<<Dear Friends;
What exactly is a Kathisma and how do we go about reciting them?
Thanks for your help.
Stefan>>
Kathisma comes from a Greek word meaning "to sit down".
The liturgical term itself has 2 meanings.
The most common refers to how the Psalter is read.
The Psalter is divided into 20 Kathismata; each Kathisma is divided into 3 stases. The Psalter is recited once a week during Vespers (one kathisma) and Matins (two kathismata).
For the division of the Psalter into Kathimata, check BYZANTINE DAILY WORSHIP, or FESTAL MENAION by Kallistos (then Archimandrite, now Bishop) Ware and Mother Mary.
There is also the Psalter published by Holy Transfiguration Monastery, which is divided into Kathismata.
You can also d/l this on line from
www.pomog.org. [
pomog.org.]
KATHISMA (Sedalyen in Slavonic, usually rendered Sessional hymn or Kathisma hymn in English) also refers to troparia assigned in the liturgical books to be read after the Psalter Kathismata at Matins and the Third Ode of the Canon.
FWIW, the Slavonic Psalter (but not the Greek) includes troparia and prayers to be read after each Kathisma of the Psalter when it is read "in the cell"--that is, as a private devotion--or in some places, at the wake of a Christian by the mourners from death to the actual funeral service.
