - and we are with him.

* * *

Summing up everything considered and heard, sacred to the most beautiful creation of the fathers-songwriters - the small Deesis of the Great Hours - we do not find words grateful to God, better than in the troparion on Sunday: "Glory to Thy condescension, One Human-loving One."

Hours are special rather short divine services dedicated to a specific hour of the day at which an important event in the earthly life of the Savior took place. In the liturgical practice of the Orthodox Church, these are four hours: the ninth, first, third and sixth. The main theme of the ninth hour is the death on the Cross of our Lord and God Jesus Christ; the first - the expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise, as well as the judgment of the God-man at Caiaphas, His dying sufferings; the third, the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles; sixth - the crucifixion of the Lord on the Cross. The names of the watches and their numerical breakdown are taken from the Jewish tradition. The ancient Jews divided the day into four guards. Hence the names of the watches. To become at this time of the day for prayer is an Old Testament tradition, which in Christianity has already acquired a new meaning. Today the ninth hour corresponds to 15.00, the first - 7.00, the third - 9.00, the sixth - 12.00. Now, for convenience, the hours of worship are joined to the longer daily services. The ninth - towards the beginning of Vespers, the first - towards the end of Matins, the third and sixth are served before the beginning of the Liturgy.

But there are also great, or royal hours in the liturgical practice of the Church. Their content is timed to coincide with the most important Orthodox holidays. They are served three times a year: on Good Friday, Christmas Eve and Epiphany Eve.

They are called great because they are served very solemnly. The priest in a phelonion with the Royal Doors open. Censing is performed every hour. In the first and last - censing of the entire church, with a burning candle, as in a polyeleo. At every hour, the paremias (from the Greek - parable) are read - special Old Testament readings, followed by the Apostle and the Gospel. Readings from the Holy Scriptures are timed to coincide with the celebrated event. In addition, psalms, prokimna, troparia, kontakion - almost all the prayers of the great hours - are dedicated to the holiday (Nativity of Christ, the Baptism of the Lord, or the Passion of Christ).

These clocks were called royal because they were attended by the Byzantine emperors, as at especially solemn services, which emphasized not only the liturgical spiritual importance of these services, but also their social significance.

In the eortological sense (from the Greek "eorthos" - a holiday; theological science of holidays) Christmas and Epiphany Eve are similar to each other, like twin brothers. Their services are also similar in form. This is due to the fact that in the ancient Church the Nativity of Christ and the Baptism of the Lord were celebrated on the same day as a single holiday, which was called the Holy Epiphany. The celebration of the Nativity of Christ stood out as a separate date in the 4th century.

In the modern church tradition, the great (royal) hours are served immediately one after another in the following order - 1, 3, 6, 9. Usually, at the beginning of each hour, the corresponding number of times the bell is struck.

This year on Friday (since the Nativity of Christ falls on Sunday) great hours are celebrated. It is not supposed to serve the Liturgy on this day. According to the Charter, the service of the royal hours begins at 8.00.

They seem to introduce a Christian with readings from the Holy Scriptures and their prayers in the celebration of the Nativity of Christ, give the heart and soul the right attitude.

After all, we are often the heroes of I. Brodsky's poem:

Everyone is a little magician at Christmas.
Into food slush and crush.
Because of a can of coffee halva
siege the counter
a heap of bundles laden with people:
each his own king and a camel.

Nets, bags, shopping bags, bags,
hats, ties knotted to one side.
The smell of vodka, pine needles and cod,
tangerines, cinnamon and apples.
Chaos of faces, and no trail is visible
to Bethlehem because of the snow pellets.

Because of all these chaotically nervous purchases, breaking tables, the arrival of relatives, we often do not see the path to Bethlehem. We forget about the main meaning of Christmas - the Nativity of Christ the Savior. And that we initially go to Him, and not to relatives for sandwiches. This is all later. First - HE.

And the great hours are the first step towards Him. Crossing the threshold of the temple, we seem to enter a cave where God is waiting for us. And we need to connect with Him as much as possible. We should honor Him first. It is important to be filled not with the social traditions of Christmas (this is later), but with the Spirit of Christmas, from which everything begins. And He attains at the services of these beautiful, joyful majestic days, in which the events of God's salvation of man are remembered.

As the poet wrote in the same poem:

But when in a door draft
from the fog of the thick night
a figure in a scarf appears,
both the Baby and the Holy Spirit
feel in yourself without shame;
you look into the sky and see - a star.

On the bright holiday of the Nativity of Christ, dear brothers and sisters, we all want to see this gentle shining star in the chaos of the world, leading us to the Divine Infant.

Priest Andrey Chizhenko

Liturgical hours are a special rite of prayers that are read in the church at a certain time.

Usually this is a rather short rite, the reading and listening of which does not take more than fifteen to twenty minutes.

