Holy Saturday Evening

Scriptural Reference:

Mark 16:1-8

Hymns of the Day:
Come, receive the light from the unwaning light, and glorify Christ who is risen from the dead.

Angels sing of Your Resurrection in heaven, Christ Savior. Make us on earth also worthy to glorify You with pure hearts.

Christ is Risen from the dead, by death He has trampled down death, and to those in the tombs, He has granted life.

The day of resurrection! O people, let us be radiant. It is Pascha, the Lord’s Passover, for Christ God has carried us over from death to life, from earth to heaven, as we sing a victory hymn.

Come, let us partake of a new drink: not one miraculously brought forth from barren rock, but a spring of immortality, welling up from Christ’s tomb, from which we draw strength.

Let the God-prompted Habakkuk stand the divine watch with us and point out the light-bearing angel as in resounding voice he proclaims: "Today the world knows salvation, for in His surpassing power Christ is risen."

Let us arise at break of day, and instead of myrrh offer the Master a hymn. Thus shall we witness Christ, the Sun of righteousness, dawning over all life.

You descended into the very bowels of the earth, O Christ, and shattered the everlasting bonds of its fettered captives. And on the third day, like Jonah from the whale, You emerged from the tomb.

He who freed the youths from the furnace, becoming man, suffers as a mortal; and through the Passion clothes mortal flesh in the comeliness of immortality, the only blessed of the fathers, God most glorious.

We praise, we bless, we worship the Lord.

This is the chosen holy day, the first of all Sabbaths, their queen and sovereign; the feast of feasts and festival of festivals, in which we bless Christ to the ages.

Honoring her with hymns, let us magnify the Theotokos, the Mother of Light.

My soul, magnify Him who of His own will suffered, was buried and rose from the tomb on the third day.

Shine, shine new Jerusalem! For the glory of the Lord has dawned over you. Dance now and be glad, Sion; as for you, pure One, rejoice in the resurrection of your child.

My soul, magnify Christ the lifegiver, who rose from the tomb on the third day.

O divine, O beloved, O sweetest voice! You promised truly that You would be with us to the end of the age. With this pledge as the anchor of our hope, we rejoice.

Christ is the new Pascha, the living sacrifice, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Great and most holy Pascha, O Christ, Wisdom, Word and power of God: grant us to partake of You more perfectly in the unwaning day of Your kingdom.

The angels cried out to her who is full of grace: “Rejoice! And again I say, rejoice! Your son is risen from the tomb on the third day.”

Shine, shine, new Jerusalem! For the glory of the Lord has dawned over you. Dance now and be glad Sion; as for you, pure One, rejoice in the resurrection of your child.