3rd Hour of Wednesday

Drawing to a conclusion the offices for Wednesday, this is the office text for the 3rd hour. While brief, it has some interesting imagery.

To access the office, click here.

This is possibly the shortest office in the entire Shhimtho, yet the theological force of the prayers is just as great. The particular item I'd like to mention shortly is the last proper line of the bo'oto:

Glory be to You, Good Shepherd, who saved His flock for a sheep strayed and was lost – You descended and saved him. Who is able to glorify Your glory with sung praises for You are hidden in Your Father with the Holy Spirit? To You be glory.

This uses the common shepherd-sheepfold imagery that is prevalent in the gospels (cf. Luke 15:4-6) as a typology for salvation. However, it is quite clear in the words that are used here (at least in Syriac) that the lost sheep Jesus the Good Shepherd comes to save is Adam. It is through the redemption of the singular strayed sheep He brings order back to the entirety of the flock. In keeping with the analogy, Adam is but one sheep in the vast sheepfold of the Lord and He could do without him, but it is out of the love of the Shepherd that He abases Himself to find the lost sheep. Our prayers, as well, do not add to the greatness of God (see the rhetorical question in the verse) but we do so anyway out of thanksgiving and supplication to He from whom everything comes.

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