www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall New Product Survey

Fr Deacon Paul, Glorify Him!

Thanks for the ideas and requests. If there is a need, I would certainly like to find a way to fill it.

Actually, we already have a 6 six disk program (45 minutes each) on the Great Feasts of the church given by Dr. Richard Schneider in English using icons (sorry, no music or connection to liturgy at this point). In it's current form, it might be too heavy for young folks, but we could try to produce a simplified version and add some liturgical music, etc.

I also have a series of lectures by Met Kallistos on preparation for Lent that might be good for the upcoming season.

In all, OLTV has produced some 30 adult enrichment programs of 6-10 disks each on various topics. Have a look at the Adult Enrichment section of the OL Online catalog at:

https://secure.webvalence.com/ecomm...sk=Media&class=DVD&subclass=AdEn

Also, there were several talks at past OL conferences on the church calendar, sacred time, and icons. Again, these may be too detailed and in-depth for your audience, but maybe we can find a way to simplify them into more understandable catechesis for youth and adults alike.

Jack

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION

Based on the positive feedback, we are going to try a FREE trial of an electronic Byzantine Daily Office! It will be distributed by email each evening for the following day and contain the texts for morning and evening prayer, and the First, Third, Sixth and Ninth Hours, along with the changeable parts as per the Byzantine Ruthenian Typicon (which we publish too) and the Gregorian date for Pascha. When the calendar dictates, we will also offer a version for the Julian date for Pascha.

If we find enough interest in the FREE trial, we will continue and ask for a modest subscription fee through our website. But to receive these FREE emails of a 50+ page PDF with all the Hours for each day, simply send us an email and indicate which calendar you follow. We will send the PDF to you at the email address you use. Send the email to:

info@ecpubs.com

We ask you to USE the file, and give us your feedback of how it could be improved, or if you like it, will subscribe to it, and recommend it to friends.

Perhaps using some or all of this electronic Daily Office could be a New Year's Resolution for 2012. We will start with January 2nd, sending them out the evening of January 1st! We will continue until further notice based on how many sign up and the feedback we get. Thanks for participating!

Jack

I just emailed in to sign up for the trial run of the Electronic Office. Thank you for offering this! What a blessing!

Feedback on your other options - I would definitely purchase music or programs were they to be offered on iTunes.

Also, I would be interested in downloadable PDF versions of some of your publications.

Jack:

Have you begun distributing the Daily Office? I too sent in my email address as per your message, but have not seen anything as yet.

Blessings!
Joe

Joe, yes we have started distributing the free trial, since Sunday evening. I've been trying to keep up with emails as they come in. When did you send it?

If you haven't received anything yet, send another message to info@ecpubs.com so I have your email address, I'll get it out asap, and add you to the list for nightly distribution at 9 pm.

Jack

Just sent you another message via email.

Thanks Jack, and God bless!

There are any number of free daily office (Eastern and Western) web sites available.

It would be a tremendous good will gesture--not to mention an opportunity to increase the discipline of prayer among the faithful--to make a "basic" version (major hours only, perhaps) available for FREE--permanently.

A more detailed/larger version by subscription fee.

Jack,

If I may make a suggestion, I believe we really don't need another product with the Morning Evening Prayers and the Hours. These are already easily had. What is needed is a something with a privately do-able daily Vespers and Matins. I understand your statement that they are supposed to be communal parochial prayer but the sad fact is these offices are rarely done in the majority of parishes. I believe the best way to improve this situation is to offer an office the person can just pick up and read through without having to worry about coordinating several books or flipping back and forth. If people can become familiar with the services there will be more appreciation and call for the public serving of these services.

Fr Deacon Lance

I am in full agreement with Fr. Deacon Lance. I did subscribe to the new product in order to check it out, but what I am most interested in personally is, as Fr.Deacon put it, "a privately do-able daily Vespers and Matins," without having to buy a lot of expensive books, and without having to spend time (that I don't have) figuring it all out every day. Fr. Deacon's suggestion is exactly what I have been wanting for some time now, and it would be a great blessing to have this available. Daily Vespers and Matins are not offered at the parish level at any Eastern church, Orthodox or Catholic, where I live, and even if they were, my work hours might well preclude my being able to attend regularly. So, I heartily second his suggestion!

Thanks for the reply Jack, maybe I'll see you at Compline later this month, God willing.

I took a look at the materials you referenced and you're right--they are too heavy. In fact most of our adults are, outside the DL, at only the middle/high school level. I'm trying to present a family oriented program. GOARCH has a nice printed presentation which could be put on slide show (infringing copyright?).http://www.goarch.org/special/listen_learn_share/epiphany/index_html


For the December session I used icon explanation material from the Ouspensky/Lossky "The Meaning of Icons" and modified it to a 3 minute time frame while displaying and highlighting portions of the Nativity icon. Afterwards the children (with a lot of unneeded assistance of the parents) put their piece of the snipped up icon "puzzle" in place. This session lasted maybe 15 minutes, then we moved on to another session. I plan to do the same with the Theophany, then for the adult group I'll talk about baptism. St George Melkite Parish has a nice slide-showable document (if it's large enough, not sure yet...thanks Pani Rose) http://melkite.org/Baptism.html
I want to intersperse some baptismal pics from our parishes and add background narrative/music.

I'm winging it, but so far our All-Generation sessions have had a good acceptance.

