Sunday of the Pharisee and the Publican

As I had to attend a meeting in Hobart at lunchtime, I decided to drive down earlier, and attend the 10 am Divine Liturgy at the Ukrainian Catholic Chapel of the Transfiguration, where friends of mine customarily worship on Sundays. 

I haven't attended a Ukrainian Liturgy in Hobart since the construction and consecration of the chapel in August 2010; it was good to join the small but devoted congregation to sing the praises of the Trinity, and receive the Sacred Mysteries.

It proved a little hard to find the chapel – it is located within the Ukrainian Club, tucked anonymously among the commercial buildings and fast food restaurants of Moonah; luckily, as I knocked at the locked front door (not knowing of the open door leading in from the back car park), their priest, Fr Tony Warwarek, heard me and let me in.

As I drove down, I recalled that it was "Octogesima", the Sunday before Septuagesima – and, as Eastern and Western Easter coincide this year, that applied to the Byzantine Rite also: and in that Rite, as I realised when the Liturgy began, that means it is the Sunday of the Pharisee and the Publican.

This Sunday, which is of the 8th Tone, first signals the approach of Great Lent: the Gospel pericope's call to true compunction and humble self-awareness rather than delusive pride and contempt toward others accords with this; and of course this week in the Eastern Church calendar is wholly fast-free, the last before Easter Week.

In the Byzantine Rite, next Sunday (equivalent to Septuagesima) is that of the Prodigal Son; the Sunday after that is Meatfare Sunday, equivalent to Western Carnevale, being the last day for eating flesh meat till Easter, with the week after that being Cheesefare Week, culminating in Cheesefare Sunday, last chance for dairy products and eggs till after the fast; for Great Lent begins on Monday 3rd March (Monday after Quinquagesima), rather than on the Western Ash Wednesday, 5th March 2014.

Having, especially in Melbourne, attended the Divine Liturgy off and on, I feel familiar with this form of the Eucharistic Sacrifice; I just have to remember not to sing "Gospodi" as with the Russians, but "Hospodi" with the Ukrainians. Most of the service was in English, except for the continual "Hospodi pomilui", other suchlike responses, and certain important chants, such as the Trisagion (which I managed to sing: "Svyaty Bozhe, Svyaty Kripky, Svyaty Bezsmertny, pomilui nas"), the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer.

Having received Our Saviour's Body and Blood, I recalled the advice of a prayerbook: "And after the divine Communion of the life-giving and mystic Gifts, at once give praise and great thanksgiving, and fervently and heartily sing to God: Glory to Thee, O God; Glory to Thee, O God; Glory to Thee, O God."

The noble and immemorial worship of the Byzantine Rite lifts up the heart and mind and soul to God. Would that I could attend it more often!

Second Nocturn

In the late pre-Conciliar period, Sunday Matins had its number of lessons reduced from nine to three; the three Scriptural lessons of the first Nocturn were retained (the third lesson being united to the second), but – foolishly – of the three homiletic lessons of the third Nocturn, commenting upon the Gospel of the day, only the first was retained (and, as it was oft but introductory to the main import of the commentary, this truncated passage is generally uninformative); and, worst of all, the Patristic lessons of the second Nocturn were completely omitted. 

It is doubtless in reaction to this too-radical reduction in the lessons read at Matins that the Council Fathers decreed that "The hour… shall be made up of fewer psalms and longer readings" (Sacrosanctum concilium, 89, c) and likewise ordered that "Readings excerpted from the works of the fathers, doctors, and ecclesiastical writers shall be better selected" (Sacrosanctum concilium, 92, b).

Having said Matins of this, the last Sunday of the Church's year, I thought to see what the former readings of the second Nocturn were; and, turning first to a Monastic Breviary (having the same lessons, though with the first of them divided into two, since in the Benedictine Office Sunday Matins has not nine but twelve readings), then to a handy online translation after I had enjoyed the rich Latin translating the author's Greek, I thought to post this sobering passage, intended since it was written over 1600 years ago to act as an antidote to sin, by turning our thoughts to that most just and strict judgement we all of us shall face, when we depart this world:

Sermo sancti Basilii Magni in Psalmum trigesimum tertium. 

Cum te appetitus invaserit peccandi, velim cogites horribile illud et intolerabile Christi tribunal, in quo præsidebit judex in alto et excelso throno; astabit autem omnis creatura, ad gloriosum illius conspectum contremiscens. Adducendi etiam nos sumus singuli, eorum quae in vita gesserimus rationem reddituri. 

Mox illis, qui multa mala in vita perpetrarint, terribiles quidam et deformes assistent angeli, igneos vultus præ se ferentes atque ignem spirantes, ea re propositi et voluntatis acerbitatem ostendentes, nocti vultu similes, propter mærorem et odium in humanum genus.

Ad hæc cogites profundum barathrum, inextricabiles tenebras, ignem carentem splendore, urendi quidem vim habentem, sed privatum lumine: deinde vermium genus venenum immittens, et carnem vorans, inexplebiliter edens neque umquam saturitatem sentiens, intolerabiles dolores corrosione ipsa infigens: postremo, quod suppliciorum omnium gravissimum est, opprobrium illud et confusionem sempiternam. Hæc time, et hoc timore correptus animam a peccatorum concupiscentia tamquam freno quodam reprime.

Hunc timorem Domini se docturum propheta promisit. Docere autem non simpliciter promisit, sed eos, qui eum audire voluerint: non eos, qui longius prolapsi sunt, sed qui salutem appetentes accurrunt: non alienos a promissionibus, sed ex baptismate filiorum adoptionis verbo ipsi conciliatos atque conjunctos. Propterea, Venite, inquit, hoc est, per bona opera accedite ad me, filii, quippe qui per regenerationem filii lucis effici digni facti estis: audite, qui aures cordis habetis apertas; timorem Domini docebo vos [Ps. 33, 12]: illum scilicet, quem paulo ante oratione nostra descripsimus. 

[From] the Sermon of St Basil the Great, upon the Thirty-third Psalm.

Whenever the desire to sin cometh over thee, I would that thou couldest think of the awful and overwhelming judgment-seat of Christ. There the Judge shall sit upon a throne high and lifted up. Every creature shall stand before Him, quaking because of the glory of His presence. There are we to be led up, one by one, to give account for those things which we have done in life. 

