www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Vespers of Forgiveness

This is an appeal to all you liturgists out there.

At the end of the Forgiveness Vespers, our parish has it that we sing the Stychyras of Pascha (Let Christ Arise, etc. etc.) after the Verpers Service is over and as the clergy and faithful take to forgiving each other on an individual basis (we do the general priest-faithful thing too, don't worry).

Anyway, the Stychyra, as you all know, ends "and let us sing thus:" after which one is to sing Christ is Risen from the Dead, etc.

A friend of mine has objected to this. Could someone set me straight?

My understanding is that this is what was done in the Kyivo-Pecherska Lavra and other monestaries. Perhaps we're wrong. I dunno.

Thanks is advance for your responses.

Yours,

hal

Although the chanting of the Paschal Stichera ending with "Christ is Risen" ONCE, and quietly, is not in the books, it is often done and considered correct by most experts in the field. So enjoy, and light a candle for me!
Incognitus

Though I am just a member of the congregation, I would guess that since Forgiveness Vespers is done of Sunday, even though it is evening, the day of Ressurection, and we are not yet in Great and Holy Lent, the Paschal Sticheria would still be used.

Like I said just my guess

Great Lent actually begins with the Great Prokeimenon DURING the Vespers in question. But that's life with the Typicon.
Incognitus

Is the actual text of the Service of Forgiveness online anywhere?

Service of Forgiveness [byzantines.net]

Thanks, Neil! Much appreciated!

Hal, strictly speaking your friend is correct and I agree with him. I usually sing the Triod Canon for Clean Monday at the end of Vespers not only to reinforce the penitential tone of the services, but also because most people never hear those daily texts of the Triod. There will be plenty of time for singing Christos Voskres later on at Paschaltide. This is the time for penance.

The next day begins liturgically at the beginning of Vespers, and Forgiveness Vespers is no exception to this rule. But the Lenten liturgical "flavor" fully begins with the changing of vestments of the priest from a full bright set to just a dark epitrakhil during the conclusion of the Prokimen, "Do not turn Your face away".

It seems a bit schizophrenic liturgicaly to me to sing Christos Voskres after we have just completed the Lenten Troparia and the Prayer of St. Ephraim.

The first borrowing of liturgical hymns of Pascha is not properly until at Ode 9 of the Canon of Matins for the Third Sunday of the Great Fast, when it is appointed to sing "Shine, Shine O Jerusalem", "Svitisya, svitisya, novi Ierusalmiy", which is our first real liturgical glimpse of hymns from the coming Pascha, on the Sunday of the Holy Cross.

Another online text can be found at http://www.networks-now.net/litresswraoc/Documents/Lent-ForgivenessVespersText.pdf

I agree. It is true that some typika call for the Paschal Stichera. I can see why this is done in someplaces (the parallel between the Paschal Forgiveness Kiss and the Mutual Forgiveness) but it still seems odd to me. Last year in my parish the singers just sang "Christ is risen..." over and over, and it raised some eyebrows.

I believe that an alternate tradition sings "Open to me the gates of repentance" or something akin to that. I find Diak's practice of the Canon apropos as well. Even the Scriptural hymn "A new commandment/Siju zapovid" could work. Sometimes even silence and the sound of people asking forgiveness is enough music for my ears...

Dave

The problem with singing at the end of the Forgiveness Vespers for me as a cantor is this: everyone is moving without books, person to person, to say, "Forgive me, a sinner", and the response, "God forgives. Forgive me, a sinner." That basically just leaves the cantors to sing until they join in the forgiveness themselves. We sang Marian hymns yesterday. They were joyous yet penitential.

A blessed Lent to everyone!

Although a few days into the Fast....

On page 183 of the 1978 Faber and Faber edition of the Lenten Triodion translated from the Greek by Mother Mary and [then] Archimandrite Kallistos Ware, it says to sing the irmoi of the Paschal Canon as everyone asks forgiveness of each other. I have followed this instruction every time I have served Forgiveness Vespers.

It does not make sense to sing these verses and "Christ is risen!" after we have already prayed the Prayer of St. Ephraim and prostrated ourselves. Or does it? Perhaps the "tension" is intentional. Actually, I like the "tension." Here's why...

We have begun the Fast during this Vespers service at the Great Prokimenon. We have already sung in the verses for the lamp-lghting psalms that we wish to "set out with joy upon the season of the Fast, and prepare ourselves for spiritual combat." The aim of our Lenten journey is the Resurrection of our Lord. His Resurrection is the summit of our climb. But it is also our source of our climb. The Resurrection is what draws us and what pushes us in our Lenten journey. From the Aposticha:

Your grace has shone forth, O Lord,
it has shone forth and given light to our souls.
Behold, now is the accepted time:
behold, now is the season of repentance.
Let us caste off the works of darkness
and put on the armour of light,
that having sailed across the great sea of the Fast,
we may reach the third-day Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Saviour of our souls.

Again, a blessed and joyous season of repentance!

father michael

Jim, I sing the Canon precisely because people will hear your voice and words and not get so rowdy as they pass through the "forgiveness line".

Yes, my copy of the English translation of the Triodion of Bishop Kallistos also contains this instruction to sing the Paschal Canon, consistent with what Fr. Michael has pointed out. And as Dave has pointed out, it is also appointed in some Typikons (but not all).

And Fr. Michael's comments certainly also have merit and the use of the Paschal Canon, at least by the English translation of the Greek Triod, is "by the book".

But that is one beautiful thing about the freedom and flexibility of our incredibly rich Byzantine liturgical corpus. Since very few ever hear the Triod Canons from Matins during the Great Fast, I still opt out for that approach, as those are some of the most profound and penetential in character of the entire Byzantine hymnographic corpus. To my feeble thinking we have taken the "penetential plunge" and the Triod Canon from Monday's Matins certainly reinforces that.

The Paschal Canon gets sung every day from Pascha on to the eve of Ascension through the time of the Pentecostarion, so there will be plenty of time to sing it down the road.

With our often scattered and dispersed parish situations, I try to take "liturgical exposure" into account in terms of what to use at times like this since very few in any parish for that matter will ever hear the daily riches of the Triod outside of Presanctified and perhaps the Great Canon. The people in general just don't get the opportunity to hear the rich theology from the Triod, and this gives one chance to give them a taste of that richness.