What are Orthodox Vespers?

Vespers is a service of evening prayer, one of the canonical hours in Eastern Orthodox, Coptic orthodox, Roman Catholic and Eastern Catholic, Lutheran, and Anglican liturgies. The word for this fixed prayer time comes from the Greek ἑσπέρα and the Latin vesper, meaning “evening”.

What is a Vesperal liturgy?

The Divine Liturgy of St. On the eves of the Nativity and Theophany, and on Holy Thursday (commemorating the Last Supper, the Mystical Supper of Christ with his Disciples) and Great and Holy Saturday (the vesperal vigil for the Feast of Pascha, the Resurrection of Christ) it is celebrated as a vesperal liturgy.

What is vespers service?

Vespers, evening prayer of thanksgiving and praise in Roman Catholic and certain other Christian liturgies. Vespers and lauds (morning prayer) are the oldest and most important of the traditional liturgy of the hours.

What is vigil in Orthodox Church?

The All-night vigil is a service of the Eastern Orthodox Church (and Eastern Catholic Church) consisting of an aggregation of the three canonical hours of Vespers, Matins, and the First Hour. The vigil is celebrated on the eves of Sundays and of major liturgical feasts.

What is the difference between vespers and compline?

Vespers (sunset, approximately 6 p.m.) Compline (end of the day before retiring, approximately 7 p.m.)

What time of day is vespers?

Matins, the lengthiest, originally said at a night hour, is now appropriately said at any hour of the day. Lauds and vespers are the solemn morning and evening prayers of the church. Terce, sext, and none correspond to the mid-morning, noon, and mid-afternoon hours.

What do vespers mean?

1 : the sixth of the canonical hours that is said or sung in the late afternoon. 2 : a service of evening worship.

What does a vigil mean?

1 : the act of keeping awake at times when sleep is customary also : a period of wakefulness. 2 : an event or a period of time when a person or group stays in a place and quietly waits, prays, etc., especially at night a candlelight vigil kept vigil at her bedside.

Is the word night vigil correct?

A vigil is a watch kept in the sleeping hours (for whatever purpose). The ‘night’ connotes or signifies the ‘sleeping hours’. Since ‘vigil’ is a watch kept in the night, it is therefore wrong to say that one goes for a night vigil. Rather, we should simply say:”I went to vigil”.

What time of day is Vespers?

What does Matins mean in English?

1 : the night office forming with lauds the first of the canonical hours. 2 : morning prayer.

What is the word lachrymose mean?

1 : given to tears or weeping : tearful tended to become lachrymose when he was drunk. 2 : tending to cause tears : mournful a lachrymose drama.

When do we chant the prokeimenon at Vespers?

On Saturday afternoon the Prokeimenon is “The Lord is King…”, chanted thrice with two verses. On weekdays it is the daily prokeimenon which can be found in the Horologion. It is chanted twice without verses, and then once with its appointed verse. For festal Saints, three Old Testament readings follow.

Where does the term vespers come from in Christianity?

Vespers is a sunset evening prayer service in the Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Eastern Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran liturgies of the canonical hours. The word comes from the Greek ἑσπέρα (“hespera”) and the Latin vesper, meaning “evening”. Vespers, also called Evening Prayer, takes place as dusk begins to fall.

What is the meaning of the Greek word prokeimenon?

In the liturgical practice of the Orthodox Church and Byzantine Rite, a prokeimenon ( Greek Προκείμενον, plural prokeimena; sometimes prokimenon / prokimena; lit. “that which precedes”) is a psalm or canticle refrain sung responsorially at certain specified points of the Divine Liturgy or the Divine Office, usually to introduce a scripture reading.

Where does the pattern of a prokeimenon come from?

Rather, the Sunday and weekday prokeimena are taken from the Octoechos, using the particular tone of the day. Many feasts also have their own prokeimena. The basic pattern of a prokeimenon is for the reader to chant a single verse of the psalm or canticle (often announcing the tone as well).