www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Akathist to our Father among the Saints, John Paul the Great, Pope of Rome

Dear Friends,

Although religion is a topic that comes up in my daily work at the legislature, I've just been given an interesting letter to respond to.

It is by someone who also included a Protestant article of some sort that refers to Pope Benedict in very unflattering terms - rather anti-Catholic.

I've been asked not to be too controversial in responding to it . . .

That the fellow who wrote it has taken a controversial stance . . . that's O.K.!

Sheesh!

Alex

Dear Friends,

"Ukrainian Orthodoxy" has put this Akathist on its website . . .

http://www.unicorne.org/orthodoxy

Hopefully, I won't get into any more trouble there . . .

Alex

Alex,

I don't know when, but I'm thinking of translating two of your Akathists: Akathist to Pope John Paul, and another one is to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, into Indonesian and distribute it, if you Ok about that.

I know that won't be able to perserve your poetry though.

Dear Alfonsus,

Please do so, my friend, at any time!

May God bless your efforts!

Tarima Kasi!

Alex

Christ is in our midst!!

I made this topic sticky until the time of Pope Jon Paul's beatification so that any of our members who might wish to make use of the Akathist might have opportunity to copy if for their private use.

Bob
Moderator

'Rejoice' as a translation of XAIPE is wrong. The greeting of Gabriel to Our Lady should be rendered in English as "Hail" and not "Rejoice."

True, xaire comes from the root-word meaning rejoice, but it is used here, and in most instances in the New Testament, as a solemn greeting, and should be translated into English with the word used in solemn greeting that is natural to our language, which is Hail.

Let us remember that when Gabriel came to Mary, he spoke to her in Hebrew (or Aramaic), not in Greek. Thus when he greeted her, he said "Shalom." Should we then say, "Peace to thee, Mary, full of grace...? This is not what the Holy Spirit inspired Saint Luke to do; rather the True Author of Holy Scripture guided the Evangelist to use the common word for solemn greeting natural to Greek: Chaire

Why then is this word, which has the root meaning of rejoice, so used?

In every language there is a word used in solemn greeting which wishes some kind of blessing or happiness to the one being greeted. Hebrew, as we noted wishes peace, Greek wishes rejoicing, Latin wishes health (Ave or Salve) as does also English (Hail, from the root hal, meaning whole). In Hawaiian the word of greeting is Aloha which means love, but used as a greeting it's not meant to say "I love you" - it is the way to say "I give you greeting and wish you well." It would be absurd for a Hawaiian to say "Peace, Mary..." or Rejoice Mary..." but completely natural to say "Aloha Maria..."

Here is my translation of the Greek form of the Hail Mary:

Hail, O Virgin Theotokos, Mary full of grace; the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, for thou hast borne the Savior of our souls.

Each "Rejoice' should be made 'Hail...'

Gabriel:

Christ is in our midst!!

Dr. Roman wrote this akathist in English, as far as we know. So how does a Greek word enter it?

Bob

Hi Alphonsus,
If you don't mind, please do email me your translation. I would like to see it. I am also from Indonesia, Jakarta to be specific.
In Christ,


Davin P

We'll be using this Akathist on May 1st. Hopefully I can get people from other parishes, both Byzantine and RC to come.

Davin:

Christ is in our midst!!

Please look at the date of the post. It's five and a half years old and the poster may no longer be active here.

Bob
Moderator

Hi Davin, I got the akathist long ago, but not yet finish translating it due to study abroad etc. during working on it.
I'll see to salvage the translation if I still can find it, I got several technical errors here and there, changing computers, etc.

I try sending you private message, but unable to do so. It is over private limits, don't know what that means though.

Apparently, also, I cannot PM you. I wish to know more about you. Are you in Indonesia now? Is there any way I can contact you? Thanks.

davinpa:

New members are on restriction for a period of time. That restricts pm privileges.

Bob
Moderator

Alfonsus, you should be able to PM davinpa by the end of the weekend, at latest.

Many years,

Neil