Liturgy Of Jerusalem

Christian liturgy of Jerusalem as ^the fourth century and disappeared from the normative to use the XII ^century. Upstream influence of Judaism in fact an interesting study to understand the origin of Christian institutions as central as the Mass or the celebration of Easter. Downstream she influenced many other liturgical traditions, both East and West. This dual aspect warrants special treatment as part of a portal on Christianity.

Remarks

The rite of Jerusalem was known primarily in modern times by the Liturgy of St. Jacques, of which there are a dozen editions since the sixteenth ^century. But is passed to the forefront of research liturgical shortly before the First World War by the discovery of three fundamental documents: The unique manuscript of the story that Gallo-Roman matron, Egeria , made his pilgrimage to the East at the end ^fourth century (1884), items of liturgical manuscripts of the Old Armenian Lectionary, translated into English (1905) .

Libraries and Georgian Greek manuscripts, the Sinai, in Tbilisi, in Grottaferrata, preserve manuscripts from more or less directly from the Byzantine Palestine. These manuscripts are all far from being edited right now, but the research area now includes calendars, clocks , and homiletic manuscripts hymnic, especially in Georgia, you may add the biblical manuscripts containing liturgical notations in all the languages used in Palestine Christian (Arabic, Georgian, Syro-Palestinian).

The Georgians were settled in the Holy Land from the early Byzantine period. They translated into their language of documents that no longer exist in Greek, the language of origin. They allow us to open an exciting field of research on the origins of Christian liturgy.

Euchologie

By "euchologie" mean anything to the words of the liturgy, that is to say prayers. The term extends to topics, with explanations that accompany the manuscripts. Only part of the material is sufficiently well known to be listed here.

The Liturgy of St. Jacques-de-Dieu brother

Structure

The general structure of the liturgy is not different from other forms of mass that we know, namely:

• the liturgy of the word (also known as catechumens, as formerly also open to non-baptized). It includes songs and readings.

• the liturgy of the faithful. It includes the offering, and the consecration of bread and wine for communion. The Greek terminology in Jerusalem in the Byzantine era speaks of "proscomidie" equivalent of "anaphora" or, in Aramaic, "qurraba" (there are also "Qurbana).

Before the Liturgy of the Word, the form provides for an offering prior Georgian bread and wine, comparable in shorter, the prothesis of the Byzantine rite now except that it takes place, in principle, the altar (not the diakonikon ). Curiously, the Greek form ignores the first offering, and the prayers that accompany Georgian omitted or moved to other parts of the Liturgy. The Liturgy of St. Jacques thus comprises an archaic form, probably the oldest known form of prothesis, but at the same time, in its Greek version, it failed the rite of offering. The reason for its omission from a study tight minimal differences between the Georgian and Greek texts: there are Georgian vocabulary sacrificial already stretched to the prothesis a sacrifice, so that vocabulary should be reserved in the offering during the liturgy of the faithful.

We can divide the second part into five sections:

• the hymn which accompanies a procession (usually circular, the altar at the altar) with the bread and wine, followed by the symbol of faith , the kiss of peace and various prayers which the oldest is a prayer an offering (compared to the offertory of the Latin tradition). This section is the "liturgy of the evidence" referred to an author of the ^fourth century, Theodore of Mopsuestia.
• the Eucharistic Prayer , whose structure is strictly Trinitarian and includes:
  • 1. Introductory dialogue (virtually identical in all Liturgies)
  • a prayer of praise (a eucharist in the etymological sense) to God the Creator
  • Trishagion or the Sanctus,
  • 2. a prayer of praise with the history of salvation, which comes in Saint-Jacques (which is a unique feature of the Liturgy), to mention the law and the prophets, and then only the incarnation of Christ,
  • the words of Eucharistic institution ("this is my body", etc..)
  • anamnesis, literally ("remembering so ...": reference to events of Christ's life, including his return to the end of time ...),
  • the offering ("we offer you ..."),
  • 3. the epiclesis ,
• Solemn commemoration of the living and the dead, also called markers, that prayer in Jerusalem exists in two other deacons (that is to say that the deacon), one for the end of the liturgy of the floor, where she is in Georgia, the name kuereksi (which comes from a Greek word: kruxis, Keryx) and one for the anaphor: Deacon said aloud a form equivalent to that which the priest said all down at the same time. The comparison of these three forms with upstream, the Jewish prayer for blessings XVIII (and, downstream, "the great synaptic" Byzantine), suggests a common origin, probably Judaeo-Christian .
• the Our Father and the prayers that surround it, until the rise of the bread (and wine);
• the communion with the breaking of bread above (and other rituals: interference , or mingling later, a parcel in the calyx, etc.). and thanksgiving that follows.

