Building
a
Liturgical Library
Some
Practical Tips
The following tips assume that you have a limited budget, and so cannot
afford
to buy everything at once. If this is not true in your case, there are
some
books you could skip, but they are good to have on hand in any case.
The most basic liturgical text every Orthodox Christian should have is
a good
prayer book. You can read about several suggested texts in
the following
article:
Recommended
Prayer
Books.
These prayer books can be ordered from, most Orthodox
bookstores. Of
the prayer books in that article, the one I would recommend the most is
the Jordanville
Prayer book. Another very useful text mentioned in that
article that I
would especially recommend is the Book of Akathists,
Volume
1 and Volume
2, published by Jordanville. You can also find a
number of Akathists
and canons online.
[Note, all of the hyperlinks that follow, will take you to the
web page of
an Orthodox Bookstore that sells the text, or to a free online version
when
indicated]
After a prayer book the most basic liturgical texts are the Horologion
and the
Psalter.
For an
Horologion, there are three choices:
1. The
Unabbreviated Horologion published by Holy Trinity
Monastery in
Jordanville, New York. In my opinion this is the best one
available, and
certainly those following Russian practice would be advised to use this
one.
2. The
Great Horologion published by Holy Transfiguration
Monastery. For
those following Byzantine practice, this is an option. Also, even those
following Russian practice will find it a useful reference, since it
contains
Synaxarion readings for each day of the year, and also the troparia and
kontakia appointed for
each day.
3. The
Liturgikon, by
Bishop Basil of the Antiochian
Archdiocese is also often used as an
Horologion, and
also follows Byzantine practice. The text is primarily
designed for use
by clergy.
There is also the Old
Rite
Horologion, which for those on the Old Rite would obviously
be the way to
go, but it is also useful for reference, and has the Troparia and
Kontakia for
every day of the year.
Another thing to consider here is the price. You will find
that the
Jordanville Horologion is quite a bit less expensive, but it also
contains much
less material. It has all of the Horologion texts, and some extra
material –
but the Great Horologion has quite a bit more.
Two other texts which contain Horologion material, but which are
presented in a easier to
use format (structured for use for normal Sunday
services are The
All-Night Vigil for Choir and Laity, and The
Divine Liturgy for Choir and Laity, both published by
Jordanville.
For a Liturgical Psalter, there are three options
that I would recommend
for consideration:
1) "The
Psalter According to the Seventy," published by Holy
Transfiguration
Monastery (also known as "The Boston Psalter"). This is far
from
a perfect translation, but I have found it to be a generally accurate
translation, and it has the advantage of matching many of the most
commonly
used liturgical texts available in English (it is used in all of the
publications of St. John of Kronstadt Press, Holy Transfiguration
Monastery,
and most of those published by Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville
New York.
The disadvantage of this text is that the word choice can at times be
awkward.
It is also available in a pocket
sized edition.
2). "A
Psalter for Prayer," which is published by Holy Trinity
Monastery,
Jordanville, New York. The translation is based on the Coverdale
Psalter, which
is what you would find in an older (traditional) edition of the Book of
Common
Prayer, but is corrected with the Septuagint. It also contains a great
deal of
instructional material and additional prayers found in Slavonic
editions of the
Psalter, but not in the Boston Psalter or most other editions published
in
English to date. For example, it has prayers at the end of each
kathisma, and
it has instructions on how to read the Psalter over the dead, with the
prayers
that are said according to Slavic practice in conjunction with that.
The
quality of the printing is very high... the paper and binding are of
similar
quality to the Boston Psalter, but the cover looks better, the size is
a bit
larger, and it has two marker ribbons sewn into the binding. The biggest disadvantage is that
it
presently is not used in very many liturgical texts, but that may
change. I
have found it to be sometimes less precise than the Boston Psalter,
when
comparing the text to the Greek Septuagint, but I can't say that this
is based
on a thorough and detailed review of the entire text. This text is also available in a pocket sized edition.
