www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Lent 2-Again

I was looking at the Metropolitan Cantor Institute website recently, and some of the propers for Lent are already posted, Lent 2 being one of them. There is no tropar or kondak for St. Gregory Palamas printed to be sung at the Liturgy on Sunday, though there are stichera for him printed for vespers on Sat. night.

I know this has been raised each and every year, but what gives? Why is there still official resistance to celebrating him on the second Sunday of Lent in the Ruthenian Metropolia after all this time?

Never mind that--why don't they commemorate Patriarch St. Photios the Great on 6 February, as their own Typicon says they should?

The Tropar is listed on the Vespers sheet simply insert it between the Resurrection Tropar and Kondak.

My point was Fr. Deacon, that the 2nd Sunday is once again, not listed as the Sunday of St. Gregory, and the tropar is not printed in the official publications of the Church. Yet Lent 4 and 5 are given as "St. John of the Ladder" and "St. Mary of Egypt" with their tropars. Simply inserting it would be a liturgical abuse and not following the bishops.

John,

There are thousands of proper hymns (troparia, etc.) appointed in the church's liturgical books, only a fraction of which might be used in a year. The bishops of the Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic Church in the US have given their approval to an annual typikon who allows a wide range of latitude for ADDITIONAL hymns (up to the full set in the Slavonic typikon), and specifically lists both Orthodox and Greek Catholic sources for the saints' hymns for each day. It also list specific optional texts for the ivine Liturgy on particular days. It would certainly not be a liturgical abuse to sing these texts.

Parishes following the 2007 green book have appointed troparia for every Sunday, and can also add troparia and other hymns from the Common Menaion in the back, for almost any saint of the day. There are ALSO proper hymns for many of these saints, which are NOT in the Commons. The MCI has published proper texts for all the saints listed in the official calendar of saints promulgated by the bishops:

http://metropolitancantorinstitute.org/liturgy/Calendar_of_Saints.html

For the MCI weekly propers, we decided that whenever Father David's typikon appoints an optional set of texts for a Sunday Divine Liturgy, we include those hymns in the printed propers. In general, this means that when a feast of polyeleos rank or above falls on a Sunday, there will be hymns for the feast.

As to the second Sunday of the Fast - thanks for pointing out the omission. This set of propers had not been updated since 2007, when we were much more tentative about adding saints' propers that were not taken from the commons in the green book. I will be adding the troparion of our venerable father Gregory of Palamas to the Divine Liturgy propers over the weekend.

Yours in Christ,
Jeff Mierzejewski

P.S. By the way, [i]pace[/i] StuartK: while Saint Photius is listed in Father David's annual typikon for February 6, he is listed as the third saint, and in general, such an "additional saint" is seldom mentioned in the propers sung at a particular service (other than perhaps Compline) unless he is of local interest. The Slavonic menaion I use when checking the MCI propers (Russian Orthodox, New Rite) has an entry for February 6, of course, but only lists the same two saints that are in the Byzantine Catholic Church's calendar for that day, Bucolus and Silvanus.

A few years back the deacon retreat occured during the 2nd weekend of the Great Fast. We used the Stichera and Tropar of St. Gregory Palamas at Vespers and Divine Liturgy celebrated by the Metropolitan with no problems. Inserting the Tropar is not liturgical abuse nor is it disobedient. Failure to actively promote something is different than disallowing it.

Since tommorrow is St. Gregory Palamas' commeration which started this whole thread... As regards abuse, obediance, etc., the Metropolitan Cantor Institute is an offical organization of the Archeparchy of Pittsburgh and its publications and website materials, while unofficial until promulagted by the Council of Hierachs, are approved for provisional use in the Archeparchy of Pittsburgh. I would recommend members of other Eparchies to consult their hierarchs.