How to Celebrate Annunciation Vigil Tonight
It is the Eve of the Feast of Annunciation, the Archangel Gabriel announces to Ever-virgin Mary that she will bear a child, the Son of God. And we, restrained to our homes, will not be able to celebrate this beautiful feast in our local parish. What should we do at home?
As I have said before, there is no law or rule about how to celebrate the services at home. (At church, we should do it right, and there is great meaning in the liturgics.) Yes, there is such a thing as "readers services", and that is a great thing to do, if you have the resources to use and the experience and confidence to pull it off. For those folks: keep doin' your thing.
For the rest of us, I will propose two options: one with prayer book only, and two using the prayer book and one additional source found online.
Prayer Book Only:
Since this is the Feast of Annunciation, and the real cycle of services has additional elements to the normal Vigil, it would be fitting to add something appropriate in your home celebration, too. So, Small Compline is your basic service to use. Then, after the Symbol of Faith, when it says, "Here one or more canons or akathists may be read," add in the Akathist to the Theotokos and then the Small Supplicatory Canon to the Theotokos. That is a lot. But just Compline and the canon would probably be less than 30min, and we would be in church for two or three hours...so, we can do it.
One more note: When the red notes in Compline say, "now the troparion or troparia for the day", the troparion for Annunciation is in the back of the book: p296. Include it, too.
Prayer Book Plus:
This is basically the same thing as the above option: Small Compline and add in a canon. However, the canon used is the actual canon in Matins from the service for Annunciation. Open up that file and scroll down a few pages, into Matins, and down to "Ode 1". Pray through those odes, which is just like using a canon in the back of the prayer book. When you hit the end of the canon, the end of Ode 9, then, return to Small Compline in the prayer book.
That is it. That is what I would suggest. If all of this just sounds too overwhelming...
The Super Simple Option:
In the prayer book, go to the Akathist to the Theotokos, and pray that.
The most important thing with any of these options is to pray. We are celebrating the incredible mystery accomplished through the Mother of God, the beginning of our salvation.
As I have said before, there is no law or rule about how to celebrate the services at home. (At church, we should do it right, and there is great meaning in the liturgics.) Yes, there is such a thing as "readers services", and that is a great thing to do, if you have the resources to use and the experience and confidence to pull it off. For those folks: keep doin' your thing.
For the rest of us, I will propose two options: one with prayer book only, and two using the prayer book and one additional source found online.
Prayer Book Only:
Since this is the Feast of Annunciation, and the real cycle of services has additional elements to the normal Vigil, it would be fitting to add something appropriate in your home celebration, too. So, Small Compline is your basic service to use. Then, after the Symbol of Faith, when it says, "Here one or more canons or akathists may be read," add in the Akathist to the Theotokos and then the Small Supplicatory Canon to the Theotokos. That is a lot. But just Compline and the canon would probably be less than 30min, and we would be in church for two or three hours...so, we can do it.
One more note: When the red notes in Compline say, "now the troparion or troparia for the day", the troparion for Annunciation is in the back of the book: p296. Include it, too.
Prayer Book Plus:
This is basically the same thing as the above option: Small Compline and add in a canon. However, the canon used is the actual canon in Matins from the service for Annunciation. Open up that file and scroll down a few pages, into Matins, and down to "Ode 1". Pray through those odes, which is just like using a canon in the back of the prayer book. When you hit the end of the canon, the end of Ode 9, then, return to Small Compline in the prayer book.
That is it. That is what I would suggest. If all of this just sounds too overwhelming...
The Super Simple Option:
In the prayer book, go to the Akathist to the Theotokos, and pray that.
The most important thing with any of these options is to pray. We are celebrating the incredible mystery accomplished through the Mother of God, the beginning of our salvation.
And for Wednesday morning, the day of the feast itself, here is an Akathist for the Annunciation that you could sing/read if you cannot go to Liturgy: Annunciation Akathist of St. Romanus the Melodist.
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