www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship The Kliros Chanting the Funeral Psalter

I am unaware of this custom being kept in any Byzantine / Greek Catholic parish. It would be great to renew this custom, even if only during the �visitation hours� (which have very much become more of a social than a prayerful vigil).

I was at a Parastas done by the clergy of Holy Trinity BC Church in Wall, Pa quite a few years ago, and the cantor, Mr Ribnicky, chanted the Slavonic Psalter the whole time that the deceased was laid out. Whether this is still done, I do not know.

Alexandr

JKF, I have done this quite a few times over the years - more often after I was tonsured reader. There are two general complications - one, the family may or may not want it; secondly with modern funerary arrangements, one has to work around the funeral home preparation.

But it can and should be done. Sometimes you cannot fit in the entire Psalter because of the arrangements; you do what you can. I have even begun at the hospital or bedside, moved to a chapel or the parish church while the body was being prepared for the majority of the Kathismata, and then went to the funeral home after the body was prepared to finish before the visitation/Parastas.

In some cases I have done this entirely in the church, and (with the blessing of the pastor) simply announced we were reading the Kathismata for the deceased in the church or chapel and anyone who wanted to come and pray or read for the deceased could do so, as a vigil before the Parastas. That can sometimes be the simplest arrangement which doesn't involve the funeral home.
FDD

Father Deacon: Excellent job at retaining and restoring our lost prayer customs! Your parish is to be commended and your example celebrated.

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A thought: There is a trend (at least in some areas of PA, NY and NJ) expecially among older people with few remaining relatives and friends of holding the wake in the parish church (sometimes the evening before and then again the morning of the funeral but most often just the morning of the funeral for 2 hours). This would be an ideal time to reintroduce this custom. For wakes conducted in a funeral home it should be possible to at least schedule an hour during which the pslams are chanted. The reintroduction would have to be done in a way that appears desirable so that people start asking that it be done.

Several years ago I posted to the files of the Prostopinije list (Yahoo Groups) all the Carpatho-Rusyn psalm tones I could collect, including the three that are the topic of this thread. I would appreciate any comments. Is there a similar custom elsewhere? There must be some Galician and Bukovynan psalm tones, but I can't find sources.

Stephen

Stephen, I will look but I am not sure I have the psalm tone music written anywhere. I was taught the Galician psalm tones orally, but can look and see what I have. The examples I gave above of chanting the psalms for the dead were all within UGCC settings and using Galician chant.

Stephen,

Thanks for the reminder! I would like to incorporate your work into a more visible article on the MCI website.

Father Deacon,

It would be great if you could write them down; I have heard Galicians chant the psalter for the reposed but wouldn't trust my memory after all these years to notate the tones.

Yours in Christ,
Jeff