O Lord our God, who wast pleased to come down from heaven and to be born of the holy God-bearing and ever-virgin Mary for the salvation of us sinners, who knowest the feebleness of human nature; be gracious, according to the greatness of thy compassions, unto thine handmaid, _name_, who to-day hath borne a child. For thou hast said, O Lord, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it. Therefore we, thy servants, beseech thee, and, trusting in thy forbearing love to man, with fear invoke the holy name of thy kingdom, Look down from heaven and behold the feebleness of us condemned ones, and be gracious unto thine handmaid, _name_, and to all the house in which the child hath been born, and to all who are connected with her; and to all that here assemble be thou gracious, as the good and man-loving God. For thou alone hast power to forgive sins, through the prayers of the most holy God-bearing one, and of all thy Saints. Amen. [Illustration] [Illustration] _Chapter II._ PRAYER AT THE SIGNING OF A CHILD WHEN IT RECEIVETH A NAME ON THE EIGHTH DAY AFTER ITS BIRTH. _Be it known that on the eighth day after birth the babe is brought by the nurse to the temple, and she standeth before the doors of the temple._ _And the priest maketh,_ Blessed be our God... _Trisagion._ O most holy Trinity... _And after_ Our Father... For thine is the kingdom... _Then the troparion of the day, or of the holy habitation. And the priest signeth its forehead, mouth, and breast, and saith the prayer._ Let us pray to the Lord. O Lord our God, to thee we pray, and on thee we call, Let the light of thy countenance be signed on this thy servant (_or_, on this thine handmaid), _name_, and be he signed with the cross of thine only-begotten Son in his heart and understanding, that he may flee the vanity of the world and every evil device of the enemy, and may keep thy commandments; and grant, O Lord, that thy holy name may remain upon him unrenounced, when at the fitting time he shall be conjoined with thy holy church, and be perfected with the terrible mysteries of thy Christ, that, living according to thy commandments and preserving the seal unbroken, he may attain unto the blessedness of thine elect in thy kingdom, through the grace and love to man of thine only-begotten Son, with whom thou art blessed, together with thy most holy, and good, and life-creating Spirit, now and ever, and to ages of ages. Amen. _Then, taking the child in his hands, he standeth before the doors of the temple, or before the image of the most holy God-bearing one, and maketh the sign of the cross, saying,_ Hail, grace-accorded God-bearing Virgin! for out of thee the sun of righteousness, Christ our God, hath shined, enlightening them that are in darkness. And thou, O righteous elder, be thou glad, receiving in thine arms the deliverer of our souls, even him that granteth resurrection unto us.