As Good as What the Orthodox Could Have?

Available soon @IgnatiusPress: "The Book of Psalms: Ignatius Catholic Study Bible" by @DrScottHahn, Curtis Mitch, and Dennis K Walters: https://t.co/RubBdinGSX pic.twitter.com/ZihwR1Jxya

— Ignatius Insight (@ignatiusinsight) May 26, 2022

The Imprecatory Psalms

Two weeks ago, I had a chat with @leodelo2 about my article on the imprecatory Psalms (my first guest appearance for a podcast and on Catholic radio). Today, the episode has dropped. https://t.co/QaFKZETDbH

— Timothy Troutner (@troutsky_) September 6, 2021

Cappella Romana Sings Mikis Theodorakis

Mikis Theodorakis composed a small but significant body of sacred music. Later orchestrated, his 1984 Orthodox Funeral Service (Requiem) was originally for a cappella chorus. Here is the 1st Stasis of Psalm 118(119) sung in 2007 by @cappellaromana https://t.co/dj5huc7ECo

— Alexander Lingas (@ALLingas) September 5, 2021

Psalm 51

Psalm 51 in Latin
Chant of the Mystics

Pro-tip: Dim the lights in your room, calm your mind and heart, listen, and pray. https://t.co/rmGMrX696R

— Andrew Youssef|Ανδρέας Ιωσήφ (@AndrewNAYoussef) August 21, 2021

The Psalter

The entire psalter can be found chanted here. This is part one, but there are three more parts that include the entirety of the Psalter. Great for car rides and sleeping.

Watch "The Psalter (LXX) Part 1" on YouTube https://t.co/ElYqD9z2vJ

— Veronica (@MaryAnd34247622) June 11, 2021

Psalms in the Byzantine Lenten Office

Psalms in the Byzantine Lenten Office https://t.co/yOTAjl4Oup pic.twitter.com/mRnlX8NmqS

— NLM (@NLMblog) February 18, 2021

NLM

Psalm 72

Psalm Read at Times of Doubt, Hesitation, and Strong Temptations for Strengthening of Faith | Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich) speaks about a psalm that casts out all fear, cowardice and unbelief. https://t.co/zbA2hRv8F6 pic.twitter.com/8wY5jFBkeV

— Pravmir.com (@Pravmir_English) January 24, 2021

Holy Macrina

Saint Macrina, the Fourth Great Cappadocian? https://t.co/7iXytCs7fe pic.twitter.com/KurCOwVKNK

— Russian Faith (@Russian_Faith) November 3, 2020

It is known that her main prayer was the daily singing of the entire Psalter. However, according to the testimony of St. Gregory, the great Cappadocian, she “became for us a teacher of life, a mother, or the one who replaced a mother … she was for us a strong fortress and a shield” (Letter 19.6).

A spiritual mother? Or just a mother?

Psalm 148

Many people struggle with prayer. They wonder when should they should pray, how often they should pray, and where they should pray. We should pray whenever we can, we should pray as often as we can, and we can pray wherever we are. https://t.co/0OGzzmG64E

— OCN (@MyOCN) November 2, 2020

The Shield of Psalmic Prayer

Nicholas Denysenko on Possible Adaptations in Response to COVID-19

Pray Tell: COVID-19 and Orthodox Liturgical Reform: What’s Possible?

Denysenko gives 4 alternatives to public Divine Liturgies. The first:

Sunday Matins or Typica (in-church)

One way to have a Sunday gathering while maintaining physical distancing guidelines is to celebrate a non-Eucharistic service without exceeding the maximum number of people for a safe gathering. Sunday Matins (Orthros) is already appointed to the regular weekly cycle. Parishes that normally celebrate Vigil on Saturday evenings are familiar with resurrection Matins, as are communities of the Greek and Arabic traditions, who celebrate Matins on Sunday morning before the Divine Liturgy. Sunday Matins features psalmody, hymnography, the eleven “eothina” resurrection Gospel readings, and the Great Doxology (Gloria). The addition of a homily to Matins would create a Sunday service honoring the Lord’s resurrection of about one hour, an appropriate way to praise his resurrection while receiving nourishment from his word until it is safe to return to the received Divine Liturgy.
The Typica service offers a viable alternative to Matins. This service features psalmody and the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed and allows for the addition of the appointed Epistle and Gospel readings. Many faithful are already familiar with the Typica, as it is often celebrated by the laity or with a deacon presiding when the priest is absent. Matins and the Typica allow for two non-eucharistic Sunday gatherings that honor the requirements of physical distancing.

