THE ANTIPHONS, THEIR PRAYERS AND EKTENIAS

W hen th.e deacon and people are singing th.e last part of th.e Great Ektenia, th.e priest recites th.e Prayer of th.e First Antiphon

silently:

0 Lord, our God, whose power is indescribable, whose glory is incomprehensible, whose mercy is measureless and whose love for man is beyond words : in your kindness, Lord, look down upon us and upon this holy Church, and grant to us and to those who are praying with us the riches of your mercy and compassion.

As soon as the deacon has finished th.e final ektenia-commendation, th.e priest sings th.e following doxology, which forms the conclusion to both the Great Ektenia and th.e Prayer of th.e First Antiphon :

For to you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is due all glory, honor, and adoration, now and always and for ever and ever.

People : Amen.

Then th.e deacon makes a small bow, leaves his place, stands before th.e icon of Christ and holds his orar with three fingers of his right hand, while th.e cantors (and/ or the people) sing the First Antiphon, or th.e typica : 1

1 Here we give the First Antiphon which is used for all ordinary Sundays of the year according to Ruthenian usage. It consists of Ps. 65:I-4, interspersed with a versicle invoking Our Lady's intercession, as given above. On ordinary weekdays verses 2, 3, and I6 of Ps. 9I are sung, interspersed with the same versicle. On major feasts, both the verses from the psalms and the versicle are proper to the feast. For details, cf. I. Dolnysky, Typik tserky ruskokatolycheskiya (Lvov, I899), pp. 57, 97, IOI f., I06, IIO, II3, IIS, I20 f.

In the Russian recension of the Liturgy, the First Antiphon for ordinary Sundays consists of Ps. I03 and ends with the minor doxology, " Glory be to the Father," etc. (In the Douay Version this is Ps. Io2). For ordinary weekdays, it is the same as the Ruthenian recension, including the same versicle, except that the Russian usage inserts also the versicle after the first half of the minor doxology. For major feasts, they are proper to the given feast. For details, cf. K. Nikolsky, Posobie k izucheniu Ustava Bogosluzhenia pravoslavnoi tserkvy (St. Petersburg, 1907), pp. 374-384.

Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth: sing to his name; give glory to his praise.

Through the prayers of the Mother of God, 0 Saviour, save us!

Say to God : how terrible are your deeds; in the multitude of your strength, your enemies shall lie to you.

Through the prayers of the Mother of God, 0 Saviour, save us!

Let all the earth adore you and sing to you : let it sing to your name, 0 Most ffigh One.

Through the prayers of the Mother of God, 0 Saviour, save us!

Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and always, and for ever and ever. Amen (Ps. 65:1-4).

Through the prayers of the Mother of God, 0 Saviour, save us!

This is the first of the three antiphons of the Divine Liturgy. It con­sists in quotations from the psalms, concluding with a doxology and a refrain-acclamation repeated after each verse. Each of the antiphons includes a silent prayer recited by the celebrant, and a small ektenia. When originally introduced into the Liturgy, the psalms were chanted in full. Later, they were shortened to three or four verses. The responsorial-antiphonal style of singing gives the cantors a moment of rest and allows the congregation to parti­cipate actively without any preparation or written text.

The first four verses of Psalm 65, in the first antiphon for the ordinary Sunday, are an invitation for all nations to worship God because of his mighty works, a fitting prayer for the opening of the Divine Liturgy. The second selection, used on ordinary weekdays and on the feasts of the Blessed Mother and the saints, is no less fitting. The themes of the antiphons for the major feasts of Christ correspond to the particular mystery of each feast. There are eight such major holy days which have their own proper festive antiphons : the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Christmas, Epiphany, Palm Sunday, Easter, the Ascension, Pentecost, and the Transfiguration.

