Orthros / Matins (Morning Service)

The morning service, Orthros, meant for the hours before dawn. In Greek parishes it usually comes on the morning itself, just before the Liturgy; in Russian use it is joined to Vespers the evening before as the All-Night Vigil. After its opening prayers come the Six Psalms, read with the lights lowered, then the psalter in its portion for the day, and at its heart is the canon: nine odes built on the nine biblical canticles, carrying the poetry of the feast or the saint of the day. Before the ninth ode the deacon censes the whole church while the Song of the Theotokos is sung, on most days with More honourable than the cherubim after every verse. Then come the Praises, Psalms 148 to 150, and on Sundays and feasts the priest’s cry Glory to Thee who hast shown us the light, answered by the Great Doxology, Glory to God in the highest. On Sundays one of the eleven Resurrection Gospels is read at the altar, and the book is brought out for the people to venerate.