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How to read the Mother of God correctly. The rule of reading prayer canons What is the Mother of God in a prayer book

The forms of veneration of saints are varied, each needs to offer up certain texts. You also need to pray to the Most Holy Theotokos in a special way, so you should immediately find out what the Theotokos is in a prayer book and what rules you need to follow when reading it.

Mother of God in the church hierarchy

For believers, the highest position of the Virgin in the religious hierarchy is obvious. She goes second behind God, above angels and saints. According to Orthodox teaching God is represented in 3 persons:

Father;
Holy Spirit.

The Virgin Mary became the mother of Jesus Christ after God's grace descended on her, an immaculate conception occurred. After 9 months, Christ appeared, combining the features of God and man.

The Mother of God was always by his side, sharing hardships and hardships, saw the suffering of Christ on the cross, death and resurrection. All this made it possible for her to understand the needs of people and help them.

After death Mother of God her veneration began, many icons streamed myrrh, today there are about 800 icons in front of which believers pray and receive what they ask for, miraculous help is expressed in numerous healings. The number of texts containing an appeal to the Most Pure Mother of God is great.

Types of prayers

Any person can pray before the image of the Most Holy Theotokos, often they resort to her help:

to receive bodily healing;
to beg for a spouse, child;
ask for help in raising children;
find solace in sorrows;
solve difficult problems;
gain mutual understanding with loved ones;
improve your spiritual life;
understand your purpose.

All these petitions are expressed in various forms, one or another form should be chosen taking into account a number of circumstances. The most common forms:

a short prayerful sigh;
appeals in prayers in the morning and for the coming sleep;
prayer Virgin Mary, rejoice;
rule to the Mother of God - repetition of the above prayer 150 times;
prayer or penitential canon;
akathists read in front of various icons of the Mother of God in the temple and at home.

You can pray before the images of the Virgin Mary at home or in a church, each option has its own characteristics. There are also special chants - the Theotokos, which are universal in many respects.

For everyone church services chants dedicated to the Mother of God are heard, because her role in the salvation of the human race is enormous.

Hymn of the Theotokos at Divine Liturgy

Theotokion can be heard at the service, this is a special hymn dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos. It can be performed in 3 different ways:

stichera - a text resembling a hymn, is pronounced along with the psalms from the book of the Psalter;
troparion - a short chant reflecting the essence of the church holiday;
sedal - when a chant is performed, it is allowed to sit.

Theotokos are usually used at the completion of the stichera, troparion or sedalen. You can read this text in all liturgical publications, except for the Gospel. You can hear the Theotokos at any service.

There is also a division into 4 groups when they are proclaimed:

on Sunday and on holidays - after the stichera;
on Sunday, as well as on holidays after the holiday troparion;
on weekdays - after stichera;
on weekdays - after the holiday troparia.

Usually they are at the end of the verse Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit Amen, the Theotokos are divided by voice, their location is the end of the liturgical books (appendix).

An important group are the Mother of God dogmatists, there are 8 of them according to the number of voices, they set out in a concise form dogmas - immutable establishments concerning the Most Holy Theotokos.

Their presence means the exaltation of the role of the Blessed Virgin in the salvation of mankind, she is able to beg Christ to have mercy on sinners. The main idea is that Christ was incarnated from the virgin Mary through the grace of the Holy Spirit.

At the services of the Theotokos, dogmatists sound very beautiful, their place in worship is after the stichera On the Lord, the invocation during Sunday vespers.

Another variety is the Cross of the Mother of God, revealing the full depth of the suffering of the Virgin, when the Lord was on the cross, she passed everything through her heart. Time and place of prayers:

vespers on Tuesday, Thursday;
Wednesday, Friday morning.

At these services, the Lord's Cross is venerated, its greatness and the grief of the Mother of God are sung.

Dogmas of prayer books

Many believers who are just starting to carefully read the prayer book often stumble upon incomprehensible abbreviations there, which are separated by a comma or colon. These abbreviations are also present in liturgical books.

