CHURCH RITUALS
It is obvious that church rituals, namely, obligatory prayers and Holy Sacraments, in essence date back to the beginning of Christianity. For the Church of God could not do without the supplicatory prayers recited during the worship, the celebration of the Holy Eucharist and the reciting and explaining of the Book of God, all of which, according to St. Paul, had been handed down to it by the Apostles. The author of the Didascalia has incorporated these along with institutional prayers of this kind although they are much too brief.
The first supplications were the Psalms of the Prophet David which prevailed in the Church because they contained beautiful songs and praises of sweet and noble meanings. By the end of the fourth century famous Christian authorities began to introduce into these rituals metrical hymns of special melodies. Also they kept writing the necessary prosaic supplications besides the metrical ones until by the end of the seventh century the great majority of the rituals of the Syrian church were in complete order, with some additions introduced in the following generations. This method was followed by all the other Christian denominations regardless of their race or language.
That these church rituals in the first few centuries were not uniform even in the neighboring countries, except in their fundamentals and basic branches, is an established fact. However, it was natural that differences should occur in the versions of these rituals due to the spread of Christianity, the vastness and diversification of these rituals, and disparity of education between the authors let alone the ability of the scribes. Thus Lazarus bar Subto, metropolitan of Baghdad (d. 829), in his treatise on the Revision of the Service of the Holy Eucharist (para. 3, p. 31), states that “the priests have composed for themselves service books in which they ignorantly included superfluous as well as inadequate matters”. Likewise, Bar Wahbun states in his exegetical treatise of the Holy Eucharist that “the priests’ service book contains superfluousness as well as inadequacies”. Since church rituals which contained many eloquent writings have a prominent place in the history of Syriac literature, their study has become most significant. The Orientalists, however, have overlooked this subject for its inherent difficulty, with the exception of Baumstark, who only touched upon it in his book.
These works on the Syrian church deal with fifteen kinds of rituals:
1) The Ishhim or the book of regular weekday prayer;
2) Lessons from the Holy Bible;
3) The book of liturgies or of the celebration of the Holy Eucharist;
4) Service book of Sunday for the whole year;
5) Books of prayer for principal feasts as well as festivals of saints;
6) Two service books for Lent and the Week of Passion;
7) The books of husoyos or supplications for Sundays, feasts, Lent, the Week of Passion and others;
8) The service book for baptism, matrimony, extreme unetion, and penance;
9) The book of the ordination of clergymen;
10) Book of principal feasts;
11) The book of funerals;
12) The book of the supplication of priests and the prayers of monks;
13) The church choral book;
14) The book of life;
15) The calendar of feasts for the whole year.
Before venturing into these subjects, however, it would seem to be feasible to present first a study of church music which will be supported by references to ancient copies.
1- CHURCH MUSIC
2- THE REGULAR WEEKDAY SERVICE BOOK
3- LECTIONARIES
4- LITURGICAL BOOKS
5- SERVICE BOOKS FOR SUNDAYS FOR THE WHOLE YEAR
6- THE SERVICE BOOK OF PRINCIPAL FEASTS AND THE FESTIVALS OF SAINTS
7- SERVICE BOOKS OF THE LENT AND PASSION WEEK
8- HUSOYOS (PROPITIATORY PRAYERS) FOR SUNDAYS, FEASTS, LENT AND PASSION WEEK, AND OTHER OCCASIONS
9- THE ORDERS OF BAPTISM, THE BENEDICTION OF MARRIAGE, THE HOLY UNCTION AND OF REPENTANCE
10- ORDER OF THE OFFICES OF ORDINATION AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF SACRAMENTS BY THE CLERGY
11- SERVICE BOOK FOR PRINCIPAL FEASTS
12- FUNERAL SERVICE BOOKS
13- CHORAL BOOKS
14- PRAYER BOOKS OF PRIESTS AND MONKS
15- THE BOOK OF LIFE
16- CALENDAR OF FESTIVALS FOR THE WHOLE YEAR
17- THE OLDEST MANUSCRIPTS ON WHICH WE DEPENDED IN OUR RESEARCH
CHURCH RITUALS
– Mor Ignatius Aphram Barsoum