3). "The
Psalter of
the Prophet and King David with the Nine Biblical Odes,"
which is
published by the Center for Traditionalists Orthodox Studies. This
translation
is based on the King James Version, but corrected by the
Septuagint which
is arguably better stylistically than the HTM Psalter, and for many, it
will be
more familiar to the text that they are familiar with, but like the
Jordanville
Psalter, it is not used in many liturgical texts... though it is used
in texts
published by the Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies..
You will also want to get a liturgical Gospel Book.
At present, there are two options that use the King James Version, and are arranged
according to Slavic usage:
Another option for those seeking a traditional English translation of the
Gospels, is the Gospel
Lectionary published
by the Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies.
This edition has the same
advantages and
disadvantages as their Epistle Lectionary, which I comment on
below. For laity, trying to follow the daily lectionary it is laid out
in the sequence in the order in which the readings are read, and so
normally, you would only need to turn the page to go from one day to
the next. Unfortunately, this edition is now only available in
paperback.
Likewise, you will need an Epistle Book (Apostol or Apostolos):
The best option available at present for those following Slavic
practice is the
Apostol, published by St. Tikhon’s
Seminary Press. The
translation used is neither King James, Douay-Rheims,nor New King James,
but a synthesis of the
three. It retains the traditional pronouns (for the most part)
and verb
endings, but eliminates archaic words. At times one might have wished
that they
had kept more of the King James text than they did, but the text is
more easily
understandable than the unrevised King James text would have otherwise
been.
The best option available for those following Byzantine practice is the
Epistle
Lectionary,
published by the Center for Traditionalists Orthodox Studies.
It is
based on the King James text, and is arranged according the Byzantine
Lectionary… which differs slightly from time to time from the Slavic
lectionary. It’s
biggest draw
back is that it is published only in paper back at
present. This
has the advantage, however, of making it inexpensive enough for
individuals to
purchase a copy for home use (it is only $25.00). Also, some
of the
“corrections” of the King James text in this edition are
debatable. For
example, in the KJV, 1st Corinthians 11:14
reads
“Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair,
it is a
shame unto him?” The CTOS edition emends this to read “Doth not even
nature
itself teach you, that, if a man have
flowing
hair, it is a shame unto him?” I understand the point that
they are
trying to make, and the translations is not completely indefensible;
but no
other translation translates it this way, if one wanted to bring out
the nuance
that they are trying to highlight it would probably have been better to
have
translated it as “wear long hair” rather than “have long hair” or “have
flowing
hear”, and also this really gets us beyond translation into the realm
of
commentary… and that is what commentaries and footnotes are for. And
although
emendations are made to make theological points, many instances in
which the
text of the King James is no longer easily understood, and could be
easily
corrected by updating a word or two… those opportunities were passed
by. Nevertheless, on the balance, this edition is a good
option.
There is now a very well done Prophetolgion by Reader Peter
Gardner, which uses the
Boston Psalter for prokimena, and traditional English for the readings.
The one liturgical text that still gives you the most material in one
volume
remains:
Divine
Prayers and Services of the Catholic Orthodox Church of Christ, by Fr.
Seraphim
Nassar.
This is one of the oldest English service books around, and the
translation is
at times awkward, however, with this text, one has enough material to
serve
Vespers and Liturgy (or Typika) for Sundays and important feast days
(though on
most Sundays there would be lacking the material from the Menaion, but
at least
one would have the material from the Octoechos, Triodion, and
Pentecostarion
for Sundays. Even though, at this point, I have a relatively
complete
liturgical library, I still find myself referring to this text to help
fill in
those gaps that remain, or simply to compare its texts and rubrics with
other
texts. One advantage to this text, for those who do not have
a liturgical
Gospel or Epistle book is that it has the readings for Sundays and
Feasts
throughout the year (albeit in a sometimes less than ideal translation).
The Octoechos forms the core of most Sunday services, and so
this is
certainly a text one would want to get early on. There is only
one choice
in print at present: The Complete
Octoechos published by St. John of Kronstadt
Press. This contains both
the Sunday Octoechos and the Weekday Octoechos in 4 volumes. The Sunday
Octoechos, translated by the Monastery of the Veil, has been around
longer, but
is currently out of print.
