Liturgical Texts Research Articles

Antiphona ad Introitum dalam Missale Romanum Paulus VI: Asal Usul, Evolusi, Teologi

Antiphona ad Introitum or Entrance Antiphon is a liturgical text in the Missale Romanum. Following the liturgical renewal of the Second Vatican Council, the Entrance Antiphon’s function, form, and content underwent significant changes based on renewal criteria. Its role has shifted, and it is no longer intended for chant but exclusively for recitation. The form now consists of a single antiphon, unaccompanied by psalm verses and the doxology of the Gloria Patri. While some texts from the old Missale have been retained in their original form, most have been modified to suit their function better. This study seeks to elucidate the method of this reform, trace the editorial history of these texts, and provide a historical analysis of their origin and evolution from the early centuries to the present day. The aim is to help readers understand the background and evolution of these texts, the criteria utilized by the Consilium in the renewal, their theological significance, and their contemporary use. The conclusion of this study will underscore the dynamic nature of liturgy, constantly adapting to the needs of the times and its recipients. Ongoing updates and refinements will further enhance the congregation's comprehension of the mystery of the liturgical season. This study employs a historical-liturgical perspective through a comprehensive literature review.

Textual studies of the era of big data and neural networks

This article analyses the emergence of new technologies for working with big data which can be highly helpful to philologists, studying the diachronic development. First of all, that applies to the study and publication of Old Russian manuscripts with traditional liturgical texts used for church service. These manuscripts existed in a huge number of folios, and in the process of copying were subjected to considerable textual unification. That makes it very difficult to study them by the laborious methods of traditional textual criticism. Now, when the full text of the monuments can be automatically processed, the creation of the Linguistic intellectual environment (LIE) has been lounged. This tool will provide new opportunities for the study of Slavonic liturgical texts from different historical periods. As a result, we will create a corpus of liturgical texts of the 11th–17th centuries, obtained using a program for automatic text recognition of manuscripts, with annotation und search module. The user of the LIE will be able to receive a complete list of variant readings for each fragment of a liturgical book of the widest range of manuscripts. In fact, we are talking of a new type of publication of traditional liturgical texts, when the user can set the parameters for the edition in accordance with his research interests.

An Early Ofan for Hanukkah, the Temple Menorah, and the Visual Culture of Late Antique Synagogues

Abstract This contribution focuses on an anonymous poem for Hanukkah and its wealth of visual imagery as a window on the interrelationship between liturgical texts and the art of the ancient synagogue. It sets this poem in conversation with the image of the menorah in synagogues excavated in the Land of Israel, as both reflect Jewish liturgical creativity during late antiquity, between the fourth and seventh or eighth centuries. It explores how the visual culture of Jewish late antiquity provided an early medieval payyetan (synagogue poet) with a rich library of objects, symbols, and metaphors for a composition celebrating the Festival of Lights; the poetic synthesis, in turn, yields a richly resonant symbolic matrix of meaning. Attention to light sources (lamps) and the symbolism of light more generally reveals how the material and visual culture of antiquity – particularly the menorah – suffused the piyyut, and how the piyyut could have colored perceptions of familiar experiences and objects. After examining lamps (and particularly menorahs) from a variety of perspectives, we will return to the poem to consider more closely the role that illumination plays in the short, festive lyric.

Term ‘zlorastvoreniye’ in liturgical texts: loan translation and re-interpretation

The article analyzes the use of an unclear term “zlorastvoreniye” (traced from the ancient Greek compound word δυσκρασία or its Latin analogue intemperies “bad mixing; immoderation”) and its derivatives in Church Slavonic texts. The paper gives examples of these classical language lexemes and explains how these terms reflect ideas dating back to antiquity about the correct, favorable combination of tangible qualities of the weather. Apart from a single example (the expression “zlorastvoreniye vetrov”), translated into Slavonic from Greek, the article provides examples with phraseological units “zlorastvoreniye vozdukhov / zlorastvorennii vozdusi” from the original texts, whose authors most likely copied Latin phraseology. The work explains the meaning of the petitions from the blessing of the bell worship (which has a Rome Catholic origin, although is not a direct translation) — bell ringing was believed to have a beneficial effect on the phenomena occurring in the air. Moreover, we present examples of how, in connection with the wide spread of the miasmatic theory of diseases in Russia, the studied expressions were reinterpreted by authors who were not experienced in the classical languages as bad smell and contagiousness of the air.