Although called " antiphons," these chants are not to be confused with the Latin Rite's antiphonal singing : two choruses alternating verse by verse. The Byzantine technique is closer to the older responsorial method which dominated the field until the fourth century. A soloist chanted the psalm verse by verse. After each verse, the people repeated the same refrain or responsum. 1 The primitive Church inherited this style of singing from the Jewish people, who followed it in the singing, not only of the psalms, but also of the other scriptural books. The Jewish refrain was an inter­polated phrase. The Christian refrain was taken either from the first verse of the psalm or from the context. Since they were repeated after each verse, they became familiar to the whole congre­gation. Chrysostom often refers to them as starting points for deeper study of the psalms themselves. 8

About this time, there was an independent prayer service, re­sembling the present canonical hours, which Etheria calls " the first morning service on Sundays." She witnessed it in Jerusalem c. A.D. 390, and tells us that after the entrance of the bishop into the church of the Anastas, psalms were intoned by a priest, by a deacon, and by another cleric, each in turn; to each verse of these psalms,, the people responded with a refrain; a prayer followed each psalm. The same plan is found in the Byzantine ~vocp!;Lc;, but at the time it had nothing to do with the Eucharistic Liturgy.

In the middle of the fourth century, the responses were sung differently in Antioch : either two choirs, or one choir and the con­gregation, alternated (whence the name antiphonal - "answering voice "). The choir began with a short verse, the refrain, and gave the tune (now called the antiphon in the Latin Rite), and then sang the first verse of the psalm. The congregation responded by repeating the introductory verse. The choir then sang the second verse, and the cJngregation repeated the introductory verse, and so on, until the end. Two monks, Flavian and Diodore, who were later to become bishops, introduced this style of singing when they organ-

•Apostolic Constitutions, Book II, 57 (Quasten, Mon. 182). •E.g., In Ps. n7, esp. l (edit. Montfaucon 5, 317-318); In Ps. 144, l (edir.

cit., 5, 466 E-467); etc.

zed an anti-Arian lay movement in Antioch. ' This developed eventually into the canon of the Byzantine office (see pp. 396 ff., below). The Prokeimenon, which comes before the Epistle, is another variant of Antiochene antiphonal singing (see pp. 413 ff.). Antiphonal singing became immediately popular in large congregations in the great fourth-century churches. Besides the advantages already indicated, the attendance no longer had to strain to hear the voice of a single singer. Large city cathedrals soon formed special singing groups, the schola cantorum.

In the fifth century, the trinitarian doxology, "Glory be to the Father ... , " was added at the end of the psalms.

Antiphonal singing spread throughout Christendom in both the East and the West. Caesarea was using it, as St. Basil tells us, by A.D. 379; Milan adopted it probably at the instance of St. Ambrose (A.D. 389), and finally Rome. It is said that Pope Celestine I tA.D. 422-432) ordered antiphonal singing at the entrance ceremony. 5

Perhaps Rome set a precedent in the Liturgy by prescribing that the entrance of the celebrant be accompanied by antiphonal singing. •

Such at any rate was the origin of the Latin introit chant. When singing was introduced into the Syro-Byzantine processional en­trance, however, it was not the antiphonal singing of the psalms, but special entrance chants, the eisodika (eto-o3Lxoc), essentially troparia

•Cf. Theodoret, Hist. eccl., IV, 22-24 (PG 42, 1420 C-1422 C [Series graeca]). • Liber pont. Vita Cae/estini (edit. Duchesne, Liber pont., I, 20). This account

unfortunately is not reliable, but at least we know that antiphony was used at the Entrance ceremony when this section of the book was written, ergo, prior to the middle of the sixth century; cf. Batiffol, Let;ons sur la Messe (Paris, 1920), p. 105.

