On Sundays: Priest sings the Resurrectional Apolytikion in the tone of the week. Chanter sings the Apolytikion of the Saint of the Dayš. Choir sings the Apolytikion of the Church Choir (or Priest) sings the Kontakion of the festal period.

On weekdays, for a saint:
Priest sings the Apolytikion of the Saint of the Day Chanter sings the Kontakion of the festal period.

On weekdays, for a feast:
Priest sings the Apolytikion of the Feast. Chanter sings the Kontakion of the Feast.

(The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, pp. 7-8)

šIf it is also a major feast, the apolytikion of the feast goes before that of the saint,and the apolytikion of the church is usually omitted. This section of the Divine Liturgy gives us a glimpse of the variety and richness of Orthodox worship. On any given day, we celebrate one or more saints, as well as major events in the life of our Lord, His Mother, and St. John the Baptist (the two people who sit at His right and His left for all eternity). Every such feast falls within its own festal period, that is reflected in the last hymn above, called the Kontakion. On top of that, every Sunday we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord.

All these celebrations are reflected in the many services that are sung throughout the day: we start the liturgical day in evening, with the Vespers service (in Greek, "Esperinos," meaning evening service, the service at the setting of the sun). This service ends with dismissal hymns, or apolytikia. The same hymns are repeated at the beginning of the morning service, called Orthros (which means dawn, the time just before the sun rises). There are apolytikia for the saints of the day, for all kinds of feasts, as well as eight resurrectional apolytikia that we sing on Sundays.

The number eight comes from the number of different musical modes, or tones, that are used in Byzantine music (these are similar to the major and minor scales in Western music). The first major collection of Byzantine music, the Octoechos (Eight-tone), goes back to St. John of Damascus. Every week we sing in a different tone, in cycles of eight. Of particular importance for our church is the Apolytikion of the Annunciation, because the church is dedicated to this feast. Therefore this hymn is sung most Sundays as the apolytikion of the church:

Today is the crowning of our salvation
And the revealing of the age-old mystery
The Son of God becomes the Son of the Virgin
And Gabriel announces the amazing grace
Therefore let us cry out with him to the most blessed Theotokos
Rejoice, O highly favored one, the Lord is with you!

This beautiful hymn speaks of the great mystery of the Incarnation: the Son of God, born from all eternity from the Father without a mother, is now conceived by God’s grace and becomes the Son of Mary, without a father!

Every week we list the hymns following the small entrance on the second page of the bulletin, so that you can follow the English translation. This Sunday we start with the resurrectional apolytikion in tone plagal 2 (the sixth tone), which is the tone used throughout the coming week; we then sing the apolytikion of the church and we end with the Kontakion of the festal period, which is the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple.

The words of this hymn point out the same mystery of the Incarnation: the Theotokos is a Temple of our Savior, because the Son of God dwelt in her. When she entered the second Jewish Temple as a three year old, she brought the grace of God with her to a building that was deprived of this gift (unlike the first Temple built by Solomon).

We thus see that these traditional hymns are not merely embellishments of the service, but contain a wealth of teaching. Pay attention therefore every week to these special hymns, and soon you will know a lot about our saints and feasts.

Amen - So be it!