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'''Matins''' (also spelled "''Mattins"'', from the Latin, ''matutinae'', "morning"), ''in Greek, also called '''Orthros''''' (which also means from Greek, meaning "morning", "dawn" or "day break"), is the longest and most complex of the [[Daily Cycle|daily cycle]] services. Unless Matins is celebrated in the morning, unless it is celebrated as part of a [[All-Night Vigil|vigil]] in the evening, Matins is celebrated in the morning.
==General Structure structure of Sunday Matins==
While some sections of Matins follow the eight-tone cycle, others follow the eleven-part cycle of the Resurrectional Gospels.
*Sunday Matins, when served appart apart from a [[All-Night Vigil|vigil]] opens with the [[priest]]'s exclamation ''Blessed is our God ...'', ''Heavenly King ...'', and the [[Trisagion Prayers]]. (Note: ''Heavenly King ...'' is omitted between Pascha and [[Pentecost]].)
*The [[chanter]] or [[reader]] reads the [[Royal Troparia]] (''Lord, save your people and bless your inheritance ...'').
*The [[priest]] (or in some traditions, [[deacon]] ) offers a brief [[litany]].
*The six [[psalms]] (3, 37, 62, 87, 102, and 142 - [[Septuagint]] numbering) are read.
*The priest (or in some traditions, deacon ) intones the [[Litany]] of Peace.
*''Theos kyrios'' (God is the Lord) and the [[apolytikion|apolytikia]] are [[chant]]ed.
*The [[kathismata]] are chanted.
*The small [[litany]]
*The [[sessional hymn]]s
*The reader chants the [[evlogetaria]] (''Blessed are you, O Lord, teach me your statutes'').
*The small [[litany]] is offered again by the priest (or in some traditions, deacon).
*The [[Hypakoe]] is read by the chanter to prepare for the message of the Gospel reading.
*The [[Anavathmoi]] (hymns of ascent) are chanted.
*The [[Prokeimenon]] are chanted.
*The order of the Gospel is followed: the deacon intones ''Let us pray to the Lord ...'', the priest responds with a prayer, and the chanter sings three times, ''Let everything that breathes praise the Lord''. One of eleven Gospels is readby the priest; these Gospels each address a different part of the [[Resurrection]] narrative, because it is Sunday, the feast of the Resurrection. ''Having beheld the Resurrection of Christ ...'' is read by the chanter.
*The 50th Psalm is chanted.
*Then the following hymns are usually sung:
*The deacon prays, ''O God, save your people and bless your inheritance ...''
*The [[Canon (hymn)|canons]] are chanted: first and third odes (each ode beginning with an [[irmos]] and ending with a [[katavasia]],; small litany; kontakion of the secondary and/or tertiary commemoration(s) of the day; [[sessional Hymn]]s; small litany; fourth, fifth and sixth odes; small litany; kontakion, oikos, synaxarion (commemorating the [[saint]]s of the [[Church Calendar|day]]); the seventh and eighth odes. (According to the contemporary Greek parish practice, the [[katavasia]]e are not sung at the end of each ode, but rather those for odes 1 through 8 are all sung together at the end of the eighth ode, then the Matins Gospel is read (rather than before the canon as above)).
*The chanter sings the [[Magnificat]] while the deacon [[censorcenser|censes]] the [[church]].
*The ninth ode, ending with its katavasia is chanted.
*The deacon again prays the small litany.
*The [[Dismissal]]. (According to contemporary Greek Parish practice, the Great Doxology leads straight into the beginning of the [[Liturgy]]).
==Matins Servicesservices==
There are seven types of Matins:
===Basic Formsforms===
*'''''Sunday Matins:''''' the longest of the regular matins services. If this service is celebrated in its entirety it can last up to three hours. It usually contains a combination of [[canon]]s taken from the [[Octoechos]], [[Menaion]], [[Triodion]], and/or [[Pentecostarion]]. As a result, in parishes, abbreviations are often made. Often, this matins is part of a vigil (particularly in Slavic practice).
*'''''Feast-day Matins''''' with Gospel.
===Special Formsforms===
*'''''Lenten Matins:''''' penitential material added (hymns and prayers).
*''Orthros for Sunday: Resurrectional Hymns'' in the original Greek, with a new English translation by Spencer T. Kezios, [[Protopresbyter]], published by Narthex Press, 2nd edition, 1998.
==External Linkslinks==
*[http://sgpm.goarch.org/ematins/matins.htm ''e''Matins Page] (PDF files) of the [[St. Gregory Palamas Monastery (Hayesville, Ohio)]]. Greek/English or English-only versions available. English translations by Fr. Seraphim Dedes.
*[http://goarch.org/en/chapel/liturgical_texts/SUNDAYORTHROS.asp Service of the Sunday Orthros] from the website of the [[Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America]]
