Apostolic Reading – Col 1:12-18

Gospel – Luke 18:35-43

Troparion of the Resurrection (Tone 3)

Let all in heaven rejoice and all on earth be glad for the Lord has exerted power with His arm: By death, He has trampled upon Death and has become the firstborn from the dead. He has delivered us from the bosom of Hades and has granted to the world great mercy.

Troparion of the Holy Cross (Tone 1)

O Lord, save your people and bless your inheritance, granting peace to the world. And preserve your community by the power of your Cross.

Kondakion of the Preparation of the Nativity of our Lord (Tone 3)

Today the Virgin is on her way to the cave where she will give birth to the Eternal Word of God in an ineffable manner. Rejoice, therefore, O universe, when you hear this news, and glorify with the angels and the shepherds Him who shall appear as a newborn Child, being God from all eternity.

Prokimenon

Sing praise to our God, sing praise!

Sing praise to our King, sing praise!

Stichon

All you peoples, clap your hands!

Shout to God with cries of gladness!

Reading from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Colossians (1:12-18)

Brethren, we thank God the Father who has enabled us to share in the saints in light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son in whom we have deliverance, the remission of sins.

He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in Him all things were created, those in heaven and those on earth, the seen and the unseen, whether Thrones or Dominations or Principalities or Powers: all things were created through Him all things hold together; and He is the head of the body, the Church. He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, so that He may be first in all things.