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Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Prayer Book


Again and again in peace, let us pray to the Lord

My Prayer Book arrived today. Wahey! It's the Holy Trinity Monastery one, printed for the Church Abroad.

27 comments:

Jacob Hicks said...

Well, tell us more about it then!

Michael said...

:-)

Well, it's blue with gilt page-edges.

More seriously, it contains the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom with the variations for the Liturgy of St Basil, prayers for the morning, during the day and before bed, the full people's part of Paschal Matins, and excerpts from Matins and Vespers. It also contains troparia and kontakia for various Feasts, some other devotions, guidance on when and where to bow, prostrate and cross oneself, prayers for before and after Communion and some other devotions. It's also a rather beautiful book with which I'm very pleased. :-)

Jo said...

question: is it the old prayerbook or the new one? I had heard the old one is being reprinted by SGOIS over there across the pond, but haven't ordered one yet. I have the new one--and your right that it is an absolutely wonderful prayerbook!

Joe Zollars

Anonymous said...

Is that the one called the "St. Colman Prayer Book", or is it what we call over here in the US the "Jordanville Prayer Book"?

Leetle M.

Michael said...

Joe, it's the revised fourth edition, so not the 1960 one, (which, since your comment, has been ordered). Thanks for highlighting that as I wouldn't have thought and I don;t know how long the reprinted one will be availavle for.

Leetle M, it'd the Jordanville one. The St Colman Book has been typeset and looseleaf version will be availeble presently, once there are enough hands to enable printing, but the bound version may be a while in coming yet. Fr Michael may pass by to give us some more information.

Ian, you sound like me with all these unread books. :-)

Jo said...

ah that is the one I have! it has been faithfully used in my Icon corner for over 4 years now. The Prayers in it speak so wonderfully to the heart....

Joe Zollars

Jo said...

PS: let me know what you think of the old prayerbook. Also let me know when and where I can get my hands on a copy of hte st. Colman's.

JZ--collector of prayerbooks since 2002

Anonymous said...

dang that is one beautiful book. I still prefer purchasing new shoes over prayer books anyday, sinner I am.
-duchess

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Michael! It sure is beautiful!

Leetle M.

Michael said...

Just a fleeting visit as I'm on a borrowed computer (related post to follow).

I'll try to report back when the old prayer book arrives.

The St Petroc Monastery (link to the right of this blog) is where you can get the St Colman book from. Fr Michael's the person to contact.

Duchess, I can very well relate to your dilemma. ;-)

Shoes, glorious shoes!

M

Jo said...

Thanks for info on prayerbooks.

I can't really follow the whole shoe thing as there are exactly three styles that come in my size; black dress, brown casual dress, and athletic.

Scarfs on the other hand....

Joe Zollars

Anonymous said...

Just a cheerful word to brighten the day... once there was a thief who had been sent to prison for stealing. A good priest decided to have a Bible class for the prisoners, and he taught them from the KJV.

One day, the lesson was on "Let him that stole, steal no more. Let him labour with his hands."

Since the convicts did not have their own Bibles, they had to write their Bible verses on sheets of paper.

The convicted thief wrote, "Let him that stole, steal. No more let him labour with his hands."

Leetle M.

Michael said...

Ha! Thank you. I had been told that by an old priest of mine in St Kitts a good few years ago and had completely forgotten about it. Many thanks, Leetle M. :-)

Joe, I can so relate to the scarf thing. My most recent acquisition is a stripey number, but with very thin stripes so that they blend from a distance. It is of pure wool and has dangly edges.

Now, do I get the cashmere one from Marks and Sparks? Hmmm...

;-)

Anonymous said...

Nothin' like a worn out old joke.... I knew a newer one, but it was not suitable for your nice blog.

I had a sufferin' parish General Meeting to go to this afternoon, and the only good thing about that was to offer it up for your intentions and later to discover that our church has a young ladies' basketball team. They were playing basketball in the other big room of our church hall, and they were very, very good basketball players. Amusing to read all the girls' Greek names on the back of their jerseys, with one of them, from an "assimilated" Greek-American family, bearing the august Greek-American name of =Smith=.

Not scarf weather here yet. It was a normal summer's day, only in November.

Leetle M.
Tryin' me best to cheer you up a little bit. I'll get me chotki.

Jo said...

Scarfs truly are wonderful--sad thing is I can't get the real thing, as I am 100% allergic to wool (I actually almost offered myself up for exorcism after using a chotki and got rash all over fingers--until I remembered).

I recently aquired such a striped scarf, though in pure acrylic, that lets just say would go well with someone being Chrismated with the name Joseph and/or anyone on Castro street in San Fransisco....

And then I loaned it to a friend at a really bangin party a couple weeks ago and have yet to see it again. Oh the sadness....

Joe Zollars

Jo said...

oooh bad comment as it is seldom scarf weather in SanFran. Should of gone with "anyone in East Village, NYC." ;)

Joe Zollars

Anonymous said...

Oh, my... are there still chotkis made of wool? How primitive....

Best wishes,

Masha
The girl with the cotton chotki....

Jo said...

they make cotton chotki?! I must have one! I've been using a Roman Rosary as a chotki since it is not made of wool. The one I had was at least made of wool--quality wool of course, but an allergy is still an allergy.

Joe Zollars

Jo said...

PS. What was your source for the cotton chotki? JZ

Anonymous said...

A visiting monk came to our church and just handed them out. I think they made them at his (Greek) monastery, but I don't know where the monastery is.

I will do research on it and get back to you.

Leetle M.

Anonymous said...

Joe, here is a URL with illustrated instructions for making one's own chotki.


http://web.archive.org/web/20040722202032/www.wattfamily.org/prayerope.html

They recommend using a silky cord called "rat-tail" that can be obtained in craft shops. I saw some made of rat-tail made by some Anglican nuns near Baltimore. You might try contacting the All Saints Sisters of the Poor in Catonsville, MD, to see if they still tie them. The ones they made were lovely.

Leetle M.

Jo said...

hmm--well may try contacting them, as making one would be an utter disaster.

Granted I used to make Roman Rosaries, but generally speaking I am all thumbs due to some very severe traumatic arthritis in my hands due to a wreck a few years back not to mention years upon years of typing etc.

Joe Zollars

Michael said...

Hello again, folks. It is looking as though this is the post with the most comments thus far. Thanks everyone! :-)

Right. Prayer books!

I haven't delved too very deeply as the two books are very similar. However, here are some differences that I have noticed.

The most obvious difference is that the old book is a sort of maroon colour while the new one is blue.

I looked at the different styles of language and that proved interesting. The new book is very Book of Common Prayeresque in its language, in that it is in what I would perhaps refer to as "liturgical" English and it flows well. The old book appears, at first, to be in the same style, but a closer analysis revealed that it is mainly the use of "thee" and "thou" that has been employed, with a few older verb forms, but that most phrases are rendered as they would be in modern-day English and it does occasionally read clumsily as a result. I suppose that this is the danger of relying on one man for the translation of a text.

The old book favours British spellings whereas the compilers of the new book were perhaps undecided, with the result that the latter contains an interesting blend of British and American spellings. The old book wins this one for its consistency, which is perhaps one of the benefits of having one man do the translating.

I must admit that I love the old book's rendering of the response to Let us lift up our hearts, which is We have them uplifted to the Lord. The new book has We lift them up unto the Lord, which is fine, but not as beautiful as the version in the old book.

The old book also contains a few of the priest's and deacon's parts that are spoken inaudibly. Fewer of these appear in the new book. This isn't a major difference but I thought that it would be worth mentioning.

Overall, despite the beauty of Archimandrite Lazarus Moore's labour of love, I do prefer the newer book for its language. It just flows better and is very close to the translation used at my parish. Also, (and this is no good reason), the newer book is a more attractive volume, ith its rich blue cover and gold-leafed page edges. Ahh, how easily I am tempted. :-)

How's the chotki coming along, Joe?

Leetle M, why not mail me the newer joke privately? ;-)

Anonymous said...

Cuz I already forgot the stoopid joke, Joe...

You can get chotkis at most any Russian church, too, and frankly I doubt they'd be wool any more. Wool's too expensive these days.

Leetle M.

Anonymous said...

Oops, Michael, that meant =you=, to whom to tell the joke I forgot, or something....

It's only 6:30 a.m. Been learning to get up early. Not doing very well at the art of getting up early.

Leetle M.

Michael said...

Worry not. :-)

I remembered something that I forgot to mention earlier on. In the Liturgy, the old book has more than half of the First Antiphon (Psalm 102) missing. From the beginning, it goes up to Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with mercy and compassion, and then skips a few verses and jumps to The Lord is compassionate and merciful, long-suffering and of great mercy. After that, it just skips to the end, Bless the Lord, O my soul; blessed art thou, O Lord, omitting everything in between, which takes up nearly two pages in the new book.

All of the Second and Third Antiphons are there - it's just the first one.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm. That could have been a printer's error. I'm glad you have the whole psalm back.

The Antiochenes over here have decided to omit the 2nd antiphon (the Beatitudes) to shorten the Liturgy. In the Greek Church, however, and in the Russian Church, the Beatitudes are never left out. I like them, because they give me another chance to examine my conscience in a positive way before receiving Holy Communion.

Leetle M.

PS. Remembered joke, will email.