• Paulinus of Nola makes no mention of any singing in the description of the processional entrance in Carmina, XIV (PL 61, 464-468), c. A.O. 400; nor does there seem to be any introit in the Rite of Africa. In the East, the processional entrance of the bishop is known at Laodicea by the middle of the fourth century, but there is no evidence of singing. In the homilies preached at Antioch (c. A.O. 390) and at Constantinople a few years later, Chrysostom refers to a formal entrance but mentions no accompanying chant. In fact, if we are to take the " silence " of the offertory procession, so emphasized by Theodore of Mopsuestia (cf. edit. Mingana, in Woodbrook Studies Vol. VI, p. 84) as meaningful, it seems that the Eastern Christians at this time found silent processions most impressive. Etheria, however, does mention "hymns" during the bishop's procession from one church to another in Jerusalem; whether these "hymns" continued once the bishop entered the church, she does not say (cf. Aetheriae peregrinatio, chaps. 24, 25 (CSEL XXXIX, 71 ff., 74 ff.).

taken from the canon of the Byzantine Office. Indirectly, they do have a common origin with the antiphonal singing of Antioch, since the canons evolved from it (see, p. 391).

The responsorial singing of the psalms, that is, the three antiphons, may have been placed at the beginning of the Liturgy to occupy the people while they themselves were waiting for the bishop-celebrant's formal entrance. What had begun as a semi-independent practice would then have become part of the Liturgy. There is, however, insufficient documentation on these centuries (fifth to eighth) to indicate with certainty how the evolution actually occurred. 7

The three antiphons first appear in the eighth century texts of the Byzantine Liturgy,· and it would seem that they had no connection with the entrance rite. 8 Isidore Pyromal's redaction of the Liturgy of St. Basil, for example, merely has the office of the antiphons per­formed before the entrance of the bishop. 9 The Commentary of St. Germanus of Constantinople (715-729) fails to mention any link between the antiphons and the entrance rite when it explains the mystical meaning of the antiphons as a preparation for the coming of the Son of God. 10 It is the same with the eighth-century Codex Barberini, which contains the three antiphons, complete with their respective prayers of the celebrant almost as they are today. 11 The antiphons seem never to have been used as entrance chants, as were the Latin introits : the poetical eisodika ( troparia) performed that function. Surprisingly, the Latin introits and the Byzantine anti-

' There may be an indication of the original function of the psalm-antiphons in the 97th Canon of St. Basil the Great, describing the beginning of the Coptic­Alexandrian Liturgy : " When they commence to celebrate the Mysteries. . . they do not begin before all the people gather together and recite the psahns until they enter. After the people have congregated, they read from the Epistles, then from the Acts of the Apostles and from the Gospel" (Canons of St. Basil the Great, edit. I. E. Rahmani, I fasti della chiesa patriarcale Antiochena [Rome, 1920], p, XIV),

•Codex Barberini, gr. 336, cf. Brightman, LEW, pp. 310-312; for the eighth century Armenian version of Chrysostom's Liturgy, cf. Aucher, La versione armena della liturgia di S. Giovanni Crisostomo, XPYCOCTOMIKA, pp. 375-377.

• Goar, Euchologion, pp. 153-154. 10 Edit. N. Borgia, 11 commentario liturgico di s. Germano Patriarca Constant­

inopolitano e la versione latina de Anastasio Bibliotecario [Grottaferrata, 1912], p. 21.

11 Brightman, LEW, pp. 310-312; so does the early eighth century Armenian version of Chrysostom's Liturgy, cf. Aucher, op. cit., pp. 375-377.

phons, despite their structural similarity and common origin in the ancient responsorial-antiphonal chanting of the psalms, are not functionally parallel in the Mass; while the introits and the eisodika, although exactly parallel, differ in both structure and origin. 12

" I heard this Psalm (Come, let us adore) sung at the beginning of Mass in the Church of Hagia Sophia at Constantinople," writes Amalarius of Metz in A.D. 833. 13 Even at this late date in some churches, the " office of the antiphons " still seems to have been an independent service before the Divine Liturgy. The ninth-century Typikon of the Church of Hagia Sophia at Constantinople even mentions that it may be omitted on those days when the Office of the Midnight Vigil is celebrated (i.e., before major feasts). 14