Developments in Early Eucharistic Praying in Light of Changes in Early Christian Meeting Spaces

Abstract: Performance criticism (Tambiah) and the Egyptian textual and material evidence strongly suggest that there is a correlation between the size of Christian worship spaces and the length of early Eucharistic prayers that likely holds outside of Egypt as well. Liturgy as an embodied experience not only includes liturgical texts, but also art, architecture, sounds, smells, gestures, and movements. Attending to the non-textual dimensions of the liturgical celebration provides a fuller picture of how Christians, especially in the early Church, celebrated their liturgies. This article looks at the way Eucharistic texts and spaces related to one another in the early church in order to evaluate and substantiate the theory that the shift from house churches to basilicas in the fourth century meant that the short and often improvised Eucharistic prayers of the pre-Nicene period were no longer suitable to the larger purpose-built liturgical spaces that emerged in the post-Nicene period. Despite the abundance of Eucharistic texts and spaces in the early church, no one has attempted to corollate changes in space and liturgical texts. Egypt is the ideal region to serve as a case study since there are a number of early Christian meeting spaces and Eucharistic texts preserved in that region. This article will test the theory that larger spaces required longer liturgical prayers and show that the expansion of Christian congregations, their meeting spaces, and their prayers was part of a broader process of ritual involution that we would expect to find in other aspects of their rituals as well.

Poetic License, Textual Fidelity and the Liturgical Impulse in Aleksandr Sumarokov’s Early Spiritual Verse

The present essay considers the paraphrases of Psalms and other biblical and liturgical texts that Sumarokov composed between 1744 and 1769. He initially treated his paraphrases primarily as literary exercises: while taking care not to distort the Church Slavic and ipso facto Greek (Septuagint) source texts, he had no qualms about both expanding and abridging the original texts within the confines of traditional metrical and stanzaic structures. Subsequently in the 1760s, he began to experiment with variable iambic and trochaic lines in spiritual verse, though such forms are typically associated with less lofty genres such as fables and epigrams. His experiments in turn allowed him to achieve greater fidelity to the Church Slavic texts targeted for paraphrasis, and to bring his texts stylistically closer to the liturgical norms associated with the Church Slavic originals. At the same time, he strove to improve the fidelity of his own paraphrases of the Psalms by consulting German translations of the Hebrew (Masoretic) originals. Thus, Sumarokov paradoxically brings to his new translations of the 1660s the philological Protestant sensibility of German translations of the Psalter, and an Orthodox sensibility that favors the traditional Church Slavic register associated with the Psalter as a liturgical text. These new translations in free and frequently unrhymed iambs set the stage for the final, more radical experiments undertaken in 1773–1774.

The “Milan Euchologion”: Reconstructing an Unknown Fourth-Century Anaphora and Its Post-Anaphoral Prayers

Abstract Four fragmentary Egyptian papyrus sheets containing liturgical texts housed at the Catholic University of Milan were published by Giuseppe Ghedini in 1933 and subsequently known as the Milan Euchologion. While reportedly lost, a single photograph of the papyri preserved in Harold Idris Bell’s papers in the British Library allows for a reassessment of the arrangement and contents of the papyri. Based on a new analysis of the fragments, it is clear that they preserve the end of an anaphora (fruits of communion, intercession, and doxology), a prayer of fraction, and a prayer of thanksgiving after communion and that they date to the second half of the fourth century. This places them among the earliest material witnesses to the anaphora and the post-anaphoral part of the Eucharist.

Shed for All: Liturgy as Work of the Negative?

Drawing from theoretical and practical notions of negativity, the concept of a “work of the negative” bridges between various approaches to the “negative” within philosophy and theology—from apophatic theology to queer studies. This article analyzes how the concept of negative work, i.e., continued wrestling with the limits of language and understanding, builds a fruitful lens for studying liturgical texts. It presents the concept of “work of the negative,” its origins and connections to adjacent fields; applies insights and questions raised by this dynamic to liturgical examples from the recently published community-centered liturgical resource “A Liturgy for All Bodies”; and finally explores the potential of such an approach for the ecclesiological implications of liturgy ( lex orandi, lex credendi).

MUSICOLOGICAL-CULTURAL AND ARTISTIC-AESTHETIC ANALYSIS OF THE GENRE PALETTE OF CHURCH CHANTS ON THE EXAMPLE OF CANONICAL AND NON-CANONICAL WORKS

A comprehensive musicological and cultural cross-section of the specifics of the use of spiritual genres of sacred music during church services is carried out; the problem of the presence of canonical liturgical texts in these spiritual chants is highlighted; The specifics of the existence of the studied genres of sacred music with secular, non-canonical texts on church themes in the Orthodox tradition are determined. A musical-theoretical, artistic-aesthetic and lexical-phonetic analysis of the genre spectrum of sacred music of Ukrainian Orthodoxy, which crystallized over the centuries in church practice and still exists in Orthodox worship, is made. Among the main genres: spiritual Cant, Psalm, Monody, Spiritual Song, church prayer of ancient Ukrainian everyday melody, Canon. It is noted that Orthodox music in symbiosis with oral folk art influenced the formation of the entire genre and style palette of national music, nurtured the aesthetic culture of our people, contributed to the awareness of national identity by means of musical art.

