By Bishop Grigorios of Mesaoria
The Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts will be performed today morning and the Great Canon of Saint Andrew will be chanted this afternoon during the Small Compline service.
The Great Canon is the longest canon ever composed. It is chanted during the Great Lent thanks to its deeply hagiographical, doctrinal and theological content, which is essentially a call for repentance, forgiveness and humiliation. Through the troparia of this poem, all prominent persons of both the Old and New Testaments are praised, whose life and work serve as an example either to imitate the good or to flee the evil.
The poet’s references to Saint Mary of Egypt, the model of repentance honored on the following Sunday, are also touching.
“My soul, my soul, arise! Wherefore dost thou slumber? The end is drawing nigh, and thou shalt be troubled. Arouse thyself, therefore, that Christ God may spare thee; for He is everywhere present and filleth all things.” Let this characteristic excerpt of the Great Canon be a guide to our own repentance that will spiritually arise us and allow us prayerfully participate in the Great Feast of Easter while eschewing those elements that deter us from dining in the Kingdom of God.
Source: Church of Cyprus
