The Presentation of Christ and Purification of the Virgin 2018

Let the gate of heaven be opened today; for the Word of the Father, that is without beginning, having taken a beginning in time, leaving not His divinity, as an infant of forty days is willingly brought into the temple of the law by the Virgin Mother; and the elder takes Him in his arms, crying out as a servant to the Master, “Dismiss me, for my eyes have seen Thy salvation, that hath come into the world to save the race of men; o Lord, glory to Thee!” (The doxastikon of Vespers of the Meeting of Christ and Simeon, as the feast is called in the Byzantine Rite.)

Mosaic of the early 11th century, from the monastery of Hosois Loukas in Boetia, Greece. (public domain image from Wikipedia; click to enlarge.)

Ἀνοιγέσθω ἡ πύλη τοῦ οὐρανοῦ σήμερον· ὁ γὰρ ἄναρχος Λόγος τοῦ Πατρός, ἀρχὴν λαβὼν χρονικήν, μὴ ἐκστὰς τῆς αὐτοῦ Θεότητος, ὑπὸ Παρθένου ὡς βρέφος τεσσαρακονθήμερον, Μητρὸς ἑκὼν προσφέρεται, ἐν ναῷ τῷ νομικῷ καὶ τοῦτον ἀγκάλαις εἰσδέχεται ὁ Πρέσβυς. Ἀπόλυσον κράζων, ὁ δοῦλος τῷ Δεσπότῃ· οἱ γὰρ ὀφθαλμοί μου εἶδον τὸ σωτήριόν σου, ὁ ἐλθὼν εἰς τὸν κόσμον, σῶσαι γένος ἀνθρώπων, Κύριε, δόξα σοι.