Sejarah, Struktur dan Teologi Doa Syukur Agung Ketiga Tata Perayaan Ekaristi 2020

This article is entitled "History, Structure and Theology of the Third Eucharistic Prayer for the 2020 Eucharistic Celebration: Pastoral Vision Management and Leadership." This article aims to provide a deeper understanding of the development, structure and theological significance of the third Eucharistic Prayer in the 2020 Eucharistic Celebration. This paper focuses on selecting the Third Eucharistic Prayer as the main study, based on the idea of the Liturgy as the source and pinnacle of Church life as described in the Sacrosanctum Concilium (SC) n. 10. Liturgy is not only a formal ritual of worship, but also the core of the identity and mission of the Catholic Church which drives and gives meaning to all ecclesiastical activities. Thus, this paper tries to explain the inspirations originating from liturgical texts, especially DSA III, which can be applied in the pastoral work of the Catholic Church. This paper aims to create bridge between liturgical theology and its application in a concrete pastoral context. By exploring the meaning of DSA III, we can find inspiration that can help direct the Vision Management and Pastoral Leadership of the Catholic Church. Indeed, the inspiration for the Vision Management and Pastoral Leadership of the Catholic Church can be found in various sources, including the Holy Bible and the teachings of the Church Fathers, but this paper is a simple effort that tries to highlight the potential contained in DSA III, a prayer that is very often used in celebration of the Eucharist on Sunday by the faithful. In this research it was found that DSA III contains some key values that can be applied in management and pastoral leadership within a parish. Thus, DSA is also a series of prayers which are intended to be prayed and absorbed together by the priest and the congregation. More than that, DSA is not limited to a series of prayers that stop at the Eucharistic liturgy. DSA is also lived out in daily activities, especially when people gather together at church to be involved in church services.

The Rule of Replacing the Grave with an Acute in Church Slavonic: Further Details

The study is devoted to the rule of replacing the grave (varia) with an acute (oksia) over the final stressed vowel in Church Slavonic texts of modern period. The inventory of enclitical forms that require this rule is specified in the corpus survey of liturgical texts published in Moscow, with the Bible and the Philokalia being used as additional material. The study of the sources shows that this inventory includes not only the particle and the conjunction zhe, particles bo, li and the pronouns mi, ti, si, mya, tya, sya, ny, vy, as is usually considered in Church Slavonic textbooks, but also the verbal forms esi, est’ (in the Bible also esm’, sut’), the subjunctive mood indicator by. In addition, there are rare combinations with pronouns se and ty and the element libo. Special attention is paid to the enclitic by, which is used in the corpus in two variants: with and without an accent. The article has established that the choice of a particular variant depends on its contextual environment or on its position in relation to other word forms.

Anglicanism and Liturgy, a Network Approach to the International Anglican Liturgical Consultation

The Anglican Communion is founded on the idea of provincial autonomy including in terms of liturgy. While there has been much liturgical revision there is still an Anglican resemblance. One of the cohesive forces has been the International Anglican Liturgical Consultation, IALC, which has now been meeting for almost fifty years. This article looks at the operation of the IALC using network and visualization theory, a growing approach to Anglican Communion studies. What is the history of this network and its place in the communion? Who comes to the meetings and from which provinces? Has there been a discernible impact? These are some of the questions discussed along with the question of representation. The IALC appears to have been more influential than it might seem at first sight and there are discernible fingerprints in the liturgical texts of the communion.

Church music of Kyivan Rus in the formation of religious-aesthetic ideals and mental-ideological attitudes of Orthodoxy