Presently there will be found, by the sides of those who have in life wrought much evil, dreadful and hideous angels with faces of fire, and burning breath, appointed thereto, and showing their evil will, in appearance like the night, in their despair and hatred of mankind. 

Think again of the bottomless pit, the impenetrable darkness, the lightless fire, burning, but not glowing, the poisonous mass of worms, preying upon the flesh, ever feeding, and never filled, causing by their gnawing unbearable agony; lastly, the greatest punishment of all, shame and confusion for ever. Have a dread of these things, and let that dread correct thee, and be as a curb to thy mind to hold it in from the hankering after sin.

This fear of the Lord the Prophet hath promised to teach. But he hath not promised to teach it to all, but only to such as will hear him, not to such as have fallen far away, but to such as run to him, hungry for salvation, not to such as have no part in the promises, but to such as by baptism are born children of adoption, set at peace and oneness with the Word. Come, ye children, saith he, that is to say, Draw nigh unto me by good works, all ye who by the new birth have become the worthy children of light, hearken unto me, all ye who have the ears of your heart opened, I will teach you the fear of the Lord, [Ps 33:12] even the fear of that Being of Whom we have just been speaking.

As the Byzantine Liturgy sings time and again,

Christianum vitæ nostræ finem, sine dolore et dedecore, pacificam, et bonam ante terribile tribunal Christi defensionem [a Domino] petamus. — Concede, Domine.  

For a Christian, painless, unashamed, peaceful end of our life, and for a good defence before the fearsome judgment‐seat of Christ, let us beseech [the Lord]. — Grant this, O Lord. 

We have seen the True Light

When from time to time I attend the Divine Liturgy, and am inspired to read over those holy rites again (as I have been doing all week), I am always struck anew by the words of the sticheron sung after Communion:

Εἴδομεν τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθινόν, ἐλάβομεν Πνεῦμα ἐπουράνιον, εὕρομεν πίστιν ἀληθῆ, ἀδιαίρετον Τριάδα προσκυνοῦντες, αὕτη γὰρ ἡμᾶς ἔσωσεν. 

We have seen the true light, we have received the heavenly [lit. super-celestial] Spirit, we have found the true Faith, worshipping the undivided [or: indivisible] Trinity: for This [i.e. the Trinity] hath saved us. 

Видехом свет истинный, прияхом Духа Небеснаго, обретохом веру истинную, нераздельней Троице покланяемся, Та бо нас спасла есть.

The Latin edition of the Catechism quotes this text as Vidimus verum Lumen, Spiritum recepimus cælestem, veram fidem invenimus: Trinitatem adoramus indivisibilem quia Ipsa nos salvavit – however, I wonder why it does not more exactly reproduce the word order of the Greek original, nor correctly render προσκυνοῦντες, originally "kissing towards" (in the sense of prostrating oneself in an act of obeisance), later meaning "venerating", as adorantes, "worshipping", not to say procidentes, "falling down before (in worship)" rather than representing it as adoramus, "we worship".

Surely Vidimus lumen verum, recepimus Spiritum (super)cælestem, invenimus fidem veram, indivisibilem Trinitatem adorantes, quia ipsa nos salvavit would be a closer rendering?  The vital point is that it is in worshipping the Trinity that we have seen the true light, received the Spirit, found the Faith: various translations try and emphasise this, phrasing it "by worshipping" or "as we worship". Or, better, let the whole sticheron be reversed: the Trinity has deigned, via the all-wise plan or economy of salvation, to have saved us – worshipping the Same, we have found the true Faith, we have been gifted with the Uncreated Gift of the Holy Ghost, Uncreated Grace engendering supernatural grace that uplifts us beyond our merely natural capacities to become capax Dei; yes, we have beheld the true Light, Who is Christ. 

This pregnant passage, which is originally a sticheron sung at Pentecost Vespers, has always struck me as somehow not quite ad rem at Communion in the narrow sense.  After all, "see[ing] the true light" is if anything more a reference to the Sacrament of Enlightenment, Photismos, that is, Baptism; and "receive[ing] the heavenly Spirit" is likewise more directly a reference to Baptism and Confirmation (which in the East are normally celebrated together). The words fit more directly to the Eastern view of Pentecost as not so much a celebration of the Descent of the Holy Ghost, as of the definitive revelation of the Trinity: participating in this in worship, which both instantiates and transcends the historical event recalled, is to find "the true Faith".

What then of its possible application at Communion time? Of course, Christ is the Light of the world, and we "see" Him in the Sacrament, the Realsymbol of His Real Presence; of course, in receiving Christ, we do receive the Holy Spirit, since no Person of the Trinity is ever without the others, by reason of their perichoresis, their circumincession; of course – in all sacraments and every prayer, above all in the Divine Mysteries that is the Liturgy par excellence – we do find "the true Faith" in "worshipping the undivided Trinity" Who "hath saved us"; but one feels that this is to receive this sacred text an accommodated sense.

Sure enough, the use of this sticheron at every Divine Liturgy (outside of Paschaltide, when different texts are employed) turns out to be a 17th or 18th century addition to the Liturgy – the carefully-preserved liturgical books of the Old Believers know nothing of its use, and it makes its first appearance in the Divine Liturgy in the famous (not to say notorious) liturgicon promulgated by Patriarch Nikon in 1655 for the Russian Church. It did not appear in Greek liturgical books till later; curious, since Nikon was motivated by a mania to conform the Russian Rite to the Greek, not knowing that the Russian Rite in fact preserved an older and arguably purer form of the Byzantine Rite, which the Greeks had innovated away.

There was a strong tendency, especially in those centuries, to interpret each part of the Divine Liturgy as symbolic of some part of Our Lord's life (just as mediæval Westerners likewise allegorised the Roman Mass): the Communion was viewed as symbolic of the Resurrection and Ascension, and of the sending down the Holy Ghost – perhaps this engendered the desire to sing a most appropriate sticheron of Pentecost to cement this understanding.

