The Great Canon

 

About the Great Canon,  

sung on Τhursday of the fifth week of the Great Lent.

 

Of the Great Canon.... 

Canon is a sum of Troparia which our Church uses in various circumstances and occasions.  Depending on their subject, we have...

 Canons of Supplication, such as the great and the small supplication of PANAGIA(Paraclesis), canons of Supplication to other Saints, 

celebratory canons, 

canons of Thanksgiving, 

canons of doxology, etc 

Each canon is divided in 9 sections which are called odes. Every ode usually has 4 Troparia, of which the 4th one is always referring to PANAGIA, and it is called: Theotokion. 

Canons always lack the second ode, which is recited and chanted only during the Great Lent. 

So, each Canon has:1, (2), 3, 4, 5, 6,7, 8, 9,   odes, 

Which is to say: 8×4=32 Troparia. 

They are being sung in one of the 8 tones of our hymnology...

1st tone, 2nd tone, 3d tone, 4th tone, 5th tone, 6th tone, grave tone, 8th tone.  

The Great Canon was written by Saint Andrew of Jesusalem, Archbishop of Crete, in around 750AD. It is the longest Canon ever, because it contains the greatest number of Troparia, with great meanings. It has approximately 195 Troparia, although normally Canons have around 32. 

A part of the Great Canon is being sung in the evening of the  Clean Monday,(first Monday of the Great Lent), and the rest of it divided is sung partly on: clean Tuesday, clean Wednesday, clean Thursday (clean: so called the days of the first week of the Great Lent).

All of the Great  Canon is sung on Thursday of the fifth week of the Great Lent...

It has a wealth of meanings, it is very devout  and inspiring repentance.

The writer Saint, having a thorough knowledge of the Old and the New Testament, borrows the incidents, the history, the examples, the life from Adam to Christ’s Ascension, and the preaching of the Apostles. He exhorts to repentance, right way of life and observance of God’s commandments.

He urges every soul to imitate the righteous, and to reject the opposite, and makes every soul to refer to God, through repentance, through Confession and in a pure way of life.

This Canon contains so much devotion and truth, and it is able to ...soften every soul, even the most tough and hardened ones.

Saint Andrew composed this Canon at the same time Patriarch of Jerusalem, holy Sophronios wrote the life of venerable Mary of Egypt, both exhibiting reverence and consolation to transgressors and fallen ones, to take courage and grow fruits of excellent deeds, through contrition...

Both these two ouevres where put by the Fathers of our Church in this period, while we approach the end of the Lent, and most of us are full of sins, aggravated and exhausted by our consciousness. So, they help us not to give up, but to put our trust in God’s mercy and love and seek the second baptism, which is repentance and confession to be enabled to near and celebrate the Immaculate Passions of our Lord.

When we knock on the door of God’s mercy, it is impossible for Him not to reply, as He said ....

...ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks, finds,  and to him who knocks it will be opened... ..Μat. 7,7 .... 

We wish that may the blessing and the grace of the Great Canon be upon all, through the prayers of the Holy St. Andrew of Crete and through the intercessions of Her who is officiating us, the MOST- HOLY MOTHER of the Highest. 

Evloghite, rejoice.