Saturday Prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos

Rejoice, 0 Virgin Theotokos, thou haven and protection of mine impoverished soul, my sweet hope of salvation! Rejoice, thou who from the angel didst receive the joy of the good tidings that God the Word was to take flesh of thee! Rejoice, thou who didst bear the Creator of all within thy womb! Rejoice, thou who didst give birth to God in the flesh, the Savior of the world! Rejoice, thou who didst preserve virginity uncorrupted in childbirth! Rejoice, thou who didst receive gifts from the magi and didst behold their worship of Him Who wast born of thee and didst hear the shepherds' most glorious words concerning Him and didst lay all these things up in thy heart! Rejoice, thou who didst joyfully find the child Jesus, thy Son and God, in the temple among the teachers of the Law! Rejoice, thou who didst bear the terrible pain of anguish at the cross, crucifixion and death of thy Son and God! Rejoice, thou who after such trials was radiantly gladdened by the resurrection of sweetest Jesus on the third day! Rejoice, thou who didst behold the ascension of thy Son and God in heavenly glory! Rejoice, thou who together with the disciples of the Lord didst receive from Him the Holy Spirit, Which was sent down on the upper room in the form of fiery tongues! Rejoice, thou that didst live like an angel on earth! Rejoice, thou that didst surpass in purity and holiness all the angelic orders and all the choirs of saints! Rejoice, thou that art magnified with glory by the coming to thee of thy Son and God! Rejoice, thou that didst entrust thy soul into His holy hands! Rejoice, thou that gloriously wast taken up bodily into heaven! Rejoice, thou that didst appear to the God-beholding apostles on the third day after thy repose! Rejoice, thou that art crowned in the heavens by the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit with the diadem of the eternal kingdom! Rejoice, thou that hast been enthroned in glory near the throne of the All-holy Trinity! Rejoice, thou through whom God is reconciled with man! Rejoice, Queen ruling over things heavenly and earthly! Rejoice, for nothing is impossible for thine intercession! Rejoice, for all that flee to thee with faith are saved! Rejoice, for by thee the grieving find consolation, the ailing healing, the afflicted timely help! I then pray thee, 0 Mistress full of grace, extinguish in me sinful sorrow and grant me the joy of salvation, consoling tears, constant compunction, true repentance and perfect correction. Despise me not, O Mistress, but mercifully receive these joyful cries offered to thee by me the poor one, and come thou to mine aid at the time of my helplessness, in that terrible hour when my soul will be parted from my cursed body; come, then, I pray, to mine aid and deliver me, who am guilty in sin, from the eternal punishment, that I appear not a joy to demons and food for the fiery Gehenna. Yea, my Mistress, permit not my soul to see the terrible and fearsome threat and torment of the demons prepared for sinners, but do thou go before me and save me thy servant in that terrible hour, that I may glorify thee unto the ages, mine only hope and the Mediatress of my salvation. Amen.

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“It is truly right to bless you, O Theotokos, ever blessed and most pure, and the Mother of our God. More honorable than the Cherubim, and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim, without defilement you gave birth to God the Word. True Theotokos we magnify you.” ~ Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom