Incognitus wrote:
Nothing and no one is about to attempt to compel you to learn Church Slavonic. These days, in fact, someone who wishes to learn the stuff is apt to have difficulty locating courses (tip: start by a taking a Russian course).
There are some good sites on the internet for learning Old Church Slavonic and Church Slavonic (most people confuse them - they are two different languages, rather like Latin & Italian/Romanian). I think one or two of the sites even have audio, though I haven't checked that out.
The Russian Orthodox monastery at Jordanville NY has a cassette series with booklets for learning the major Church Slavonic prayers (it's not a language course, but helps one to recognize & know the major prayers). Of course it is the Russian pronunciation of CS.
There are numerous grammars and handbooks of both OCS & Church Slavonic. One I have is a short, concise grammar with many examples & a glossary, written by a Jesuit & published in New York.
In grad school we were forced to study OCS (two semesters in my program). Everyone absolutely hated it except me
We met 3x weekly and each meeting required about two hours of concentrated translation to English at home. Of course, if you know a modern Slavic language, you'll catch on quite quickly. Those who are really serious about OCS, should contact a university with a Slavic langauges program & find out about their offerings. I know in Poland & Cz & Slovak Republics, study of OCS is required of philologists at many universities. And the schools have some excellent grammars/handbooks in the modern language.
I love OCS and CS myself. I don't understand why more priests and congregations do not have more CS in the liturgy. I believe it adds something to the liturgy, even if only a few select prayers are in CS. It is true that most Russians do not understand CS completely, though most churchgoers have a general idea of the meaning - and of course the regular familiar prayers in CS ARE understood.
I sometimes attend a Maronite liturgy & can't help but admire the way those communities promote Syriac and Aramaic. In one community I know, the priest does not actually SPEAK those languages & probably half of the congregation is not Lebanese, but they have many parts of the liturgy in Syriac/Aramaic & the non-Lebanese sing just as enthusiastically as the Lebanese. What a shame the Slavs in the US cannot do that. I never met a Slav Greek Catholic in the US who was really proud of his CS heritage (I know there are some, but I never met one). Generally, many Slavs seem to have an inferiority complex when it comes to CS. Some will actually apologize to non-Slavs for CS in the church.
And there are moments in my life when I feel that God listens more attentively to prayers in CS than to other languages. An irrational thought, but a sentiment I sometimes feel.
Stojgniev
