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bringing man from non-being into being, and placing him in a paradise of delight. But when he had fallen through the deceit of the 36.705 enemy and disobedience to your commandment, you, wishing to renew him and to restore him to his former dignity, not an angel, not an archangel, not a patriarch, not a prophet did you entrust with our salvation; but you yourself, becoming flesh unchangeably, also became man, made like us in all things, apart from sin alone; becoming a mediator for us, and for the Father, and tearing down the middle wall of partition, and the long-standing enmity, you joined the earthly to the heavenly, and brought both together into one and fulfilled the economy of the incarnation. And when you were about to ascend bodily into the heavens, divinely filling all things, you said to your holy disciples and apostles: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Grant us this peace also now, O Master; grant us cleansing from every defilement, from all deceit and all malice, and craftiness, and from the death-bearing remembrance of wrongs, and count us worthy to greet one another with a holy kiss, so as to partake without condemnation of your immortal and heavenly gift; by the grace of the good pleasure of the Father, and by the energy of the Holy Spirit. For you are the provider and giver of all good things, and to you we send up the glory, the eternal doxology, with your beginningless Father, and your Holy Spirit, now and ever. Another prayer of the kiss. O Christ our God, the fearful and incomprehensible power of God the Father; who sits above the fiery throne of the cherubim and is escorted by fiery powers, and who are a consuming fire, as God; and who, through your ineffable condescension and love for mankind, did not burn the deceitful betrayer at his approach, but greeted him as a friend, drawing him to repentance and to the knowledge of his own audacity. Count us worthy, O Master, at this fearful hour, in concord and without any double-mindedness, and remnant of malice to receive one another with a holy kiss. And do not condemn us for not being completely, and as it would please your goodness, cleansed from all dregs of sin and wickedness and the death-bearing remembrance of wrongs; but you yourself, by your ineffable and indescribable compassion, knowing our frame to be weak and weighed down, wipe away every stain of our transgressions, so that this divine mystery may not be for judgment or for condemnation for us. For you are the one who is able to forgive every sin, and to pass over the injustices and iniquities of wretched men, being the purification of the whole world, and to you is due from all in harmony doxology, honor and worship, together with your immaculate Father, and your life-giving Spirit now, etc. And the kiss takes place.

The deacon says: Let us stand well. The people say: A mercy of peace. The priest will exclaim: The love of God the Father, and the grace of the 36.708

only-begotten Son, our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ; and the communion and the gift of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.

The people say. And with your spirit. The priest says. Let us lift up our hearts. The people say. We have them to the Lord. The priest says. Let us give thanks to the Lord. The people say. It is meet and right. The priest says. It is meet and right, meet and right. Beginning of the proskomide

For truly it is meet and right to praise you, to bless you, to worship you, to glorify you the only true God, the lover of mankind, the ineffable, the invisible, the uncontainable, the beginningless, the eternal, the timeless, the immeasurable, the

