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I have been trying to locate prokeimena for weekday Liturgies, other than those of the Monthly or Festal Menaia. They exist for Vespers, but do they exist for Divine Liturgy? If I understand our Typikon correctly, we usually fall back on the Sunday Prokeimenon, if no other is specifically called for. If that is the norm, then I need search no further. I'm just seeking confirmation one way or the other.

Jim

Jim, they exist but are not in the blue/maroon Levkulic pew book. I hope the next set of pew books will have those. The Admin likely can get you those set to music.

I don't understand why they weren't included in the common BCC pew books, as many Ruthenian parishes have daily Divine Liturgy, and also considering both the 1973 and 1988 Ukrainian Catholic English pew books do contain them as well as the daily alleluia and communion verses. They are also contained in numerous Orthodox liturgy books/horologia.

Archbishop Raya's Byzantine Daily Worship only has the troparia, kondakia and theotokia for weekdays, but unfortunately no prokimena or alleluia verses.

Christ is baptized! In the Jordan!

Jim,

It is not safe to assume that one repeats the Prokeimenon of the Sunday during the week that follows. There are times of the year where that is done (during Pascha, for example); but during the Sundays after Pentecost, it's not done that way.

Every day of the year that has a Divine Liturgy has a prokeimenon. It's either taken from the proper of the saint celebrated on that day, or from the Common service of the "class" of saint (apostle, prophet, martyr, priest-martyr, etc.).

In the new People's Book, the Common services (troparia, kontakia, prokeimena, alleluliaria, and communion hymns) for each class of saints will be printed. The music for those propers will be available either in the People's Book or in the Cantor's Companion (this has not been decided yet).

The information as to the proper prokeimenon for each day is provided in the 2004 Typikon that Fr. David Petras prepares, published by Eastern Christian Publications in Virginia.

(Prof.) J. Michael Thompson
Byzantine Catholic Seminary
Pittsburgh, PA

There are any number of books available in English which give at least the ferial (week-day) prokeimena. The Menaion gives the prokeimena for feast-days of the Menaion. There have occasionallly been projects to translate the complete liturgical Epistle book into English, which would help, but so far this has not materialized. Likewise, we do not yet have a complete English translation of the Liturgicon, which also gives most of the prokeimena. Icognitus

So, for example, if I am reading the typikon from Fr. Petras correctly, Wednesday, January 14th, is the Leave-taking of Theophany, and Format 13 is to be used, the one for Leave-taking of a Feast of the Lord. For January 14th that will mean use Sunday's prokeimenon, "of the Feast". I understand that that would not automatically be the case for Wednesdays in general. It is not the first time I have run into it, however.

There are several English versions of the Epistle book which have been printed with the Prokimena amongst the Orthodox, including Bishop +Fan Noli of blessed memory's great effort in the late 1950s for the Albanian Orthodox Church which has the daily Epistles for both fixed and Paschal cycles.

Also the 1988 UGCC English Liturgikon includes the daily prokimena, Epistles, alleluia verses, Gospels, communion verses, as well as some prokemina, alleluia verses, Epistles, Gospels, and communion verses for commons of saints, special commemorations, general readings, etc.

Jim, you are correct. Outside of great feasts, the pre/post festal times of these feasts, and Lenten/Paschal cycles the daily prokemina are used for the Divine Liturgy.

Christ is baptized! In the Jordan!

Dear Jim,

You wrote:
"For January 14th that will mean use Sunday's prokeimenon, "of the Feast"."

I'm confused here.

On Sunday, you should have sung the Prokeimenon for the SUNDAY AFTER THEOPHANY, which is the same as the Resurrectional Prokeimenon in Tone One:
"May your mercy, O Lord, be upon us who have placed our hope in you," with the verse "Rejoice in the Lord, your righteous ones; praise from the upright is fitting."

But on the Leave-Taking of Theophany, you would sing the Prokeimenon, NOT of the previous Sunday, but rather that of the feast itself: "Blessed is He who comesin the name of the Lord; the Lord is God and has revealed Himself to us," with the verse "Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; for his mercy endures for ever."

(Prof.) J. Michael Thompson
Byzantine Catholic Seminary
Pittsburgh, PA

Jim,

If you (or anyone else) need musical settings for the common texts of the �Classes of Saints� please contact me and I will send them to you.

As others have correctly pointed out, there are specific texts for each day of the liturgical year. It is a common custom (and, I think a good one,) to use the proper texts for the prior Sunday when the ones for a specific weekday are not readily available. I often recommend to new cantors to repeat the texts from the prior Sunday at weekday liturgies until they can sing them confidently. Then they can introduce the proper texts for the various �Classes of Saints�. The abundance of changing texts can be overwhelming at first. It�s always best to get one thing down well before moving onto something else.

Regarding the Leave-Taking of Theophany, the changeable texts of the Divine Liturgy will be almost identical to the feast itself. The differences will be in the troparion refrain of the Third Antiphon (in the post-festive period it is the same as the refrain of the Second Antiphon), the Entrance Hymn (which will be �Come, let us worship and bow before Christ. O Son of God, baptized by John in the Jordan, save us who sing to You: Alleluia!�) and the Epistle and the Gospel. There does not seem to be a uniform custom on whether �All you who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ� is taken throughout the post-festal period. The music for everything you need for the leave-taking can be found in the worship guides used by most parishes (including yours).

As always, check with your pastor. He is the one in charge of which texts are used.

Admin

Prof. Thompson, I thought about my last post on the way to work, and realized I must be wrong about using the Sunday prokeimenon. When I got home, I compared Sunday and the Feast itself. Thank you for pointing out that the Prokeimenon for the Feast itself, not for an intervening service, will be appropriate for the Leave-taking.I am sorry for any confusion I may have caused you.

Mr. Administrator, what is needed at my parish is changeable propers for use for a Wednesday Divine Liturgy for cantors as well as the congregation, preferably set to the appropriate tones. With enough lead time I can do that myself, however. (I am referring only to our parish's custom of having a Wednesday evening Liturgy throughout the year, in addition to Pre-Sanctified services during Lent. I believe we should be ok for the Pre-Sanctifieds, however.) Sometimes we change the services within a given week, depending on Solemn Days, etc., but when no special feast is to be observed, we default to a Wednesday mid-week Liturgy, for which I do not always have changeables. If you can help, I surely would appreciate it. What is awkward is when I have material which the congregation doesn't have. They grumble.