CANON OF COMPUNCTION ... TUESDAY IN TONE 1

Ode 1.

Irmos.  Let us all sing the hymn of victory to God, who has performed wondrous signs with his lofty arm and who saved Israel for he has been glorified.

Enslaved to the passions of sin, I fall down before you, O Lord, so that you may make me free of them and I may fervently glorify your goodness.

I, a wretched sinner, have been struck and killed by the broad-sword of sin.  Seeing me stretched out on the ground, the enemy rejoices.  Yet as you raised the dead, grant me life and save me.

As a fiery throne you bear our Creator, as the living bridal chamber and a delightful palace, you contain the King, who is as we are, without change and mixture.

 

Ode 3.

Irmos.  The stone which the builders rejected, this has become the head of the corner; it is the rock on which Christ founded the church, which he redeemed from the nations.

Behold this my weakness, which you have borne!  Behold the terrible deformity of my soul!  Attend to my voice, greatly merciful Christ and transform my ugliness into beauty, O Savior.  
Save me, Jesus, for I am a profligate rake; save me, for I trespass above all others against your salvific laws and have irrationally committed every sin, and have been overcome by thoughts which estrange me from you, O benevolent one.
You bear him whom the Father begot before all ages; you feed the nourisher, without having known man.  Strange is the wonder!  New is the mystery, O Virgin highly favored by God!  Therefore every soul of the faithful glorifies you.

 

Ode 4.

Irmos.  In the Spirit foreseeing the incarnation of the Word, O prophet Habbakuk, you announced, crying out, “When the years drew near, you will be acknowledged, when the time comes, you will be manifested.  Glory to your power, O Lord.”
What wealth you gave me I have scattered wickedly, performing outrageous deeds, and I have become destitute, being clothed in  disgraceful works.  Therefore I cry to you:  Adorn me with bright robes, moving me to repentance with divine grace.

I have been overcome by madness and have fallen terribly, and I lie on the ground incurably sick; raise me, for you are the standing of those who have fallen and establish my heart, O Christ, on the rock of salvific repentance.

The armies of the angels were astounded to see how he who is invisible was seen in our form, which he received from you, Virgin Mother of God; beseech him to deem worthy of salvation all those who glorify you faithfully.

Ode 5

Irmos.  Give us your peace, O Son of God, for we know no other God than you; we call on your name, for you are the God of the living and the dead.

I have been filled with many and difficult transgressions, long suffering and merciful Master; have mercy on me, a condemned sinner and do not cast me from your face.

You justified the publican who groaned, O Christ; imitating him, then, I also beat my breast and cry to you:  “Be merciful to me, for you alone are compassionate and merciful.”

You bore one of the worshipful Trinity with two wills, all-pure Virgin, yet bearing one hypostasis; beseech him earnestly to save us all.

 

Ode 6

Irmos.  I shout, imitating the prophet Jonah, “Deliver my life from destruction, O benevolent Lord, and save me, for I cry, ‘O Savior of the world, glory to you.’”

The bones of my worthless soul have been crushed and overthrown by the weight of many pleasures; help me, Christ, for you alone are the help of all.
In the sea of dangers and in the storm of the sufferings, falling down I cry out:  All powerful Christ, bring me up with your powerful hand and save me.

As you have become the tabernacle of holiness, O Mary, sanctify my worthless soul, which has been polluted by the pleasures, and make me a partaker of divine glory.

 

Ode 7

Eirmos.  The fire did not touch or trouble your youths in the furnace, O Savior; then the three as with one mouth praised and blessed you, saying, “Blessed is the God of our fathers.”

Job practiced endurance and remained unshaken by all the attacks of the evil one, like a noble tower; always try to equal him and do not grow weary amid your sufferings, O my soul.

I have been defeated by bodily pleasures and have become irrational, though rational.  O Word of God, who saved the harlot with a word, save me, a wretched sinner, so that I may bless your goodness in hymns.

All-pure one, Christ chose you alone from all the generations as a holy and pure dwelling, and he rose from you like the sun from the earth, enlightening all men.

