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Is there a seperate Bridegroom Matins service book out there, one produced by any of the various Byzantine Catholic groups under Metropolitan Basil? There is a section in the Sisters of St. Basil Triodion, but I haven't found a complete service. I am looking for a service book suitable for congregational use in Holy Week, because our typikon recommends this service Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings.

Jim,

I have some old typed copies of Bridegroom Matins for Holy Week that were once used in my parish, but I am unaware of any published books with these services. If your parish is planning to pray these services I recommend using the �Weekday Matins during the Great Fast� book I have published (and which your parish has). The people will at least have some familiarity with the book. You can then provide copies of the proper texts for each day as an insert.

Bridegroom Matins, like most of the Great Week services, are traditionally anticipated in the evening. The only real differences from daily matins in the books during the Fast (and as given in the books you have) are that 1) the Gospel is prayed prior to Psalm 50 (in the same place as on Sundays), 2) the litany �Save your people� is taken after Psalm 50 and 3) the Magnificat is not sung (but the Irmos is taken instead).

Admin

There's a pamphlet version of Bridegroom Matins published by the OCA and usually available from Saint Vladimir's Seminary bookstore; much of the material is very slightly adapted from the Lenten Triodion of Bishop Kallistos and Mother Mary.
Incognitus

My parish doesn't usually have Matins, so unless we can locate an easy to use pew book for the service, without having to do inserts etc. we will have Hours and Presanctified Liturgy those 3 days instead. Our experience with introducing Vespers showed us that parishioners unfamiliar with services will get completely lost trying to jump from one source to another, and since there are only the 3 Bridegroom services, a stand-alone book is needed, especially for their sake. Sorry.

Your parish could always privately prepare a Bridegroom Matins book for its own use. Computers are great these days; even good ole' "cut-n-paste" could do fine.

Dave

Since your parish has only recently introduced Vespers I suspect it is probably much too early to even think about introducing Matins, let alone the Bridegroom Matins of Great Week. I generally recommend to parishes who have just begun to celebrate Vespers on Saturday evenings and on feast days that they celebrate them for at least a year or two before adding another service, or at least until the people see them as normative and integral to the prayer life of the parish. The worst thing a parish can do is to introduce too much at one time. That generally results in the people not going to anything.

Your idea of celebrating the Hours in the morning and the Presanctified Liturgy in the evening is excellent. It is certainly an option worth suggesting with your pastor, since the decision is his to make.

Eventually, I will have stand alone books for all the Divine Services. But this will take a few more years.

Actually, the alternative of the Hours and Presanctified was not my idea. It was mentioned to me by my priest as the necessary alternative only if we are unable to locate a suitable Bridegroom Matins service for use as mentioned above. The parish is used to having quite a few Holy Week services already. Adding Bridegroom Matins will not necessarily be the stretch for us that adding regular Matins would be, but thanks for your concern and advice. We will probably not introduce it unless we find a suitable service book, though a cut and paste may yet be a possibility.

This is more of a headache than may appear at first glance. Bridegroom Matins is critical to our understanding of the first three days of Holy Week. On the other hand, most people find it easier to come to Church in the evening on those days (those who come at all, that is!); the Liturgy of Presanctified Gifts is popular and does well. An unsatisfactory way of beginning might be to chant the Alleluia, the Troparion of the Bridegroom and the Hymn of Light from Bridegroom Matins either just before or just after the Presanctified. It's better than nothing.
Incognitus

The aforementioned OCA pew books are exactly what you need. They are small, cheap, and complete. They are also in the Slavic tradition. If you want to do Bridegroom Matins, this is the way to go until the BCC publishes its own version.

Justin

Incognitus, thank you for your observations. If there is a way to send a private message to you, please let me know.

And thank you Justin, Dave, and John, for your additional suggestions and help.

I will second Justin, the OCA books are great and work fine. They are the best pew books currently available for a parish setting. If you don't know samohlasny tones or are not comfortable with them, plain chant them. Just do them if you can.

Bridegroom Matins is our entrance into Great and Holy Week, and should be celebrated if at all possible. These texts are awesome in impact and theology and are better celebrated simply than not at all.

This is another possibility. Immediately after the conclusion of Presanctified, the Alleluia and the troparion for Bridegroom Matins could be sung, and the priest could then take the Gospel of the anticipated Bridegroom Matins.

As he unvests a single reader could sing the canon, exapostilarion, and if time, the verses at the praises and aposticha verses directly from the Triod. Certainly not as good as having the entire services, but at least most of the propers from the Triod would be presented.

Incognitus makes some excellent points. My preference for the first three days of Holy Week is for parishes to celebrate Bridegroom Matins in the evenings and to forgo the celebration of the Presanctified Liturgy. Given that most parishes do celebrate the Presanctified Liturgy on these days, I have been providing parishes with the Bridegroom Troparion (�Behold, the bridegroom comes in the middle of the night�.�) to sing three times at the conclusion of the Presanctified Liturgy. At least this way they are taking something.

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My point to Jim is that parishes that have not had these services need to be re-introduced to them over a period of years. If a parish has had only the bare minimum of services during Holy Week both the priest, people and cantors will be overwhelmed if all the services possible are all of a sudden celebrated. I have seen a few examples of parishes in which a new priest will schedule a full slate of services and absolutely no one shows up. I have also seen parishes where the priest adds one service each year and, after five years, has the full slate of services AND a sizeable percentage the parish participating. I liken this to introducing a new Byzantine to fasting. If they have never fasted before and you simply tell them to not eat meat or dairy for 40+ days they usually make it about a week and then give up altogether. But if in the first year or two give up meat and dairy during the first week of the Fast, then again during Holy Week, and on all the Wednesdays and Fridays of the Fast it is a more achievable goal and can put them in a position to raise the goal in succeeding years. It is better to take half the services prayerfully and have them well sung and attended then to take all the services poorly with no one there.

They may be the best for the time being, but for those who don't know Matins (and that's the majority of people) the OCA-DRE Bridegroom book is confusing at best. Last year, my parish began celebrating Bridegroom Matins and purchased 20 or so copies to use. I noticed that about halfway through the service, people put the books down. Too much back and forth. They're good for the first Matins of Great Monday, since it is all layed out, but when you have to start replacing this canon with that canon, and this sticheron with that, it becomes a little more confusing for the average parishioner. My priest eventually made a small bookmark for each book, with the basic order of Matins and page numbers. Even then, people generally gave up at some point and left it to the professionals.

Dave

The current Greek Archdiocese practice seems to be to omit the Presanctified on the first couple of days of Holy Week, and have the Bridegroom Matins in the evening, as the Administrator suggests. I will be the first to agree that it is difficult to hold all the desiderata in balance (after all, I characterized my own solution as "unsatisfactory"!
For those who need the service printed straight through, here's a sneaky thought - get hold of a copy of the standard Greek-English Holy Week book and somehow provide yourself with an English-only copy of Bridegroom Matins for each of the three days.

Glory to Jesus Christ!

In the Archeparchy of Pittsburgh, the replacing of the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts with any other service during Great and Holy Week is not permitted---the singing of the LPG is mandated in our Paschal directives. I am not privy to the directives of the other Eparchies, and they may not be the same as Pittsburgh's.

And, of course, on Holy Wednesday, the Service of Holy Oil is connected to the LPG.

It is a good point, however, that the Bridegroom Matins contains much of the Byzantine Catholic liturgical understanding of eschatology, making them truly vital parts of the Great Week experience. If the services are not taken in the morning, it would be advantageous to congregations to hear portions of each of them sung before the celebration of the LPG.

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