I find personally that the choral exclamation "We have seen the true light", in its triumphant proclamation of orthodoxy – literally, right worship (of the Trinity) – in the joyful proclamation of adherence to the one true Faith, and indeed sums up the experience of Byzantine worship as an uplifting and sanctifying participation in the life of heaven, a glimpse of the divine beauty. It seems redolent of what Orthodoxy means in all its purity, as also in its prominent references to Christ our God and to the Holy Spirit, paralleling those distinctive emphases of Eastern worship.

Could not the ambassadors sent by Grand Prince Vladimir of Kiev, later to be canonised as St Vladimir, the Enlightener of Russia, having beheld the worship of the Great Church of Hagia Sophia, have cried out in exactly these words? "We have seen the true light, we have received the heavenly Spirit, we have found the true Faith, worshipping the undivided Trinity: for This hath saved us."

Byzantine Liturgy and the Earthquake

On the 26th of October, the Holy Eastern Church keeps the memory of the Great Earthquake, which struck Constantinople in 740.  It must have been a terrible tremblor, as the Synaxarion of that day relates:

In the twenty fourth year of the reign of Leo the Isaurian, in the ninth Indiction, on the 26th of October, there was a great and terrible earthquake in Constantinople, so that the upper stories [of the palace?] and the more splendid of the other buildings collapsed and many people were buried under the ruins. And so on the day of the Great martyr Demetrius we commemorate that terrible threat of the earthquake, going in procession to the church in Blachernae of our all-pure, holy and glorious Lady, Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary, where we celebrate the divine Liturgy. At her prayers may we be delivered from every threat and attain eternal good things, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and might to the ages of ages. Amen.

From the liturgy of the day come the following poetic texts (unfortunately my usually very reliable source does not give the Canon of the Earthquake):

When the earth was troubled in fear of your rage, hills and mountains were shaken, Lord; but having looked upon us with an eye of compassion, in your anger do not be enraged at us; but with compassion for the creation of your hands free us from the dread threat of earthquake, as you are good and love mankind.

Fearful are you, Lord, and who can stand against your just rage? Or who can entreat you, or who can supplicate you, good Lord, on behalf of a people that has sinned and is in despair? The heavenly armies, Angels, Principalities and Powers, Thrones, Dominions, the Cherubim and the Seraphim cry out to you on our behalf: Holy, Holy, Holy are you, O Lord; do not despise the works of your hands; through your compassionate mercy save a city endangered!

The Ninevites by their transgressions heard they would be submerged through the threat of earthquake; but by the mediating sign of the whale, repentance summoned resurrection through Jonas; but as you took pity and accepted them, at the cry of your people with the children and beasts, through your Resurrection on the third day spare us too who are being punished, and have mercy.

Because from your unendurable wrath that threatened us you have delivered us and had mercy on us, showing us, O Christ, an ocean of love for mankind, we now give you thanks, having been chastised so as to turn from our wicked deeds that slay us. But look upon us, have compassion on us, O Saviour, at the entreaties of the one who gave you birth.

Immaculate Virgin-Mother, do not cease to implore the Lord who was incarnate from your pure blood on behalf of us who are your servants, that we, the race of mortals, may find grace and prompt help in time of need, rescuing us from the threat of fearsome earthquake and from dangers by your mother’s prayers.

For the Divine Liturgy itself, the appointed readings seem to be:

The Epistle (Hebrews xii, 6-13 & 25-27)

For whom the Lord loveth, he chastiseth; and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.  Persevere under discipline. God dealeth with you as with his sons; for what son is there, whom the father doth not correct?  But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are made partakers, then are you bastards, and not sons.  Moreover we have had fathers of our flesh, for instructors, and we reverenced them: shall we not much more obey the Father of spirits, and live?  And they indeed for a few days, according to their own pleasure, instructed us: but he, for our profit, that we might receive his sanctification.  Now all chastisement for the present indeed seemeth not to bring with it joy, but sorrow: but afterwards it will yield, to them that are exercised by it, the most peaceable fruit of justice.  Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight steps with your feet: that no one, halting, may go out of the way; but rather be healed.  See that you refuse him not that speaketh.  For if they escaped not who refused him that spoke upon the earth, much more shall not we, that turn away from him that speaketh to us from heaven.  Whose voice then moved the earth; but now he promiseth, saying: Yet once more, and I will move not only the earth, but heaven also.  And in that he saith, Yet once more, he signifieth the translation of the moveable things as made, that those things may remain which are immoveable.

The Gospel (St Matthew viii, 23-27)

And they came to him, and awaked him, saying: Lord, save us, we perish.  And Jesus saith to them: Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith?  Then rising up he commanded the winds, and the sea, and there came a great calm.  But the men wondered, saying: What manner of man is this, for the winds and the sea obey him?

These lessons, together with the doctrinally-rich texts from Vespers and Matins, supply much food for contemplation.

Three Byzantine Prayers to the Holy Ghost

These three prayers to the Holy Ghost, originally special to the feast of Pentecost, are treasures of the Byzantine Rite.  The first troparion is sung as part of the customary devotions at the start of any liturgical act or prayer; the second troparion is sung at Communion at almost every Divine Liturgy (its reference to Trinitarian worship reflects the Eastern emphasis on Pentecost as the complete revelation of the Trinity with the coming of the promised Paraclete); the third is the special refrain for the second antiphon at the Liturgy on the feast itself.

Heavenly King, Paraclete, Spirit of Truth, present everywhere, filling all things, Treasury of blessings and Giver of life; come and dwell in us, cleanse us from every stain, and, O Good One, save our souls.

We have seen the true light, we have received the heavenly Spirit, we have found the true faith, as we worship the undivided Trinity, for the same has saved us.

Good Paraclete, save us who sing to you: Alleluia.

Christmas in Florence

Not only have I kept Epiphany twice (in Oxford and Edinburgh), but yesterday I celebrated Christmas again, courtesy of the Ukrainian Catholic community here in Florence!

I was simply looking for Vivoli Gelateria, and on a whim turned up a side alley, ending up at a church which I decided to investigate (I missed and walked right past the gelateria, which I later found to be closed at this season anyway) - when I came in to SS Simon and Jude, I found myself in a packed congregation, all standing, and the priest facing east at the altar, about to start the Insistent Litany after the Gospel (which I recognized by the threefold Gospodi pomilui - "Lord, have mercy").

