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Dear Brethren,

Do any of you know of an Eastern Christian Psalter which makes use of the far majority of the Psalms (or all of them). Currently I use the Latin Church's Liturgy of the Hours format but am looking for one that uses the Psalms in the way the East has historically used them.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Trusting in Christ's Light, Wm. Ghazar Der Ghazarian

Dear Ghazar,

Do you mean an actual publication? Or a division of Psalms? Or both?

The Psalter according to the Seventy published by Holy Transfiguration divides up the Psalter according to the twenty Kathismata that the Byzantine Church uses.

The older Psalm division used by both the Byzantine and Alexandrian and other Churches of the East divides the Psalms into groups of 12 psalms apiece (that were prayed at the turn of each hour).

The Byzantine Church, according to Fr. Robert Taft, recited 15 psalms at the beginning and the end, and then 12 for each of the remaining ten groups.

St Maelruain divided up his Psalter into 12 groups of 12 and 13 psalms, that began and ended with an Our Father and he recited "O God come to my assistance; O Lord make haste to help me" in between the psalms.

I also have the 21 sections of the Assyrian Psalter.

Alex

Hello Alex,

I was hoping you would reply. I remember a while back you asked me about the Armenian Church's use of the Psalms. Obviously, I never got the specific question you asked me answered.

What I am looking for is basically this:

I know certain psalms are used at night and there are certain psalms used in the morning. There are certain psalms used for fast days (wed/fri) and certain psalsm perhaps even used to remember our common Eastern daily themes: Resurrection on Sunday, Angels on Monday, St. John the Forerunner on Tuesday, St. Mary / the Betrayl on Wednesday, The Apostles / Fathers on Thursday, The Crucifixion on Friday, Those who rest in Christ on Saturday.

The only Armenian use of the psalms I've found has you using the same set of psalms daily. Currently, as I mentioned, I'm using the Latin Liturgy of the Hours. I took all the psalms they use for their "office of readings," morning, daytime and evening prayers and split them up. One month (which we call "month A") we use all the morning and evening psalms as part of our morning and evening prayers respectively. Then for "month B" we use the OOR psalms as part of our morning prayer and the "daytime psalms" as part of our evening prayer. This way every two months we are praying the far majority of the psalms without going so overboard that we can't squeeze in opening prayers, trisagions, hymns, readings, etc. It works very fine but I'd just like a way using the psalms which is more in line with Eastern usages. I'm definitely not looking to just pray them in chronological or numerical order, if you know what I mean. Any recommendations?

Trusting in Christ's Light, Wm. Ghazar Der Ghazarian

William, in addition to the Psalter of the 70 published by Holy Transfiguration Monastery already mentioned, there is another Septuagint Psalter printed by the OCA in Canada (published by WordSmith in Toronto) has all of the Septuagint Kathisma plus Psalm 151.

It also has the penitential prayers at the end of each Kathisma if reciting the Psalter alone. This volume also contains the Pachomian Service of the 12 Psalms brought to the Pecherska Lavra by St. Dositheus as well as the nine biblical Odes.

With these post-Kathisma penitential prayers one could rely on the Psalter alone for a regular prayer rule.

While this Psalter does not have specific listing of morning and evening psalms, you could easily list the "fixed" psalms contained in each of the Byzantine (or Armenian) hours so really one could use the list and find the right "fixed" psalms for morning or evening from Matins, Midnight Office, etc.

Another inexpensive book which, although not specifically a Psalter, has a very nice rule is the Coptic/English Agpeya which is readily available in the US.

Dear William/Ghazar,

As Diak said, both of those Psalters have the division of Psalms said at the various Hours and Feast days!

The second one he mentions is the one I use and it is a BRILLIANT translation!

Alex

Dear Diak and Alex,

Thanks for your help on this. Based on the info., I've been looking a few things up on the web. Here's what I found. Maybe you can tell me if these are the kind of things you are pointing me too. First off, what does Kathisma mean? You guys use these Greek and Slavonic words on the forum and never mention what they mean. Give a poor Armenian a break here, shame on you! Just kidding.

These sites give the divisions of Kathismas:
http://pomog.org/index.html?http://pomog.org/psalter.shtml

http://www.orthodoxwiki.org/Psalter#Kathismata

I found this site extremely helpful as it explains the way many psalms are used in the Eastern Churches:
http://www.abbamoses.com/psalter.html

I also found this nice page on the Armenian Hours
http://www15.dht.dk/~2westh/uk/seven_times_aday-e.html

Thanks to your suggestions, I think I now have enough info. to develope a new rule of prayer using the psalms in a way more in line with Eastern usage. Thanks alot for your help. Once again my brethren on the forum came through for me. I really appreciate it.

Btw, Alex, which translation do you use? Is it the "Septuagint Psalter printed by the OCA in Canada (published by WordSmith in Toronto)"? If so, can you suggest where I can purchase this? One other question: could you guys give me some background on the "Coptic/English Agpeya" as far as what is contained in it? Thanks again.

Trusting in Christ's Light, Wm. Ghazar Der Ghazarian

Bill,

The Agpeya is the Coptic Book of Hours.

See Agpeya - Coptic Book of Hours [agpeya.org] , where you can download it in Word or PDF formats and listen to chanting of it in English.

Many years,

Neil