It seems to me that the emergence of prayers for hours in the Old Testament and New Testament Churches is primarily associated with the Divine establishment of a person's habit of continuous prayer. Indeed, in essence, the angels and saints in paradise are in continuous praise to the Lord. Figuratively speaking, in the Kingdom of Heaven, in His exalted and spiritual temple, worship is constantly taking place. And in order for a person to acquire the habit of this heavenly continuous prayer, he acquires it even here - in earthly life. Hence the worship hours at a specific time.

This can be compared to a monastic meal. So that the monk does not plunge headlong into the absorption of food, the meal somewhere in the middle is interrupted by the sound of a bell. Everyone gets up. They are baptized. A short prayer is said. Then they sit down again and eat their food. By this, a person seems to be knocked out of the earthly rut, from mental and heart concentration on his stomach, and again learns to direct his attention to the higher - to the heavenly.

Watches, I think, have the same function - to divert a person's attention from the material worries of the day. And turn your gaze to the Lord God.

The first chapters of the Book of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke, Acts of the Holy Apostles, testify to the fact that the Old Testament Church knew the divine services of the hours: “Peter and John went together to the temple at the ninth hour of prayer” (Acts 3: 1); “The next day, as they were walking and approaching the city, Peter went up to the top of the house about six o'clock to pray” (Acts 10: 9).

The fact that the apostles knew and used certain hours of the day for prayer is evidenced by a book written at the beginning of the 2nd century after the Nativity of Christ, "The Teaching of the 12 Apostles." She prescribes to read the Lord's Prayer "Our Father" three times a day.

The names of the 1st, 3rd, 6th, 9th hours were given to these short services because of the reckoning of the time of day in ancient Israel somewhat different from ours.

The ancient Jews divided the night into four guards (changing the sentries guarding the settlement), and the day by four hours (changing the movement of the sun relative to the earth). The first hour corresponds to our seventh hour in the morning. The third hour is the ninth in the morning. The sixth - twelve o'clock - noon. The ninth hour is three o'clock in the afternoon.

In the New Testament Church, the meaning of the divine service of hours became even more symbolic. It acquired a symbolic evangelical meaning associated with the most important events in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Church.

So, let's start with the first hour of the divine service, which is used in the temple. Since the church service day begins with evening (vespers), the first (not in the arithmetic or chronological sense) hour is the ninth. He is also the first in a spiritual sense.

We know for sure from the Holy Gospel that the Savior died on the cross at the ninth hour (the third in the afternoon in our reckoning). Therefore, the prayer memory of the ninth hour is dedicated to the death of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, as well as to His descent into hell. Therefore, the prayers of this hour are sorrowful, but at the same time there is already a nascent Easter joy in them, because very soon the Bright Resurrection of Christ will take place. Therefore, the ninth hour precedes all other daily services: Vespers, Matins, the first, third, sixth hours, Liturgy. After all, the church veil is torn in two, and humanity gets the opportunity to enter paradise. The era of the New Testament is coming - the era of salvation. Humanity is taking a new step towards God, Who brought it as close as possible to Himself.

The first hour was set later than the other three with God's help. As the professor of the Kiev Theological Academy Mikhail Skaballanovich writes in his book “Explanatory Typicon”: “The 1st hour was established in the IV century. in Palestinian monasteries for ascetic purposes ... ”That is, the Church of the Apostolic times did not know him. It was already established with the development of monasticism in the 4th century in connection with asceticism and ascetic discipline of the type: "sleep less and pray more." The fact is that in order to aggravate the prayer vigil, the ancient monks also split the night into several guards, during which they got up to pray. The last prayer watch of the night is the first hour.

In addition, it also carries a spiritual gospel meaning. The Church recalls in his prayers the taking of Christ into custody in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Sanhedrin, the suffering and beating of the Savior by the Pharisee servants, Pilate's trial and the unjust death sentence passed on to the Righteous One.

The main recollection of the third hour is the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Most Holy Theotokos and the apostles, which took place precisely in the third hour (see Acts 2:15). And also the way of the cross of Christ to Golgotha, which also took place at about the third hour and later.

Remembrance of the sixth hour - Crucifixion of the Lord and God and our Savior Jesus Christ. The execution took place, according to the Holy Gospel, exactly at twelve o'clock in the afternoon.

Thus, we see that the divine services of the hours are dedicated mainly to the Passion of Christ and are called to prayerfully awaken in a person the spiritual vision of the Cross, Death, Resurrection of Christ, as well as the birthday of the Church, one of the main events in our history - Holy Pentecost. Many holy fathers said that remembrance and living of the heart, the inner person of Passion Week, is very salutary and beneficial. It unites the human soul with Christ and revives it to life. The holy supreme apostle Paul reminds us of this: “If we died with Christ, then we believe that we will also live with Him ...” (Rom. 6: 8).

Because the memory of the service hours is united with the Passion of Christ, in these prayers there is no singing, only reading, which is less solemn and more sorrowful.