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ἐκ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος εἰς τὸ εἶναι παράγων τὸν ἄνθρωπον, καὶ θέμενος αὐτὸν ἐν παραδείσῳ τρυφῆς. Ἀπάτῃ δὲ τοῦ 36.705 ἐχθροῦ καὶ παρακοῇ τῆς σῆς ἐντολῆς παραπεσόντα, ἀνακαινίσαι βουλόμενος καὶ πρὸς τὸ ἀρχαῖον ἀναγα γεῖν ἀξίωμα, οὐκ ἄγγελος, οὐκ ἀρχάγγελος, οὐ πα τριάρχης, οὐ προφήτης τὴν ἡμῶν ἐνεχείρησας σωτη ρίαν· ἀλλ' αὐτὸς ἀτρέπτως σὰρξ γενόμενος, καὶ ἐνηνθρώπησας, κατὰ πάντα ὁμοιώθης ἡμῖν, ἐκτὸς μόνης τῆς ἁμαρτίας· μεσίτης ἡμῶν γενόμενος, καὶ τοῦ Πατρὸς, καὶ τὸ μεσότοιχον τοῦ φραγμοῦ, καὶ τὴν χρονίαν ἔχθραν καθελὼν, τὰ ἐπίγεια τοῖς ἐπου ρανίοις συνῆψας, καὶ τὰ ἀμφότερα εἰς ἓν συνήγαγες καὶ τὴν ἔνσαρκον ἐπλήρωσας οἰκονομίαν. Καὶ μέλλων σωματικῶς ἐλαύνειν εἰς τοὺς οὐρανοὺς, θεϊ κῶς τὰ πάντα πληρῶν, τοῖς ἁγίοις σου μαθηταῖς, καὶ ἀποστόλοις ἔλεγες· Εἰρήνην ἀφίημι ὑμῖν· εἰ ρήνην τὴν ἐμὴν δίδωμι ὑμῖν. Ταύτην καὶ νῦν εἰρήνην ἡμῖν δώρησαι, ∆έσποτα· χάρισαι παντὸς ἀποκάθαρον μολύσματος, παντὸς δόλου καὶ πάσης κακίας, καὶ πανουργίας, καὶ τῆς θανατηφόρου μνησικακίας, καὶ καταξίωσον ἡμᾶς ἀσπάσασθαι ἀλλήλους ἐν φιλήματι ἁγίῳ, εἰς τὸ μετασχεῖν ἀκα τακρίτως τῆς ἀθανάτου καὶ ἐπουρανίου σου δω ρεᾶς· χάριτι τῆς εὐδοκίας τοῦ Πατρὸς, καὶ ἐνερ γείᾳ τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος. Σὺ γὰρ εἶ ὁ χορηγὸς καὶ δοτὴρ πάντων τῶν ἀγαθῶν, καὶ σοὶ τὴν δό ξαν, τὴν ἀΐδιον δοξολογίαν ἀναπέμπομεν, σὺν τῷ ἀνάρχῳ σου Πατρὶ, καὶ τῷ ἁγίῳ σου Πνεύματι, νῦν καὶ ἀεί. Εὐχὴ ἄλλη τοῦ ἀσπασμοῦ. Χριστὲ ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν, ἡ φοβερὰ καὶ ἀπερινόητος δύναμις τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ Πατρός· ὁ τοῦ φλογίνου θρό νου τῶν χερουβὶμ ὑπερκαθήμενος καὶ ὑπὸ πυρίνων δυνάμεων δορυφορούμενος, καὶ πῦρ καταναλίσκον ὑπάρχων ὡς Θεός· καὶ διὰ τὴν σὴν ἄφατον συγκα τάβασιν καὶ φιλανθρωπίαν μὴ φλέξας τῷ προσεγ γισμῷ τὸν δολερὸν προδότην, ἀλλὰ φιλικὸν αὐτὸν ἀσπασάμενος, ἕλκων αὐτὸν εἰς μετάνοιαν καὶ ἐπί γνωσιν τοῦ ἰδίου τολμήματος. Καταξίωσον ἡμᾶς, ∆έσποτα, ἐπὶ τῆς φρικτῆς ταύτης ὥρας, ἐν ὁμονοίᾳ καὶ δίχα παντὸς ἐν δύο θυμοῦ, καὶ λειψάνου κακίας ἀπολαβεῖν ἀλλήλους ἐν ἁγίῳ φιλήματι. Καὶ μὴ κα τακρίνῃς ἡμᾶς ὑπὲρ μὴ ὁλοτελῶς, καὶ καθὼς ἀρέσαι τῇ σῇ ἀγαθότητι, καθαρεύωμεν ἀπὸ πάσης τρυγὸς ἁμαρτίας καὶ πονηρίας καὶ τῆς θανατηφόρου μνη σικακίας· ἀλλ' αὐτὸς τῇ σῇ ἀφάτῳ, καὶ ἀνεκδιηγήτῳ εὐσπλαγχνίᾳ εἰδὼς τὸ πλάσμα ἡμῶν τὸ ἀσθενὲς, καὶ κάτω βρίθον, ἐξάλειψον πᾶσαν κηλίδα παραπτωμάτων ἡμῶν, ἵνα μὴ εἰς κρῖμα, ἢ εἰς κατάκριμα ἡμῖν γένηται τὸ θεῖον τοῦτο μυστήριον. Σὺ γὰρ εἶ ὁ δυνάμενος πᾶ σαν ἀφίειν ἁμαρτίαν, καὶ ὑπερβαίνειν ἀδικίας καὶ ἀνομίας τῶν ταλαιπώρων ἀνθρώπων, καθαρισμὸς τοῦ κόσμου παντὸς ὑπάρχων, καὶ σοὶ πρέπει ἡ παρὰ παντὸς συμφώνως δοξολογία, τιμὴ καὶ προσκύνησις, ἅμα τῷ ἀχράντῳ σου Πατρὶ, καὶ τῷ ζωοποιῷ σου Πνεύματι νῦν, κ. λ. Καὶ γίνεται ἀσπασμός.

Ὁ διάκονος λέγει· Στῶμεν καλῶς. Ὁ λαὸς λέγει· Ἔλεος εἰρήνης. Ὁ ἱερεὺς ἐκφωνήσει· Ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ Θεοῦ Πατρὸς, καὶ ἡ χάρις τοῦ μο 36.708

νογενοῦς Υἱοῦ, Κυρίου δὲ καὶ Θεοῦ, καὶ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ· καὶ ἡ κοινωνία, καὶ ἡ δωρεὰ τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος, εἴη μετὰ πάντων ὑμῶν.

Ὁ λαὸς λέγει. Καὶ μετὰ τοῦ πνεύματός σου. Ὁ ἱερεὺς λέγει. Ἄνω σχῶμεν τὰς καρδίας. Ὁ λαὸς λέγει. Ἔχομεν πρὸς τὸν Κύριον. Ὁ ἱερεὺς λέγει. Εὐχαριστήσωμεν τῷ Κυρίῳ. Ὁ λαὸς λέγει. Ἄξιον καὶ δίκαιον. Ὁ ἱερεὺς λέγει. Ἄξιον καὶ δίκαιον, ἄξιον καὶ δίκαιον. Ἀρχὴ τῆς προσκομιδῆσ

Ἀληθῶς γὰρ ἄξιόν ἐστιν, καὶ δίκαιόν σε αἰνεῖν, σὲ εὐλογεῖν, σὲ προσκυνεῖν, σὲ δοξάζειν τὸν μόνον ἀληθινὸν Θεὸν, τὸν φιλάνθρωπον, τὸν ἄφραστον, τὸν ἀόρατον, τὸν ἀχώρητον, τὸν ἄναρχον, τὸν αἰώνιον, τὸν ἄχρονον, τὸν ἀμέτρητον, τὸν