Notes on the training

In its fifth mystagogical catechesis, John II made a comment following the prayers of the Mass, which allows to get an idea of form in use in Jerusalem in the late ^fourth century (just before Juvenal who, by comparison, should probably assign the oldest form of the liturgy as the implementation Jacques le Juste ). And early this century, Eusebius of Caesarea is an interesting reference to the Eucharistic prayer in use in Palestine. In addition, we find in Origen , in the first half of the third ^century, a curious allusion to the offering Eucharist. If we add that the prayer of blessings XVIII has influenced the formation of a central prayer in the liturgy of Jerusalem (as just seen) , these sources can provide some hypotheses on the formation of the Eucharistic Prayer in Jerusalem (or first to Caesarea?).

1) The Trishagion and markers or a common source: the eighteenth blessings. They were not part of the archaic form of the Liturgy of the Eucharist, since the eighteenth blessings are a prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours (morning and evening, or perhaps, in the Judeo-Christianity, the three short hours). Eusebius was already alluded to but not yet to Trishagion mementos. In Palestinian Judaism, the Trishagion the qedush, thought only on Saturdays and from there he had to enter through an intermediary Judeo-Christian prayer in the Eucharistic palestininenne.

2) The text of Origen shows the existence of a epiclesis on bread in the name of the Holy Trinity. This suggests an allusion to the rite of rising bread and wine before communion, which is indeed, in Saint-Jacques, Trinity, and not to the offering of the Eucharistic prayer, just before the epiclesis, which also contains an offering formula (but non-Trinitarian). In the first catechesis mystagogical ( 7), John II is also alluded to this offering, before epiclesis Trinitarian communion, which shows its importance at a time when the offering-epiclesis of the Eucharistic prayer was not yet completely formed.

3) How in these conditions, imagine the Eucharistic prayer in the second and third centuries? It is probably necessary to distinguish two things:

- The ritual of "communion", which inherits the rite of " breaking bread "mentioned in the New Testament. The prayer included a Trinitarian offering of bread (and wine, but this does not seem to have been in use in all communities), or more exactly a Trinitarian epiclesis on bread, just as baptism is done in the name of the Holy Trinity. This rite should be practiced fairly regularly, following the Office of the readings and preaching. It is the form taken by the Eucharist in the Judeo-Christian communities, which were also known at the time of the Jewish celebration of Easter each year so a more elaborate ritual, with a history Christological and lyrics the institution of the Eucharist.

- A prayer of a more charismatic in use in communities of pagan origin. It focused on Christ that we commemorated (with possibly the Eucharistic words of institution). She asked God (Christ) the sending of his Spirit (the celebrant or the assembly but not the bread and wine). And it included an offering of bread and wine, an offering. You can find traces of this kind of prayer a part in writing the Gnostics as the Acts of Thomas and the Acts of John, and also in the prayers I would call "parastase" where the priest, in all the Eastern liturgies, confesses his unworthiness when approaching the altar to offer the Eucharist. In Saint-Jacques, specifically, the prayers of this style are also memory of Christ and ask the sending of the Holy Spirit on the celebrant (the case in the first part of the prayer referred to footnote 8 below).

4) The Eucharistic Liturgy in Jerusalem ⁱⁿ the fourth century was the result of the merger between these two fundamental currents in the history of palochristianisme. In the next century Juvenal will add his final touch in adapting the oldest form of the model of the eucharistic prayer of the Cappadocian Fathers (St. Gregory Nazianzen and St. Basil), where the oblation-epiclesis follows the words of institution of the Eucharist whereas for John II yet, oblation and epiclesis should precede them.

The Presanctified St. Jacques

An office is an office Presanctified communion in which we use the holy gifts (bread and wine) consecrated at a celebration earlier. Its origin comes from the use of communion day of fasting, while we celebrate the Eucharist avoided those days, the Eucharist has always something festive (noted in the Roman rite a memory of that use : the ban on celebrating the Eucharist on Good Friday). In practice, in the Byzantine rite now, this office is part of the liturgy in the evening, Vespers every Wednesday and Friday during Lent. Monday to Friday celebration of the Eucharist is prohibited. We therefore use the bread and wine consecrated during the previous Sunday. The Lectionary of Jerusalem says that office every night during the third and second weeks before Easter, probably because the third week before Easter was in an old tradition, the beginning of preparation for baptism and Easter fasting.

