During Great Lent, in daily services, almost all of the above bows are down to the ground. Excluded from this rule is only the beginning of the evening service (before “Honour us, O Lord, in this evening…”) and the night service (before “Glory to God in the highest…”) on Sundays of the Great Lent in the evening, and everyday morning service (before the first “glory” at kathismas ) – in these cases, bows are made from the waist. There are also some additional bows during the Lenten time. These are, first of all, seventeen bows down to the ground with the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian “Lord and Sovereign of my life…”, which is said during the Lent at the end of any church service. But at Sunday evening services (before Monday) and on feasts‘ (polyeleos) services during the Lent, this prayer is reduced to only four bows down to the ground, and at the end of the festive Lenten morning service – to three.
At the Great night service performed during the Great Lent in the church, after reading the Creed (“I Believe in One God”), the choruses sing the following refrain twice: “O Most Holy Lady Mother of God All-Merciful, pray to God for us sinners”—and other ones, with bows down to the ground. Having sung the refrain, the choir, and all those praying on the right or left half of the church together with it, bow downto the ground. At this time, the other choir and those praying on the other side do not bow. Thus, for each refrain one bow is actually made, but in parts: first by one half of the church, then by the other. At the Lenten polyeleos services and when the festive all-night vigil begins with the Great night service (on the feasts of the Nativity of Christ, the Epiphany of the Lord and the Annunciation of the Most Holy Mother of God), all of the indicated bows are from the waist, but their order, described above, is preserved. After the choruses “O Most Holy Lady…” in the order of the Great night service, the “Three holies” follows, at which three bows are made, always from the waist.
Also, according to the Typikon, all bows at the midnight service on Monday of the first week of the Great Lent and bows at Lenten Saturday and Sunday services are also from the waist. Starting from the evening service on Friday, bows down to the ground are abandoned, except for the special ones that are invariable throughout the year and are already listed above.
During the entire Lent, on Wednesdays, Fridays, as well as on certain feasts that occur during the Great Lent on weekdays, the liturgy of the presanctified gifts is celebrated (unfortunately, not in all parishes). In its order this service is similar to the evening service, and its spiritual essence is an intense, especially zealous prayer to God. The moment that most clearly expresses this essence outwardly is when a deacon or a reader sings the following prayer at the ambo: “Let my prayer be right, like incense before You, the lifting of my hands, the evening sacrifice.” When this verse from the Psalter is sung for the first time, the entire church bows down to the ground without the sign of the cross, and the choir and parishioners lie “on their faces, praying” throughout the entire singing. The further order of bows is similar to the already described custom of worship at the great night service, on the refrains “O Most Holy Lady Mother of God All-Merciful…”. When the leading choir (usually the left one) sings, following the deacon, “Let my prayer be right,” the entire “its” half of the church (respectively, the left one) rises and prays standing. Then the deacon sings the next verse, and the other choir (usually the right one) again sings in full “ Let my prayer be right…”. Then, together with the singers, the other half of those praying in the church, the right, stands up, and the left again bows to the ground and remains bowed until the end of the singing. This alternating prayer of the right and left half of those standing in the church happens five times. (During the singing of the last “Let my prayer be right…”, during the first half of this verse, all those praying lie “on their faces”, and when the second half of the verse is chanted, everyone stands up.) After the last “ Let my prayer be right,” the whole church, together with the priest, performs three bows down to the ground with the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian. And other bows that happen at the liturgy of the presanctified gifts are also down to the ground.
However it is necessary to mention that there are exceptions to this rule. When the liturgy of the presanctified gifts is celebrated on Friday, at the evening service, which is a part of this liturgy, all bows are from the waist, since this evening service is the beginning of the Saturday service, and on all Saturdays of the Great Lent there are no bows down to the ground. But the liturgy of the presanctified gifts (beginning with “Let my prayer be right”) itself belongs to Friday, therefore all bows at it are down to the ground, as already mentioned above. This order of bows from the waist and those down to the ground is not only on Friday, but also when the “presanctified” service is performed the day before any feast, on which, according to the Typikon, during the Great Lent bows down to the ground are not allowed (for example, on the eve of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Mother of God) . All bows at the services performed during the Great Lent (at funerals, prayer services, anointing of the sick, and at the beginning of confession) are also from the waist.
