Sootoro of Monday's Qolo

Just to give a sneak peak of the Sootoro I've almost finished.

Midday of Monday and Quick Description of 6th Hour (Midday) Offices

I've really been on top of my translating game as of late - I finished all the Sunday offices and have another office turned out the next day. Anyway, this post will have a brief commentary on the Midday office of Monday but first give a quick description of the office type as I've done for all the other offices.

Brief Overview of Lilyo

I'd like to make a post on Lilyo since I haven't posted anything in a while, as I don't have much time to work on the office itself either. Lilyo the longest office of the day. It should begin being said at midnight and contains four qawme (watches - like sentinel watches), each of which have a different devotion. This office has the most extensive structure, as it essentially is like four composite canonical hours (with the final watch being longest than the other three).

Brief Overview of Ramsho

I have begun translating the Ramsho of Sunday. I thought it would be a point of interesting to just go over the basic office structure.

First Office Mazmooro

Safro gives an example of what a mazmooro is following the Etro of the Hoosoyo. Mazmooro can either refer to the mazmoore of King David (i.e. the canonical Psalms) or this short style of hymn.

Shabah - Safro Qolo of Glorification

If one hasn't noticed already by the previous posts I've made about Safro (here's a general overview), the qole are very oriented towards the glorification of God - the opening Gloria (not a qolo) the Glory of the Mother of God, the Glory of St. Ephrem. This post is about the Shabah (plural imperative of glorify/praise), a qolo that rotates its verses with Psalms 148-150 and 117. Instead of giving a lengthy analysis of the Shabah I decided to just post my translation for Sunday's Safro below.

Brief Overview of Safro

Each large office has a distinctive set of prayers. Safro is no different. I haven't had much time to work on translating the actual texts (although I've been working on Sunday's!) but I'll give a brief overview of the setup.

Syriac Gloria

So while I'm working on Safro and the longer offices I will obviously not be able to post full offices as often. Instead, for longer offices I'll share interesting bits and reflections while the office is still being translated. For this post, I'd like to share the Syriac Gloria.

First 3rd Hour Translated

So I recently translated the 3rd Hour of Sunday to add to the Shhimto-in-progress. However, I've run into a small issue of logistics since I no longer have my computer is format the document as I please or add Syriac for the melody notation. I will be most likely adding a temporary text, which I will replace at a later time.

Anyway, the 3rd Hour is, structurally, the same as the 9th Hour but this office in particular presents something very interesting about Eastern theology in general.

Post-Hootomo

So the editions prior to what Moran Mor Antoun promulgated and what he promulgated are substantially the same. However, one noticeable difference is the one promulgated by Moran or Antoun is that there is a prayer included after the Hootomo (which, in itself, means conclusion).

Last Ninth Hour Posted!

The last Ninth Hour office has been posted (viewable here). I hope to start now on completing the 6 sootore that are yet to be done.


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

First 9th Hour Office Posted!

So I've posted the first 9th hour (i.e. 3PM) office. I intend to write a prayerful reflection on something in the office, but for the first type of each office I'd also like to make some remarks.

Hootomo - the Concluding Prayers of An Office

The Hootomo, or conclusion, is the very last part of the office. This is said at the conclusion of every office. One thing that the version I translated makes clear is that the Syriac offices were written to be prayed in community with at least one priest.

Pre-Office Uploaded

So the first item to be downloaded is the pre-office. The link can be found at the end of this post or in the tab marked above as 'Office Texts.' Anyway, the prayers said in preparation for an office should seem more or less familiar to most Christians, especially those of the East.

Office Structure

So to anyone liturgically interested, I'm sure the question of what a traditional office actually looks like comes to mind. If anyone has seen the structure of the office book "Prayer of the Faithful" published by the Eparchy of Brooklyn, the prayer structure is vaguely correct, although modified to look more like a Latin office. It should also be noted that in keeping with our Semitic heritage, the liturgical cycle begins with evening prayer.