 

Ode 8  

Irmos.  Him at whom the angels and all the armies of Heaven shudder as their Creator and Lord--praise him in song, O ye priests!  Glorify him, O youths!  Bless him, O peoples, and supremely exalt him unto all ages.
Adorn me now with the robes of the virtues, whom the crafty serpent has made naked of all kinds of virtues by his very wicked scheme; for you, O Savior, stripped him of his wickedness.

When you come to judge the race of mortals, most just judge, in the fearful hour, do not send me as one condemned to the fire of Gehenna, but be merciful and save me.

You were as a lily in the valleys of life; in you has he dwelt who is the planter of all things; now make us fragrant with virtuous fragrance and dignity, O Mother of God.

 

Ode IX

Irmos.  Let us all magnify as the pure Mother of our God, the luminous cloud in which the Master of all as rain from Heaven descended on the fleece of wool; he who had no beginning became man and was incarnate for our sake.

Behold!  It is the time of repentance and of pure work.  Behold the bright day—do good deeds!  Flee the darkness of the passions and drive away the sleep of the wickedest sloth, my soul, so that you may become a partaker of the divine light!

As the publican I groan, as the adulteress I weep, as the thief I cry out, “Remember me, merciful Lord!”  As the prodigal son I cry, “I have sinned!”  I fall before you as the Canaanite woman:  “O compassionate Christ, do not despise me!”

Enlighten my soul with the illuminating brilliance of the Word which rose from your sacred womb, Virgin Mother of God, and which illumined the ends of the earth—for I have been blinded by the darkness of the pleasures—so that I may praise you faithfully.

 

 

ENDNOTES FOR THE CIRCUMSPECT

This canon received no review from Zoilus, my esteemed editor.  I did refer to the translation on Anastasis, the website of Fr. Ephrem (Lash) of blessed memory.  It was, however, given an imperious eye by Aeteia, my lawfully-wedded.

Ode 4.
“What wealth.”  The parable of the Prodigal Son is a favorite allusion in canons of compunction.
“Destitute.”  γυμνός has a range of meanings:  stripped (of weapons), bald, poor, destitute, badly dressed, underdressed and of course naked.  Due to the higher level of chastity in antiquity, though, being underdressed was not much worse than being undressed.  For example, anyone from the ancient world would regard many if not most of our young people as being shamefully naked.  My translation (destitute) may be justified as the natural consequence of squandering money, but our author uses the ambiguity of γυμνός to join two different experiences—painting the town red and needing to be dressed.  
“Adorn.”  Καταφαίδρυνον is a tricky word.  Does it mean beautify, adorn, illumine, make bright?  I have tried to combine two of its meanings.  We may recall that St. Sebastian of Optina urged the members of his flock to dress brightly on feast days, even if they could not dress richly.  See Tatiana V. Torstensen’s Elder Sebastian of Optina, Optina Elder Series (Platina, CA:  St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1999).
“The standing of those who have fallen” is literally “you are the standing of the fallen.” 
“Moving.”  The more concrete meaning of κατανύσσω is goad, pierce.

Ode 5.
“With two wills.”  The attempt by the emperors of Constantinople to meet the Monophysites half-way by postulating that Christ had one will resulted in the monothelete heresy.  This heresy took down Pope Honorius I, who was “anathematized at the sixth ecumenical council in 681” (Aristeides Papadakis, in collaboration with John Meyendorff, The Christian East and the Rise of the Papacy:  The Church, 1071-1453 A.D., The Church in History IV, gen. ed. John H. Erickson (Crestwood, NY:  St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1994), 162); all subsequent popes “until the eleventh century were required formally to condemn [Honorius’] name at their consecration” (ibid.).

Ode 7.
“Try to equal him” (τοῦτον ζήλου).  Anglophone translators are fond of rendering ζηλόω as emulate—thanks no doubt to Great Scott—but I don’t even think most people know what vie with means anymore.  I am afraid that most translators think that emulate is a ten-buck word for imitate.