Monday, November 28, 2011

An Advent treat - Bogoroditse Devo


This is the choir of Wells Cathedral singing Bogoroditse Devo from Rachmaninoff's Vespers



BOGORODITSE DEVO,
Raduisya, blagodatnaya Mariye,
Gospod s toboyu.
Blagoslovenna Ty v zhenakh,
i blagosloven plod chreva Tvoyego,
Yako Spasa rodila esi dush nashikh.

REJOICE O VIRGIN
Theotokos, Mary full of grace,
the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
for thou has borne the Saviour of our souls.


TODAY'S SECOND VIGILS READING
From a sermon by St Aelred of Rievaulx

Let us take a look at ourselves and our city. Our way of life is a strongly fortified city surrounded on all sides by sound observances which, like walls and towers, rise up to prevent our enemy from deceiving us and enticing us away from our Emperor’s army. What a wall poverty is! How well it defends us against the pride of the world, against harmful and ruinous vanities and superfluities. What a tower silence is! It repels the assaults of contention, quarrelling, dissension, and detraction. What about obedience, humility, cheap clothing? What about a restricted diet? They are walls, they are towers against vices, against the attacks of our enemies. In this city we declare ourselves, not Romans, but angelic beings. For these observances demonstrate that we belong to the fellowship of the angels and are not among the slaves of the Romans. When we make profession of this way of life the words of Isaiah are fulfilled: They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into sickles. Then he goes on: Nation shall not lift sword against nation nor ever again be trained for war. Click HERE to continue reading . . .

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