www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Not novenas, but...what?

St. John Vianney (the Cure of Ars) said he had an elderly parishioner who would often just sit in the back of the church, gazing at the tabernacle. The Saint asked him how he prayed; and the man replied, "The Lord looks at me and I look at him."

Yes, it is in print, and it is indeed available through Theological Book Service. I order copies of it from them for our parish bookstore. If your parish has a bookstore, maybe they can order it for you, but if not, perhaps there would be other families interested, and if a few of you order together, you could split the shipping costs, and it wouldn't be so bad. It's a very good book.

Just looked at the eparchial Educational Services site again - where the book's price is listed at $8.95. Not sure how out-of-date the site is, but TheoBooks price is almost twice that - before s&h - which suggests one heck of a markup or a very, very out-of-date website.

Think it's time that the eparchy takes a look at that distributorship arrangement, something that I intend to bring up to the powers that be.

And, again, unless you have an absolute need for a brand new copy, I'd go with one of the two used editions which I recommended previously.

Many years,

Neil

My recollection is that, about a year ago, I first tried to order it through an Eparchial website, at $8 or $9, and was told I had to contact Theological Book Service. Those folks told me the list price was $14, but because I order for resale in our bookstore, I got it for the wholesale price, which is $8.40 per copy. I definitely remember a huge difference in the prices on the 2 sites, which seemed really odd. Plus, the first site couldn't sell it to me. I think it is a very out-of-date website.

Returning to the thrust of the original question here is the salient passage from the above-discussed book:



So, Michelle, what is important is not that the Rule of your domestic church look like the Rule of the domestic churches of the Old Country -- bearing in mind that there was likely a different Rule for every household back then, just as there is here and now -- but that the Rule of your household be appropriate to your household and that once the Rule is established, you and your family follow it faithfully.

A fair question. Here's where I am coming from: why re-invent the wheel? If good and holy people throughout the ages found a Rule or way of devotional life that came from the heart of the Church and was also practical for laity, why change it? I have greater trust in the tradtion than in whatever I can come up with. A benefit of the "old country" is that they were immersed in a culture informed by the Faith. Not so in modern western countries.

Somewhat tangengtial, but also illustrative: I learned that middle eastern women make the sign of the cross over their dough before putting it in the oven to bake....how many other things like that, which enrich and fill the day with reminders of God, am I missing? I simply never would have thought of that myself.

In response to some of the other comments, I agree that in its essence prayer is "being with God." But the spiritual tradition of the Church also recommends set times and forms (aka a "Rule) of prayer as a firm foundation, which also instruct us in the essence of prayer.

And thanks to all who offered information on where to BUY some of these books...it can be frustrating to figure it out myself, so I appreciate all the "leads."

God bless!

MelkiteMichele:

Christ is in our midst!!

St. Seraphim of Sarov was supposed to recommend to his spiritual children that they preface every act by saying, "Lord, grant Your blessing." Then ending every activity with a thanksgiving.

I think what you're looking for is a concrete way to try to keep God before your eyes in all your activities. It's a task because we're all so easily distracted. We do what we can do and let Him give us a little nudge when we get too far away.

Bob

There is a great book out ... The Domestic Church.

They suggest an Icon Corner in your house - where you have candles, Bible, and an Icon - and to do the prayers from there.

Don't forget ...

Private prayer enhances the Divine Liturgy
The Divine Liturgy enhances private prayer

They are different

pray always!

In the Serbian tradition - you have a party on your Saints Day - A Slava

Partying is praying (if you do it right!)

I need to make friends with some Serbians!!! :grin:

Glory to Jesus Christ!
As far as books go, I would also recommend a series of short articles, by Fr. Anthony Coniaris. The book is entitled "Making God Real in the Orthodox Christian Home", and the link to it on amazon is here [amazon.com].

In XC,
J. Andrew

I believe Paraclesis (Consolation) is the typical intercessory service of the Greek and Melkite Churches, but I've never heard Paraclesis celebrated for anyone other than the Theotokos. Are there Paracleses for special intentions?

The Slavs developed their prayer service called "moleben" from the Paraklisis service - with a "common moleben to be used for any necessity", and specific versions of the service to be sung in honor of the Theotokos, Saint Nicholas, the Holy Cross, etc.

The Paraklisis service ends with the same supplicatory troparia as our "general moleben", or the greatly abbreviated "short moleben" sung after the Divine Liturgy. These are the hymns that begin:

Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us...
Lord, have mercy on us, for in you we place our hope...
Open unto us the doors of mercy, O blessed Theotokos...

So these are obviously all related services. For more information, see the following article (still under construction!):

Moleben [metropolitancantorinstitute.org]

To the original poster:

Obviously, you can use a reader service of Vespers and Matins, or the little Hours, or both, in your home rule of prayer. Corresponding to the rosary or novenas, you can chant the Akathist to the Theotokos, or any other akathist hymn, or a moleben, or recite the Jesus Prayer.

Prayers for the departed on specific anniversaries are common; repeated prayer for other intentions in a set way, not so much. But the Slavs do have a custom of simply reading the Gospels - perhaps a chapter a day - or some portion of the Psalms, or both.

Yours in Christ,
Jeff Mierzejewski

Well, both Paraclesis and Meleben are derived from Orthros.

In Greek, there are probably hundreds of Parakleses. They generally are metered to the model of the "small" paraklesis, that is, the poem is written to fit that music. There are ones for icons, saints, and the like. A paraklesis to the Patron Saint of X is a common form of "special intention".

Of these, maybe 5 have been translated that I'm aware of: St. George, St. Katherine of Alexandria, St. Phanurios, St. Xenia of St. Petersburg, and St. Joachim and Ann. Translation is difficult enough (since it still needs to meter the melody) that one might be best off just composing an English poem anew. It still would require a thorough knowledge of the melodies and the structure of the Byzantine "canon".