The Presentation of Christ to the Temple
Feast Day: February 2nd
Prayers
Kathisma: The Ancient of Days becomes a Child for me, and God Who is the purest, comes for purification, that I might believe in His flesh from the Virgin. And Symeon meditates on this, and, coming to know Him as God Who has been revealed in the flesh, takes hold of his Life, and rejoices, and cries out as a priest: Grant me to depart, for I have seen You, the Life of all.
Stichera: Say, Symeon, Whom do your carry in your arms, as you rejoice in the Temple? To Whom do you cry and shout aloud, ‘Now I have been set free. For I have seen my Saviour’? ‘This is He who was born from a Virgin. This is the Word, God from God, Incarnate for our sake and who saves mankind. Let us worship Him’.
Doxastikon: Let Heaven’s gate be opened today. For He Who is without beginning, the Word of the Father, taking a beginning in time, yet not abandoning His Godhead, is being willingly brought into the Temple of the law as a Babe of forty days by a Virgin Mother, and the Elder receives him in his arms. The servant cries to the Master, ‘Release me, for my eyes have seen Your Salvation’. You have come into the world to save the human race. Lord, Glory to You!
Doxastikon: He Who rides on the Cherubim and is hymned by the Seraphim is being brought today into God’s Temple according to the Law and enthroned on aged arms. By Joseph He receives gifts befitting God, as a pair of turtle doves the unblemished Church and the newly chosen people of the nations; as Author of the Old and New Covenants, two young pigeons. Symeon, having received the fulfilment of the oracle concerning Him, blessed Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, and foretold the symbols of the Passion of the One born from her. From him he asks for his release, crying out, ‘Now You release me, Master, as You promised me; for I have seen You, the Pre-Eternal Light, Saviour and Lord of the people that bears Christ’s Name.’
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When Symeon was nigh unto departing from this age of deception, Thou wast presented to him as a new-born Babe, but Thou wast recognised by him as perfect God. Wherefore, he marvelled at Thine ineffable wisdom, and cried out: Alleluia.
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Luke 2: 22
They brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord.
