...tomorrow night's Evening Prayer service looms large. I cannot tell you how dearly beloved this service is. From the opening service of light with its ancient Phos Hilaron (Joyous Light), to the Psalms and readings, the Magnificat and the beautiful sung litany - it all breathes a spirit of peace. You spend time in the evening together as the family of God singing, listening, praying, and you walk away joyful and content. It's hard to describe but simply the experience of so many.
In peace, let us pray to the Lord... for the peace from above and for our salvation, let us pray to the Lord... for the peace of the whole world, for the well-being of the Church of God, and for the unity of all, let us pray to the Lord... Give to Your servants that peace which the world cannot give, that our hearts may be set to obey Your commandments and also that we, being defended from the fear of our enemies, may live in peace and quietness... Before the ending of the day, Creator of the world we pray, Thy grace and peace to us allow, And be our guard and keeper now...
This Greeking-up of the Western liturgy since the 1960s produces some anomalies that strike me.
ReplyDeleteThe Phos Hilarion -- or, if I may, the Lumen hilare -- is borrowed from Eastern Vespers, but in the East the hymn (canticle, technically) associated with Vespers in the West, the Magnificat, is associated with Matins, but that practice is not borrowed and it is left where it is!
Just as well I suppose, as the 1960s revolution abolished Matins anyway for an Office of Readings which can be said anytime.
Though, of course, Phos Hilaron was also in the venerable Lutheran hymn...as a CHRISTMAS hymn. Go figure. Check it out. #101.
ReplyDeleteWell, you know I always have a copy of THE Lutheran Hymnal zu Hand. I can see it as a Christmas hymn, with the theme of coming light and all.
ReplyDeletePlus, that ain't half so weird as it turning up in the Roman Office of the Dead, if memory serves. Doesn't matter, they boofed the Dies irae, which since us schoolkids were the choir for funerals I sang a bunch of bunches of times. Now the only time you hear it is if somebody plays Berlioz' Symphonie fantastique, with nobody catching the reference except if some musicologist puts it in the programme notes.
Judas H, Berlioz, who brought him up? Don't even get me started!