Rev. Andrew Younan is Rector of the Seminary of Mar Abba the Great, professor of philosophy at John Paul the Great Catholic University, and the author of many works on the Aramaic language and the liturgy and tradition of the Church of the East like Narsai: Selected Sermons, as well as philosophical works like Matter and Mathematics: An Essentialist Account of Laws of Nature and Advice from Aristotle.
Excerpt from the Translator’s Preface of The Book of Before & After
A Church’s liturgy of the hours is its heartbeat: both a cause and an effect of its continued life from day to day and year to year. This volume is an attempt to render into English, for the first time in a form ready for the use of the faithful, the liturgy of the hours of the Church of the East (more precisely, the full repeated portion or “Ordinary” and selections of the seasonal “Propers”). I will therefore introduce this book by (1) delineating what is meant by the terms “Church of the East” and “liturgy of the hours.” I will then outline the historical development of (2) the prayers and (3) the liturgical year presented in this book. After this historical sketch, I will discuss (4) some theological issues related to the Church of the East, (5) explain the rationale for the contents of this book and the manner of translation, and finally (6) present a glossary of terms with their translation equivalents in this volume.
- The Church of the East and Her Prayer
“Church of the East” sounds like an imprecise term, but it is technically the most correct name for the Church that was founded, according to venerable tradition, by St. Thomas the Apostle and his companions Addai (popularly known as St. Jude Thaddeus) and Mari. “East,” in this name, means “east of the Roman Empire,” and not “the eastern part of the Roman Empire.” This Church has also been called (in some cases imprecisely) “the Church of Persia,” “the Church of the Martyrs,” and “the Nestorian Church.” This apostolic tradition, then, is one with its historical location farther east than any of the Greek Churches (Orthodox or otherwise), as well as the Syriac Churches who have their roots in Antioch. The current branches of this Church are now named the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Assyrian Church of the East, the Ancient Apostolic Assyrian Church of the East, and the Malabar Catholic Church. Its liturgical language (from which this book was translated) is Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus Christ, and more precisely the scholastic dialect of Aramaic used in the ancient cities of Edessa and Nisibis called Syriac. This is a Church that has faced various waves of brutal persecution and discrimination till today, but one which has also had periods of significant success in evangelization as far east as China, even boasting of a Mongolian Patriarch. It claims the beautiful poetry of St. Ephrem (many of whose works are translated in this book), as well as that of other masterful poets like Narsai and Abba the Great, heirs of the great theological schools of Edessa and Nisibis. It is a Church with a rich and ancient tradition of prayer, worthy of our closest attention.
There are many elements that make up the life and constitution of a Church: its creed, sacraments, life of charity and mission, leadership, history, and much more. But all of its various aspects point to its ultimate goal, which is the union with God we call prayer. There are, of course, many kinds of prayer, especially on the part of an individual member of a Church, but if one were to ask what is the prayer of any given apostolic Church taken collectively, the answer would in every case be its liturgy of the hours. Every evening, morning, and other times of the day, the Church officially and formally gathers and sings its praises to God in the tradition it has developed from its earliest beginnings. This book contains, then, the liturgy of the hours of the Church of the East: its heartbeat; the way it expresses its life from moment to moment.
Aristotle defines time as “the measuring of motion by before and after.” The title of this book is not, for better or worse, a reference to Aristotle, but an English translation of the traditional title given to a selection of the liturgy of the hours which contained the most-repeated elements of the various prayers (what is technically called the “Ordinary”). “Before and after” here refer to the selections of Psalms and Hymns which are prayed “before” and “after” the central repeating Psalms of Evening Prayer. I have kept this traditional title because, whatever its origin, it evokes the idea of the passing of time, which is precisely what the prayers contained in this book are designed for. There are cycles that are repeated every day (like the repeated Psalms of each Morning and Evening Prayer); there are weekly cycles that overlap the daily cycles (like the Glorifications set for each night or morning); there are cycles for two or three weeks (like the “before” and “after” collections of Evening Prayer); there are cycles of seven weeks, corresponding to the weeks of the liturgical season. The overlapping and intermingling of these various repetitive cycles are like the gears of a clock, each turning and moving the other in a complex and beautiful unity.
