Dear Friends,

I know that the Psalter is not read throughout Paschal Week.

I've often wondered why it isn't? It would seem that this is the only week in the year when the Psalms are not done by the Church!

Any ideas?

Alex

I thought it is due to the idea that recitation of the psalms is a penitential act, or has such connotations, and that such things have no place in the joysous celebrations of Pascha and Bright Week

I would second Akemner's suggestion and offer an an additonal one.

Archimandrite Robert taft stated (or possibly quoted Baumstark) the more solemn the celebration the more conservatice and ancient the usage. For example the pontifical Divine Liturgy retains main ancient practices that do not occur at regular Divine Liturgy, like the bishop not entering the altar until the Trisagion, etc. In the early Church the use of Psalms was selective. Reading the Psalter in its entirety (a monastic practice) had no place in the early cathedral/parish Liturgy. Perhaps it absence from Bright Week reflects this more ancient usage?

In Christ,
Lance

[ 05-08-2002: Message edited by: Lance ]

An interesting question!

I do not know, and I do not know very much about the Liturgy, but I might offer two possibilities. On practical, and one more spiritual.

1. The monks are exhausted after all the Lenten liturgy (where the psalter is compounded and greatly expanded). They need a rest, and a feast of time.

2. Theologically, Bright Week is a single day... It is the eighth day, the never ending day, a type and symbol of the eternal bliss. The Liturgy is the same (each weekday is more like a Sunday). The reading of the psalter is normally distributed carefully and traditionally over a week, over a series of days. Bright Week is not a series of days, but a single feast, a single day, a feast outside the normal weekly cycle. The absence of the usual psalms which mark the passage of days is a stark re-enforcement of this understanding and strongly drives home the theological uniqueness of this Bright Week.

But, this is merely a suggestion, and it would be interesting to hear from one of our liturgical experts on this question.

With prayers for the feast!

Elias

Barekhmor, Abun!

Dear Father Elias,

I tend to agree more with your reasons than with the "penitential" aspect of the psalter. Maybe the latter is the actual reason, I know not. But, I've never seen the recitation of the Psalms as penitential...so this explanation of Bright Week as a single liturgical day seems more right, at least to me, and one I didn't think of before. Thanks!

The Psalms are considered spiritual food for the Great Fast, hence the Psalms being chanted or read twice in one week as opposed to once during a non-Lenten week. They have the purpose of “plucking the strings of our heart” for they speak of our emotions and feelings.

During Bright Week we no longer wait in expectation or long for answers to our individual or communal complaints, therefore the Psalter, which is made up of many psalms of complaint (almost 50%) do not help us celebrate the “answer” (read: Jesus Christ) to our complaints.

We don't do Psalms for the same reason why Ode 2 of the Canon at Matins is not done "outside' of Lent: because of its penitential character. In our Prostopinije, Ode Two for the Resurrection Canons doesn't exist.

The Psalter has many types of Psalms, many of which are complaints. There are the classical Seven Penitential Psalms: 6, 31, 37, 50, 101, 129, and 142, Psalms of Lamentation, Suffering, and even Psalms that are imprecatory (curses) in nature – all of which are not conducive in celebrating such a joyous time as Bright Week. They also make good comfort reading for occasional bouts of crying in your mug.

May I also throw in here another reason why monastics love the Psalms so much? It was within the monastic community where the art and science of reflecting on one's own death happened. The Psalms became their daily vitamins of reflection.

On the brighter side, the other half of the Psalter speaks of hope and comfort. Our Liturgies have incorporated so much from these psalms of hope. Psalmody in our regular fixed Divine Liturgy is done in the Antiphons, Prokeimena, Alleluias, Commmunion Hymns and elsewhere.

But the entire Psalter is usually read in a week's time and being forced to read the 'complaints' along with the 'hopes' doesn't make sense; so the Psalter is tossed aside for one week as we sing "Christ is Risen!"

Joe Thur

[ 05-09-2002: Message edited by: J Thur ]

Dear Friends, or I should say, Teachers,

I cannot thank you enough for the bliss I feel right now in having read your explanatory posts on this topic that I have downloaded and will keep on my prayer shelf.

Theologians I've read don't have the depth of feeling and understanding that you have.

And, Joe Thur and Lance, if you don't become priests and our teachers or aren't allowed to because of marital status, then it's time all us Eastern Catholics rose up and said a thing or two to our bishops.

I'm REALLY serious!

The Church would really lose out, we would lose out.

But everyone on this Forum benefits. I have benefited and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Alex