Reflection on 9th Hour of Thursday

While my previous reflections have been lengthy, I think this one can be tackled in a briefer post. Thursday's Ninth Hour, while comparatively shorter than even some of the short offices, it is full of prayers indicative of a healthy Syriac spirituality. As previously mentioned, primary amongst these are our inherent unworthiness and God's limitless and uncompelled mercy.


"How many are my debts? How many are Your mercies if You weighed? Your compassion greatly tips the balance weighed against mountains." Immense are our debts. Sometimes they bear down on us and make us turn to despair. However, such an approach to our sin is blasphemous in itself because God offers us every faculty to remove our blemishes. While we strive for a perfect life without sin, God is an understanding Lord who knows that it is impossible that we are faultless. And, as the bo'oto puts it, while our sins have terrible consequences, as they are the nails and lance that perceived Jesus, His mercy is greater for the penitent - indicative by the fact that we have been reconciled to God and live.

It is important, however, that we do not fall into a certain apathy because it seems that the great battle has been won. While it is a theological truth that by Jesus's life, death and resurrection He defeated death, we still are very vulnerable to the second death by our own admission. What is vague in western theology is what is meant by this because of the conflation of different words into one "hell"; in Syriac theology, Jesus's death destroyed the gates of Sheol, which bound the departed in a netherworld that didn't have the suffering of a fiery hell but was still a locale of desolation and separation. After Jesus's resurrection, the righteous were harrowed from Sheol to heaven and Sheol essentially became irrelevant along with death, both temporary states that shall be "thrown into the fire" (Revelation 20:14). However, the two states that are not temporary are, of course, the Kingdom of Heaven and Gehenna - the realm of fire and grinding of teeth. Where ever we are separated to in our judgment we will remain until eternity. Therefore, it is important that we remain proactive, for all our actions until the Last Judgment shall determine our destination. By free will, we have been empowered immensely as to determining our fates.

The Qolo reads, "the prayer of Your Birth-Giver mingles with ours and they shall conquer the Evil One and all his host, and he shall fall before us like the walls of Jericho fell before Joshua." Although prayer may seem mundane in this life, it is a powerful weapon. It is one of the things we shall be judged upon in the Judgment and one of the things that will save us from damnation. Since Satan is created, he is inherently less than God's might. But, amazingly, through prayer we are counted amongst the hosts of God and by our prayers we can fell the armies of Satan. As the Qolo aptly puts it, he and his host shall fall by our prayer "like the walls of Jericho fell before Joshua." The event being referenced is found in Judges 6:1-27 when God promises to Joshua that all that needs to be done to make the walls of the great city fall is for his seven priests to blow their horns, and sure enough God delivers this great power to him. In the same way, through our supplication that we have been instructed in (such as the bo'oto of the Ninth Hour of Wednesday, which specifically discusses the gift of the Our Father) we are given the option to pick immense power or leave ourselves vulnerable.

For the Ninth Hour of Thursday, click here.

Our Lord, accept our service, our prayers, come to our aid and have mercy on us!