This is so true. I was noticing this at our choir practice tonight. As we ran through the stichera for Vespers for Saturday night, it was all there -- the lives of the saints, dogmatic theology, the path to theosis... This is there at every service.
The doxasticon at the Aposticha for St. Clement of Ancyra was particularly rich:
"The martyr Clement, wondrous among priests, through long testing by torture hath been vouchsafed ever to receive sweetness and divine riches among the blessed, having anointed many for the contest by his own example, and subdued the flesh, that his mind might transcend death. To him let us cry out, O ye faithful: O glorious great martyr, by thy supplications unto the Lord release us from the chronic state of our passions, and deliver us from evils by thine entreaties."
Of course, it sounds best with the appointed melody...
One can understand why the Orthodox clung to their services in the midst of their darkest hours.
"As we ran through the stichera for Vespers for Saturday night, it was all there -- the lives of the saints, dogmatic theology, the path to theosis... This is there at every service."
You see, there it is, lex orandi, lex credendi. My God, we are so blessed to have this!