Wednesday of the Week of the Life-giving Passion (Wednesday of Conspiracies)

Selections from the Morning Service (Saphro)

Hymn (Enyono)

After Psalm 10:

Today our Lord reveals to the Twelve the secret mystery:
“One of you will betray Me and take a price for Me.”

Today the wolf goes forth from the fold of the sheep
to mingle with the company of treacherous people.

Today in his treachery Judas parts from his companions
and conspires perfidiously against the True Shepherd.

Today the Good One offers Himself to the Passion and to Death
for the sake of the guilty Adam who fell in the Garden of Eden.

Today the chief priest prophesies concerning the Lord,
“It is in our interest that one man die so that the nation may live.”

Today our Lord tells His disciples, “Do not grieve.
I rise. I resurrect that you  may live.”

Proemion and Sedro

Praise, thanksgiving, glory, honour and exaltation, continually and without ceasing at all times, may we be worthy to offer to Him who knows all secret things and who revealed beforehand to His chosen and holy disciples the Mystery of His Life-giving Passion, telling them also of His Life-giving Crucifixion and of the betrayal of the deceitful disciple. To the Living One belongs glory, honour and adoration, at this time of morning and all times and seasons and hours and moments of the days of our lives forever. Amen.

Glory and thanksgiving to You, Christ our God, who in Your Being are not subject to passion and not subject to death, and it pleased You to make us also not subject to passion and not subject to death. Out of love and of Your own will You became man like us and took on Yourself to endure the Passion, also of Your own will. And beforehand You told the beloved and glorious company of Your disciples that all the mysteries and symbols and parables would be fulfilled at the Mystic and Sacred Table where the lamb prefigured by Moses would be offered. And when You said to them, “One of you will betray Me,” You revealed the treachery of the deceitful disciple and false apostle.

While You are the Judge of Judges and the Lord of Lords, You were driven as a lamb to be judged by Pilate. And like a sheep before the shearer You remained silent. You stood in the court like a man and You were interrogated like any other culprit. You were slapped in the face by a servant, You who set servants free from their enslavement to sin. You were lifted up on the Cross, You who raise us to the highest heaven. You drank vinegar and tasted gall, You who give us to drink of the cup of immortality. Your hands were pierced by nails, You who cleansed our sinful hands. Your side was pierced by a spear, You who break the spear of the Winged Creature guarding paradise. You died upon the tree You who give us new life. You descended into Sheol, You who make us return to Paradise.

Because of all these things You did for us, we confess You and we praise You. With voices of thanksgiving we honour and exalt Your goodness. We bleieve that You are truly God and we implore You to make us share in Your Passion, in purity and holiness. May we be crucified to the passions and temptations of the world and may the world be crucified to us. May we set aside all the sinful pleasures of sinful man and live in You the true life. We ask You, make us aliens and strangers to sin but partakers of Your Mystic and Sacred Table, that we may be worthy to praise You and Your Father and Your Holy Spirit, now and always and forever. Amen.

First Hymn (Qolo)

On Wednesday and Thursday at Jerusalem there is intrigue and tension
between buyer and seller, and neither makes any gain.
Judas sells and Caiaphas purchases. They are traders of deception.
He who sells does not gain, neither does he who buys.
Jesus Himself is troubled in spirit when He reveals the betrayal;
halleluia, Judas receives the bread and goes forth. It was night.

The glorious day of the Passover of the Lamb of God is near
which Moses made his people to celebrate at night in Egypt.
Let us take our lamps and go to meet Him. With devoted minds
and pure hearts let us confess Christ our King, the New Passover,
sacrificed to make us pass from death to life, halleluia.
How beautiful is Your Passover!

The disciple who betrayed His Master, a foul lover of money,
opened his heart to Satan and plotted the death of the Lord.
He sold the Giver of Life out of hatred. He received the money
and concluded the transaction. Let us take care, brothers, not to fall
away from God’s life. Let not the love of money or any other passion
fill our hearts, halleluia, lest we fall away from Christ’s love.

Our Saviour set out for His Passion at Jerusalem.
On reaching there He entered the city where He was to be crucified,
and seeing a fig tree, He looked for fruit but there was none.
“May no one ever eat fruit from you again,” He said to the tree.
Thus do people who do not bear fruit fall away from Christ’s love.
Halleluia, Lord, have mercy on us and on all.

Gospel Reading:

John 2.13-25; 7.33-36; 12.31-36 (given as a composite in the Diatessaron)

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From Francis Acharya, Prayer with the Harp of the Spirit, Volume III: The Crown of the Year Part II: The Seven Weeks of the Fast of our Lord and of His Life-giving Passion and the Night of His Resurrection (Vangamon: Kurisumala Ashram, 1985).