As in current practice, the office was celebrated in the evening but review a little closer to the place of biblical readings, which were not the same as the series of readings of the Lenten Evensong, allows Assuming that initially it preceded the evening service, while for the copyists of manuscripts, the two sets of readings were mixed in the same office, namely the Office of Vespers (which is also current practice in the Byzantine rite). Originally, in any case, it was customary to break the fast in the afternoon, at the 9th hour, so before the Vespers, which was held from the 10th hour. This left time for meals after communion but before the evening service. It is indeed after the communion that can take his meals on those days when, as in the present rite. It is true that in current practice, the celebration of the evening service is often far advanced, sometimes in the morning. ...

Georgian manuscripts retain a form of liturgy prsanctifie where some prayers are borrowed from the Liturgy of St. Jacques . The celebration of the Presanctified is probably older than Constantinople to Jerusalem, which has developed its own form, often attributed to St. Gregory (sometimes to St. Epiphanius). But in absolute terms, the first attestation of an act Presanctified is looking in the rite of Alexandria ⁱⁿ the fifth century, as an allusion to the historian Socrates of Constantinople (Ecclesiastical History, V 22).

We must distinguish the office Presanctified, which is a rite cathedral, that is to say, a rite of church attendance or on behalf of the local bishop, offices of private communion, which are characteristic of the rite monasticism. Such offices are attested from the ninth ^century . The office of "typical" of the Horologion Byzantine current fond memories of that use.

Sources

C. Mercier, The Liturgy of St. Jacques: critical edition of Greek text with Latin translation, Patrologia Orientalis, 26 (1946), 115-256

Mr. Tarchnivili, Liturgia Sancti Jacobi in Liturgi Iberic antiquores (CSCO 122 & 123), t. I, p. 1-34 and II, p. 1-25, Leuven, 1950, J. Jedlicka, Das Fragment der Prager altgeorgischen Jakobusliturgie, Orientalni Archiv, 29 (1961), 183-196 (beginning of the manuscript)

Mr. Tarchnivili, Missa Prsanctificatorum in Liturgi Iberic antiquores (CSCO 122 & 123), t. I, p. 93-101 and II, p. 123, p. 71-77, Leuven, 1950; B. Outtier, fragments of uncial lectionary Georgian Kartlisa Bedi, 33 (1975) 110-118

Liturgy Weekly

Wednesdays and Fridays, days of station

It is recognized in Latin statio , which means both fast and fast day, a translation of the Hebrew ma'amad. Station means a division of the people of Israel in as many classes as there are divisions of the priestly tribe ( Mishna Taanit , 2, 7, 4, 2-3; Megilah, 3, 4; Tamid, 5, 6; Bikurim, 3, 2); it is, in short, not priests of the Israelites who lived in the same region as the priestly class whose turn it was to guard (mishmar), the turn to serve in the temple ( speaking at the time of 24 priestly classes, each serving a week). The an'sh ma'amad participating in sacrificial worship in the accompanying prayer, or even in Jerusalem by a small delegation or in the villages from which came the priestly class, where they met, oddly enough, to read that ma'aseh bereshit (= Gen. 1 to 2, 3) fasting is observed until the evening from Monday to Thursday.

Meanwhile there developed a tradition of fasting every Monday and Thursday, as mentioned in the Jewish sources (Mishnah Ta'anit, 1, 4-6.9) and a Christian text from the late first century ( Didache , 8, 1 ) but to say that Christians have chosen to place on Wednesdays and Fridays. These two days are officially remained fasting days (or abstinence) until evening, in some streams of eastern monasticism.

In Jerusalem and elsewhere in Christian antiquity, Wednesday and Friday are days of station. According to Egeria , these days they went to the Church of Zion to the Office for the ninth time when we celebrate the offering (the Eucharist). It then goes in procession to the Anastasis to the evening service (Chapter 27). She tells other details: during Lent, the offering is removed to allow "hebdomadiers" not to break the fast (fast of several days this is reminiscent of an'sh ma'amad) during a feast of martyrs who fell on a Wednesday or Friday, oblation anyway has held in Lent and during the Easter season , fasting is removed while the offering is placed in the morning as usual on a Sunday. In fact, other sources provide that before the ^fourth century the Eucharist was celebrated well on fast days (Wednesdays and Fridays), but in the morning (Tertullian, De oratione, 19, 1-4), and that it is after the office of the ninth hour (and not after the evening service) that the fast was broken (ibid., 2, 3, 10, 2.5; Epiphanius Panarion, Expositio fidei, 22, 1 - 5).

