main : catechism - services and sacraments

The Orthodox Church has, in addition to the Divine Liturgy, a number of services, designed to sanctify the entire day. All of these services contain psalms and prayers. These include:

Midnight: A service of prayer, commemorating the five wise virgins (who had enough oil to enter with the Bridegroom)

Matins: A service of morning prayer, designed to be done at sunrise, often directly preceding the Divine Liturgy; on Sundays, the content is almost always based on the Resurrection.

The Hours: Various services for the First, Third, Sixth and Ninth Hours of the day (7am, 9am, Noon and 3pm, respectively). This is often done in monasteries.

Vespers: A service of prayer, designed to be done at sunset. On Saturday nights, the content of vespers is resurrectional, because it anticipates the day that the resurrection is commemorated each week (i.e. Sunday).

Compline: A service of prayer at the end of the day. The word Compline comes from the Latin word for Completion; the Greek term for Compline literally means 'after dinner', indicating the appropriate time for this service.

These are not repetitive services, and all of them have larger (e.g. Matins, Vespers) or smaller (e.g. Midnight, Compline) variable sections in them. These variables can be drawn from any of the following books:

Menaion: The book containing the variables celebrating the saint or event for a given date of the year. There is at least one saint for every day of the year, but different saints have different levels of commemoration, and will have more or less hymns based on that.

Triodion: The book containing many of the variables in the pre-Lent, Lenten and Holy Week period, and gets its name from many of the canticles, which have only three odes (instead of the usual nine). The most common translation is called 'The Lenten Triodion', done by Bishop (now Metropolitan) Kallistos (Ware) and Mother Maria..

Pentecostarion: The book containing many of the variables in the period between the commemoration of the Resurrection (i.e. Easter) and a few weeks after Pentecost.

Parakletiki (or Octoechos): The book containing hymns for every day of the week. This is used when there is not enough material in the preceding three books for the services. The name Parakletiki is the usual Greek term for the book, coming from the word for Comforter; other terms include the Octoechos (Greek for 'eight tones').

The emphases in these books are somewhat different. The Triodion is to prepare us to experience Holy Week; the Pentecostarion is to help us celebrate the Resurrection of Christ; the Parakletiki is designed to give us comfort. These three books are filled with theology put to song. The Menaion is slightly different: instead of giving theology, it presents people who have lived according to that theology.

We must restate, however, that knowing the texts is a different thing from praying these texts in community, as they were designed to be used. We invite you to visit us.

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Contact the Parish
P.O. Box 448
Southport   4215
Ph: (07) 5573 7977
E-mail: Fr Raymond
E-mail: Webmaster

Regular Services
Divine Liturgy
Sunday 8am
The Chapel,
18 Tonga Pl, Parkwood

The Parish of Saint Barnabas the Apostle, 2007-2008, is in the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia and New Zealand.
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