Lilyo of Friday

Here is the Lilyo of Friday.

Another [Lilyo] office with the interesting watch for departed priests. Once I get the opportunity, I'll translate the choir version of the optional watches for departed and the optional watch for monks.

Safro of Thursday

Another morning office available!

To access this office, click here.

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

Wednesday Safro

Like all the offices, the time it refers to in the day is not limited only to the temporal circumstances of that literal day but to the greater eschatological context. In particular, I refer to a very commonly used image in Syriac tradition - the Lord as the master of the vineyard who hires laborers at different hours of the day and pays everyone equally.

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).

Lilyo Excerpt

The Syriac tradition has a rich poetic-prayer tradition, thanks to Mor Ephrem and Mor Yaqoob of Sarug. Many elements of the office are indicative of this, like the sooghito that the verses are alphabetically arranged by the first word of each verse.  The Syriac theological tradition lacks the precision of words the Greek and Latin traditions consist of, but more than makes up for it in its poetry and astute typologies. The excerpt below is demonstrative of this (take from the Lilyo of Sunday, which I'm currently working on).

Verse of Safro's Qolo

One of the main travesties of the Prayer of the Faithful is that it destroys the brilliant formula of prayer that the writers of the Sh'himto created. Everything is complimentary - hymns in the morning, for example, speak about the Second Coming as the dawning of the sun and the apostles being bright lights that illuminated the four quarters of the earth. Tangentially, it also alludes in the night office to death and lying down in the hope of resurrection. In an even more complex complimentarity, the rotating verses of scripture are related to the following verse of each qolo.

In this post, I will take a look at one of the eschatological verses of one of the qole in Sunday's Safro. 

3rd Hour Tuesday uploaded

So the 3rd Hour of Tuesday has been uploaded, appropriately in time for Tuesday morning. Anyway, I think a reflection on Marian typology is in order.

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.

Reflection on Compline of Sunday

So the second compline office has been posted. I think I've decided I like the idea of shorter reflections, seeing as how I don't want to go on forever to bore the few readers I have - if anyone would like any specific item addressed, feel free to ask in writing and with your permission I'll publicly address it (or privately if you'd prefer).

Anyway, the theme I'd like to address in this Sootoro is the frequent imagery in Syriac theology of the mystical wedding feast between the Bridegroom and the Church.

Reflection on 9th Hour of Wednesday

An inherent aspect of Syriac theology is the great caution in avoiding [what I assume the Syriac Fathers would think of as] overreaching speculation. There is a great deal of meditation upon mystery, and, again, any mystery revealed is considered a voluntary act of mercy by the hand of God. There also develops a certain, almost esoteric language through which thinks are referred to and I will point to several items I think are indicative of this mystique.