"Theotokos, Hope", Chorus of Theodis Ypapantis (of Vatopedi Choir)

The feast of the Assumption is the last feast of the Holy Dodecaimeros and stands out for the brilliant sounds of its hymns. The Katavasis with the ninth ode of the canon in the third tone lend a special beauty to the day. This brilliance is also captured in the following recording with the Vatopedi choir performing the harmonious and so rhythmic hymn of the eirom of the ninth ode of the canon “In a law, a shadow and a letter” with the megalynario “Theotoke, hope” in the famous dance rhythmic pattern of the hexasimos.

In a law of shadow and letter, we believers descend in type;

Every male that opens the womb, holy to God;

through the firstborn Word, Father of the Son,

We magnify the firstborn, O Mother, with a perpetual grace.

Simple syntax

We believers are a type in the shadow and letter of the law,

Every male that opens the womb is holy to God;

For we magnify the firstborn Word, the Father of the Son,

Firstborn Mother, a virgin.

 Translation

Let us believers look carefully at the pattern

in the letter and shadow of the Mosaic law,

who says that only that male child

who first opened his mother's womb, is holy to God.

Therefore we glorify him who was first born as the Word,

Son of a Father who has no beginning and no end

The one who is born for the first time from a Mother

who had no relationship with a man.