Lament Brings Us Closer to God in Worship So I had a hard time bringing this sermon series to an end, I could have gone in a lot of directions. I didn’t even get a chance to Gregory of Narek and his lamentations, and I thought we might get into talking about Lament and the…
1) How It Looks We begin singing Kristos I Mej after the the second and most important of the two processions in the Divine Liturgy. The Word of God, the Gospel, has already come to the altar. Now God has come himself, via the chalice of bread and wine-graced to be His precious body and…
1) How It Looks Our third hymn “Marmeen Deroonagan-Body of the Lord” signals the major transition of the Badarak from the liturgy of God’s word to the liturgy of the Eucharist. In the last hymn we said that the Divine Liturgy has two processions (like parades) that make it like a two act play. The Word of God, the…
1) How It Looks We begin singing Soorp Asdvadz, the ancient hymn of the “Three Holies” immediately after the deacon raises the Gospel book and says “Proschume/Be Attentive.” We have two processions (like parades) in the Divine Liturgy, celebrating the two things we hold most sacred. In this first procession, we parade the Word of God-the…
1) How It Looks Our first hymn is also a prayer, and not only a prayer, but the prayer which Our Lord himself gave us. For this reason, we sing this special hymn standing up, and with our hands out and palms up, open to Our Lord in prayer. As the entire altar and congregation…