Both lectionaries (Armenian and Georgian) are not the texts that were read at the Eucharist on Wednesdays and Fridays of Ordinary Time. We had read the Gospels in particular cycle discussed here. They retain only the Lenten cycle for these two days, where we see that the office of readings has now moved from the ^9th to ^the 10th hour, although it is still in Zion. The Georgian Lectionary provides readings on other days of Lent, including Saturdays and Sundays when these readings can be traced to the contemporary era of the Old Armenian Lectionary (early fifth ^century). The evening service on weekdays now seems to be every day at Sion (and not only on Wednesdays and Fridays).

On the other hand, the Georgian lectionary referred to the Office of Presanctified and it is certain that this rite has now introduced originally to address the problem mentioned by Egeria (how Communion on Wednesdays and Fridays of Lent, while the celebration of the eucharist is reserved for Saturdays and Sundays of Lent). The layer of old topics on this board even suggests that followed the reading of the communion were made before the evening service, so in the context of Office of the ninth hour, which is the ancient custom for the board to Zion, as evidenced by Egeria. In the Byzantine rite now, and in the second layer of the Georgian lectionary, communion takes place after the evening service, in which the readings are inserted.

Saturday Vigils

The pilgrim Egeria evokes a vigil (one night before) to the Anastasis from Friday evening to Saturday morning during Lent (27, 7, 29, 1). Saturday vigils are mentioned by Cassian as an apostolic heritage "since the origin of religion and the Christian faith at the time of the Apostolic Preaching" (Institutions cenobitic, III 91) "observed to date across the Orient "(ibid., 91). They do not seem to be entered in the ordinary rite cathedral, since we do not find any explicit indication in the lectionary, but can be observed in the cycle of Lenten lectionary Georgia a case of " Vespers Liturgy + "on the fourth Saturday before Easter (No. 463) and even the last Saturday (the night before the Easter Vigil), where the document mentions the celebration of the morning service (No. 704 and No. 168 +) followed by a Troparion and Reading (No. 705-707, 169 + -173 +). The document contains the Greek entry in the Great Week (Stavrou 43, see above ) describes in some detail the vigil, called Agrypnie. "

This type of vigil liturgy belongs to the monastic liturgy, not the cathedral itself, that is to say in the presence of the bishop. Greek document in question says explicitly stating that the section concerns the monks' spoudates "(that is to say spoudaeon the monastery attached to the Anastasis from the ^fifth century) and that the bishop can to the Anastasis at the end of the vigil for the morning service. On the other hand, the text refers to the reading of the Psalter which he quotes the first verse. This is characteristic of monastic vigils Palestinian rite.

It is difficult to explain the presence of this vigil Saturday without admitting the importance of heritage and the Jewish influence on the formation of the Christian liturgy. Because if you watch the night from Friday to Saturday, it may be that because of the Sabbath, the Sabbath , the main day of the week in the Bible and Judaism.

Vigil of the Resurrection

In the Byzantine rite now, each week has held an office of Vigils (from Agrypnie ), which is to celebrate the one after the other, the Vespers and the Office of Matins, but with more solemnity than other days. There is such a "litie" (procession) at the end of Vespers, we read a gospel on the resurrection of Jesus, we sing a "canon" specific to the theme of resurrection. This is what the liturgists call "vigils of the resurrection" or "cathedrals weekly vigils. The origin of this office, and a significant part of its structure and content, is in the liturgy of Jerusalem, one can follow the evolution from Egeria. Distinguish four parts from this description.

• 1) "The seventh day, Sunday, before the roosters, all the assembled crowd - much as it can take in this place, as at Easter - in the church is right next to the Anastasis, but outside, where lamps are suspended on purpose. Lest indeed not happen to the roosters, they come forward and sit there. are said and hymns and anthems are made prayers to each hymn or anthem. For priests and deacons are always there, ready for the vigil, because of the crowd assembled. The use is indeed not to open the holy sites before the singing of roosters. " (24, 8)

So it's not even the office security guards, but rather a sort of vigil, a vigil in the etymological sense, pending the board itself, which starts when the rooster crows.

