A
Manual of Eastern Orthodox Prayers
by Alexander Schmemann
Publisher Marketing: Morning and evening prayers, communion prayers, selected troparia and prayers for various occasions.
Customer Reviews
The Light from the East, October 14, 2001
| Reviewer: | "coelnoth33"(new england) |
This small purple book (originally
published in Great Britain in 1945) contains prayers of the Eastern Orthodox
Churches, prayers from which any reader can derive joy and benefit and fitting
words to praise the one God in three Persons, God who is Light and Life,
Transcendence and Immanence, Majesty and Mercy.
There are morning prayers, evening prayers, prayers for different occasions,
anthems and hymns for saints and holy feasts (troparia and kontakia), the Orders
of Confession according to Greek and Slavonic uses (in English), prayers for use
before and after the reception of Holy Communion, and a calendar of the saints
who are honoured in holy Orthodoxy.
The "O Heavenly King" can be found on page 2, prayers to the Theotokos on
page 8, a prayer of St John Chrysostom "according to the hours of the day and
night" on pp. 14-15 (this prayer, or series of short prayers, quite lovely);
Metropolian Philaret's prayer where he dares not ask for either cross or
consolation, on p. 24; a lengthy and lovely prayer in verse by St Symeon the New
Theologian, beginning on page 71, and a penitential pre-Communion prayer of
surpassing beauty ("Thou hast smitten me, O Christ, with yearning; and with thy
divine love hast thou changed me") on page 77.
The language is reminiscent of earlier days in the life of the Church (thees
and thous), and when psalms are quoted, it is the 1662 Book of Common Prayer
version that is used. This comparatively young, Western, Roman Catholic reader
values this small purple book, A Manual of Eastern Orthodox Prayers, for its
loveliness of language, its acute awareness of -- and profound humility before
-- Divine Beauty, and its recognition (often absent in the language of modern
Western Christianity) that God is Majesty, and that as we approach him, a
feeling of awe is not malapert.
Product Details
- Hardcover: 113 pages
- Publisher: Conciliar Press; Rpt edition (March 1, 1997)
- Language: English
- ISBN: 0881410128
- Physical Info: 1.04
cms H x 16.46
cms L x 10.82 cms W (0.10 kgs) 113 pages
|
This product was added to our catalog on Thursday 16 February, 2006.