{"id":270,"date":"2008-04-22T21:51:34","date_gmt":"2008-04-23T02:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stonescryout.org\/?p=270"},"modified":"2008-04-23T07:52:46","modified_gmt":"2008-04-23T12:52:46","slug":"a-praise-hymn-eastern-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stonescryout.org\/?p=270","title":{"rendered":"A Praise Hymn … Eastern Style"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rebecca (blogging wonderfully here) <\/a>and other Christian bloggers often cite their favorite hymns. This isn’t exactly “my favorite” but it was exemplary of the Bridegroom service tonight. Tonight’s service focused on the woman, a prostitute “a filthy woman” who poured expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet and then washed them clean with her hair and tears. Judas, planning his betrayal and who watched (and stole?) from the communal funds for Jesus and his followers, was mostly affected\/mindful of the expense of the myrrh being poured out. This is then put into the context of our lives during the hymn. The prostitute herself is exalted in hymn and liturgy as “equal to the Myrrh bearing women” who first discover the empty tomb during the Paschal dawn.<\/p>\n

Oddly enough tonight’s service is actually<\/em> Wednesday morning’s Matin service. So the readings are “screwed up”, as it were. We read the Tuesday gospel, but the Wednesday morning matins (morning service) on Wednesday night. Apparently this was done to get the “meat” and the best of the Holy week services translated from the Monastic tradition into the lay busy schedule of work and life. Monks devote substantially more time to their services … these services are somewhat shortened … and the Matins services are read\/chanted\/sung in the slot normally assigned to Vespers (evening) services because they are better attended. The “Chant” in the below is done by readers (Cantors in the West) and is Psalm 150 just preceding this the chanters have read\/sung 148 and 149. In the following the choir leads the people in singing the “sung” portion.<\/p>\n

Chanted:<\/p>\n

Praise God in His saints,
\npraise Him in the expanse of His power.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Praise Him for His mighty acts,
\npraise Him for His infinite greatness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sung (Actually a sort of melodic chant to one of 8 the “standard” melodies):<\/p>\n

A harlot recognized you as God, O Son of the virgin.
\nWith tears equal to her past deeds, she besought You weeping:
\nloose my debt as I have loosed my hair.
\nLove the woman who, though justly hated, loves You.
\nThen with the publicans will I proclaim You,
\nbenefactor and Lover of mankind.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chanted:<\/p>\n

Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet,
\npraise Him with psaltery and harp.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sung:<\/p>\n

The harlot mingled precious myrrh with her tears.
\nShe poured it on Your most pure feet and kissed them. At once You justified her.
\nYou suffered for our sakes:
\nforgive us also, and save us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chanted:<\/p>\n

Praise Him with drum and dancing,
\npraise Him with strings and bells.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sung:<\/p>\n

As the sinful woman was bringing her offering of myrrh,
\nthe disciple was scheming with lawless men.
\nShe rejoiced in pouring out her precious gift.
\nHe hastened to sell the precious One.
\nShe recognized the Master, but Judas parted from Him.
\nShe was set free, but Judas was enslaved to the enemy.
\nHow terrible is slothfulnessl
\nHow great her repentance! O Savior,
\nYou suffered for our sakes:
\ngrant us also repentance, and save us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chanted:<\/p>\n

Praise Him with well-tuned cymbals,
\npraise Him with cymbals of victory!
\nLet everything that breathes praise the Lord!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sung:<\/p>\n

O, the wretchedness of Judas!
\nHe saw the harlot kiss the footsteps of Christ,
\nbut deceitfully he contemplated the kiss of betrayal.
\nShe loosed her hair while he bound himself with wrath.
\nHe offered the stench of wickedness instead of myrrh,
\nfor envy cannot distinguish value.
\nO, the wretchedness of Judas!
\nDeliver our souls from this, 0 God.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chanted:<\/p>\n

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sung:<\/p>\n

The sinful woman ran to buy the precious myrrh with which to anoint her Savior.
\nShe cried to the merchant: Give me myrrh,
\nthat I may anoint Him who has cleansed all my sins.
\nThe woman who was engulfed in sin found in You a haven of salvation.
\nShe poured out myrrh with her tears and cried to You:
\nBehold the One who brings repentance to sinners!
\nRescue me from the tempest of sin,
\nO Master, through Your great mercy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chanted:<\/p>\n

To You, 0 Lord our God, belongs glory, and to You we ascribe glory: to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rebecca (blogging wonderfully here) and other Christian bloggers often cite their favorite hymns. This isn’t exactly “my favorite” but it was exemplary of the Bridegroom service tonight. Tonight’s service focused on the woman, a prostitute “a filthy woman” who poured expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet and then washed them clean with her hair and tears. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,58,62,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-marko","category-orthodox","category-religion"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stonescryout.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stonescryout.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stonescryout.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stonescryout.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stonescryout.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stonescryout.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stonescryout.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stonescryout.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stonescryout.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}