Vespers
~ From Archbishop Lazar Puhalo, The Spiritual and Scriptural Meaning of the Cycle of Orthodox Christian Divine Services, Point of Faith #12, “Vespers”, p. 13-16.
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The Evening Watch (7:00 PM - 9:00 PM)
“And it was evening and it was morning one day” (Gn. 1:5)
For the Orthodox Church, vespers is not the end of the day, but the beginning of the liturgical day, as it was in the creation of the world for, “It was evening and it was morning one day” (Gn. 1:5).
Thus, the vespers service is a daily commemoration of the loving creation of the world by the Word Himself, Who, with that same boundless love would come in the latter times to redeem and save His creation. It is for just this reason the vespers service begins with the “Creation Psalm” (Psalm 103) which glorifies the wisdom of God in the creation itself.
It is said that creation took place in six aeons, called “days” in Scripture. Yet, there are eight days of creation. Creation began, as Scripture says on “one day,” but the end of the creation cycle is not the sixth day, but Holy Pascha. In Scripture we are told that God finished His creation on the sixth day, and on the seventh day, He “rested from creating.” Thus from the sixth day until the coming of Christ was the “seventh day”, and when it says that God rested on the “seventh day” this is a prophecy which foretells the repose of Christ in the tomb on “the Sabbath”, bringing to a close the seventh creational day, that in His resurrection we might see the dawn of the eighth, eternal day. The repose of Christ in the tomb was the vespers (eve) of this eighth day of Creation — this “day of redemption.”
The day of redemption is the eighth and final day of the creation cycle. The seventh day was a type of the Sabbath, on which, because of the fall, all mankind must rest in the grave at the end of the days of their labours on earth. But we live already in the light of the eighth, everlasting day, which we shall inherit fully in our resurrection. The dawn of the new, eternal day shone upon those in Hades on the day of Christ’s bodily Sabbath, when He Who is the Eternal light Himself enlightened them. And it dawned upon the world when Christ came forth from the tomb in the radiance of His divine glory. When it is fully dawned, it will be seen that Christ Himself is the Sun which gives light to this eighth, eternal day.
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This is the core of the meaning of the vespers service: God created all things in love. He poured forth the grace of His Holy Spirit on His creation, and established paradise as a home and church for his children. Since, however, His children fell away from Him and departed, falling into bondage and slavery, He prepared them for the redemption and restoration to His paradise. In the fulness of time, He came to earth to co-suffer with mankind and redeem him.
In order to understand the divine services and the liturgical cycle, it is important to realize that the sanctuary of the Church is a revelation of Paradise. The royal gates are a type of the gates of paradise.
At the beginning of great vespers, the royal gates are opened and the priest begins to cense the sanctuary and the entire church, and the people. During this censing, the Creation Psalm is chanted. “In wisdom has Thou made them all…”. The incense, coming forth as it were from paradise, proclaims that in the beginning, God created all things and sent forth, as a sweet fragrance, the grace of His Holy Spirit upon all things, filling the earth with beauty and the richness of His love.
As soon as the censing is complete, the royal doors are closed, for mankind, through pride separated himself from God and lost paradise, carrying his corruption out into the whole world. Thus, the Royal gates are closed, just as the gates of paradise were closed against Adam and Eve. Now, the priest comes out of the sanctuary and stands bareheaded before the closed gates, reading the “lamp lighting prayers”. He is a type of all mankind, fallen and standing outside of the gates of Paradise, “in the other darkness”, seeking reconciliation and re-entry.
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After the Litany, the psalms of the kathisma speak of man’s condition and of his hope on the promised redemption.
In the singing of the “Lord I have cried unto Thee,” we make a cry from the heart of all humanity, seeking forgiveness, reconciliation, comfort and hope. “Let my prayer rise before Thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice”, since, according to Prophet Ezra, sincere prayer from a pure heart is the “true evening sacrifice” (9:5).
During the singing of the “Lord I have cried”, beginning with the words “Let my prayer rise as incense before Thee…”, the priest begins to cense the church again, but this time, the royal gates remain closed. The incense proclaims the sweetness of God’s promise and fills the air with that sure hope which is in Christ Jesus our Lord — that hope of redemption and of our return to paradise. The beautiful and touching stichera inserted in the verses of the “Lord I have cried”, particularly those of the eight resurrection tones, reveal to us the path of salvation in Jesus Christ. They fill our hearts with joy and hope and send us toward matins, in which His Resurrection is proclaimed, and the Divine Liturgy, in which we both celebrate and receive the glorious Resurrection of Christ and all that it bestows upon us.
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At the end of the “Lord I have cried”, the royal gates are opened, and the priest enters the sanctuary through them, bearing the censer, as we chant the “Joyous Light”. In this, he proclaims that God truly does receive our prayers; that they do rise before Him as incense. Our prayers are our own forerunners into Paradise; our repentance and contrition of heart go before us. Prayer is not merely a formula, not an incantation. It is a lifeline between us and our Saviour, by means of which we draw ourselves ever closer to Him. The royal gates are opened for this entrance to proclaim that He receives these prayers, and that the gates of paradise are to be opened to us once more, opened by Christ, the glorious Light of the World. Therefore, at this entrance we chant the anthem:
O joyous light of the holy glory, of the immortal, heavenly, holy blessed Father; O Jesus Christ, we who come to the setting of the sun, when we behold the evening light praise Father, Son and Holy Spirit, God. Meet is is for Thee at all times to be praisd with gladsome voices. O Son of God, Giver of life. Wherefore the world doth glorify Thee.
Thus we go forth toward the end of vespers filled with joy and anticipation, comforted in the love which God had poured upon us.
In vespers, we have recalled the creation, which was a great outpouring of God’s love. We have called to mind the fall from paradise and encouraged our souls toward repentance. And we have filled our hearts with joy and hope at the second great outpouring of God’s love, when He sent His Son into the world to restore that which He had created and redeem that which had fallen away from Him.
