The Paschal Hours may also be chanted in place of the usual
Thanksgiving after Communion.[1] In addition, it is a pious tradition to substitute the Paschal Hours for Morning Prayers and Evening Prayers during all of Bright week.
In this way, the faithful take a little rest from the long prayer services, but do not neglect to give joyous thanks to God, so as not to fall into despondency and gluttony, as they partake of festive foods.
Outline
The Paschal Hours differ from the normal
Daily Office in several significant aspects: the entire service is
chanted (sung) rather than being
read; the services are much shorter than usual; and there are no
Psalms at all.
The hymnography and prayers center on Christ's victory over sin and death and Christians' hope for salvation.
Having beheld the Resurrection of Christ, let us worship the holy Lord Jesus, the only sinless One. We venerate your Cross, O Christ, and we praise and glorify your holy Resurrection; for you are our God and we know no other than you and we call upon your Name. Come all you faithful, let us venerate Christ's holy Resurrection, for behold through the Cross joy has come into all the world. Let us ever bless the Lord, praising his Resurrection, for enduring the Cross for us, he has destroyed death by death. (thrice)
Hypakoe of Pascha: Before the dawn the
Mary and the
women came and found the stone roled away from the tomb. They heard the angel's voice, "Why do you seek among the dead as a man, the One who is everlasting Light? Behold, the clothes in the grave. Go and proclaim to the world: The Lord is risen, he has slain death as he is the Son of God, saving the human race.
Kontakion of Pascha: You descended into the tomb, O Immortal, you destroyed the power of death. You arose in
triumph, O Christ God, proclaiming, "Rejoice" to the myrrh-bearing women, granting peace to your apostles and giving resurrection to the fallen.
Troparia:
In the
tomb with the body and in
Hades with the soul, in
Paradise with the
thief and on the throne with the
Father and the
Spirit, were You, O boundless
Christ filling all things.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit
Bearing life and more fruitful than Paradise, brighter than any royal chamber, Your tomb, O Christ, is the fountain of
our resurrection.
Both now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Rejoice, O holy and divine abode of the Most High, for through you, O
Theotokos, joy is given to those who cry: Blessed are you among women, O all-undefiled Lady.
Each of the Paschal Hours is the same (except that in some traditions, a Prayer of
St. Basil is added before the
dismissal of Paschal Compline).[2]
References
^translated from the Greek by the Holy Transfiguration Monastery. (1997), The Great Horologion or Book of Hours, Boston MA: Holy Transfiguration Monastery, p. 618,
ISBN0-943405-08-4