In 2024, the church music of Ukrainian Orthodoxy requires a thorough analysis of its impact on cultural identity and spiritual development over the centuries. Church hymns, through the synthesis of arts and sacraments, facilitated the interaction between music and liturgical text, enriching liturgical practice and the spirituality of Kyivan Rus. In 2024, the problem of the spiritual revival of the nation, its cultural identity through the involvement of hesychast traditions in Orthodox church practice acquires new relevance and expediency. The purpose of the article is to carry out a comprehensive analysis of the religious-aesthetic, theological, and cultural ideas of hesychia, which were manifested in the church-musical practice of liturgical services and influenced the spirituality of the Orthodox person over the course of a thousand-year history. The study applies art history and cultural studies approaches, uses methods of analysis, synthesis, comparison and interaction of cultural affiliation and spiritual progress of the nation. It has been scientifically proven and substantiated that the musical art of the Kyivan Rus became the personification of spiritual transformations, formed the mental and ideological constructs of Eastern Christianity in its ancient Old Rus form thanks to Orthodox liturgical music. According to the results of scientific analysis, it appears that the adoption of Eastern Christianity in Kyivan Rus became a fundamental milestone in the development of its musical culture, which was significantly influenced by the patristic doctrine and spirituality, in particular hesychast views and customs that came to Rus from Athos. It is proved that church music in Kyivan Rus was filled with God’s light, spiritual “energy”, peace-making harmony, balanced tempo-rhythm and soulful melody, it was a manifestation of “sonorous” divine silence, “singing with thoughts”. This research will be appropriate in curricula on the history of music, on the history of sacred art, on Christian ethics and aesthetics, for further scientific and educational research of church Orthodox chants and their relationship with Byzantine hesychast practice in the context of mutual influence on mentality, worldview, religious and aesthetic ideal

Elderhood and the Sacrament of Communion: An Orthodox Theological Exploration of Gracefully Aging

Investigating the later stages of life, this study aims to outline a specific personal context shaped during this phase, approached from various perspectives: theological, medical, psychological, and social, each highlighting distinct challenges. Theologically, the focus is on the afterlife and preparation for meeting the Righteous Judge. Medically, the emphasis is on health deterioration, culminating in the cessation of bodily existence. Psychologically, the study mentions the decline in cognitive functions, anxiety, and depression. Social aspects include isolation, marginalization, adaptation to change, and the loss of loved ones. Considering the impact of these factors on human life, this research examines to what extent the Sacrament of Communion, from an Orthodox perspective, offers answers to all these challenges. Based on a qualitative research method (content/thematic analysis) of liturgical texts using MAXQDA software, the study focuses on the prayers preceding and following this Sacrament. It highlights the complex nature of the Sacrament of Communion, its multiple faces, and its extended benefits, as well as the risks of partaking without proper preparation. The results provide arguments for the significance the Orthodox Church grants to the mystical union between man and God in the Sacrament of Communion, also emphasizing the importance of an authentic spiritual life.

Gesture as the Expresion of the Pascal Mystery in the Central European Medieval Art

The Paschal Mystery is the central reality of the Christianity. This is a series of historical events, presented in the canonical Gospels, in which Jesus from Nazaret was submit to the suffering, death, but was revived and bas ascend 10 the glory. These events was Ml of meanings and significations. This significations of paschal event has been meditated and analyzed in the Christian text, - in Gospels, in Paul’s Letters, but in the sermon of Fathers of the Church. Meliton of Sardes, Orygenes, Pseudo-Hypolite, and others are known as the interpreters of paschal events. The liturgical texts - Exultet and Victimae Paschali explain the profound sense of the Death and the resurrection of Christ All these works inspired the iconography. This presentation has to review the some works of art in Central Europeand interpretations their theological sense. The gestures will be the key to discovery of meaning.

Two Skilful Iconographic Interpretations of the Biblical Text by Nerio

Nerio’s initial D(e ventre matris mee...) from Gradual D of the Zadar Franciscans has been misinterpreted in scholarly literature, earning the miniaturist a bad reputation as an iconographer. L. Mirković did not recognize that the initial depicts simultaneously two connected events from Luke’s Gospel: Annunciation to Zechariah (Lk 1:5-25) and the Birth of John the Baptist (Lk 1:57-66). This article aims to prove the opposite, namely that Nerio was unusually skilled in translating the liturgical text into visual language. This opinion is supported by the analysis of Nerio’s cutting preserved at the British Library, depicting Christ, an apostle, and an executioner taking a sheep to be slaughtered. So far, no correct interpretation of this scene has been offered. The author considers it to be a visual interpretation of the First Response of the nocturnal Mass for Holy Saturday. The citation is taken from Isaiah (53/7) and reads: Sicut ovis ad occisionem ductus est et, dum male tractaretur non aperuit os suum (“He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth”). Nerio wanted to depict Christ’s silence and succeeded in doing so by introducing an apostle into the scene to enter into a dialogue with the executioner, indirectly emphasizing Christ’s silence. Christ seems to distance himself from the event, turning his back to it. Nevertheless, he turns his head back towards the executioner, recognizing his own fate in the sheep and accepting it without a word.