In the tenth century, however, the" office of the three antiphons" had become established as an invariable feature of the Divine Liturgy as it is today. Pseudo-Germ.anus, Pseudo-Sophronius, Theodore of Andida, and others bear ample witness to this. 16

There seems to have remained some doubt as to the exact place of the priest's silent prayers. A thirteenth century document prescribes their precise position : the prayer of the first antiphon, before the doxology of the Ektenia of Peace (the Great Ektema); the prayer of the second antiphon, before the first Little Ektema; that of the third antiphon, before the second Little Ektenia. 18

In some churches of the fourteenth century, a second series of antiphon prayers was used in parallel with the first, 17 only to disap­pear later.

11 They do have a remote common origin in the Antiochene antiphonal singing of psalms, but the eisodika trace their immediate origin to the Camm of the By­zantine Office ... which in turn, developed from the antiphonal technique I Seep. 397.

1• Amalarius of Metz, Ord. Antiph. C. XXXI (PL 105, I243-I3I6). u Krasnoseltsev, Typik tserkvy Sv. Sofii v Konstantinopoli, Litopys (Odessa,

1892), p. 227. 1• Migne (PG 98, 40I-405; 87, 3994; I4o, 40I-4I2). "MS. of Sophia Library, N. 524, p. 7-8 (Petrovsky, Histoire de la redaction

slave de la liturgie de S. Jean Chrysostome, XPYCOCTOMIKA, p. 875. Cf. also Euchologion, p. IOI).

17 MS. of Sophia Library, N. 522, pp. I5-I6 (Petrovsky, op. cit., p. 883); compare also fourteenth century MS. of Moscow Synodal Library, N. 279 in Krasnoseltsev, Svidinia o nikotorikh liturgicheskikh rukopis'akh Vatikanskoi biblioteki (Kazan, 1885), p. 298. Cf. also MS. of Esphygmenon Library of year 13o6 cont­ained in Dmitrievsky, Opysanie liturgicheskikh rukopisej khraniaschikhsia v bibliote­kakh pravoslanJJgo vostoka, Vol. II, Euchologia [Kiev, I90I], p. 265.

Second Antiphon and the Monogenes

After the First Antiphon, the deacon returns to his usual place (before the royal doors), makes a small bow, and sings:

Again and again in peace let us pray to the Lord.

People: Lord, have mercy.

Deacon : Help us, save us, have mercy on us, and protect us, 0 God, by your grace.

People: Lord, have mercy.

Deacon : As we remember our all-holy, immaculate, most blessed and glorious Lady, the Mother of God and ever­virgin Mary, together with all the saints, let us commend ourselves and one another and our whole life to Christ our God.

People: To you, 0 Lord.

In the meantime, the priest recites silently the Prayer of the Second Antiphon:

0 Lord our God, save your people and bless your inherit­ance. Guard the fullness of your Church. Sanctify those who love the beauty of your house; bring them to glory by your divine power. And do not forsake us who trust in you.

Then the pn:est sings the doxology, concluding both the Prayer of the Second Antiphon and the Little Ektenia :

For yours is the majesty, and yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and always and for ever and ever.

People: Amen.

After making a bow, the deacon leaves his pkzce before the royal doors and stands before the icon of the Mother of God while the cantors (and/or the people) sing the Second Antiphon, or the Typika:

0 God, be generous to us, and bless us; make the light of your countenance shine upon us and have mercy on us.

0 Son of God, risen from the dead, save us who sing to you : alleluia.

That we may know your way upon the earth, your salvation among all the nations.

0 Son of God, risen from the dead, save us who sing to you : alleluia.

Let people confess to you, 0 God, let all the people give praise to you.

0 Son of God, risen from the dead, save us who sing to you : alleluia. 18

After tlrese verses of tire Second Antiphon, tire cantors (and/or tire people) sing tire doxology and tire Monogenes hymn.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and always, and for ever and ever. Amen.

