“It seems to me that Easter, of all holidays, is the best candidate for the title of Holiday_for_Everyone. It’s cooler than New Year’s, my friends.”

This prayer is referred to as the “song” of Simeon (Песнь Симеона Богоприимца), called the “God-receiver” (Богоприимец) because he greeted Christ, as a child, at the temple.

Mary, Pure Virgin, Most Holy Mother of God, / Rejoice, Unwedded Bride.

O God and My Son, my wondrous beauty, / What is this most glorious and terrible vision I here behold?

O Lord and Master of my life, do not grant me a spirit of idleness, despondency, love of power, and idle speech…

Κύριε Ιησού Χριστέ, Υιέ του Θεού, ελέησόν με τον αμαρτωλόν. / Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.

Let my prayer arise like incense before You; May the raising of my hands be like an evening sacrifice.

Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and to those in the tombs bestowing life

“Make the robe of my soul to shine, O Giver of Light, and save me.”

“I believe in one God, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible…”

O Lord of Hosts be with us, for we have no other helper in sorrows but thee; O Lord of Hosts have mercy on us.

This excerpt is from Sergei Rachmaninov’s Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (an Eastern Church Father, famed as an eloquent preacher, he was called the “Golden-Tongued,” and is known in Russian as Иоанн Златоуст).

This chant features the Beatitudes (“Blesssed are…”), from the Sermon on the Mount, interspersed with a refrain borrowed from the thief on the cross: “Remember me when You come into Your Kingdom.”