Coptic Prayerbook

Coptic Prayer is much like any other "Orthodox Prayer" with the exception of some nuanced differences.  There are rifts between the Coptic Church and the main body of the Orthodox Church - theological debates, mostly - but a lot of the praxis would appear the same to outsiders.  The Copts do use instrument in worship, mostly percussion.  Traditional Orthodox parishes do not.

This prayerbook will offer the Liturgy of the Hours, Coptic Style.  As with all Orthodox services, you will notice they are lengthy.  It is heavily littered with Psalms, regardless of the service.  There is a thing called a "Kathisma" in Orthodoxy worship.  In this use referring to the list of Psalms read at the different services.  The Orthodox Psalter has a table that tells the Reader (a tonsured rank of the clergy) what Psalms are to be read at what services.  The bundle of Psalms to be read at that service are called a "kathisma" - the word means "sitting".  These are the Psalms to be read in that sitting.

When you go to a monastery or larger Cathedral church the services may be done in full.  But, at smaller parishes you will find that these services are foreshortened.  This practice is a division in many churches forms of worship.  It is known as the monastic rite and the parish rite (colloquially).

This prayerbook is found at the site of the Church of St. Takla (Tekkla).  Keep in mind the Psalms in the Orthodox Church are from the Septuagint Translation, which means the numbering is off here and there because of the way the Psalms are divided there.  You may see the number of a Psalm and think it is not the way you remember it.  This is why.  All the Psalms are in this translation, just numbered differently in some cases.

Prayerbook

Site of Saint Takla

A Quote from Saint John Chrysostom on the use of the Psalms in Orthodox Worship:

"If we keep vigil in church, David comes first, last and central. If early in the morning we want songs and hymns, first, last and central is David again. If we are occupied with the funeral solemnities of those who have fallen asleep, or if virgins sit at home and spin, David is first, last and central. O amazing wonder! Many who have made little progress in literature know the Psalter by heart. Nor is it only in cities and churches that David is famous; in the village market, in the desert, and in uninhabitable land, he excites the praise of God. In monasteries, among those holy choirs of angelic armies, David is first, last and central. In the convents of virgins, where are the communities of those who imitate Mary; in the deserts where there are men crucified to the world, who live their life in heaven with God, David is first, last and central. All other men at night are overcome by sleep. David alone is active, and gathering the servants of God into seraphic bands, he turns earth into heaven, and converts men into angels."

from the Shrine of Saint Jude

Peace,

Tom +

Chant from the Hermitage

Gregorian chant has a peace and a drawl all its own.  Anyone who has gone to a monastery for retreat or to celebrate the Liturgy of the Hours knows the instant stilling it can cause on the heart.  It can bring you down about 300 rpms.  There have been a number of times I have escaped to a monastery for retreat - mostly while in college to escape the fevered pitch of finals week - and been graced with the simple still services that can open the heart to vistas of calm and oceans peace.  There are also the yearly retreats and days of silence that I attend.  The chant has always been sign and symbol of transforming power.  The power to be able to move from complete chaos into stillness - this is an awesome power.

                                    

One of the things that I always thought funny about non-liturgical peoples' perception of liturgy is that they say often "I would rather read the scriptures and hear a sermon instead of that liturgical stuff."  Many feel liturgy runs against scriptural faith.  Clearly in the need to build up a defense, some folks never do any research about what they are defending themselves against.  

Any liturgy that I have ever been to in the Catholic, Anglican, or Orthodox Church/Tradition has been nothing but scripture and sermons peppered with some focused and valuable litanies or intercessions.  Most liturgical structure is a singing, plain chanting, or a speaking of scripture text (a great percentage from the Psalms) and the teachings (sermons) of the Fathers of the Church.

This being said...let us open the Gregorian chants sung for us by John Michael Talbot and his community at the Little Portion Hermitage.  Brother John Michael has given me permission to post a sampling of these chants here on the blog (I have posted them as a Rhapsody play list so you can listen for free - Rhapsody lets you sample 25 mp3s a month - but you may have to sign up for their free account, but you will not be able to download unless you purchase - this is copyrighted material).  If you find it a valuable Lenten practice, go ahead and order the music from his hermitage - they are in the middle of a huge rebuilding project (after a monstrous fire) and would love the sales or donations.  The link to buy the music is below the record album icon below.

What becomes vital in the practice of liturgical prayer is to create some sort of space that helps you break from the every day.  Find an icon.  Get a candle.  Have a special chair or a special corner that sets the time apart, that says, "This time is different than all time.  This space is different from all space.  This act is special." Once you have a space created, then you must create the time.  Make a certain, specific and separate time each day.  The routine becomes enlivened by the practice daily, and will, at some point begin to habituate into an appendage to your soul.  You will not be able to live without it.  And that is beautiful.