Mapping the Jews in the Byzantine Hymnography: The Triodion

The Byzantine hymnography was considered a “stumbling stone” of the Jewish–Orthodox Christian dialogue because of the harsh anti-Jewish elements kept in the modern liturgical texts without any revision. This article analyses the often-mentioned texts of the Triodion—the liturgical period before Pascha—using a quantitative approach. The starting point of this research states that we must keep in mind the broader view on the state of the hymnography without labelling the entire Byzantine hymnography as anti-Jewish by looking at some concrete stanzas from Holy Week services. The results demonstrate that we can speak only about very few hymnographical texts containing anti-Jewish elements compared to the entire Triodion. This approach helps us in the Jewish–Christian debates to focus on what exactly are we speaking about, and what precisely those texts are saying. After a short analysis of the content of selected hymns, I propose three concrete categories of hymns that could be more easily approached by either excluding them or transforming them through translation into modern languages.

On the Troped ‘Kyrie Eleison’: A Thomistic Perspective

Abstract This paper examines, from a Thomistic perspective, the possible consequences of the twentieth-century reform of the ‘Kyrie eleison’ from ninefold set of invocations to a sixfold call-and-response structure. First, we present Aquinas’s distinctly Trinitarian exegesis of the ‘Kyrie’ in light of the history of troped liturgical texts. Next, we will account for the historical diversity of the troped ‘Kyrie’ genre while emphasizing importance of the Trinitarian elements. The third section recounts recent work on Aquinas’s theory of the passions and their effects of language formation; this leads to the fourth section, which casts a philosophical eye on the role of melisma in the liturgy. To conclude this study, we suggest the restoration of some troped ‘Kyrie’ texts in the Roman Rite.

Baptism, Social Ethics, and Sanctification According to Maximus the Confessor's Commentary On The Lord's Prayer

ABSTRACT: The Byzantine celebration of Christ's baptism dramatizes the interpersonal and interior dynamics of conversion and salvation. Unlike the transformation of the cosmos underscored by liturgical texts, human transformation in baptism is hardly a fait accompli, due to interpersonal injury, a necessary consequence when one is entangled in the web of fallen human relationships. Maximus the Confessor offers an exploration of the dynamics between the grace of baptism and ongoing sanctification in his Exposition on the Lord's Prayer . In his Exposition , Maximus focuses his meditation on relationship: with the addressee, with God, and with each other. For Maximus, divinization entails asceticism on earth, which is perfected in eternity. The Christian must "suffer" forgiveness below to experience it above.

К ВОПРОСУ О ЖАНРЕ PASSIO PERPETUAE ET FELICITATIS

Early Christian genres called in antiquity “passions” and “martyrias” or “acts” had no clear genre boundaries. Neither literary frameworks were established, nor fidelity to generic canon was much important to Christians who wrote about martyrdom. They often wrote epistles because they wanted to tell their fellow believers about the deeds of the martyrs, often relied on authentic records of trials and eyewitness accounts, often praised the passion-bearers, and used martyrologies as liturgical texts. Martyrology gradually developed into hagiography with its subgenres. But even against this background, the “Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas” demonstrates exclusively elusive generic nature. The traditional title “Passio” corresponds to the content of the text under discussion. However, the work is made up of many parts written by different authors, not simultaneously, and combined into a single book. At least five persons were involved in the compilation of this set of documents (the communis opinio – three persons). These five had different statuses and different tasks. Theologue and author of the Prologue and Epilogue preached and glorified the martyrs, Perpetua created extragenre commentaria or hypomnemata for her congregation about the events of the prison, mainly about her dreamy visions given to her by the Holy Spirit: a heavenly journey, two journeys to the underworld, and a symbolic dream of the coming martyrdom as a victory over the devil. The Vision of Saturus has apocalyptic features, but what he saw he saw as if already beyond his earthly life; the Eyewitness created an account of what happened in the prison and in the arena, very vivid, but not fulfilling the minimum conditions of acts and martyrdoms: interrogation, sentence, burial, cult. The fifth author brought all the texts together and provided explanatory inserts, thus turning the whole functionally into an epistle that could be sent from Carthage to the larger world to be read in the Church. The result is a genre to which there are no analogues in ancient literature, and attempts to define this book through the genres of ancient literature both as a whole and in parts are unsuccessful. However, the genre of the documentary book, written by different authors at different times, in different genres, including apocalyptic, acts and passions, sermons, epistles, and visions, had emerged by the time of our Passio as the whole collection of the New Testament, with all the disparate texts, though independent, all dealing with one great event: the life, death, and resurrection of Christ and the establishment of his church. It served as a model for the compilation of the “Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas”.