0 only-begotten Son and Word of God, though immortal, you deigned for our salvation to take flesh of the holy Mother of God and ever-virgin Mary; and, without undergoing change, you became man. You were crucified, 0 Christ God, and by your death you trampled down death, you who are one of the Holy Trinity and are glorified with the Father and the Holy Spirit : save us!

Repeated many times in the various liturgical services of the Byzantine Church, the Little Ektenia, so called because of its brevity, consists in the opening invocation of the Great Ektenia, its petition for God's protection, commemoration of the Blessed Mother, and doxology in honor of the Holy Trinity. Here, as in many other instances, the doxology ending the ektenia also concludes the silent prayer of the priest. Besides keeping the people occupied during the priest's silent prayer, the Small Ektenia emphasizes the urgency of these final entreaties.

The " fullness of the Church," mentioned in the Prayer of the Second Antiphon, refers to those who make up the fullness of Christ's Church, all the members of the mystical body of Christ, so that not one of them be lost.

As a preparation to the coming of the Son of God in the Buchar-

18 Since Vatican II, the Second Antiphon with its ektenia has been omitted by the Ruthenians.

istic Sacrifice, the antiphon for ordinary Sundays admirably accom­modates the meaning of the original verses of Psalm 66, used as a harvest hymn by the Jews. After the Incarnation and redemption, the harvest was Messianic : in the Old Law it was a prayer that God bless Israel, the chosen people, so that the Gentiles would be led to recognize him; in the New Law it is a prayer that God bless his chosen ones, the members of his Church, so that the whole world may acknowledge and revere him as the one true God. The refrain "0 Son of God, risen from the dead" is the theme of Sunday, the day specially dedicated to the resurrection of Christ. It is both a profession of faith in the greatest proof of Christ's divinity, and a plea for salvation.

Composed as an entrance chant (eisodikon), the celebrated Mono­genes Hymn ( o µovoyev~~) is attributed by the Byzantines to Emperor Justinian I, 19 and is said to have been written in A.D. 528 when Patriarch Severus of Antioch was his guest. The Syrian Jacobites ascribe it to Severus himself and give the date A.D. 512-518. Jus­tinian certainly ordered its adoption into Byzantine liturgical use in A.D. 528. 00 The Byzantine and Syrian texts of this hymn differ somewhat. 11

From Constantinople, the Monogenes spread to the other Churches of the East, but not without reservation. Because of persecution by Justinian, the Jacobite (Monophysite) Churches of Syria and Egypt never adopted it. The royalist Greek churches of Antioch and Alexandria found it desirable, both on account of its doctrinal content and because of Justinian's reputed authorship. The Arme­nian Church which had repudiated the Council of Chalcedon tand, hence, supposedly identified itself with Monophysitism) did accept the Monogenes hymn when it adopted a revised version of the Byzantine enarksis. The Slav Church, on the other hand, because

'"His name is also prefixed to it in some codices, e.g., Codex Pal., gr. 367, fol. 23 (P. de Meester, Les origines et les developpements du texte grec de la liturgie de S. Jean Chrysostome, XPYCOCTOMIKA, p. 321, n. 2.

•• Theophanes (ninth century), Chronographia (PG 108, 477 B); cf. also Georgius Cedrenus (eleventh century), Historiarum compendium (PG 121, 729 B).

11 See Brightman, LEW, pp. 365 f., and p. 33, for comparison; also J. Puyade, O.S.B., "Le tropaire '0 Monogenes,'" in Revue de I'Orient Chretien, xvn (1912), pp. 253-255).

of its Byzantine origin, accepted the whole Byzantine enarksis and with it the Monogenes hymn, as is evidenced from the earliest documents. 11 Since the Monogenes hymn is also specifically anti­Nestorian, the Nestorian Churches do not have it.