It's the same type of prayer that takes place each night before the morning service, according to Egeria's description in his book elsewhere (24, 1, 32, 1, etc..), Except that the whoop mark by the end of the evening and early vigils as he marks the beginning of the evening during the week. Once a week, the vigil was therefore necessary before the rooster, which is the time when we open the doors of the Anastasis, while the daily vigil began in the Anastasis even whoop at the time it opened.

The reading of the Psalter is often indicated in the liturgical sources for a vigil, especially in the monastic tradition, and it is likely that we have here the first evidence of such use. By hymns and anthems, "it must indeed hear biblical psalms as the cape does not distinguish clearly between the two. On the other hand, at that time, the verses of the psalm were regularly alternated with antiphon , usually one of the verses of the psalm (often the first), and ended with a prayer (called "collection" in the Latin liturgy).

It seems that the heading of a manuscript mentioning the Georgian lectionary reading a single "book" during the Easter Vigil (the manuscript L, No. 740), alludes to this reading of the Psalter during a vigil, the Psalter is traditionally divided into twenty parts, or "substances". The reading of the Psalter during vigils in all cases is indicated by the manuscript S (see below note 15). Further details of the Georgian lectionary for the Easter vigil suggest that they have retained elements of the weekly vigils (see below 4).

• 2) "But when the rooster crowed, the bishop immediately goes down and gets inside the cave at the Anastasis. We open all doors and all the crowd enters the Anastasis, which already has shine innumerable lamps. When the people came, one of the priests says a psalm, and all respond, after which a prayer. Then one of the deacons says a psalm, and it makes even a prayer. A third psalm is said not a clerk, and there is a third prayer and remembrance of all. " (24, 9)

This very simple structure, three antiphonal psalms each followed by a prayer, is probably the archaic form of the Office of Matins. The fact is that the morning does not appear on Sunday morning by Egeria. The Office of the weekly vigils would not be anything other than the morning service forward to the time whoop. The liturgical sources themselves, including Armenian and Georgian, kept track of a board composed of three weekly vigils Psalms (before a gospel) .

• 3) "When we said that these three psalms and three prayers, here more than you bring censers inside the cave of the Anastasis, so that the whole church filled with incense. Then , when the bishop stands within the grids, he takes the gospel, just at the entrance and reads himself the story of the resurrection of the Lord. " (24, 10)

The current use Byzantine distinguishes eleven pericopes read in turn during Sunday vigils (see review by Sebastia Janeras cited below ).

• 4) "The Gospel reading, the bishop fate and is led with hymns to the Cross and all the people with it. Here again we say a psalm and prayer is made." (24, 11)

The "Cross" means the place in the courtyard outside the Anastasis, where was the wood of the Cross (miraculously recovered, according to accounts of the invention of the Cross , in the foundations of the temple of Jupiter where Constantine built the Christian church). It is, in sum, Golgotha, the name is also that place in the liturgical sources. That's where we still sing a "psalm" but we sing before, by going there since the Anastasis, the "hymns". The Georgian Lectionary for Easter vigil seems to retain an element of this automatically: there are three psalms (Ps. the 43, 101 and 150, manuscript at S No. 741.1) followed by a gospel of the resurrection (n 742), which corresponds to points 2-3 of the structure described by Egeria, then a song (gardamotkuma, No. 743, The manuscript), which correspond to the "hymns" mentioned by the pilgrim. The Byzantine tradition itself is undergoing a hymn after the Gospel vigils Sunday, the "exapostilaire", which is directly related to this type of song.

• 5) The bishop retired to his home. From that moment all the monks return to the Anastasis, they say psalms and anthems until dawn, and each psalm or antiphon prayer is made. (...) As for lay men and women, those who want to stay put until dawn, otherwise they return to their homes to bed and sleep. "(24, 12)

The office is completed at point 4, but the vigil of point 1 is now suing for those who wish, and that probably the same way as in point 1 (read more or less solemnized the Psalter).

What is interesting here is the ending time of the evening ("until dawn"), which is the ending time of the morning service on weekdays ( 44, 2). At this point begins the Sunday Eucharistic Liturgy (25, 1-4).