Thanks be to God, I have sufficient familiarity with the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, albeit not with Ukrainian, that I was able to pray the Mass.  I must admit, the Byzantine Rite leaves the West for dead (and I'd been at a lovely Missa Cantata for the Epiphany the night before!): the beautiful singing, the sweeping sacred Action, carries one along into the heavenly places.

(As a friend once put it, the Roman Mass, solemn and sober, is precisely ordered and structured, able to be analysed into successive parts, expressive of the Western discursive mind; the Byzantine Divine Liturgy rather is all one great unfolding irruption of the Sacred, a form of contemplation rather than of meditation if you will.)

BTW, it was evident this was a Catholic not an Orthodox service, since the congregants nearly all knelt for the Sanctus and Consecration (not for the Epiclesis), and again at the Sancta Sanctis and response - "One is Holy, One is Lord: Jesus Christ, in the glory of God the Father".

Only a minority (the more fervent one assumes, standing up the front) communicated, and late that I was and not quite certain in myself, I refrained.  But to-day at 2.30 pm there will be Divine Liturgy for the Synaxis of the Soprasanta Theotokos, so I've been to confession at the Duomo and will keep a third feast, of Mary the Mother of God (whose memory the West keeps on the Octave Day of Christmas as its liturgy old and new indicates, whatever of the Circumcision), for the second time!

The Royal Hours

Of old time the Eastern Emperor assisted at the Hours of Prime, Terce, Sext and None on certain great days, and among them, on the Vigil of Christmas; hence they were styled Royal Hours, which name they retain in the Byzantine Rite.

On this day, then, special extra-long services are held - or rather, just one super-long service, by concatenation - during which, not only are three proper psalms read at each of Prime, Terce, Sext and None, but at each are read a Prokeimenon (answering to a Gradual), then a Lesson, Epistle and Gospel. These amplifications of the normal Hours are celebrated with solemnity.

Those wishing to consult the texts, follow this link to the Royal Hours of Christmas.

There is also a Catechesis of St Theodore the Studite for the Nativity of Christ that is read at Byzantine Rite Prime this day: a beautiful patristic passage.

Blessed is the Kingdom

Εὐλογημένη ἡ Βασιλεία τοῦ Πατρὸς ϗ τοῦ Υἱοῦ ϗ τοῦ Ἁγίου Πνεύματος, νῦν ϗ ἀεὶ ϗ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων.

Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, now and ever and unto the ages of the ages. Amen.

[ϗ is the abbreviation for καὶ]

Thus begins the Divine Liturgy according to the Byzantine Rite, as the priest makes the sign of the Cross with the Gospel-book. Perhaps this is based on Tobit xiii, 1b: Εὐλογητὸς ὁ Θεὸς ὁ ζῶν εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας καὶ ἡ βασιλεία αὐτοῦ (Blessed be God that liveth for ever, and blessed be His Kingdom).

But note that the Kingdom is of the Three Persons of the Trinity. The Trinity is King!

At the Divine Liturgy, the second ecphonesis, and the well-known doxology after the Lord's Prayer, are almost the same in their proclamation: "For Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, now and ever and unto the ages of the ages. Amen."

We in the West rarely call the Holy Ghost our King - but in the Byzantine Rite, every sacred act begins with a complex of prayers beginning with this invocation of the Holy Ghost, somewhat answering to the Latin Veni Sancte Spiritus: "O heavenly King, Paraclete, Spirit of Truth..."

Of course, in East and West and wherever Christians are found, we all pray in the Lord's Prayer, "Our Father... Thy Kingdom come... on earth as it is in heaven." (Pater noster... adveniat regnum tuum... sicut in cælo et in terra.) God the Father is King we know, for (as at the Mass in the Western recension of the Gloria in excelsis), in the Byzantine Rite, their equivalent Great Doxology - sung at their Lauds and other Hours - includes the words Κύριε βασιλεῦ, ἐπουράνιε Θεέ, Πάτερ Παντοκράτορ ("Lord King, heavenly God, Father Almighty"): which is simply a slightly different division of words to the Latin Rex cælestis, Deus Pater omnipotens ("heavenly King, God the Father Almighty").

And what of the Great Entrance? The sublime Cherubicon is chanted: "...let us receive the King of all, invisibly escorted by the Angelic orders." Whiles the oblations are processed, which shall soon be consecrated, and so are already types of the Body and Blood of Christ, the priest and people cry, "May the Lord our God remember us all in His Kingdom... Lord, remember me in Thy Kingdom" (quoting St Dismas, the Good Thief: most blessed thief, who even stole Paradise!). Here Christ, our King and our God, is confessed, just as He is at the opening of each canonical Hour, in a threefold cry based on Psalm 94:6 (compare its use at Matins in the West):

Come, let us worship and bow down to the King, our God.

Come, let us worship and bow down to Christ the King, our God.

Come, let us worship and bow down to Christ Himself, the King, our God.

No one can say that the Byzantine Rite omits homage to Christus Rex!

The Three Persons are each King: the Father is King, and the Son is King, and the Holy Ghost is King: but they are not Three Kings, but One King. (Cf. Athanasian Creed.)

******

The genius of the Latin Liturgy is to be found encapsulated in the conclusion of the standard Roman Collect: Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti, Deus, per omnia sæcula sæculorum. Addressing God the Father, we pray through His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, Who with Him liveth and reigneth - as King - in the unity of the Holy Ghost, endlessly. Again, the Three are One King.

As for the Latin Mass, no less than in the Byzantine Rite, the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed solemnly declares that Cujus [Christi] Regni non erit finis - "Of whose [Christ's] Kingdom there shall be no end". St Cyril of Jerusalem - in his mystagogical catechesis to neophytes - energetically declares, "If thou shouldst hear that Christ's Kingdom hath an end, then hate this heresy!" Similarly, by confessing that Christ sits at the right of the Father, in the Gloria in excelsis and Creed, we declare indirectly that Our Lord Jesus Christ shares in the Kingship of His Father.