There are, then, daily organizations of time, where the Church teaches us what we should sing to God, and indeed what we should feel, every day. Every single morning, the Church tells us to pray Psalm 100, glorifying God and thanking him for creating the world and (according to the antiphon added) especially for giving us light: “Glorify the Lord, all the earth! O Giver of Light, O Lord, we lift up praise to you!” Every single evening, the Church tells us to pray Psalm 140, and to ask God to accept our prayer like the incense offered every evening in the Temple, and Psalm 118, which reminds us that, despite the setting of the sun and the encroaching darkness, God’s word is a lamp for our feet and a light for our paths. These prayers, repeated (some would say ad nauseam) on a daily basis, are not meant to make us sick of them, but rather to form our souls. If we do not feel like thanking God for his creation in the morning or asking for his light in the evening, well, the Church says “too bad,” because doing so is good for us, and she is our mother who teaches us to feel what we should feel, by example and by practice.
Similarly, the liturgical year cycles through salvation history over and over again, commemorating the angel’s annunciation to Mary, the birth of Christ, his baptism, his battle with the devil in the desert, his passion, death, resurrection, and ascension, the descent of the Holy Spirit, the preaching of the Apostles, the repentance of the nations, the victory of the cross, and the final crowning of the Church in heavenly glory. Year after year, the Church invites us to be absorbed not only into our own lives and concerns, but more and more into the life of Christ, so that we can live with eyes open to a larger world, where God’s salvation is the focus.
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- Selection and Translation
The complete Ḥudhra is several thousand pages long, and any attempt to translate it, much less publish the translation, will take the better part of a lifetime and a committee of dedicated translators and editors. Having neither at my disposal, I decided to build upon the previous translated selections I have been working on for these many years and put together a single volume that will hopefully be of some use both to the devoted faithful of the Church of the East in all its branches, as well as to interested scholars.
The “Ordinaries,” that is, the repeating portions of all the liturgical prayers, are translated here in full, in addition to the full Psalter (translated directly from the Aramaic, but admittedly with some mental reference to the Grail Psalter I prayed in the Roman Breviary as a seminarian), and the Martyr Hymns, all as contained in the Kthawa da-Qdham wad-Bathar, the “Book of Before and After.” The Psalter is divided into the numbered Hulale and non-numbered Marmyatha, and includes the antiphons and priestly prayers attributed to Abba the Great. The hymns “before and after,” the Martyr Hymns, and many other hymns and glorifications, are translated “singable” according to the traditional melodies (specifically those of Mosul, though adaptable to other variations). This was sometimes accomplished by taking a bit of liberty with English word order rather than sacrificing the literal meaning of the original text, and in a few cases, the melody was changed to one which is better known. In the cases of singable ‘onyatha/hymns, the melody name or resh qala is given in red italics. Rubrics, as the name implies, are printed in plain red, and the antiphons beginning or within hymns or Psalms are printed in bold red. Recordings of all singable portions of this book can be found at the website beforeandafter.cc. The ornate Our Father, the Lakhu Mara, and the Trisagion are always also given in transliteration, to facilitate praying them in the original language even when the rest of the service is in English.
The seasonal “Propers” given for each Sunday, Feast, and ferial day of the year are where the selection was most critical, since they make up the vast bulk of the Ḥudhra. For each week of the liturgical year, the Sunday’s Evening Psalmody (shuraya), Basilica Hymn, Vigil Hymn (‘onytha d-qale d-shahra), Madrasha (where there is one), Morning Hymn (‘onytha d-Ṣapra), one Daniel Verse (d-barekh), and the Sanctuary Hymn (‘onytha d-Qanke) are translated. The Morning Hymn, Daniel Verse, and Sanctuary Hymn are always singable. During the prayers of weekdays, I recommend praying the Evening Psalmody (which is marked with italics for singing according to the melody noted on p. xxxiv) and the Sanctuary Hymn of that Sunday, which is why I titled each set of Propers “First Week of Advent” rather than “First Sunday of Advent.” All of the Ba’utha selections are singable aside from the reading from Jonah.