Holy Transfiguration

All-Night Vigil, baby. Tomorrow morning, to the Cathedral! It's good for us to be there.

Troparion: You were transfigured on the mountain, O Christ our God, showing to Your disciples Your glory as each one could endure; shine forth on us, who are sinners all, Your light ever-unending through the prayers of the Theotokos. O Light-giver, glory to you.

Kontakion: On the mount You were transfigured, and Your disciples, as much as they could bear, beheld Your glory, O Christ God; so that when they should see You crucified, they would know Your passion to be willful, and would preach to the world that You, in truth, are the Effulgence of the Father.

Horribly stilted, but also horribly deep. I can't underemphasize the importance of the Transfiguration to the Orthodox liturgical cycle. In the Eucharist we are given the gift of joy and participation in the new time of the Kingdom of God. Blessing God is the way of the fulness of life, and it is the life given to us in the Church. In the Transfiguration Christ reveals the fundamental goodness of Creation and its sacramental nature. "It is good for us to be here."

In lumine tuo videbimus lumen...