lkisaid thoughts, sounds and creative miscellany episode 82
Great Litany-Znamenny Melodies (and various others) (revised)
mp3: https://orthodoxtwopartmusic.org/files/01_MIXST078_TwoPart.mp3
sheet music: https://orthodoxtwopartmusic.org/files/AST-REVISEDGRLITany.pdf
Before Reading the Holy Scripture
Illumine our hearts, O Master Who lovest mankind, with the pure light of Thy divine knowledge. Open the eyes of our mind to the understanding of Thy gospel teachings. Implant also in us the fear of Thy blessed commandments, that trampling down all carnal desires, we may enter upon a spiritual manner of living, both thinking and doing such things as are well-pleasing unto Thee. For Thou art the illumination of our souls and bodies, O Christ our God, and unto Thee we ascribe glory, together with Thy Father, Who is from everlasting, and Thine all-holy, good, and life-creating Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
scripture readings: https://oca.org/readings/daily/2019/01/30
Deuteronomy 1:8-11, 15-17 (Vespers, 1st reading)
See, I have set the land before you; go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to your fathers – to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – to give to them and their descendants after them.’
And I spoke to you at that time, saying: ‘I alone am not able to bear you.
The Lord your God has multiplied you, and here you are today, as the stars of heaven in multitude.
May the Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times more numerous than you are, and bless you as He has promised you!
So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and knowledgeable men, and made them heads over you, leaders of thousands, leaders of hundreds, leaders of fifties, leaders of tens, and officers for your tribes.
Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear the cases between your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the stranger who is with him.
You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great; you shall not be afraid in any man’s presence, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it.’
Deuteronomy 10:14-21 (Vespers, 2nd reading)
Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it. The Lord delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day.
Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer.
For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe.
He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing.
Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in His name.
He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen.
Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9 (Vespers, 3rd reading)
But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will ever touch them.
In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died, and their departure was thought to be affliction,
and their going from us to be their destruction; but they are at peace.
For though in the sight of men they were punished, their hope is full of immortal
