Book of Needs of the Holy Orthodox Church : $b with an appendix containing offices for the laying on of handsRusskaia pravoslavnaia tserkov
Religion
Book of Needs of the Holy Orthodox Church : $b with an appendix containing offices for the laying on of hands
Russkaia pravoslavnaia tserkov
Orthodox Eastern Church -- Liturgy -- Texts
Arise ye then, and gather ye together all, and, sitting down, hear ye a
word, Brethren, the judgment-seat is dread, where we have every one to
stand. There none is slave, and none is free; there none is little, none
is great; but all in nakedness shall stand: for this cause it is well to
sing ofttimes the psalm, the _Alleluia_.
Bewail we all with tears as we behold the relics lie, and all approaching
them to kiss let us in equal wise exclaim, Lo, thou hast left them who
thee lov’d: wilt thou not speak with us again? Why dost thou speak not,
friend, as thou wast wont to speak to us? But so thou silent art, even to
say with us the _Alleluia_.
What, brethren, are the dying’s bitter words, which, when they go, they
say? I from the brethren parted am, I quit and leave you all, O friends.
Then where I go I do not know, and how I shall be there know not: God
only knows, who calleth me. But make ye my memorial with the song, the
_Alleluia_.
Then where now go the souls? then how now fare they there? I long to
learn the mystery; but none sufficient is to tell. Do they remember their
own things, as we remember them? or have they us forgotten who are left,
who them lament and make the song, the _Alleluia_.
Accompany the dead, O friends, and to the grave with heed hie ye,
and muse ye there in thoughtful wise, and your own feet prepare: all
youthfulness is cast therein, all vigour fadeth there: there dust and
ashes are, and worms: there all is silence, and none saying _Alleluia_.
Lo, now we see him lying, but to us no presence is of him: behold,
the tongue now silent is, and, lo, already cease the lips. Farewell, O
friends, O children; be ye saved, O ye brethren, O acquaintance, be ye
sav’d; for I depart my way. But make ye my memorial with the song, the
_Alleluia_.
Not one of those who there hath gone doth live again to tell to us how
they, our brethren once and kinsfolk, fare who there have come before the
Lord. Therefore, we oft, yea, ever say, Do they each other there behold?
do they a brother see? do they together say the psalm, the _Alleluia_?
We go the everlasting way in mien as them that are condemn’d, with faces
all cast down. Then where is beauty? where is wealth? then where the
glory of this life? Nothing of these shall help us there, even to say
ofttimes the psalm, the _Alleluia_.
Why in untimely wise disquietest thou thyself, O man? one hour, and all
is gone; for there in hades no repentance is, nor any further pardon
there: the never-dying worm is there, all there is dark and gloomy land,
where I must come to be condemn’d. For I have not ofttimes made speed to
say the psalm, the _Alleluia_.
Nothing so soon forgotten is by man as man when he is gone; for, if we
do remember for a time, we straightway death forget, when absent is the
dead. And parents even every child forget, that, of the womb begot, they
nourish’d have, and have with tears accompanied with the song, the
_Alleluia_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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