The Ascension of Our Lord into heaven, and His perpetual Session at the right hand of God, ruling all things in heaven and on earth, is the proximate foundation of the feast of Christ the King (which was only belately inserted into the Liturgy in 1925) - not that Christ, the Incarnate Word, was ever not our Sovereign Lord, but that, having conquered sin, Satan, death and hell by His Resurrection, He returned in triumph to reign in heaven. There, invisibly maybe but very truly, He rules even this world, which is totally under His sway and the direction of His Providence; for the moment, as this the last age rapidly draws to its ineluctable Judgement and end, He permits men still to sin and waste time away; but the sands in the hourglass are running out. God has appointed a day when Christ shall return, "to judge the living and the dead and the world by fire". May He grant us the grace and mercy to stand and be saved on that Day! (The Neo-Gallican Missals and Breviaries were not far wrong when they marked the Octave Day of the Ascension by a special feast in honour of Christ's Return as our Dread Judge.)

How we ought then call on Him Who is the King of Glory! In the Office, the Te Deum includes the stirring words, Tu Rex gloriæ, Christe: Thou art the King of glory, O Christ. And in Lent, instead of Alleluia, is sung Laus tibi, Christe, Rex æterne gloriæ: Praise unto Thee, Christ, King of eternal glory. On Palm Sunday, we sing the hymn with the refrain Rex Christe, Redemptor: King Christ, Redeemer.

Finally, it ought go without saying - as well the early Christians and the pagan Romans knew - that to call Christ (or for that matter the Holy Spirit) "Lord" is to solemnly acknowledge that this Person is King and God, ranking with the Eternal Father.

Elevation of the All-Holy

The Byzantines have the curious custom (strange to Westerners) of elevating a triangular portion of bread, named the Panagia (All-Holy), in honour of Our Lady, at the end of the main monastic meal. Lifting it up, the priest cries "Great is the Name" and all reply "of the Holy Trinity" and then he cries (while moving the morsel horizontally, so as to complete making the Sign of the Cross with it) "All-Holy Theotokos, save us" (sôson hêmas), to which all reply "Through her intercessions, O God, have mercy and save us".

By its taking up, it is in a manner offered to God and blessed; and with it a blessing is imparted to all the faithful present who glorify the Lifegiving Trinity and invoke the Mother of God, thus implicitly commemorating the Incarnation of the Eternal Word, Who, being One of the Trinity, became Man to save us. It is a blessing to us when we bless God, and bless Him in His Saints, especially in God's Mother.

The Orthodox assert that this act is of apostolic origin - they state that after Our Lord's Ascension, the Apostles wherever they were always set aside some bread as Our Lord's portion at table (till He come again), which they would partake of, leaving a morsel, and had the custom of blessing the Trinity when lifting this last piece up at the end of the meal (recalling Christ's Ascension), ending by saying, "O Lord Jesus Christ, save us". However, soon after Our Lady's Dormition, she appeared to them in heavenly glory at the very moment they were conducting this dinnertime ritual - revealing that she had been resurrected and assumed into heaven - and they were so astonished that they spontaneously exclaimed, "All-Holy Theotokos, save us": and this has been said instead ever since.

The loaf for this purpose (which has been blessed at the Liturgy) is brought into the monastic refectory with some fanfare, and all come eventually to receive of it, perhaps dipping it in the wine provided and waving it over the censer if these be present. The triangular portion kept back until the end of the meal is set aside in a sometimes elaborate vessel on a table - the panagiarion - by itself, oft with a candle and even a censer before it, and there may be icons of the Trinity and the Blessed Virgin with it also. (Occasionally, even a chalice of wine is present - the whole rite is redolent of Eucharistic symbolism.)

This fragment of bread is a reminder that the Virgin Mary was blessed above all women to bring forth her Son Who is the Living Bread come down from heaven to nourish us unto everlasting life of soul and body. The portion is triangular to call to mind the Trinity, One of Whom became incarnate of the Virgin Mary to save us; and it is lifted up to make the Sign of the Cross to recall Christ's saving Passion. It is offered as a blessing of Our Lady, or, more correctly, through her as His Mother it is offered to bless Him Who was born of her. By being lifted up, it is exalted from humble bread to a vehicle of blessing; this also calls to mind Holy Mary's unique glorification in her bodily Assumption into heaven.

(Please consult Aquaro's article on the Lifting of the Panagia for more information.)

******

Forgive me for even mentioning it, and I cast no aspersions upon this decent and orthodox rite, but there once was a most unusual heretical practice that fraudulently resembled this one - for the sect of the Collyridians, against whom St Epiphanius wrote in his Panarion (late 4th C.), were mad women who idolatrously worshipped the Virgin Mary, and vainly offered unto her small cakes and bread rolls, feigning to act as priests!

In this they emulated, not the true Israel of God, but the disgraceful perversions of those who bowed down before the Moon-goddess or demon: "...the women knead the dough to make cakes to the queen of heaven..." (Jer. vii, 18). Unfortunately there are not lacking crazies to-day who claim this as a wretched warrant for goddess-worship and other heterodox nonsense, deceiving and deceived.

Dormition of Our Lady

The Greek Orthodox in Launceston (and the rest of northern Tasmania) have a church, dedicated in honour of the Dormition of the Theotokos, but no priest; instead, once a month, on a Saturday, Fr Timothy comes up from Hobart to celebrate the Divine Liturgy. Since to-day is both a Saturday and their church's titular feast, not only Fr Timothy, but a whole busload of Greeks - and Ethiopians! - from Hobart came up for the Liturgy, together with others travelling by car. Among them were my friends Ron and Nicola, with their children... I had agreed to go all ecumenical and join them for this special occasion.

This morning, after walking up the Gorge to see the ever-burgeoning flood, I returned to my car and drove over to their church; hearing the Trisagion sung, it transpired that Orthros (Lauds) was ending, and, upon entering the church and lighting a candle for a consideration (as seemed fitting), I went and stood with the large congregation while the Artoklasia (blessing of bread for a name-day) was celebrated, since obviously all Greek ladies with Mary in their names were keeping this day in a special manner.

I should note here that Fr Timothy has no deacon, so he perforce sang all the litanies himself; he only had one server, too, an older man.

The Divine Liturgy commenced at 10:30, and concluded at 11:45 am. It was edifying to see the large congregation - including a dozen or so Ethiopians all in white in their church-going finery - which spilled over from the little church itself into the adjoining hall. The rites were conducted half in Greek, half in English, alternating for every petition, prayer, etc. (though the responses were sung in Greek only). Even the words of consecration were done this way: the Host was consecrated in Greek, the Chalice, in English! Certain parts, such as the Epistle, the Gospel, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer were pronounced twice, once in each language. (The sermon, on Our Lady as model of humility, was in English only.)

