ARRIVAL AT THE CHURCH: THE BURIAL. SERVICE

But when we got inside the church we laid down the bed and turned first to prayer. But our prayer was the signal for the people's lamentations to start again. For when the voice of psalmody was still, and the virgins gazed on that holy face, and the grave of our parents was already being opened, in which it had been decided that Macrina should be [994D] laid, a woman cried out impulsively that after this hour we should see that divine face no more. Then the rest of the virgins cried out the same, and a disorderly confusion disturbed the orderly and solemn chanting of psalms, all being upset at the wailing of the virgins. With difficulty did we succeed in procuring silence by our gesture, and the precentor taking the lead and intoning the accustomed prayers of the Church, the people composed themselves at last to prayer.

Ἐπειδὴ οὖν ἐντὸς τῶν θυρῶν τοῦ οἴκου κατέστημεν, ἀποθέμενοι τὴν κλίνην τὰ πρῶτα εἰς προσευχὴν ἐτρεπόμεθα: ἡ δὲ εὐχὴ θρήνων γίνεται ἀφορμὴ τῷ λαῷ. Τῆς γὰρ ψαλμῳδίας κατασιγασθείσης ἐπειδὴ τὸ ἱερὸν ἐκεῖνο πρόσωπον αἱ παρθένοι προσέβλεψαν καὶ ἡ σορὸς ἤδη τῶν γονέων ἀπεκαλύπτετο, ἐν ᾗ καταθέσθαι δεδογμένον ἦν, μιᾶς τινος ἀτάκτως ἐκβοησάσης, ὅτι οὐκέτι μετὰ τὴν ὥραν ταύτην τὸ θεοειδὲς τοῦτο προσβλέψομεν πρόσωπον, ὡς καὶ αἱ λοιπαὶ παρθένοι τὸ ἴσον μετ' αὐτῆς ἐξεβόησαν, σύγχυσις ἄτακτος τὴν εὔτακτον ἐκείνην καὶ ἱεροπρεπῆ ψαλμῳδίαν διέχεε, πάντων πρὸς τὴν τῶν παρθένων οἰμωγὴν ἐπικλασθέντων. Μόλις δέ ποτε καὶ ἡμῶν τὴν σιωπὴν διανευόντων καὶ τοῦ κήρυκος εἰς εὐχὴν ὑφηγουμένου καὶ τὰς συνήθεις ἐμβοῶντος τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ φωνάς, κατέστη πρὸς τὸ σχῆμα τῆς εὐχῆς ὁ λαός.