After “Christ is risen” the hymn of joy

[Mary Naeem]

After “Christ is risen” the hymn of joy, has been chanted again and again, an old custom has it that the door of the church be closed, and the dialogue, used during the consecration of the church, starts up:
“Open your gates you princes, and be lifted you eternal gates, and the King of Glory shall enter.
Who is this King of Glory?
The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Open your gates you princes… (Psalm 23, Septuagint).
And at the end, at the third question, together with the reply “The Lord of might. He is the King of Glory!… “, the door is kicked wide open by the Bishop or Priest, who enters the Holy Temple with grandeur, chanting, in the joyful first Tone the most sweet “Canon” of the Resurrection, a composition of St John Damascene: “This is the day of Resurrection, let us be radiant O people, it is Pascha the Lord’s Paschal… “.