prayer liturgical
Akoluthia To Bless a Furnace or an Oven
AKOLOUTHIA TO BLESS A FURNACE OR AN OVEN
FIRST PRAYER TO BLESS A FURNACE OR OVEN
Priest: Blessed is our God, always, now and ever and unto the ages of ages.
Reader: Amen.
Priest: Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee.
Heavenly King, O Paraclete, the Spirit of truth, who art everywhere present and fillest all things, the treasury of good things and bestower of life, come and tabernacle in us and cleanse us from every stain and save, O Good One, our souls.
Reader (trisagion prayers):
Holy God …
Glory/both now …
All-holy Trinity …
Lord have mercy (3x) …
Glory/both now …
Our Father
Priest: For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages.
Reader: Amen.
The priest makes the holy water, and with it, he says these prayers:
Priest: Let us entreat the Lord.
Choir: Lord have mercy.
Priest: O eternal God, who hast changed into dew the sevenfold fire in the furnace of
Babylon and hast kept safe and sound those youths, Ananias, Azarias and Misael;
Do Thou Thyself, also bless this furnace in thy great mercy; bless the work that thy
servants have accomplished with their hands, and give it to operate with success,
in thy benevolence and thine immense goodness; by the intercession of our most
holy Lady, Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary; by the power of the precious and life-
giving Cross; by the protection of the eminent Taxiarchs Michael and Gabriel and
of the other heavenly bodiless powers, of the honorable and glorious Prophet,
Forerunner and Baptist John, of the holy, glorious and all-famed Apostles, of the
holy and right-victorious martyrs, of our venerable and God-bearing fathers, of the
holy Hieromartyr Cyprian and of all the saints.
For Thou art He that blesses and sanctifies all things, O our God, and to Thee do
we send up glory, to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and
ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
SECOND PRAYER TO BLESS A FURNACE OR OVEN
Priest: O Master Lord, our God, who dwellest in the heights and who lookest down upon
the humble, who hast blessed the house of Laban, when Jacob entered into it, and
the house of Potiphar, at the entrance of Joseph, who hast blessed the house of
Obed-Edom, when the ark entered into it; who by the incarnation of thy Christ,
became salvation for the house of Zacchaeus; do Thou Thyself, O Lord, bless this
furnace, keep in thy fear its constructors and shelter from all danger those who
shall work here: from on high from thy holy dwelling make to descend on them
thy blessing, and by it multiply the work of their hands. So that we also with them
may in thanksgiving, glorify thine all-holy name, of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages.
Choir: Amen.
The priest says the small litany.
Priest: Have mercy on us, O God, according to thy great mercy, we entreat Thee, hearken
and have mercy.
Choir: Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
Priest: Again we entreat for mercy, life, peace, health, salvation, visitation, forgiveness
and remission of the sins of the [servants or handmaids] of God, [name(s)], and
that the work of those who shall work in this furnace will be blessed and
multiplied, we entreat Thee, O Lord, hearken and have mercy.
Choir: Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
Priest: Hearken unto us, O God, our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of
them that be far off upon the sea, and be gracious, be gracious, O Master, to our
sins, and have mercy on us. For a merciful and philanthropic God art Thou, and to
Thee do we send up glory, to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now
and ever and unto the ages of ages.
Choir: Amen.
The priest sprinkles the furnace with holy water and the faithful present; then he makes the apolysis.
From the Mega Euchologion, pages 605-606
Grand Euchologe, pages 566-567
Translated by Schema-Archimandrite John (Lewis +2007) 1996