Resurrection Propers (and Office Propers in General)

There is great confusion amongst Maronites as to where do we get our seasonal propers from for the office. As I have mentioned previously, this is an erroneous assumption in itself. We do not have seasonal propers. What we do have is proper offices for particular days.

Ramsho of Saturday

This is the last day of offices.

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.

Ramsho of Thursday

I've posted the Ramsho of Thursday. Due to being backed up with other things, I will omit a reflection this office.

To access, click here.

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

Wednesday Ramsho and Sootoro

A belated blessed feast of Denho (Epiphany) to all my blog readers. Nothing new, but I've been a bit busy. This post contains the links for Wednesday's ramsho and sootoro that I finished quite a while ago but never got the chance to post.

Ramsho of Shmooni

This is probably the last office from the Fenqitho I will probably post here. I chose Shmooni's Ramsho because she is a very important saint in Syriac tradition for she, "went first on the path of martyrdom for the sake of the Abrahamic faith." I could write an extensive commentary, but rather than do that I think the office speaks for itself.

Ramsho of St. Shmooni

In the current age of the Maronite Church, the old Syriac saints have been abandoned in almost exclusive adoption of solely Lebanese saints. Among the old saints is the venerable and holy example given to us by St. Shmooni and her seven sons.

Tuesday Ramsho Complete

This is the first office I've completed in a while. Its prayers, specifically the Sedro and Bo'otho, express the fear and danger of evening, which is a typology for eschatological darkness.

Sooghito from Tuesday Ramsho

This Sooghito centers around the parable alluded to in the Qolo discussed in this post, found in Matthew 20: 1-16. Little sympathy is found for the jealous servant, despite the fact he works all day.

Qolo from Ramsho of Tuesday

So I've gotten a long enough respite today to translate the second Qolo from the Ramsho of Tuesday. It is a beautiful praise to God and plea to God for mercy on judgment - which is, again as I've said many times before, a very common element of Syro-Maronite liturgy.

Verse from the Opening Qolo of Tuesday's Ramsho

I've been very busy as of late and unable to work on translations, other than the last little project below in August. This is the first time in a few weeks I've gotten the chance to pick on Tuesday's Ramsho other than to pray it. As the seasons are changing right now, I find the excerpt from this qolo very appropriate.

Ramsho of Monday Posted

I've completed another Ramsho office, this one in particular having a strong focus on the reality of the fear we shall feel at Judgment.

Ramsho of Monday Qolo

I have begun translation of the Ramsho of Sunday. The opening Qolo is one of my favorite Syriac hymns and, in fact, is the first Syriac hymn I learned. It is a beautiful Qolo that asks God for mercy at the inevitable judgment.

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).

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.

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.

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).

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.