The Monogenes hymn was used originally as an entrance chant. It has survived to this day in that capacity in the Syro-Antiochene, Alexandrian (Liturgy of St. Mark), and Armenian Churches. 23 Just when it was changed from its place as an entrance chant to its present position is unknown, but apparently it was some time after the ninth century. 2

'

The strongly anti-Nestorian doctrinal content of the hymn can leave no doubt that it was written to vindicate Christ's consubstanti­ality with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople and former disciple of Theodore of Mopsuestia in the Antiochian School, taught that Christ being a perfect man, his human nature had its own subsistence, its own autonomy and, therefore, its own personality; that the Son of God dwelt in the body of Christ as in a temple or as God dwells in the just. Hence, the union of the Son of God and his human nature were moral only, and Christ, one in appearance, was really two persons. Wherefore Mary should not be called the Mother of God ( theotokos), but the Mother of the man Christ.

The author of the Monogenes hymn calls Christ" the only-begotten Son and Word of God." The Son of God, the Word, did not dwell in the body of Christ as in a temple : Christ was the Son of God; he was the Word of God, as St. John clearly attests," ... and the Word was God" (John 1:1). Being God, he was immortal, but because of our salvation, he took upon himself mortal flesh from the virgin Mother. This is an echo of the Constantinopolitan Creed: " For

n Cf. A. Petrovsky, op. cit., p. 866. 13 So also in the twelfth century ltalo-Greek Liturgy of St. Peter, as seen in the

Codex Rossanensis (Vat. gr., 1970). " Some authors suggest that the original function of the Monogenes was in the

canonical office. Some time during the seventh or eighth century when the antiphons became an integral part of the Liturgy of the Catechumens, the Monogenes was included. E.g., de Meester, Diet. d'Archt!ol. (col. 1613). This theory could be supported if it could be proved that the Second Antiphon had once been used as the Third Antiphon just before the Entrance, in which case the Monogenes could still have been used as an eisodikon.

.... us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, took fiesh of the Virgin Mary and was made man. " The Son of God became man by the Incarnation, by taking human nature. If a mere" moral" union existed between him and his human nature, we could not truly say that he became incarnate, that he became man. For it would certainly be incorrect to say that God becomes the temple in which he dwells or that he becomes the just man he elevates through sanctifying grace. The union between the Son of God and his human nature is certainly closer than that suggested by Nestorius.

The Monogenes hymn also clearly states that Christ became in­carnate, " took flesh of the holy Mother of God and ever-virgin Mary," thereby clearly contradicting the Nestorian heresy. The hymn emphatically calls Mary the Mother of God (Theotokos); yet, she never ceased being a virgin.

The hymn then stresses the fact that Christ, when he became man, was indeed still God : " Without undergoing change. " His becoming incarnate did not change his divinity. He did not cease being God by becoming man. If Christ were not one person, and that a divine one, he would not be God, nor would God have died for us, but only the man Christ. Such an assumption would subvert the doctrine of the redemption and the whole scheme of salvation, because God alone could redeem us adequately. But the Son of God, Christ, is indeed only one, a divine person. All his actions, human or divine, are those of one subject, the Son of God. As if to dispel even the smallest doubt, the Monogenes uses the direct address, " 0 Christ God, " then continues, " you who are one of the Holy Trinity. " As such, he is to be "glorified with the Father and the Holy Spirit. "

In the first and second centuries, the Docetae claimed that Christ had assumed only an apparent body. For them, all matter was evil, the product of an evil principle. The Church has always taught that the Son of God assumed a human nature in reality, not merely in appearance. When St. John (1:14) says that "the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us," the word " flesh" signifies, as in other scriptural passages (e.g., Gen. 6:12), the entire nature of man. The term " flesh " is used to indicate that which is visible and lowest, as it were, in human nature, in order to emphasize the reality of the

Incarnation and the condescension of the Son of God. The Mono­genes hymn teaches this same truth when it says that the only­begotten Son of God, the Word, deigned to take flesh of the Holy Mother of God and ever-virgin Mary. If Christ had had only an apparent body, our redemption and Christ's death would also have been merely apparent. Denying the reality of Christ's body is to deny the Incarnation and redemption, because without a true body, Christ would not have been man, nor could he have redeemed us. The Monogenes hymn proclaims that the Son of God" became man" and that" by his crucifixion and death he trampled down death"­another way of saying what Paul said to Timothy : " ... who hath destroyed death and hath brought to light life and incorruption ... " (II Tim. 1:10). The reality of Christ's human nature is shown beyond all doubt by the sufferings and death he endured for us.

