6th Hour of Friday

With this office, I've concluded 6/7 days of office translation project. There are only 6 offices left before the project is completed.

This particular office is a beautiful look into the Syriac theology of the cross, as was discussed particularly in this post about the qolo.

Happy Feast of St. George!

I wish all my blog readers a happy feast! Mor Gewargis (St. George) is a big feast for many in the world, the people of Middle East included. In honor of Mor Gewargis, I've translated and transliterated the concluding bo'otho for sootoro of his office (from the fenqitho).

Happy Easter!

Wishing everyone a Happy Easter. Let us remember and celebrate the living-giving passion and glorious resurrection of our Lord all the moments of our lives.

Friday Ramsho

Friday Ramsho is, as most Ramsho offices, concerned with judgment, the eschaton and obtaining mercy. The particular bit I would like to focus on, however, is the mazmooro which does not directly deal with the main theme of judgment.

Monday Lilyo posted

I've just posted Monday Lilyo. This office has particularly beautiful typologies.

Hoosoyo of Sunday Lilyo

Below I've attached the Hoosoyo (Proemion, Sedro, Qolo and Etro) of Sunday's Lilyo. It's pretty clear to me the reason why these offices have remained untranslated the more I look at them because it seems the certain Syriac theology revealed to them would be upsetting to certain sensibilities currently present in the Maronite Church. The Etro particularly comes to mind because it sets a typology up between the sacrifice of Abraham, Moses, Aaron and the other Levitical high priests and the current priesthood both intended for the glorification but also appeasement of God. Such ideas have been central to Syriac theology for the last two millennia and we must remember that our current priesthood is a continuation of the Levitical priesthood magnified by the Incarnation. We should not cast off the understanding of our soteriology for meaningless platitudes because it seems a bit frightening that God is not required to grant us the remission and forgiveness of sins and offenses.

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).

Uploaded Ramsho of Sunday

I've just completed and uploaded the Ramsho of Sunday. With that, five offices of Sunday have been completed and only two remain to be translated (albeit Lilyo is substantially longer - numbering around 30 pages - and the 6th Hour numbers around 5).

Safro of Sunday finally completed and uploaded!!!

So with great joy, I'm happy to announce I've completed a translation of Sunday's Safro. I've been reflecting on individual parts progressively since I've started, so I think I will just use this reflection to analyze one of the lines in the Bo'oto.