Hi everyone, this is my first post! My questions concern the Agpeya and the feast days, martyrs days and other holy days of the Coptic Church.
In the Catholic "Liturgy of the Hours" which is the Catholic version of the prayers for the hours of the day... the psalms, readings, intercessions, antiphons...etc change according to the season and whether a Feast/Memorial/Solemnity is ocurring on a particular day(s).
In my copy of the Agpeya it contains the prayers for each of the hours with no change noted for special feast days, martyrs days..etc I asked Coptic friends of mine about this and they said that the Agpeya never changes but that on special holy days for Jesus, the saints and martyrs they have Tasbeha in the church.
So my question is...if the Agpeya prayers remain the same throughout the year for each of the hours even on a holy day then would the prayers for Tasbeha be considered the special prayers that are reserved for these holy days separate from the Agpeya? and is the Coptic Synaxarium read as well at Tasbeha?
Thanks and God bless
Comments
So my question is...if the Agpeya prayers remain the same throughout the year for each of the hours even on a holy day then would the prayers for Tasbeha be considered the special prayers that are reserved for these holy days separate from the Agpeya? and is the Coptic Synaxarium read as well at Tasbeha?
To start with, the Agpeya is only the prayers of the daily hours. It's not the only book or prayers rather it's one of many. every hour is have the Intro of the hours, the psalms of the hours, the gospel, the litanies, Kerie Leison-holy, holy, holy (or other prayers for diffrent hours), the apsolution, and the conclusion of every hour. (please excuse my spelling). now in church services which are most concentrated on, all the hours are prayer every day with the order of liturgies and vespers and tasbehas. it's just that some of them are said sapartaly and others are said into the liturgy services. that's why some of ur freinds say that we don't pray certain hours. but in reality we do, only not on that time. that's for the Agpeya....
now the main service of our daily life, more of sundays, is the Divine Liturgy. which has a lot of parts:
Vespers Tasbeha (night before)
Vespers (night before)
Midnight Tasbeha (Middle of the two days)
Matins
Liturgy
here is where the tunes and services chagne. the main changes are in the main 7 minor and 7 major of our Lord, in addition to the Nayroz (Coptic New Year), and the 2 feasts of the Cross.
Every feast have its own:
Psali Watos or Adam (Tasbehas)
Verses of Cymbals and Doxologies (Vespers and Matins)
Psalm Response
Gospel Response
Aspasmos Adam or Watos (hymn of peace during the Liturgy)
Psalm 150 tune
and there specific special hymns.
of course we have about 5 tunes that we use across the year:
Annual – (All annual days and other specific days)
Kiahky – (The tune of the Coptic month of Kiahk – the Advent)
Lenten – (The Holy Lent)
Palm Sunday – (The Palm Sunday Festive tune which is also used in both feasts of the Cross)
The Etribi – (its basically the mourning tune for Holy week…but origin of the word, Etribi, refers to a small city where this tune was composed in…also we prefer to call it that way instead of the sad tune because in while we’re sad in holy week, we’re also glad for gaining our salvation at the end of that holy week)
Festive – (which is the tune that is used in all the festive days of the year)
u can check many hymn here on Tasbeha.org. after all the site is called Tasbeha.org which means praise...in arabic..:). Tasbeha.org have also many hymn texts which u can find here:
Coptic Hymns Lyrics Library
Senixar is the book of the lives of saints. it's set according to the days of the Coptic Year. it is read after the acts in the liturgies except in some festive cases.
The Difnar is the same as the Senixar but it's more of a poetry text that is first chanted than read in Midngiht and Vespers Praises.
Also as for the readings, we have the Katameros.
we have 4 diffrent ones:
Anuual Days
Sundays
Holy Lent
Holy Fifty Days
Mina has provided a fantastic synopsis of the Coptic prayer life (if you will). The Agpeya is solely for individual daily prayers. The seasonal differences are seen in the evening Vesper services, the Midnight Tasbeha and the Divine Liturgy. Regarding the Coptic Synaxarium, that is read during every Divine Liturgy except for Liturgies performed during the Holy Fifty days (from the Feast of the Resurrection to the Feast of Pentecost), because during those days, we are celebrating the joy of our Resurrected Lord. During the Midnight Tasbeha, typically what is read is something called the Defnar, which also tells the stories of the lives of the Saints. The difference is that the Defnar is typically chanted and tends to contain more 'embellished' stories.
It seems Mina beat me to it. :D
[coptic]+ Iryny nem `hmot>[/coptic]
It seems Mina beat me to it. :D
lol.....music to my ears everytime...... :D
Cephas... Fantastic synopsis is correct! and thanks for the additional clarification on the Agpeya, seasonal differences and the Defnar. I have yet to attend evening services. The two times I have gone to a Coptic church where on Sunday mornings but hopefully that will change soon.
Thank you both again and God bless
do you guys have a copy of the difnar online? I have never heard of it. ???
someone is working on it and a book will be published with all full 3 languages. that also ill be online on the hymn text library.
[quote author=PopeKyrillos link=topic=5707.msg81358#msg81358 date=1201094842]
do you guys have a copy of the difnar online? I have never heard of it. ???
someone is working on it and a book will be published with all full 3 languages. that also ill be online on the hymn text library.
do you know when that will be released?
[quote author=minagir link=topic=5707.msg81361#msg81361 date=1201100727]
[quote author=PopeKyrillos link=topic=5707.msg81358#msg81358 date=1201094842]
do you guys have a copy of the difnar online? I have never heard of it. ???
someone is working on it and a book will be published with all full 3 languages. that also ill be online on the hymn text library.
do you know when that will be released?
hopfully this year.....i know english is done, arabic also i guess. but the FULL coptic is being worked on. cuz there isn't a version that have the full coptic....most books only have intro.