www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship The Kliros Preterp'ivyj Za Nas/Having Suffered the Passion hymn

It is the time of the Great Fast again and I'm still wondering how many Ruthenian and Ukrainian parishes still sing the lenten hymn "Preterp'vyj/Having Suffered the Passion"? I have been told that parishes in the Ruthenian Passaic Eparchy no longer sing this hymn, while most older parishes in the Ruthenian Archeparchy still sing this hymn during the Great Fast.

How many other parishes, both Greek Catholic and Orthodox, still sing this lenten hymn w/prostations?

I know my Byzantine Catholic parish in South Side, St. John the Baptist (Byzantine, not Ukrainian), did it up until at least 2007 or so.

We do it at my current ACROD parish, St. Nicholas in Homestead, and it's done at the ACROD cathedral in Johnstown, too. It's also still done at St. George's ACROD in Taylor, PA as well as ACROD parishes in the CT deanery, last lent when I was up there.

So, ACROD is still doing it.

It's such a beautiful hymn and tradition, why would anyone want to STOP singing it?

It's still done in all of the UGCC parishes I have recently visited during Lent. We sing it at our mission.

It'ss always sung after Lenten Vespers and devotions (sixth hour, moleben) in Binghamton and Endicott (Eparchy of Passaic), though not after the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts.

And it was sung after Forgiveness Vespers (in both English and Slavonic) at the cathedral in Pittsburgh last Sunday. it is also included in the MCI books for Lenten Vespers and devotions.

As far I am aware, the hymn is sung throughout most,if not all of ACROD parishes certainly all of the 'old line' parishes in the northeast including ACROD's Binghamton, Endicott, Corning and Cheektowaga parishes. Metropolitan Nicholas is committed to the preservation and perpetuation of prostopenije, mostly in English, but also with respect to Church Slavonic.

God bless and keep Met. Nicholas for his love of Prostopinije and all of the Rusyn-Slavonic para-liturgical hymn tradition! Mnohaja l'ita, Mitropolit' Nikolaj!

U-C

we sing it @ St. Basil the Great parish in Irving (Dallas area) Texas.

Thank you. Please keep in him your prayers.

We sang it at St Nicholas, San Anselmo, OCA, last night. I don't recall if it was in both Old Church Slavonic and English or just English.

We are singing it at Holy Angels Byzantine Catholic Church in San Diego, which is Ruthenian. We first sing it in English, then Slavonic, then back to English.

We are singing it. Last night it was in Slavonic, then twice in English. I did see something in writing saying that its use was discouraged. It was on a little card in the back of the booklet for forgiveness vespers, I think.

Elizabeth

I'm amazed and a bit confused why anyone would want to repudiate this customary hymn text. How does singing it (with prostrations is even better) hurt anything?

I agree, but there are still a few in the Eastern world who would reject anything they think, in their minds, is 'unworthy' due to being 'tainted' by the West - just like the people in the past who tried to eliminate Rusyn plainchant as being 'western' while replacing it with baroque-influenced choral pieces (which, by the way, many church choirs still love and sing).

PS I imagine we did prostrate also with it since we had protestations throughout the evening.

I have not heard anyone repudiate this hymn text (except once in an exceptionally "Great Russian" church). What has happened is that the liturgical commission of the (Ruthenian) Metropolitan Archeparchy of Pittsburgh has recommended that it NOT be sung immediately after the reception of Holy Communion, since it is intensely penitential - and in our tradition, fasting / penitence / sorrow is not really consonant with the reception of our Lord's Body and Blood.

Some (here and elsewhere) have used this to argue that the church has entirely "forbidden" this practice - usually as part of broader discontent with recent changes in the service books. For example, the same liturgical commission recommended that only psalms or liturgical compositions, and not paraliturgical hymns or "concerts", be sung during Holy Communion, and some have claimed that as a result, "they have completely forbidden the singing of hymns in our churches." Not so; they are simply not to be sung as at a particular point in the service (and even that does not apply to hymns based on liturgical texts, such as T'ilo Christovo and Viruju Hospodi).

Now, a parallel: in our tradition, we do not customarily intone for the departed at the Divine Liturgy on Sunday - and so one COULD, in the same way, claim "the bishops are forbidding us to pray for the dead!" In some cases (for example, where weekly liturgies are not held), pastors will in fact intone for the departed on Sunday, and this is generally seem as a reasonable accomodation.

In the same way, some parishes which ONLY celebrate the Liturgy of Presanctified Gifts, and no other services, on weekdays in the Fast, may certainly sing Preterpivyj. This option is mentioned in the materials prepared for use with the new Presanctified books, but those materials recommend that Preterpivyj be sung BEFORE rather than after the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, and paraliturgical Eucharistic or thanksgiving hymns be sung afterwards.

I have never seen any suggestion that this hymn, or other "hymns of the Passion", NOT be sung after Vespers, Sixth Hour, or devotional services during the Fast - and the service book used for Forgiveness Vespers at the cathedral in Pittsburgh included it in both English and Slavonic.

http://metropolitancantorinstitute.org/songs/Slavonic/Preterpivyj.html

Yours in Christ,
Jeff