Sources & Studies

• Pierre Maraval, Egeria. Travel Journal (Directions) - Valerius of Bierzo. Letter on the Blessed Egeria (MC Diaz y Diaz), (Christian Sources, 296), Paris, 1982 (reprint 1997)
• Charles Renoux , Le codex Armenian Jerusalem, 121 t. II. Comparative Edition of the text and two other manuscripts, introduction, text, translation and notes, Patrologia Orientalis, 36 (1971), 141-390
• Michael Tarchnivili The great lectionary of the Church of Jerusalem ^(fifth century - VIII ^century), tI (CSCO vol. 188, Scriptores iberica t. 9, text, vol. 189, Scriptores iberica T.10 Version) & t.II (CSCO vol. 204, Scriptores T.13 text iberica, Vol. 205, t. 14 Scritores iberica, version), Leuven, 1959 & 1960
• Sebasti Janeras , I Vangeli Domenicali della resurrezione tional tradizioni liturgiche agiopolita bizantina e in G. Farnedi (ed.), Paschale mysterium (coll. Studia ansel. 91, Anal. Bed. 10 = email. S. Marsili), Rome, 1986 55-69

Liturgy Daily

The small hours

Words tertia, sexta, nona already in Egeria a technical sense. De son rcit on peut tirer une conclusion concernant la frquence des petites heures la fin du IV ^e s., et une dduction (hypothtique) concernant leur origine. Tierce ne se disait que pendant le carme, sexte en tout temps sauf le dimanche, none en tout temps sauf le dimanche et pas non plus les mercredis et vendredis du temps de carme. Les offices de tierce, sexte, none se font dans l' , sauf none pendant la grande semaine au (grie, 30, 2) et tous les mercredis et vendredis , o none est suivi de l'oblation (sauf en carme, 27, 6).

Les petites heures ont une origine antrieure la liturgie cathdrale o ils se sont introduits partiellement et o ils auront tendance disparatre alors qu'ils s'introduiront rapidement dans la liturgie monastique (comme on le voit ds cette poque chez Cassien ). On peut se demander s'il n'y a pas eu deux systmes de prire quotidienne, celui des milieux judo-chrtiens avec trois temps (3 ^e , 6 ^e et 9 ^e heures) et celui des autres avec deux temps de prire (matin et soir). La pratique des trois heures de prire quotidienne est en effet plutt d'origine juive, comme le suggrent les sources suivantes:

• Lecture des XVIII Bndictions trois fois par jour dans le judasme (dtails ici ).
• Selon Daniel , 6, 11, Daniel priait trois fois par jour, tmoignage reli la pratique liturgique chrtienne au III ^e s. par des auteurs comme Tertullien , Origne et Cyprien ;
• II Hnoch 51, 4 (peut-tre aussi Qumrn , o l'on cite 1 QH 12, 4-7 et 1 QS 10, 1-3a);
• Saint Luc dit explicitement que la neuvime heure tait dans la Jrusalem juive l'heure de la prire (Ac. 3, 1), et il montre certains aptres prier la troisime et la sixime heures (Ac. 2, 1.15; 10, 9).
• Didach , 8, sur le Notre-Pre trois fois par jour.

Toutefois on peut aussi considrer que la pratique des petites heures, comme le suggre en particulier le texte de Daniel, a une origine prive facultative, et qu'elle n'a pas exist sparment des deux autres moments de prire dans la liturgie commune (ou "paroissiale").

L'office se composait de psaumes et d'antiennes (grie, 24, 3). On est fond penser que les psaumes taient fixes: on fait en sorte de dire toujours des psaumes ou des antiennes appropris ( ). Qu'on les dise de nuit, qu'on les dise au contraire le matin, qu'on les dise encore dans la journe, la sixime heure, la neuvime heure ou au lucernaire, ils sont toujours appropris et bien choisis ( ), de manire tre en rapport avec ce que l'on clbre (25, 5). La tradition byzantine actuelle, qui est largement hrite de Mar-Saba , prescrit les psaumes 16, 24, 50 tierce, 53, 54, 90 sexte, et 83-85 none (noter "Sion" dans le Ps. 85).

Vpres

1) Le premier lment constitutif de l'office du soir est l' allumage des lampes. la dixime heure, qu'on appelle ici nous disons lucernaire , toute la foule se rassemble de mme l' . On allume tous les flambeaux et les cierges, ce qui fait une immense clart. Le feu n'est pas apport du dehors, mais il est tir de l'intrieur de la grotte, o une lampe brle nuit et jour (grie, 24, 4). Noter que, dans le judasme, l'allumage des lampes la fin du sabbat est une donne caractristique de la liturgie domestique juive. C'est par l aussi que commence l'origine la vigile pascale (LA n44.b; LG n716).