The Monogenes hymn also attacks Monophysitism or Eutychi­anism. Eutyches, Archimandrite of Constantinople, opposed Nesto­rianism by defending the substantial unity of Christ to the point of assigning to him, not only oneness of the Person, but also oneness of nature (Monophysitism). Eutyches taught that before the Incar­nation there were two natures, the divine and human, but after the Incarnation, only one remained. His disciples, attempting to explain his doctrine, often speak of the " mixture " of the two natures, of "absorption" of one in the other, of a "formal union," similar to that of body and soul.

Scripture, the Fathers, and the Church, teach that Christ is true God and true man-and so does the Monogenes hymn. Christ can be true God only if his divine nature remains intact, unchanged; he is true man only if his humanity remains unchanged. Christ cannot rightly be called true God or true man unless his divinity and humanity retain essentially and truly a divine and a human nature. The words of the hymn, " without undergoing change, " further elucidate the true doctrine of the Church. If Christ's humanity were absorbed by his divinity, he would not be true man, neither would his divinity remain unchanged. If both natures were blended or mixed together like two different liquids in a container, his divinity would lose its simplicity and would therefore be changed. The resulting blend would be neither a divine nor a human nature,

neither God nor man. Finally, if the two natures completed each other through formal um·on, the result would again be neither God nor man but a compound of both, for the divine nature would have received from the human nature a complement similar to that which the soul receives from the body.

The rich doctrinal content of the Monogenes hymn leads to as many corollaries as there are major doctrinal propositions. Because of the union of the attributes of both natures in the one divine person (communicatio idiomatum), Christ as man is the Son of God and has a right to supreme worship, etc. Some writers see in the Monogenes hymn a summary of the teachings of St. Athanasius, St. Basil, and the two Gregorys.

The hymn contains two parts : the praise and glorification of the God-man with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and a brief petition for salvation, " save us. " The first part represents a direction upward, a movement from us to God. We give something. We give praise and glory to the incarnate God and to the Holy Trinity. Then we ask for something, salvation. This second part moves as it were from heaven to earth. From heaven comes the salvation of us all. Every prayer should follow this pattern, exemplified in the Our Father. Prayer unites man and God; it is an exchange between earth and heaven. Prayer goes back and forth between time and eternity, over the bridge built by the Incarnation. It is by means of this bridge and only by this bridge that the heavens are again opened for man. This is the good news which is the Holy Gospel, the news of great joy which gladdened the angels so on the first Christmas mom.

Christ is to be glorified together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, but this glorification rests on love, not on the servile fear that prompted the worship of God in the Old Dispensation. The summons to the glorification of God in the New Dispensation rests on the fact of the Incarnation : the only-begotten Son of God became man and died for us out oflove for us. The call for the glorification of God in the Old Law was based on the tradition of the Jewish race, which looked upon the majesty of God as it did on the sovereign power of an Eastern emperor or king. To the Jewish race, the Lord Almighty was enthroned above the seraphim and spoke to his people

from a pillar of fire, the all-powerful King who ruled with a righteous hand. He was invisible to every eye, but saw all and punished quickly and severely; he was the severe Judge, unsparing, seated on :a red throne, glittering with gold and precious stones, costly incense streaming forth from jeweled censers. The heavens were his throne :and the earth his footstool. Trembling with fear, the faithful were to bow before his infinite majesty. The Eastern Christian, because he believed in the Dispensation of Love, dared to beseech his God for salvation despite his deep feeling of guilt and sin, despite the psychology of fear and despotism that had been impressed upon him by the heavy hand of untold centuries.