Here are the Epistle (Philippians ii, 5-11) and Gospel (St Luke x 38-42; xi, 27-28):

For let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man. He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. For which cause God also hath exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above all names: that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth: and that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father.

Now it came to pass as they went, that he entered into a certain town: and a certain woman named Martha, received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sitting also at the Lord's feet, heard his word. But Martha was busy about much serving. Who stood and said: Lord, hast thou no care that my sister hath left me alone to serve? speak to her therefore, that she help me. And the Lord answering, said to her: Martha, Martha, thou art careful, and art troubled about many things: but one thing is necessary. Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her.
And it came to pass, as he spoke these things, a certain woman from the crowd, lifting up her voice, said to him: Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the paps that gave thee suck. But he said: Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it.

I was impressed by the choir (three older laymen, joined partway through by a younger man and his two sons): they had a number of armrests to lean on, as they stood by one wall, grouped about a mediæval-style lectern for their music. Amusingly, the reader couldn't quite find the right Epistle in the lectionary, so Fr Timothy popped out through the door of the iconostasis right in the middle of the chanting to give him a hand.

The Creed was recited, first by one of the choir in Greek, then by the two boys in English. Interestingly, few sang even an Amen or Kyrie, though we were all ever fervently crossing ourselves at every mention of the Trinity (and there were many) and also at other important bits (sorry, Bugnini, more really is more, less really is less); but when it came to the Lord's Prayer, all said it aloud together.

In the reverse to the Western practice, all the children were first mustered to receive the Holy Gifts; but then an impressively large fraction (about twenty or more) of the adults present also communicated. My friend's daughter brought me some of the antidoron (the blessed bread eaten after receiving Communion). During Communion, the choir sang a beautiful hymn in honour of the Theotokos, which Ron tells me is a favourite of the Greeks and always used at Communion; many even sang the refrain.

I recognized the refrain of this hymn as the same as that of the Akathist Hymn: Χαίρε Νύμφη Ανύμφευτε - or, "Hail, Bride unbrided" (the Greek doesn't quite work in English). Having now searched a bit, it turns out that this hymn is Αγνή Παρθένε, a famous nineteenth century composition by Bishop Nectarius of Aegina (whom the Orthodox have canonized):

O Virgin Queen and Mother,
O dewy fleece most sacred:
Rejoice, O unwedded Bride!

O height transcending heaven above,
O beam of light most radiant:
Rejoice, O unwedded Bride!

O joy of chaste and virgin maids,
surpassing all the angels:
Rejoice, O unwedded Bride!

O brilliant light of heaven above,
most clear and most radiant:
Rejoice, O unwedded Bride!

Commanding chief of heaven above,
O holiest of holies:
Rejoice, O unwedded Bride!

O ever-virgin Mary,
O Mistress of creation:
Rejoice, O unwedded Bride!

O Bride all-pure and spotless,
O Lady all-holy:
Rejoice, O unwedded Bride!

O holy Mary, Bride and Queen,
O cause of our rejoicing:
Rejoice, O unwedded Bride!

O Maiden Queen most honorable,
O Mother most holy:
Rejoice, O unwedded Bride!

More precious than the cherubim,
more glorious than the seraphim:
Rejoice, O unwedded Bride!

Surpassing principalities,
dominions, thrones and powers:
Rejoice, O unwedded Bride!

Rejoice, song of the cherubim,
Rejoice, hymn of the angels:
Rejoice, O unwedded Bride!

Rejoice, ode of the seraphim
and joy of the archangels:
Rejoice, O unwedded Bride!

Rejoice, O peace; Rejoice, O joy
and haven of salvation:
Rejoice, O unwedded Bride!

O bridal chamber of the Word,
unfading, fragrant blossom:
Rejoice, O unwedded Bride!

Rejoice, delight of paradise,
Rejoice, life everlasting:
Rejoice, O unwedded Bride!

Some other observations: while as mentioned the Greeks are forever crossing themselves at the naming of the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity, I noticed that they do not have the Western custom of bowing the head at the Holy Name of Jesus; and unlike the Russians, they miss out the litanies in between the Gospel and the Great Entrance.

After the final blessing, the processional crucifix and ripidia were brought forth, and thereupon we all processed around the outside of the church with the large icon of the Dormition (covered in flowers), with an occasional stop for prayers.

The procession ended, we all received more of the blessed bread from Fr Timothy - and soon enough fell to on the huge lunch that had been prepared for all and sundry, including yours truly.

It was a sacred, festive, and familial occasion. I must say I felt very much at home. (Luckily, having some Greek, and more importantly a grasp of the flow of the Divine Liturgy through study and prior attendance of it in Russian and Ukrainian Rite churches, I didn't even need to open my pocket copy of The Divine Liturgy Explained.) How sad it is that these Orthodox are clearly so familiar with their beautiful and sacred rites, and yet would surely find the modern Roman Rite bare and alien. The Traditional Latin Mass is certainly more evidently a different, but very Catholic, form of the same Eucharistic Sacrifice, and closer in spirit to the unchanged and dearly-loved Eastern Rites.

After the lunch, my friends and I went up the Gorge (in my case, for the second time to-day) to admire the spectacle of the surging flood and whitewater rapids. I must admit, after also standing for an hour at the Greek service, my poor legs ache.

But I must now go to Catholic Mass, for the Sunday Vigil.

******

I've now returned from Mass, pleased and refreshed. I've resolved to keep attending Mass at St Francis, which is my canonical parish, since apart from anything else it delivers me from dire diocesan priests! I like the liturgy at Carmel, but for one thing: Father. Having a pious and reverent priest at the altar is more important than ever when attending the Novus Ordo.

Byzantine Origins?

Many of the longer non-scriptural antiphons and such of the Roman Rite, such as those appointed for Lauds and Vespers of the Octave Day of Christmas (used in the Little Office for Christmastide till the Presentation), are in fact translations from Greek troparia.