Dans le rite byzantin actuel, le rite du lucernaire est retard aprs une introduction assez longue (Ps. 103, grande synaptie, etc.), dont l'origine est monastique et n'est pas atteste l'poque qui nous occupe.

2) Pendant l'allumage des lampes, le chur devait entonner les psaumes lucernaires , comme dit grie immdiatement aprs: On dit aussi les psaumes du lucernaire ( ), ainsi que des antiennes ( ), assez longtemps (24, 4). Saint piphane parle galement, propos de l'office du soir, de psaumes et prires lucernaires ( , III 2, ch. 23 ( III, p. 524).

Le lectionnaire gorgien cite plusieurs reprises le psaume 140 par son premier verset, au dbut de l'office du soir, psaume cit aussi comme lment de l'office du soir chez des auteurs comme saint Basile , Chrysostome , les Constitutions apostoliques et Cassien , et auquel Eusbe semble dj faire allusion dans le mme sens. Mais alors qu' Antioche et dans l'ancien rite de Constantinople qui en drive, ce psaume 140 tait isol, la tradition de Jrusalem en connat d'autres. La concidence des cinq offices Les deux autres psaumes de la tradition sabate qui s'est impose dans le rite byzantin actuel, sont les Ps. 129 et 116, dans cet ordre aprs le Ps. 141.

Les psaumes taient antiphons, c'est--dire entrecoups de refrains (tropaires, ). Il y avait ds le IV ^e s. Jrusalem une posie liturgique relativement labore, posie dont le gorgien a trs probablement conserv des lments significatifs.

3) Et voici qu'on va avertir l'vque. Il descend et s'assied sur un sige lev; les prtres aussi s'assoient leur place, et l'on dit des hymnes et des antiennes (24, 4). On s'accorde dire que l' hymne , que le lectionnaire cite toujours aprs le Ps. 140 et qui est conserv jusqu'aujourd'hui dans les vpres byzantines (et qui est sans doute dj cit par saint Basile), pourrait remonter au II ^e sicle.

Arriv ce point de la description, il faut imaginer que les lectures prvues par le lectionnaire pour un office du soir devaient s'insrer ici, exactement comme dans la tradition reue, o le prokeimnon, c'est--dire le verset d'un psaume antiphon prcdant une lecture biblique, se dit aprs l'hymne du lucernaire. Un tel psaume se trouve par exemple pour les ftes du 26 et 27 dcembre ou du 25 mars, bien qu'aucune lecture particulire ne soit indique. Mais il faut insister, cause d'une opinion assez rpandue avant la dcouverte du rcit d'grie, que l'office du soir comme les autres offices du jour ne comportent pas, en principe, de lecture.

4) L'office se conclut par diffrents renvois (catchumnes, fidles) en diffrents endroits (Anastasis, Golgotha) par diffrents acteurs (diacre, prtre, vque). Les Constitutions apostoliques montrent l'existence de prires de renvoi, et on peut voir aussi dans ces rites de renvoi la place primitive des refrains d' "apostiches" conservs par la liturgie byzantine (dplacement de l'Anastasis la Croix). A l'origine on ne disait probablement pas ici la grande prire diaconale qui provient de la prire juive des XVIII bndictions (dont j'ai parl propos de la Liturgie de saint Jacques). Son lieu primitif parat avoir t plutt none et les deux autres "petites heures".

Matines

Nous avons not plus haut propos des vigiles de la rsurrection les lments essentiels de cet office: une veille, des psaumes (ou hymnes) et les renvois sous la direction de l'vque.

1) L'office du matin n'est que la seconde partie d'une station qui commence par une veille de prire ds le chant du premier coq pour se terminer (grie, 27, 4.5, 30, 1, 32, 1, 35, 1, 41), (44, 2), c'est--dire quand il fait clair ( , 24, 2) mais avant les premiers rayons du soleil qui marquent le dbut de la premire heure du jour.