Abbreviations

The purpose of their placement is that a long text takes up space, and abbreviations help to better adapt to reproducing them in the service of readers and singers. The most common abbreviations adopted in theological practice need to be known.

Glory, and Now it should be read like this:

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and forever, and forever and ever. Amen.

In addition to prayer books, they are found in each of the 20 kathismas of the Psalter, dividing the kathisma into 3 parts.

Trisagion - 3 should be said:

Holy God, Holy Strong, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.

Trinity:

Holy Trinity, our God, glory to Thee.

When the Theotokos is written in the prayer book, it is necessary to pronounce:

Holy Mother of God save us.

Such a constant invocation of the Mother of God allows you to always be under her protection, makes it possible to make sure that her role is great, she saves people who even have serious sins. In the prayer book of inexperienced Christians, abbreviations can be misleading, but phrases should be pronounced in full.

The phrase “Holy Mother of God, save us” must be read not only during the rule, but also to call on the Virgin Mary for help with a short appeal whenever it’s hard, it’s not clear how to act in confusing situations.

canons

Communion is the most important sacrament for an Orthodox Christian, in which he inexplicably enters into communion with Christ, taking into himself his body and blood, which are given at the liturgy in the form of bread and wine.

In order to receive these shrines with dignity, the believer needs to carefully prepare. In addition to fasting for 3 days, when it is forbidden to eat animal food, it is necessary to go to confession with a priest in the temple, where communion is supposed.

repentant to the Lord;
prayer to the Mother of God;
Guardian Angel.

Also, many read the penitential canon to the Most Holy Theotokos. Both canons direct the believer to the knowledge of spiritual wisdom, reveal to him biblical history whose events are still relevant today. The canon is built according to the same scheme: 9 songs, the first and last are dedicated to the Mother of God.

The first song of the prayer canon contains the recognition of one's sins, the presence of numerous passions, diseases of the soul and body, which only the Mother of God can heal. The final song of the prayer canon is a request to the Virgin Mary to bring joy, to enlighten a gloomy soul.

The penitential canon contains more repentant sighs, awareness of one's sinfulness, the only hope for the help of the Virgin. Sinners have a strong fear, but faith is great in the mercy of the Blessed Virgin, she can beg the Lord for the forgiveness of all sins.

In the first songs of the prayer and penitential canons there is the Theotokos - "Most Holy Theotokos, save us." Usually in prayer books it is written in full.

Canon is a series of sacred chants in honor of a saint or holiday. The canon usually consists of 9 songs. The 2nd ode is missing from the Correct Canons.

Each song, in turn, consists of an irmos and troparia. Irmos is the first verse of the song. According to the general rule, only irmos is read in combined canons first canon. For this reason, in the Correct Senior Canons, the irmos of the second canon (the Mother of God) is read at the end of the song at the place of the katavasia, and in the Correct Lesser Canons, the irmos of the second canon (to the Guardian Angel) is completely left.

Tropari- all subsequent verses of the song. The correct canons have 4-7 troparia each (we read them without connection). Before each troparion, a chant is pronounced corresponding to the canon being read:

Song of Jesus:"Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner (or us)."

Chant of the Mother of God:"Holy Mother of God, save us."

Chant to the Angel: "Angel of Christ, my guardian saints, save me, your sinful servant."

The penultimate troparion of the last (in our case, the second) canon has the chant: Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (abbreviated Glory), and the last troparion (Mother of God) has a chant: And now and ever and forever and ever, amen (abbreviated as And now).

The order of reading the Correct Canons for each day

The correct canons are read in pairs, first senior canons Jesus and the Mother of God (by day), then small canons Mother of God and Angel (by day) in this combination:

Under Monday (starting from Sunday evening):

3-4) canon to the Theotokos “Water has passed ...” + canon to the Guardian Angel great.

Under Tuesday

1-2) the canon of Jesus + the canon of the Virgin Akathist;

Wednesday:

1-2) canon of Jesus + canon of the Theotokos Hodegetria;