Light a candle, dim the lights, light the incense and listen/pray the prayers the church has sung for over a thousand years....

Click on the image below

(make sure you allow this pop-up)

Link to buy the Chant from the Hermitage Album

Peace,

+Tom

eBreviary and the Daily Office

There are wonderful services on the internet that can offer you daily inputs to the spiritual journey.  Some send you a set of daily readings from the lectionary.  For these you should check with the national level website for your denomination.  I know that most denominations have them.  I prefer to stay with the Orthodox Lectionary because the Greek Church bundles a nice package each day and sends it off to my e-mailbox while I sleep.  It has the epistle, and Gospel readings (typed out), an icon for the day, and then all of the movable hymns like troparia, kontakia, eirmos, etc. (mostly hymns about the feast of the day or the saint of the day).  So look around for one that compliments the journey.

E-breviary is a wonderful daily service that gives you access to daily pdf's of the daily office.  There is morning prayer, day prayer, evening prayer, night prayer and the office of readings for the day.  This service is available at a small fee for the entire year, but each day these five services are available in a clean, clear, distinct and separate printable document.  All of the propers of the day have been added in, so there is no flipping through 8 different prayerbooks that have two prayers in each (if you ain't stood at an Orthodox cantor's stand - aka portable library - and had books pushed into your hand, then you ain't prayed, brutha).

It is a superb service and worth looking into.  I am including a copy of the Saturday Morning Prayer (with their permission).  Also, please check out their link.  The website is plain, simple, to the point and very helpful/user friendly.

Peace,

+Tom

Saturday Morning Prayer

eBreviary Link

Praying the Psalms

Praying the Psalms is stepping into a tradition that reaches back into the Hebrew faith.  From the beginning of the worship of Israel as a people with the Tabernacle came the use of Psalms in praising God and reaching out to Him with lamentations.  The heart groans and cries in the Psalms.  The soul clambers after the face of the living God.  With instruments and all creation the voice of the Psalmist rises up to heaven - as incense - beseeching the God that has made all things.  O God, come to my assistance.  O LORD, make hast to help me.

It does not matter where you begin in the Psalms, you can open a page an begin to pray.  David has always been considered first, last and central when it came to understanding worship in the history of the peoples of God.

Often the Psalms were read antiphonally in a choir of believers.  One side of the choir would sing one verse.  The other side of the choir would answer in response with the second verse.  The songs were sung in plain chant - mostly one note, with the end of the line going up one note.  The response was sung in plain chant with the end of the line descending one note.  They were also read back and forth - slowly.

When praying the Psalms it is critical that the words be prayed slowly.  Inserting our emotion into each word is what the spiritual masters referred to as praying from or in the heart.  This kind of prayer is powerful.  Pause between each Psalm and sit in silent stillness.

In the early church it was required that a candidate for bishop would have to show that he knew all of the Psalms by heart.  This would show he was a man given to prayer.

Psalm 95

 ¹ Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;
       let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
 ² Let us come before him with thanksgiving
       and extol him with music and song.
 ³ For the LORD is the great God,
       the great King above all gods.
 ⁴ In his hand are the depths of the earth,
       and the mountain peaks belong to him.
 ⁵ The sea is his, for he made it,
       and his hands formed the dry land.
 ⁶ Come, let us bow down in worship,
       let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;
 ⁷ for he is our God
       and we are the people of his pasture,
       the flock under his care.
       Today, if you hear his voice,
 ⁸ do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,
       as you did that day at Massah in the desert,
 ⁹ where your fathers tested and tried me,
       though they had seen what I did.
 ¹⁰ For forty years I was angry with that generation;
       I said, "They are a people whose hearts go astray,
       and they have not known my ways."
 ¹¹ So I declared on oath in my anger,
       "They shall never enter my rest."

What becomes vital in the practice of liturgical prayer is to create some sort of space that helps you break from the every day.  Find an icon.  Get a candle.  Have a special chair or a special corner that sets the time apart, that says, "This time is different than all time.  This space is different from all space.  This act is special." Once you have a space created, then you must create the time.  Make a certain, specific and separate time each day.  The routine becomes enlivened by the practice daily, and will, at some point begin to habituate into an appendage to your soul.  You will not be able to live without it.  And that is beautiful.

Light a candle, dim the lights, light the incense and pray the prayers the church has sung for over a thousand years; Pray the Psalms....

Peace,

+Tom