Thursday July 09, 2026 / June 26, 2026
In thee, O father, that which was created according to the image of God was manifestly saved./ For accepting thy cross thou didst follow after Christ,/ and praying thou didst learn to disdain the flesh,/ for thou didst transcend it to take care of thine immortal soul.// Wherefore, with the angels doth thy soul rejoice, O venerable David.
An ever-blossoming garden, bearing the fruits of the virtues,/ thou didst appear in the tree of a grove, like a right melodious bird;/ and receiving the Lord, the tree of life, in thy heart all the more,/ and cultivating it like a garden, O divinely wise one,/ thou hast thereby nurtured us with grace.// Pray thou ever in our behalf, O most blessed David.
Today thy most precious icon hath shone forth upon us in the air like the all-radiant sun, O Mistress, illumining the world with rays of mercy; and great Russia, reverently receiving it from on high as a gift of God, glorifieth thee as the Mistress of all, O Mother of God, and joyously magnifieth Christ our God Who was born of thee. Him do thou entreat, O Lady, Queen and Theotokos, that He preserve all the cities and lands where Christians live, unharmed by all the assaults of the enemy, and save those who with, faith worship before the all-honored image of Him and thee, O Virgin who knewest not wedlock.
O ye people, let us make haste to the Virgin Theotokos and Queen, giving thanks to Christ our God; and gazing with compunction at her miraculous icon, let us fall down and cry out to her: O Mary our Mistress, visiting this land in the miraculous appearance of thy precious icon, save our Orthodox hierarchs and all Christians in peace and prosperity, showing us to be inheritors of the life of heaven. For to thee do we cry with faith: Rejoice, O Virgin, salvation of the world!