www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship Vespers, Matins & the Divine Liturgy Need Help with Bridegroom Matins for Holy Week

I am still working my way through the various papers I have to submit for my deacon's class.

A question has been given to me which involves me creating a private devotional prayer for Thursday morning. My initial thought was to take the Bridegroom Matins, but as I study the services of Holy Week, it appears that the Bridegroom Matins are supposed to be taken on the evening before. Thus, Tuesday Bridegroom Matins is done on Monday night.

But doesn't this conflict with the Liturgy of Pre-sanctified Gifts?

Let's see if I can put together some coherent questions:

1. Pre-sanctified. Isn't this a Vesperal Liturgy with Liturgy of St. Basil? If so, how can a Vesperal Liturgy be done in the morning.

2. In the Liturgical Calendar at MCI, it indicates on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday a Bridegroom Liturgy and a Pre-Sanctified Liturgy, with Holy Annointing on Wednesday. Does this indicate that according to the calendar, the Matins for each day is taken that morning instead of the night before?

3. The Liturgical Calendar shows only "Matine" for Thursday morning, with a Vespers and Divine Liturgy of St. Basil for the evening? Does this mean a normal Liturgy for that day?

4. Do matins in Holy Week follow a standard format or are they considered festal liturgies?

5. Should I just refer to the Typicon for this day and do what is said there?

Any helps will be appreciated as I try to make sense of this all.

Thank you.

As a Western observor: Think of Holy Week (after Palm Sunday morning) as having the clock set forward 12 hours.

Thus the Matins of Holy Monday is sung Sunday evening by anticipation; and by Holy Thursday Vesperal liturgies are celebrated in the morning.

I still can't quite wrap my head around singing the phrase from Gladsome Light "we have come to the setting of the sun" as the morning sun is ascending....

1. The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is NOT the same as Vespers with tbe Liturgy of St. Basil; it consists of Vespers together with a solemn Communion service (like what the Roman Rite has on Good Friday). It is an evening service, but in many Orthodox parishes it came to be celebrated in the morning - which has the advantage that the all-day fast is shortened to just a few hours. See Nicholas Ouspensky's Evening Worship in the Orthodox Church for more about this service.

2. The MCI calendar assumes that Vespers is in the evening and Matins in the morning, though in particular parishes they can be anticipated.

3. The MCI calendar says "Matins" because the morning service for Great and Holy Thursday, while similar in format to Matins on Monday through Wednesday, is not normally considered "Bridegroom Matins." It is NOT a festal service, but daily Matins with a Gospel.

4. Matins on Monday through Thursday of Great and Holy Week have a common format: Lenten daily Matins with a Gospel reading each day (daily Matins ordinarily does not have a Gospel) and specific hymns for each day. Matins on Great and Holy Friday is a VERY different service, with the addition of the twelve Passion Gospel readings interspersed throughout the service.

5. I can't answer your question about private prayer, but Fr. David's annual Typikon does give the order of service for each day.

I think you may have just given me the answer I am looking for.

Matins following the common Lenten daily format, with hymns.

Thanks.

Why does one need or want a 'private devotional prayer' for Thursday or any other morning, evening or night? Are not our extant liturgical books a sufficient treasury of liturgy and spirituality? What not learn one's way around them? "More is better," you say? Fine! Read/chant an akathist or two. Still itching for something different? Try the Jesus Prayer with prostrations. That'll cure you soon enough of this penchant for creating liturgical services! Gospodi pomiluj i spasi! What next?!

Excuse me, perhaps you would like to re-read the OP. This is an assignment for my deacon's class in seminary. As far as I can tell, Father David put this question together in order to ascertain just how well we were paying attention to the class instructions and how well we have understood the requirements, makeup, and overall performance of a traditional Matins in the Byzantine Church.

I am not doing this for myself. I am doing it for class and for a grade. It has, however, been very helpful for my understanding of Matins to do all this research.

I have re-read the original posting as you suggested. It still seems a questionable means to achieve an admirable end: to demonstrate a mastery of the structure of Matins. But how does "creating a devotional prayer for Thursday morning" achieve that goal?

I don't know myself. Father Petras is the one who would be able to answer this question for you.

If I might add a clarification, since I am in the same class:

The question (one of several on a term project for a diaconal formation class on the Divine Praises) posited that the student was serving a parish during Great and Holy Week; it described the (extensive) services the pastor had planned for Great and Holy Week, and when they were to be served, but there was no service planned for the morning of Great and Holy Thursday. "Your assignment for this course is to present the office of prayer you will pray privately on Thursday morning." The assignment recommended, as "main textual sources," the Lenten Triodia of Mother Mary and Kallistos Ware; of the Sisters of Saint Basil, and of the Melkites.

So the assignment was specific to Great and Holy Thursday, not just any Thursday. The word "devotional" was not used, nor anything about "creating" a service.

Thank you for that helpful clarification! As a teacher for the past fifty years I have found to my dismay that, despite what I thought were pellucidly clear directions, my students understood (failed to understand, more like) my intentions by a long shot! It is always refreshing, though, when someone sheds light rather than more heat on a controverted point! It still seems to me that the obviously simple answer is to refer to the Typicon. (I surmise that the teacher had this in mind because of his reference to the main textual sources.) Alternatively, one might pray the Office of Preparation for Holy Communion, given that it is the day we commemorate the Giving of the Eucharist, or the Akathist to the Life-giving Passion of Christ in view of the Twelve Gospels of the Passion that night. Another much neglected service, at least among the Slavs, is the Matins of Holy Saturday with the Encomia. The Canon of that service contains the entire economy of salvation in miniature. Though, it were better to pray it on Saturday morning or afternoon. Godspeed in your diaconal studies!