On Saturday evening, which is the beginning of Sunday, the Vigil opens with Vespers in a church filled with light. The priest solemnly proclaims, "Glory to the Holy consubstantial, undivided and life-creating Trinity..." The ultimate goal of all our worship is the glorification of the Holy Trinity. The priest, the deacon and all the faithful are then invited to prayer with the intonation of verses adapted from Psalm 95, "Come let us worship God our King..." The priest then carrying the censor, censes the entire temple, the icons and all the faithful. The deacon precedes him carrying a large lighted candle symbolic of Christ, who is the light that lights our path to the Kingdom. During this time the choir sings Psalm 104, the Psalm of creation. This is the first epiphany of Vespers, that is, that God's creation was created good and filled with His light and glory.

The church is then darkened and the choir sings verses from Psalm 140, "Lord I call upon Thee hear me, hear me, O Lord..." It is a Psalm of repentance. In it man calls out to God to overcome the darkness of the sin and evil that crept into and distorted the creation that was filled with His light and glory. During the chanting of these Psalms the candles are lit in some churches and verses proclaiming the Resurrection of Christ are sung between the verses of the Psalms. These verses show that creation, through the dying and rising of Christ, is transformed and filled with the light and glory of God once again. "All has been enlightened by Thy Resurrection, O Christ. Paradise has been opened again...", "Death's dominion has been shattered; the devil's delusion destroyed..." This is a small sample of the verses sung to show that Christ, the Light, is victorious over the power of darkness, over death, evil and sin. Vespers and the entire Vigil is a celebration of us coming to receive the Light and then becoming Light bearers in the dark world.

During the final Psalm verse and its accompanying hymn, all the lights are turned on. The priest with the deacon carrying the censor and the altar servers carrying lighted candles, walk in procession through the church and come before the Holy Doors. Here the ancient hymn, O Joyful Light, is intoned. This ancient hymn proclaims Christ as the Light of the Father, and that we who have come at sunset behold the evening Light, Christ. He is the light that shatters the darkness of this fallen world. This is the Light that we become bearers of by His grace and carry into the world to enlighten others.

We then proclaim that the Lord reigns, that He is King and that He is robed in majesty. We now enter the Lord's Day, We enter His world, His new creation. Our fear of darkness and all that accompanies it are overcome by Him. He reigns and we need not fear the darkness as long as we walk in His Light. He is our life. He leads us. He is "the light that shines in the darkness". We are transfigured creatures and remain thus as long as we walk in His light. This theme of Light and transformation in Christ pervades all Orthodox spirituality.

Vespers continues with more proclamations of the Resurrection and its meaning for us. For us it is a celebration of Christ and our entrance into the Pascal mystery celebrated Sunday after Sunday in the Orthodox Church. It is a celebration of what we become in Christ.

Vespers physically begins in light at sunset and takes us into the darkness of night. This reveals to us the darkness of the fallen world that has succumbed to sin, evil and error. But that darkness of the fallen world, became filled with light, the light of Christ. We are called to come and receive it and to become it and to bear it. This leads us to the second part of the Vigil, Matins. Matins leads us from darkness of night of ignorance to the light of day. This light is Christ that fills the eighth day, the new creation, with the light of new life.