Scroll back to November 29 for an introduction to this 13 part prayer.
Kontakion 6
How great and how close you are in the powerful track of the storm! How mighty your right arm in the blinding flash of the lightning! How awesome your majesty! The voice of the Lord fills the fields, it speaks in the rustling of the trees. The voice of the Lord is in the thunder and the downpour. The voice of the Lord is heard above the waters. Praise be to you in the roar of *mountains ablaze. You shake the earth like a garment; you pile up to the sky the waves of the sea. Praise be to you, bringing low the pride of humankind. You bring from our hearts a cry of *penitence: Alleluia!
Ikos 6
*When the lighting flash has lit up the camp dining hall, how feeble seems the light from the lamp. You, like the lightning, unexpectedly light up my heart with flashes of intense joy. After your blinding light, how drab, how colorless, how *illusory all else seems. My soul clings to you.
Glory to you, the highest peak of our dreaming.
Glory to you, for our unquenchable thirst for communion with God.
Glory to you, making us dissatisfied with earthly things.
Glory to you, turning on us your *healing rays.
Glory to you, subduing the power of the spirits of darkness
and dooming to death every evil.
Glory to you, for the *signs of your presence,
for the joy of hearing your voice and living in your love.
Glory to you, O God, from age to age.
* "mountains ablaze" — Is the author thinking of the Autumn colors?
* "penitence" — Our inner turning, turning, turning — but gradually, like the ripening of fruit.
* What dining hall? Could Father Petroff have added this thought as he lived in a concentration camp? In another translation, the lights from the fence around the camp remind him of the oil lamps burning before the icons on the walls of the church.
* "how illusory all else seems" — How transitory.
* "healing rays" — How do I experience this?
* "signs of your presence" — Do I detect them?