Christ is amongst us!
Fr Deacon Paul

Thomas the Seeker and Deacon Lance,

Thanks for your comments, but I have searched the internet and have not found other electronic sources for the Morning/Evening prayers and hours as we are providing in the Byzantine Daily Office as a single file each day. Can you be more specific about what resource this is duplicating? And the propers (changeable parts) needed to pray the Hours completely are only in several different books, that are complicated to use, and for which one needs the Typicon to know which ones to use each day. The convenience we are trying to provide is having the propers and changeable parts in the hours that you can carry with you easily, or access at work/school/recreation, and pray anytime and anywhere.

My understanding is that Matins and Vespers are ONLY to be prayed by a priest with a congregation, so a personal version is not in keeping with Church tradition. When a priest has no congregation, or a lay person has no priest, Morning and Evening prayer is used for Matins and Vespers. I'm in no position to provide something that tries to get parishes to have more services -- that's the job of bishops and priests.

The other value we are trying to provide is the "figuring it out" for the uneducated or inexperienced lay person in an easy-to-use form. Comments we have received so far include:

-- So far, it looks great. I would be ready to pay as soon as you give the word.

-- Thanks for the wonderful Byzantine Daily Office online.

-- I have started reading the offices and they are most comprehensive - much more so than readings for the daily Liturgy than I have been receiving, and I commend you on it. Thank you for starting this.

-- I have been wanting something like this for so long.

-- Your electronic Daily Office is such a wonderful idea – and so needed for our Church.

-- I think this a great service that will inspire priests to pray more than just having the daily Divine Liturgy. There is no question in my mind that unless and until priests pray more than just the Daily Liturgy, God will not abundantly bless the works of his hands in his priestly ministry. I remember that Bishop Fulton J. Sheen always attributed the success of his weekly TV show to the fact that he always spent one hour each day (outside of his daily Mass) in front of the Blessed Sacrament praying.

-- Thank you so much for this good idea. The spirituality of these prayers which, when said with the heart, leaves nothing more to be said to God, as they allow a complete emptying of oneself in an effort to express love to God. These are truly the church’s rich gifts, other than the eucharist, that God has given to us. Thank you!

We are still accepting requests for the Free Trial period, so if anyone wishes to sign up, just send an email to info@ecpubs.com and request being added to the distribution list.

Jack Figel
Pubisher

Jack,

From the Metroplitan Cantor Institute website:

http://www.metropolitancantorinstitute.org/liturgy/Vespers.html

Vespers in the Parish and Home

In Europe in the last century, Vespers was celebrated in church on Saturday evenings, as well as on the vigils of feasts; in some places, it was celebrated on Sunday evenings as well. Even daily Vespers was sometimes held in village or city churches.

Unfortunately, in this country Saturday evening Vespers is seldom celebrated, being displaced by an evening Divine Liturgy, or omitted endirely. Parishes which desire to restore a richer liturgical cycle might fittingly begin with celebrating Great Vespers each Saturday evening. (In those parishes where eliminating a Divine Liturgy is not presently feasible, it might be desirable to hold a Vigil Divine Liturgy instead, beginning with Vespers as on the eves of Nativity and Theophany.)

Great Vespers takes about an hour to celebrate if the Psalter and Old Testament readings are used; perhaps 45 minutes if they are omitted, and a bit longer if Litija is held. The number of stichera sung as the Lamplighting Psalms can be reduced if necessary, but the wholesale elimination of the chanted verses of the Lamplighting Psalms (as is done in some places) should be discouraged.

Vespers can be celebrated in the home, or in parish or mission settings, even when a priest is not available to lead the service. For more information, see Reader Services.

[emphasis mine]

and:

http://www.metropolitancantorinstitute.org/liturgy/Matins.html

Matins in the Parish and Home

In Europe in the last century, Matins was celebrated in church on Sunday mornings, as well as on the mornings of feasts. Even daily Matins was sometimes held in village or city churches. Unfortunately, in this country Matins is seldom celebrated.

Matins on Sundays and feasts can take anywhere from 45 minutes to three hours to celebrate, depending on how the service is abbreviated for parish use, and how much of the prescribed material is used at the Canon.

Matins can be celebrated, in whole or in part, as morning prayer in the home, following the rubrics for Reader's Services.
[emphasis mine]

Sorry, I know there must be a more "official" looking way to copy text from a webpage into a forum post, but I don't know how to do it.

If you go to the website, you can then click on the link for "Readers Services" (sorry, it didn't come through on the post as a link), and it explains what changes you need to make when the service is prayed at home. These are things such as blessings, and certain wordings, where substitutions are made in the absence of a priest.

The Lutheran Churches which collaborated on the 1978 Lutheran Book of Worship hoped that their publication would lead to a wider use of the daily prayer Offices both in the church and in the home.

Toward that end they included some inconspicuous rubrical markings indicating which portions were appropriate for home use.

Their intention was beautiful, but three decades later the Offices are still widely ignored, much to the spiritual impoverishment of laity and clergy alike. Alas.

Jaya, I'm aware of what the MCI website says, and the texts they offer, but which bishop has approved those texts or statements, or the usage of Reader's services in the home? I'm simply following what I've been told by my pastor and my bishop. Also, the target usage of our Byzantine Daily Office is PERSONAL, PRIVATE prayer, not group or family or parish, prayer.

Jack

Thomas, maybe an electronic version that's easy to use and portable, and accessible especially by our youth, has a chance of being more used by clergy and laity alike. I've had quite a few priests signup for the trial period saying it will make their own personal prayer life easier to fulfill, given all the other distractions they now have to contend with. And maybe our Eastern approach to prayer will also inspire Western Christians to a more spiritual prayer life. I also think our approach of "sending" the file on a regular basis, rather than having to go to a website to download it, might just provide the kind of reminder people need to do it and keep at it!

Jack