So the structure of the clock ... It is typical of all four, and based on that, every hour takes about twenty minutes. In the prayers of hours after the "hat" or immediately after "Come and worship" there are three selected psalms (they are different for each hour), followed by troparia (special prayers) dedicated to the memory of the day, the celebrated event or the saint (saints). This is followed by special prayers "Theotokos" dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos. "Theotokos" are also different for each hour. Then "The Trisagion according to our Father" (see any Orthodox prayer book: the beginning of morning prayers). Further, a special prayer book "kontakion", dedicated to the memory of the day. Then forty times "Lord, have mercy", the prayer "Izh for all time", the priestly dismissal (for the 3rd and 6th hours - this is "By the prayers of our holy father ...", and for the 9th and 1st - this is "God, bless us ...") and the prayer of the hour (for each his own).

The hours always begin with the prayer “Come, let us bow down”, which is a kind of confession of our faith in the Holy Trinity, they continue with psalms, and after them with New Testament prayers, which shows a deep organic relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament Churches. The troparia and kontakion of the day are also mounted at the clock - that is, special short prayers dedicated to the event celebrated on that day or the saint remembered. The central part of the clock, according to the will of the holy apostles, is the reading of the prayer "Our Father". In-depth repentant prayer "Lord, have mercy", repeated forty times, and the prayer "Like for all time", telling us that at all times and at every hour we must worship God and praise Him. Then release and prayer of the hour. All the psalms and prayers of the liturgical hour were selected by the holy fathers with God's help in such a way as to remind us of the above memorials of the hour. An example of this is the 50th psalm in the third hour, the verses of which “Create a pure heart in me, God, and renew the spirit of rights in my womb. Do not cast me away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me, ”as if they were telling us directly about the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles. And in Great Lent at this hour in the troparion, it is directly said about the remembered event: "Lord, Like Thy Most Holy Spirit in the third hour, Thy Apostle, Thy Apostle, the Good One, do not take away from us, but renew in us those who pray Thyya."

By the way, the clock undergoes changes during the liturgical year. During Great Lent, readings of Kathisma, the prayer of the Monk Ephraim the Syrian "Lord and Master of my life ...", certain troparia are added to them. On Holy Easter and Bright Week, the structure of the clock changes by ninety percent. Then they include hymns glorifying the Bright Resurrection of Christ: the troparion and kontakion of Easter, the chant “Seeing the Resurrection of Christ”, etc. Because of the special solemnity of the holiday, Easter hours are often not read, but sung.

In addition, on the evening of such great holidays as the Nativity of Christ and the Holy Epiphany (Baptism of the Lord), the great hours are read. They have the usual structure of worship hours, with the only difference that the Old Testament readings of the paremia, the Apostle, the Holy Gospel are read on them. In Russia, they are often called tsarist watches. This is a historical name, as monarchs often attended.

In ancient times, the clock was served, as it should be - at 7 and 9 in the morning, at 12.00 and 15.00. But, unfortunately, such a schedule is not suitable for a modern person with his haste and busyness. Therefore, now at the ninth hour Vespers begins, and Matins ends at the first hour. And the third and sixth hours are added to the beginning of the Divine Liturgy with the need for the priest to have time to perform a proskomedia while reading these hours. Since the daily service begins from the ninth and third hours, these prayers have a "hat": the priestly exclamation "Blessed be our God ...", then the usual beginning "Heavenly King," the Trisagion, "Our Father", "Come, let us worship ..." the first and sixth hours begin only with "Come, let us bow ..."

I would like to say that there is nothing unimportant and insignificant in the Church. This also applies to liturgical hours. Unfortunately, it is often necessary to observe how people try to come to the beginning of the Liturgy, but are late for hours. One gets the impression that the reader, standing alone on the kliros and reading the clock, does this only for himself, and for the priest, as a last resort. Many others are busy with candles, notes, conversations - in a word, the usual temple bustle. And only when the exclamation “Blessed be the Kingdom ...” sounds, everyone subside.

But the third hour is the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Most Holy Theotokos and the Apostles, this is the way of the cross to the Savior's Calvary, and the sixth hour is the Crucifixion of Christ. He tells us that nails were driven into His most pure hands for our sins. And God voluntarily gave himself up to suffering for the salvation of all of us! Can we ignore this? Can we neglect the clock?

Yes, there are extreme cases when, for objective reasons, a person was late for the beginning of the Liturgy, maybe he slept once or several times. It happens to everyone? But there is an established tradition of treating watches as something insignificant. Type you can "cut", be late. And this is already scary. After all, we are talking about remembering the Passion of the Lord.

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, let us remember that arriving half an hour before the beginning of the Liturgy is not arriving under the exclamation “Blessed Kingdom”, being late for hours. No. This means arriving before the reading of the hours begins. In order to have time to file notes, put candles, and kiss the images of the saints. And then, having regained his breath and calmed down, he began to listen to the clock and heartily delve into the remembrance of the Passion of Christ and the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles.

After all, whoever is crucified with our Lord Jesus Christ, he will be resurrected with him.

Priest Andrey Chizhenko