Categories: orthodox-life, feast-days, spiritual-writings
Date: 24 April 2008 02:50:30
This is a beautiful hymn sung as part of the Holy Wednesday [held on Tuesday evening] Bridegroom Service. I was written by Kassiani the Nun. According to that article, fifty of her hymns are still in existence and twenty-three of these are included in Orthodox Church liturgical books. The Hymn of Kassiani is a penitential hymn based on the story of Mary Magdalene [see comments] as described in the Gospel [Luke 7:36-50]. Here is a translation of the hymn from this site:
Sensing your divinity Lord,
a woman of many sins,
takes it upon herself
to become a myrrh bearer
and in deep mourning
brings before you fragrant oil
in anticipation of your burial; crying:
"Woe to me! What night falls on me,
what dark and moonless madness
of wild-desire, this lust for sin.
Take my spring of tears
You who draw water from the clouds,
bend to me, to the sighing of my heart,
You who bend the heavens
in your secret incarnation,
I will wash your immaculate feet with kisses
and wipe them dry with the locks of my hair;
those very feet whose sound Eve heard
at the dusk in Paradise and hid herself in terror.
Who shall count the multitude of my sins
or the depth of your judgment,
Saviour of my soul?
Do not ignore your handmaiden,
You whose mercy is endless".