Today is the feast of St. Grigor Nerkatsi, Gregory of Narek, Doctor of the Church. From the beginning of his "Litany for the Church and the Ark of the Lord":
Gathered we all in the holy, universal, apostolic church,
we earthlings in circles, sing there in many groups,
praising with the myriads of spiritual beings angelic;
we join the circles of the luminous kind.
We bless the One coming to you,
the Most Holy Trinity, (with whom) we plead.
You who are above the cherubic arch, the watchtower of the four-faced beings,
and are worshiped by the full circle of the angelic kind,
O Triune essence
who willed to establish this rock at the hands of the holy apostles,
an impregnable city by (your) deliberate miracles,
foursquare, in the midst of the universe.
You made her glorious, radiant from the foundations (up),
brilliant, beyond the brilliance of the Ark.
And you adorned her beautifully, befittingly lavish,
the daughter of Sion that is above.
The many groups of singers there
join their voices with the heavenly ones.
We bless the One coming to you,
the Most Holy Trinity, (with whom) we plead.
[The Festal Works of St. Gregory of Narek, Abraham Terian, ed. and tr., Liturgical Press (Collegeville, MN: 2016), pp. 121-122.]