I wonder if Greek origins lie behind certain of the well-known Marian versicles (also used in the Little Office), such as Dignare me laudare te, Virgo sacrata - Da mihi virtutem contra hostes tuos, or Post partum, Virgo, inviolata permansisti - Dei Genetrix, intercede pro nobis, and Gaude, Maria Virgo - Cunctas hæreses sola interemisti in universo mundo: for the latter two seem to stem from parts of one of the Roman Matins responsories for the Annunciation, and this text itself seems to betray a Greek liturgical origin by its very floridity, although its roughly rhyming lines may instead shew it a native Latin composition (I give its verse in its older form, as preserved in the Dominican Breviary; the Roman now quotes St Luke i, 45 - Beata es quæ credidisti: quia perfecta sunt ea, quæ dicta sunt tibi a Domino):

R/. Gaude, Maria Virgo, cunctas hæreses sola interemisti,

quæ Gabrielis Archangeli dictis credidisti:

* Dum Virgo Deum et hominem genuisti,

et post partum, Virgo, inviolata permansisti.

V/. Gabrielem Archangelum scimus divinitus te esse affatum:

uterum tuum de Spiritu Sancto credimus imprægnatum:

erubescat Judæus infelix, qui dicit Christum ex Joseph semine esse natum.

* Dum Virgo Deum et hominem genuisti,

et post partum, Virgo, inviolata permansisti.

Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto.

* Dum Virgo Deum et hominem genuisti,

et post partum, Virgo, inviolata permansisti.

(R/. Rejoice, Mary Virgin, all heresies alone thou hast crushed, who believed the things Gabriel Archangel said, * When, a Virgin, thou brought forth God and Man, and after birth, inviolate thou remained a Virgin. V/. We know Gabriel Archangel to have spoken by divine agency to thee: we believe thy womb was impregnated by the Holy Ghost: may that unhappy Jew blush, who said that Christ was born of the seed of Joseph. * When, a Virgin, thou brought forth God and Man, and after birth, inviolate thou remained a Virgin. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. * When, a Virgin, thou brought forth God and Man, and after birth, inviolate thou remained a Virgin. )

Baumstark's Laws of Liturgy

Anton Baumstark was a liturgical scholar of the old school, who did not believe that tinkering with the sacred cult was the proper concern of liturgists, but that on the contrary one ought be not master but student of the liturgy. (One may note in passing that Our Lord Jesus Christ is the One Liturgist - Λειτουργὸς - as Hebrews viii, 2 attests.)

Famously, he formulated two laws describing the organic evolution of the liturgy over time: first, that on the most solemn days the most ancient and sober rituals tend to be retained; second, that over time, newer liturgical developments can tend to replace by degrees older features of the divine cult. For instance, until the post-Conciliar reforms, the Divine Office of the last three days of Holy Week, and of the whole of Easter Week, was marked by a simplicity of form unchanged for many ages - no hymns were sung, no short chapters read at the Day Hours, and so forth - this being an example of his first law. Contrariwise, the ancient Roman ferial Office has over time gradually been replaced by a multiplicity of saint's days, so that the weekly cycle of ferial Vesper hymns focussing on the Six Days of Creation are hardly ever sung through in one week, being replaced by hymns for the various occurring saints from their respective Common or Proper.

Baumstark's second law was well-explained by Jungmann, when considering the place of the Lord's Prayer, preces and Collect in the Divine Office. (I write here not of Matins, which was not generally read apart from Lauds - its union with the latter being the ideal, as even its name suggests.) According to mediæval testimony, at the Lateran Basilica the Lord's Prayer was said at the end of each Hour of the Office, with no collect at all appended. It is conjectured that this was the case especially if no priest were present (note here that monks, such as those who sang the Office at the Lateran, were originally unordained), and that in the remote past the Lord's Prayer was the normal conclusion of each Hour - a Collect proper to the day or time being added, at first to give greater solemnity, and then more and more often, so the Lord's Prayer became in the nature of a preface to it. (As the priest first said Dominus vobiscum before the Collect, the Collect itself savoured of things sacerdotal, and was only by degrees, it is argued, accepted as right for a layperson to say: and then it is prefixed with Domine exaudi instead.) The Benedictine and Dominican Breviaries still retain this characteristic pattern of Pater before Collect at the Day Hours.

However, in these, and in the Roman Breviary when the Lord's Prayer still rarely makes an appearance, the Pater noster is always preceded by a threefold Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison. It is thought that this - like the Kyrie at Mass - was once a full litany (as in the Byzantine Rite), but over time was abbreviated to this simple form (St Benedict in his Rule terms it a litany). This litany before the Pater noster disappeared, only to be replaced, apparently under Celtic influence, with suffrages or preces recited after it - originally, these were a series of petitions, each followed by a versicle and response (usually from the psalms), but over time were reduced to a dialogic pattern of versicles and responses.

The Carthusian Breviary retained these long preces at all Hours; but outside that austere Order, it was felt increasingly that preces were not so appropriate to feast days, and so were restricted to ferias in various Breviaries, then were cut down in length (especially at the Little Hours), then were restricted to penitential days, and acquired a penitential sense - since one knelt to pray them, days when they were said were termed "kneeling days". By the mid-twentieth century, the Roman Breviary was being shortened by "simplification of the rubrics" - and the preces at the Little Hours, including the longer and more specialized ones at Prime and Compline, were finally abolished, while Lauds and Vespers only kept their preces on most Ember Days, plus ferial Wednesdays and Fridays of Advent and Lent. In the Roman Breviary, moreover, the Lord's Prayer, from being the original concluding prayer of prayers, had become considered as but part of these preces - and so was in essence discarded altogether from its ancient place.

In the Little Office of Our Lady (itself a pious addition to the daily Office, that became as it were a separate spin-off more suited to lay use because of its relative brevity, simplicity and devotional quality), until the last pre-Conciliar reforms what survived before the Collect of each Hour was not the Lord's Prayer at all, but rather the threefold Kyrie that itself had been a later preface to the Pater noster.

In a separate development, for long centuries (until the last changes under John XXIII before the Council) a Pater and later an Ave had been said as a preparation before each Hour (also a Credo at some Hours), and a Pater with versicle after it... and this, from being a pious custom lifting up the mind to God (as St Ignatius analogously directs before meditation) beforehand, and prolonging the official liturgical prayer, became a fixed devotion, part of the Office. The Lord's Prayer having disappeared from its first place in the Hours, it reappeared elsewhere, finally almost being removed entirely. (In the modern Divine Office, which in many ways represents a decided break with the traditional, organic development of the liturgy, the Lord's Prayer is said aloud, after some intercessions, and before the Collect, but at Lauds and Vespers only, for somewhat artificial reasons.)

