www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship Vespers, Matins & the Divine Liturgy The Revised Divine Liturgy Implementing the New Liturgy: how we are doing it.

Dear brother in Christ, Eddie,

The bishops and the music commission decided to release the new service book without a collection of hymns; I have been told that they were worried that a hymnal section would make an already large book TOO large. On the other hand, the existing hymns (text only) in the old Lekvulic service book had no music, and contained a variety of typos and even grammatical errors, etc., in the Slavonic.

The hymns we are talking about are not part of the Divine Liturgy itself (the service the new book is for), and were certainly not forbidden (though I can understand why people were confused). The official Cantor's Companion states "The custom of singing hymns before and after the Divine Liturgy is greatly beloved by the faithful of the Byzantine Catholic Church, and is encouraged." The hymns in the last section of the new book were chosen precisely because there are from other parts of the Liturgy, or are based entirely on Scripture.

A hymnal with essentially all the hymns in the Lekvulic book is in preparation, with music in both English AND Slavonic.

Yours in Christ,
Jeff

Jeff,

is there an approximate date as to when this will be released?

I'm going to confirm it in the next few weeks, but I've been told that at the Lakewood, OH parish, since the new books have goine in, the priest has discarded all the other books (i.e. the hymns to the Mother of God, etc.) and replaced them with his own hymn book. The book that he made has all of the hymns from the Lekvulic and Marian Hymn books combined but ONLY in English. See, this priest is using the RDL books as a way to justify eradicating Slavonic once and for all. This probably was an uninteded consequence by the folks in Pittsburgh, but still, not having any Slavonic in the RDL books is giving those who wish to remove Slavonic from our churches the 'justification' to do so. Very sad.

Monomakh

I don't know if this was an "unintended consequence"...

Chris

Dear Monomakh,

I am hoping to see a draft before the end of the month, at which point the Music Commission would be going over it to decide whether to publish it formally. If not, I would expect the individual hymns (and possibly a collection) to show up on the MCI website.

And before anyone asks again the selection of hymns in the "interim hymnal" in preparation is basically identical to that of the Levkulic pew book's; the English text is unchanged except in one or two cases where the a retranslated text is already included in the Green Book; the Slavonic text is corrected where some typos were made in Levkulic, and the melodies are from the 1970 Byzantine Liturgical Chant, or Father Sokol's books from the 1950's.

Chris,

I note that the Johnstown (ACROD) Divine Liturgy book dropped Church Slavonic years ago, and yet Slavonic remains in use there. I think you would be off track in assuming in either case that Church Slavonic was being suppressed.

Yours in Christ,
Jeff

Jeff. Thank you in clarifying a few things. My relatives are still upset about how they were talked down like little children. They mentioned how one of the approved hymns for before and after the Divine Liturgy is a Roman Catholic hymn. is the Byzantine Catholic church now introducing Roman Catholic hymns into their worship? The Roman Catholics who attended worship loved it and sang loudly. The Byzantine Catholics were surprised and remained silent. It was odd for them not to sing a hymn in their own church thta their guests were able to. Will there also be Protestant hymns too? I can recommend a few if you would like.

Eddie

Ed,

I'd be interested in knowing the name of the hymn. In my parish, for example (near-century old Greek Catholic church), we occasionally sing "Immaculate Mary", "Holy God, we praise thy name" (for Sundays when the Holy Name meets), and one or two hymns in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. (We also sing a lot of Slavonic.)

The Music Commission may change their minds, of course, but as far as I know the interim hymnal will not include "Immaculate Mary," or "O Jesus Lord, we ask you to bless us (who love Your Sacred Heart divine)." (And there will likely be complaints about not including those two.) The closest thing to a Roman Catholic hymn in the proposed hymnal is Kol Slaven Nas - if in fact it the melody was originally a setting for Tantum Ergo. (The Kol Slaven text is unrelated though.)

Jeff

Perhaps they are referring to the Great Doxology which resembles the "Gloria" from the Roman Catholic liturgy.

Will the new book include the hymn "O Marije mati Boza Precista"? Thats one of the nicest Marian hymns of the Rusyn tradition.

Sorry, I just had to ask...

Yes And it is.

Jeff

Jeff...I appreciate your comment however knowing Metropolitan Nicholas and knowing the internal workings and history of the American BCC...I think it is like comparing grapes and watermelons...

Chris

Jeff,

The reference to a Roman Catholic hymn being used could be the entrance hymn for the Feast of Ss. Peter and Paul. I think it was set to "Joyful, joyful, we adore thee ..." / "Ode to Joy".

Zeeker,

That's altogether possible; that's why I was asking for the name of the hymn. Its wonderful that Roman Catholics would have come to one of our churches on a holyday that's not one of their "holydays of obligation", and I'm glad they sang along, whatever it was.

Jeff

Not to be overly negative, but I realized when following along that the choir seemed not to be reading the same music as I was at times. I am a musician, of sorts, but not a singer (although I have had training in musical theatre). I thought, "hmmm, this is funny: we already have a mismatch and these books are brand new." Then I realized: "hmmm, it's actually that someone is singing the 'old' version and everyone else is following.

I can't help feel a little like a Protestant. Honestly, I still follow along using a book printed in 1948 - long, long before I was born. It is an old family prayer book and I just like to use it. A lot more mismatch now, though.

I've noticed that, as well. Sometimes our cantors, who I must say are doing their best to sing the new music and lead us, slip into the "old" way in mid-hymn.

That is why I call it, "The Ruthenian Reformation".