Michael Astley
23-05-2009, 12:27 PM
It is my parish's patronal festival in July. If all of the work continues on schedule, we should have moved into our new building (http://picasaweb.google.com/Britain.EireOrthodox/NewChurchOfStElisabethWallasey?feat=directlink) by then.
If the weather permits, we're hoping to do a litya/Cross procession at the end of the Liturgy on the day. However, because of my parish's circumstances up until this point, we have never done it in the past and there are some things about which we're uncertain. My parish priest and I have only ever witnessed it done at the cathedral, where it has been a) in Slavonic, b) curtailed due to numbers and relative space, and c) in a special form because the cathedral's dedication is to the Mother of God. This means that we cannot simply look at what happens there and apply it directly to our situation.
For those who haven't experienced it, how it works is that, after the prayer below the ambo, everyone forms a procession which goes around the outside of the church, anti-clockwise. Four stations are made: at the east end, then at the west end, then at the north side, then at the south side, then the procession continues back into church, where we have the dismissal. At each station, there there is a Gospel reading; a short litany; and an invocation of God's blessing on the people, the church, and the town/city; while the priest blesses with holy water in four directions. Between stations, the people sing hymns, asking the prayers of the patron Saint.
The idea is that, by the time the people go back into church, they will have circled the church three times, and the stations would have formed the points of the sign of the Cross around the building. I think it's a very apt and beautiful thing to do on a patronal festival but I have some questions in the hope that someone reading may know the answers:
At the cathedral, in addition to singing the festal tropar in procession, the choir sang "Most Holy Mother of God, save us!" and the people repeated. I know that when this occurs in the moleben, when not in honour of the Mother of God, it is usually changed to "Holy N. pray to God for us!" However, this does not appear in the text of the service in the STS 4-volume trebnik. Is this peculiar to churches dedicated to the Mother of God or is it a permissible insertion anywhere? If so, where does it fit in?
Unlike the others, the litany at the final station is offered for the departed of the parish and everywhere. The rubric then directs that the Memory eternal be sung but it doesn't make it clear whether this is sung while the procession continues back into church or whether it is sung at the station, with the normal tropar being resumed for the remainder of the procession. Does anybody know?
When the procession returns to church, the Divine Liturgy continues with the Blessed be the name of the Lord... sung three times. This is usually followed by psalm 33, sung as a hymn of praise and thanksgiving after communion. As this post-communion part of the Liturgy will have been interrupted with the Cross procession, and we will already have done the litany of thanksgiving, is psalm 33 still sung or is it omitted? (This question is somewhat academic as our parish usually omits this psalm anyway, although we have been talking about revising this when we move into the new building).
That's all. I did ask these questions on another forum but the number of responses (0) left the thread resembling this: YouTube - The very empty desert (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcv6GvB6478&feature=related) or perhaps this: YouTube - Crazy Tumbleweed Storm (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEl5k3Tzedc)
So if anybody here could help, I'd be very grateful.
Thank you so much.
In Christ,
Michael
If the weather permits, we're hoping to do a litya/Cross procession at the end of the Liturgy on the day. However, because of my parish's circumstances up until this point, we have never done it in the past and there are some things about which we're uncertain. My parish priest and I have only ever witnessed it done at the cathedral, where it has been a) in Slavonic, b) curtailed due to numbers and relative space, and c) in a special form because the cathedral's dedication is to the Mother of God. This means that we cannot simply look at what happens there and apply it directly to our situation.
For those who haven't experienced it, how it works is that, after the prayer below the ambo, everyone forms a procession which goes around the outside of the church, anti-clockwise. Four stations are made: at the east end, then at the west end, then at the north side, then at the south side, then the procession continues back into church, where we have the dismissal. At each station, there there is a Gospel reading; a short litany; and an invocation of God's blessing on the people, the church, and the town/city; while the priest blesses with holy water in four directions. Between stations, the people sing hymns, asking the prayers of the patron Saint.
The idea is that, by the time the people go back into church, they will have circled the church three times, and the stations would have formed the points of the sign of the Cross around the building. I think it's a very apt and beautiful thing to do on a patronal festival but I have some questions in the hope that someone reading may know the answers:
At the cathedral, in addition to singing the festal tropar in procession, the choir sang "Most Holy Mother of God, save us!" and the people repeated. I know that when this occurs in the moleben, when not in honour of the Mother of God, it is usually changed to "Holy N. pray to God for us!" However, this does not appear in the text of the service in the STS 4-volume trebnik. Is this peculiar to churches dedicated to the Mother of God or is it a permissible insertion anywhere? If so, where does it fit in?
Unlike the others, the litany at the final station is offered for the departed of the parish and everywhere. The rubric then directs that the Memory eternal be sung but it doesn't make it clear whether this is sung while the procession continues back into church or whether it is sung at the station, with the normal tropar being resumed for the remainder of the procession. Does anybody know?
When the procession returns to church, the Divine Liturgy continues with the Blessed be the name of the Lord... sung three times. This is usually followed by psalm 33, sung as a hymn of praise and thanksgiving after communion. As this post-communion part of the Liturgy will have been interrupted with the Cross procession, and we will already have done the litany of thanksgiving, is psalm 33 still sung or is it omitted? (This question is somewhat academic as our parish usually omits this psalm anyway, although we have been talking about revising this when we move into the new building).
That's all. I did ask these questions on another forum but the number of responses (0) left the thread resembling this: YouTube - The very empty desert (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcv6GvB6478&feature=related) or perhaps this: YouTube - Crazy Tumbleweed Storm (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEl5k3Tzedc)
So if anybody here could help, I'd be very grateful.
Thank you so much.
In Christ,
Michael