As Jungmann summarizes Baumstark's second law, A becomes Ab, Ab becomes AB, this becomes (A)B and finally B alone remains - A being the original liturgical prayer, first b then B being the addition to it that gradually expands in importance until it takes its place entirely.

Another example of this law is the way that, while the more conservative Roman Rite Divine Office still largely consists of the recitation of the psalms, in the Byzantine Rite, the various Canons and divers troparia, kontakia and whatnot - liturgical hymns, of great dogmatic value - have so multiplied that it is they, not the psalms, that are the chief feature of the Hours: indeed, usually the kathisma(ta) or portion(s) of the psalms appointed are very hurriedly recited in monotone by a reader even in monasteries, so that the massed choirs can then break forth in magnificent chanting of the ecclesiastical compositions that now have pride of place; and in parish celebrations, very often the psalms to be recited are drastically pruned and abbreviated, being overshadowed by the more recent and popular elements of the services.

Te decet laus

The Te decet laus is a short doxology that I use in my prayers fairly commonly; in the West, it is known only in the Monastic Rite, where it is used at Matins, after the Te Deum, followed by the Gospel of the day (with response Amen), have been chanted - it is as it were an ascription of praise to the Trinity for the Holy Gospel.  In the Byzantine East, on the other hand, the Te decet laus is used extensively; at Matins (Lauds), Vespers and Compline, it occurs at the very end of the collection of psalm verses normally prayed following on the Greek recension of the Gloria in excelsis (although at festal Matins the Te decet laus is not used), or as a separate prayer, called the Kataxiôson after its first word (familiar in the West as Dignare Domine die isto/nocte ista...).

Herewith, the Te decet laus, first in its (original) Greek, and then in its Latin version:

Σοὶ πρέπει αἶνος, σοὶ πρέπει ὕμνος, σοὶ δόξα πρέπει, τῷ Πατρὶ καὶ τῷ Υἱῷ καὶ τῷ Ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι, νῦν καὶ ἀεὶ καὶ εἰς τους αἰῶνας των αἰώνων. Ἀμήν. 

(To you praise is due, to you song is due, to you glory is due, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and for ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.)

Te decet laus, te decet hymnus, tibi gloria: Deo Patri et Filio cum Sancto Spiritu in sæcula sæculorum.  Amen.

(Thou art worthy of praise, thou art worthy of hymn[s], to Thee be glory: to God the Father and the Son with the Holy Ghost, world without end.  Amen.)

Pretty obviously the Scriptural allusion is to Te decet hymnus, Deus, in Sion, et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem (Ps 64:2), well-known to Catholics as the verse of the Introit of the Requiem Mass: "A hymn, O God, becometh Thee in Sion, and a vow shall be paid unto Thee in Jerusalem: O hear my prayer, all flesh shall come to thee " (continuing with the third verse).

Prayer before Christ's Icon

At the end of the Byzantine Liturgy of the Presanctified during Great Lent occurs this Prayer, to be read in front of the icon of Christ:

O Master Almighty, Who in wisdom didst create the Universe, Who by Thine ineffable forethought and great goodness hast led us unto these hallowed days, for cleansing of souls and bodies, for subduing of passions, and for the hope of resurrection; Who after forty days didst shape the tables written with godlike characters for Thy servant Moses, grant also unto us, O Merciful Lord, to fight the good fight, to finish the course of the Fast, to keep the Faith, undivided, to shatter the heads of unseen dragons, to show ourselves victorious over sin, and to come, without condemnation, blamelessly to worship Thy Holy Resurrection.  For blessed and glorious is Thy honoured and sublime Name, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, now and for ever and unto the ages of the ages.  Amen.

Last Sunday

Last Sunday I worshipped with the Russians, at the Russian Catholic Chapel of St Nicholas.  As the Russian Rite still keeps to the Julian calendar and the older method for calculating Easter, their Easter this year will be a week later than the Roman, and the Sunday just past - the 25th of January New Style (i.e. Gregorian) / 12th January Old Style (Julian) was the Sunday after the Theophany (since the Julian calendar is now thirteen days behind the Gregorian and hence the 6th of January O.S. is the 19th of January N.S.).  Being the 12th of January O.S., it was also the feast of St Tatiana, martyr at Rome (see icon at the top and details at the end of a Russian Orthodox web page).

This afforded much spiritual delight: the icon of the Baptism of the Lord was exposed for veneration, and at the Little Entrance was sung the Troparion and Kontakion of the Feast, after the Troparion of the Resurrection:

At Your baptism in the Jordan, O Lord, worship of the Trinity was revealed, for the Father's voice bore witness to You, calling You His "beloved Son", and the Spirit in the form of a dove confirmed the truth of these words.  O Christ God, Who appeared and enlightened the world, glory to You!

You have revealed Yourself to the world today, and Your light, O Lord, has shined upon us.  We recognize You and exclaim to You: "You have come and revealed Yourself, O Inaccessible Light."

It must be remembered that one common Eastern name for baptism is enlightenment or illumination - hence Christ shone out in the Jordan, shedding His healing rays on all men, manifesting Himself in His Epiphany.

After the service, Fr Lawrence said casually that he hadn't been sure whether it were the 32nd or the 33rd Sunday after Pentecost (as the Byzantine Rite enumerates all Sundays from one Pentecost right through until the pre-Lenten preparatory Sundays commence, there being no Advent as such, just the Nativity Fast), but that in any case the readings settled upon had been manifestly suitable!  I discover now that he was joking, since there are proper readings assigned for the Sunday after the Theophany, whatever Sunday after Pentecost it be, and the proper readings were those that were chanted.

The Gospel was taken from St Matthew iv, 12-17; the Epistle, from Ephesians iv, 7-13 (part of which I read in the Roman Breviary at Matins to-day, hence my being reminded of all this Liturgy) - and I have always found rather admirable the way the reader chants the Epistle, beginning on a very low note, and gradually ascending as he goes till he finishes on a very high one...