Up to this point, the Introduction Rite still symbolizes the hidden life of Jesus in Nazareth. The Monogenes hymn symbolizes the baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan by John the Baptist, when the heavens were opened and the Spirit of God descended upon him as a dove, and a voice from heaven said : " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:r6-r7).

The Third Antiphon, Its Prayer and Ektenia

When the singing of the Monogenes is finished, the deacon Teturns to his usual place before the royal doors and sings the Little Ektenia:

Again and again in peace let us pray to the Lord.

People: Lord, have mercy.

Deacon : Help us, save us, have mercy on us, and protect us, 0 God, by your grace.

People: Lord, have mercy.

Deacon : As we remember our all-holy, immaculate, most blessed and glorious Lady, the Mother of God and ever­virgin Mary, together with all the saints, let us commend ourselves and one another and our whole life to Christ our God.

People: To you, 0 Lord.

While the deacon is chanting the ektenia, the priest secretly says the Prayer of the Tmrd Antiphon :

You gave us grace for these common and united prayers, / and promised to grant the petitions of two or three gathered together in your name : fulfill now the petitions of your servants for their good, granting us the knowledge of your truth in this world and life everlasting in the world to come.

Then the priest sings the doxology ending the prayer and the Little Ektenia :

For you are a good God and the Lover of mankind, and we give glory to you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and always and for ever and ever.

People : Amen.

The deacon returns to the sanctuary through the south door, and the royal doors are opened. The cantors (and/or the people) sing the Third Antiphon or the Beatitudes (on Sunday, where this is customary) :

Come, let us rejoice in the Lord; let us shout with joy to God our Saviour.

0 Son of God, risen from the dead, save us who sing to you : alleluia.

Let us come before his presence with praises; and let us shout with joy to him with psalms.

0 Son of God, risen from the dead, save us who sing to you : alleluia.

For the Lord is a great God, and a great King over all the earth.

0 Son of God, risen from the dead, save us who sing to you : alleluia.

The Byzantine Rite glories in repetitions as a lesson of perse­verance : " Again and again, let us pray to the Lord. " If we ask what we should request of God, the Byzantine Church answers that God help us, save us, have mercy on us, and protect us by his grace. We pray for salvation. What should we do to attain it? Pray again and again and give our whole life to Christ through the mediation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, our "glorious Lady. "

The Monogenes Hymn, which had told us of the limitless love of God manifested through Christ's incarnation and crucifixion, has just been sung. We now ask once more for divine assistance and protection in order to attain salvation; we ask for the very life which pulsed in Christ and runs from him to us.

In the Prayer of the Third Antiphon, the priest reminds Christ the God-man of his promise when he said : " ... if two of you shall consent upon earth concerning anything whatsoever they shall ask, it shall be done to them by my Father who is in heaven; for where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:19-20); (seep. 582 f.). In the cele­bration of the Divine Liturgy, there are always two or more gathered in his name, and so their prayers warrant answering, nay, must be answered in some way, for God has so promised.

In the doxology, the priest gives additional reasons why God should answer the prayers of his people : " because you are a good God and the Lover of mankind. " Again, the simplicity of the doxology defies verbal embellishment. As is the case with many prayers of the Byzantine Liturgy, one has the feeling that the expressions are the nearest that human words can come to God's beauty and simplicity. In simplicity there is beauty. In beauty there is simplicity. God is both in one!

As the majesty of the Liturgy moves slowly on, the royal doors are opened in preparation for the Little Entrance and the Third Antiphon is sung. On Sundays, this consists of Psalm 94: 1-3-an invitation to praise the Lord God with joy. Joyless praise is no praise at all. Psalm 94 exudes joy in the praise of Yahweh, the great God and King. The phrase " over all the earth" in verse 3 is a change from the original" above all gods." The meaning, however, remains the same.