2) L'office proprement dit, en semaine, commence quand la lumire commence poindre ( , 24, 2), toutefois avant l'aube qui marque l'entre de l'vque ( , 44, 3). "Alors on commence dire les hymnes du matin ( )" (24, 2). La comparaison avec l'office du soir invite rapprocher les hymnes du matin qui prcdent l'entre du clerg, de la psalmodie vesprale antiphone qui accompagne l'allumage des lampes. Mais il ne semble pas qu'il y ait une hymne particulire au moment de l'entre de l'vque lui-mme, comme le de l'office du soir. Bradshaw se demande si les hymnes matinaux ne comprennent pas trois lments, comme dans la vigile cathdrale (grie, 24, 9 et , II 59); on s'accorde du moins considrer le psaume 62 (LXX) mentionn Antioche par Chrysostome et les comme un lment constitutif de l'office du matin; et puisqu'il ya ncessairement plus d'une hymne, on pense aussi au mentionn dans les VII 47, dans le lectionnaire gorgien (n609.1, 616.2, 624.1 et 168+) et conserv dans la tradition reue. Le troisime lment, le psaume 50, apparat dans un nombre impressionnant de tra Liturgical conditions for the morning service, he goes even Ps. 148-150. Winkler summarizes: "The Morning offices consists of selected psalms ps Which include 50 or 62 (or both) and pss 148-150 With The Gloria in Excelsis." It is difficult to believe, as seemed to Schneider, the 15 songs included in the program of relatively short quotidennes matins. By cons, in certain circumstances that elude us today, we can take for very likely that some of these Odes were included in the ymni matutina of Egeria.

If we can follow the assumption of a structure in three psalms or hymns, one could imagine a reconciliation with the Jewish tradition for the shema, israel , which is surrounded by three in the morning prayers (four evenings), and y see a source of Christian matins.

3) The bishop is coming "to the dismissal of the morning with all the clergy" (24, 2), and evening. It says very clearly: " Vigils major parties

The old Armenian lectionary has three security guards,

• those of the Epiphany on the night of 6 January (No. 1 and 1.b in the edition of Charles Renoux )
• those Thursday and Friday before Easter (No. 39.b-42)

The vigil lasted all night, beginning a long series of psalms divided into five groups of three - with chanted the same anthem , followed by a "kneeling with prayer" - followed by chants stational seven readings from the Gospels only, dividing Passion in seven parts ( Eleona , Imbomon , Eleona , Gethsemane, Caiaphas' house, the palace of Pilate, Golgotha, with slight differences manuscripts). It is this security guard who is at the base of the Cross and the Catholic Franciscan tradition.

• and those of the night from Saturday to Sunday of Easter (No. 44.bc).

The guards of the Epiphany and Easter are quite similar. After the candelabrum (the evening service), they include twelve readings, some of which are identical for both parties. The twelfth, the song-Three young men in the fiery furnace (Dan 3, 52-90) is antiphonal: The congregation responds with a refrain to the various non-biblical verses of the song. A Eucharistic liturgy (two at Easter) follows these readings.

Vigils for the 40 ^th day after Easter (ch. 42) and the 40 ^th day after the Epiphany (ch. 26) are also mentioned by Egeria. The description is sufficiently precise to ^the 40th day after Easter we went to Bethlehem the day "after the sixth hour" and the next day (after sleeping so as Easter and Epiphany), a Eucharistic liturgy celebrated in one place.

The Georgian Lectionary transposes the first vigils of the Nativity Dec. 25 and Jan. 6 to give a series of readings most appropriate to the theme of the baptism of Jesus which has evolved to the Epiphany (probably already under Bishop Juvenal ). The Eucharist now directly follows the sequence lucernaire-guards. Vigils have existed at other festivals, like the feasts of the Ascension, Transfiguration or the Dormition (also in Hypapante and Pentecost), but the lectionary references are quite inaccurate.

A table of readings of the three main festive vigilante figure here.

Bibliographic elements

• PF Bradshaw, Daily Prayer in the Early Church. A Study of the Origin and Early Development of the Divine Office, London (Alcuin), 1981
• R. Taft, Liturgy of the Hours in East and West. Origin and meaning of the Divine Office (Mysteria, 2), 1st ed. Engl. 1986, sl, 1991

Notes

See also

• Liturgical year of the rite of Jerusalem
• Places of station of the liturgy of Jerusalem
• in: Liturgy of St James , West Syriac Rite
• Text of the Liturgy of St. Jacques in English ; Other translation
• Travel Egeria's text in English
• Holy Land

• Christianity portal
• Christians of the East Portal

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