The General Menaion, is the next text that one
should acquire, however,
at present there is no edition currently in print. One might
be able to
get their hands on a copy of one published some years back from a
monastery in
England, which to date is the best edition in English that has been
printed. There
is an on-line version of the General Menaion, and at present it seems
to be the
only available option:
The
General Menaion.
The General Menaion contains sort of a fill in the blank service for
different
types of saints and feasts. If you don’t have the appointed
Menaion
service… or if you are doing a service for a saint that has not had a
service
written for them, then the General Menaion is what is used.
The Festal
Menaion by Bishop Kallistos (Ware),
gives you the
complete texts for the Great Feasts of the Church (outside of the
Triodion/Pentecostarion cycles). If you can’t afford the
entire Menaion at
once, this is a must have… and in any case it is a good text to have
around
both for the texts of the services themselves and also for the
introduction
which discusses in detail the structure of the services.
The Lenten
Triodion published by Bishop Kallistos is currently
the best options
available in English that is in print. For the Triodion, you will
eventually
also want to get the Lenten
Triodion Supplementary Texts, which contains much of the
weekday material
from the Triodion that is not found in the first volume.
The Pentecostarion
published by Holy Transfiguration Monastery is a complete
translation of
the Greek version of the Pentecostarion. St.
John of Kronstadt
Press has published a translation of the complete Slavonic Version of
the
Pentecostarion, which is very well done.
The biggest ticket item on this list is The
Menaion. To purchase the Menaion from St. John of
Kronstadt Press
(which I recommend), you have some options. You can buy it all
at once, in
either loose-leaf versions, or in hardback. You can also buy
loose-leaf
versions as you need them (for example, you could make an annual order
of all
the texts you would need that year… or you could do this quarterly)
this is the
most painless way, in terms of coming up with the money all at once.
You can
also buy the hardback version, one or two volumes at a time, as you
have the
money – if you do that, keep in mind that unless you do a lot of
weekday services,
February, March, April, and May will probably not be the ones you will
want to
get first, since on most Sundays during these months, the texts of the
services
will be taken from the Octoechos and from the Pentecostarion or the
Triodion.
Holy
Transfiguration Monastery has now published a new translation of the
Menaion. It
follows Greek practice, and is slashed according to Byzantine Meter.
For those
using Byzantine Chant, this is a good thing. For those using
any other
style of chant, these slashes become a headache that is avoided by the
St. John
of Kronstadt Menaion. The text is nicely printed, and a good
font size.
Another text that is still very useful,
is The
Service
Book of the Orthodox Church, translated by Isabel Hapgood.
Aside from the
Scriptures themselves, this is the oldest Orthodox text published in
English,
and even today it remains a popular text, and is used especially when
it comes
to services from the Trebnik
(or Euchologion),
such as baptisms, weddings, etc.
You can find translations of a small portion of the services of the Trebnik
online.
There is now a complete translation of the Trebnik
available from St. Tikhon’s
Press, available in 4
volumes:
Volume
1: The Holy Mysteries
Volume 2: The Sanctification of the Church, and Other
Ecclesiastical and
Liturgical Blessings
Volume
3: Occasional Services / Funeral Services
Volume
4: Services of Supplication (Moliebens)
An even more complete Trebnik
will be available in
the future from St. John
of Kronstadt Press. However,
these texts are more than most laymen or choir directors would probably
ever
want or need. For them, the Hapgood Service book is still the
best way to
go.
Along with these texts, a good Liturgical Calendar,
is also a must
have. There are two options in English, for those on the Old
Calendar:
The St.
Innocent Calendar, which is based on the Russian Jordanville
Liturgical
Calendar, and has complete rubrics for every Sunday, Feast day, and
most of the
services a typical parish would do during the week. The other option is
the St. John of
Kronstadt Press Liturgical
Calendar, provides less detail typically for Sundays, but
which makes
reference to the the Order
of Divine Services,
for each day of the year when fuller rubrics are not provided. The St.
Innocent
Calendar also makes reference to the Order of Divine Services, and so
regardless of your choice, the Order of Divine Services is an essential
reference text..
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