Having Matins as a substitute for the Divine Liturgy may be appropriate, but could it be done at home?

The first option is for a Typika service without Communion; the second option that Denysenko gives is  for some form of Communion service that can be based on the Typika, with a deacon presiding, but it seems that this would have to be done in a temple. The third option is distributing Holy Communion to the laity so that they may bring it home to share with others. Here Denysenko does not mention the possibility of Holy Communion being taken home with some sort of prayer service, like the Typika to accompany its reception. I would think that this is a possibility.

Either as a form of Communion service or not, the Typika could be done on Sunday. Would the laity have the necessary liturgical resources to be able to do a Typika service on the other days (without Communion) at home? Would that be a good replacement for daily celebration of the Divine Praises? I have heard it said that it is difficult to the Divine Praises at home, as multiple books required. But I read that a version of the Great Horologion is enough for home use.  

Besides Holy Transfiguration Monastery, their Great Horologion is also carried by SVS Press and Saint Nectarios Press.

St. Tikhon's Monastery Press  has their own verison.

Online: The Horologion and Psalter

Then there are alternatives to the Divine Praises that contain some version of the horologion, like Publican's Prayer Book. 

The Penitential Psalms in Books of Hours

NLM

Psalm Inscriptions

The Book of Psalms

Unto Thee, O God, Do We Give Thanks

Eternal Memory.

"Ἔξελθε ἀπ’ ἐμοῦ, ὅτι ἀνὴρ ἁμαρτωλός εἰμι,Κύριε."

The Psalms and Our Salvation with Father Patrick Reardon

Church Life: Benedict XVI Beyond the Liturgy Wars by Carolyn Pirtle

For Ratzinger, this process of “rediscovering ourselves” necessitates a setting aside the battles of the current liturgy wars surrounding liturgical music and the discussions it has generated—scholarly and otherwise. Doing so will facilitate a return to “the original source” in exploring connection between faith and music, as well as the role of music in worship: the Bible. In turning to the Psalms in particular, Ratzinger establishes a theology of liturgical music in one verse: “Sing hymns of praise” (Ps 47:8). True to his roots as a theologian who takes the biblical narrative seriously, Ratzinger engages this text in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin in order to arrive at a richer translation. Suffice it to say that singing hymns of praise well entails more than making pleasant-sounding music.

For the psalmist, offering sung praise to God entails singing with an understanding that surpasses mere rationality and transcends into the realm of sapientia, or wisdom, which “denotes an integration of the entire person who not only understands and is understandable from the perspective of pure thought, but with all the dimensions of his or her existence” (Ibid., 98). Ratzinger goes on to say that “there is an affinity between wisdom and music, since in it such an integration of humanness occurs and the entire person becomes a being in accordance with logos [with “reason”]” (Ibid.). It is in singing that the senses and the spirit are integrated into one being, and in singing to God that the being is incorporated into logos.

Christianity takes this understanding one step farther by understanding the Psalms not merely as hymns written by King David, but as hymns that “had risen from the heart of the real David, Christ” (Ibid., 97). Thus, singing “hymns of praise” not only harmonizes the senses with the spirit, but when Christians understand those hymns as having their source in Christ, they are also drawn out of themselves into harmony with the Logos, the Word-made-flesh, as they offer sung praise in and through Christ himself. With this mindset, “Christ himself becomes the choir director who teaches us the new song and gives the Church the tone and way in which she can praise God appropriately and blend into the heavenly liturgy” (Ibid.). In order to offer fitting praise, one must conform one’s song to that of Christ, “who did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped; rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave” (Phil 2:6–7).

Fr. Hunwicke: The Beevy Emm, alive and well at Queens

There was one outstanding lecture: a real tour de force by John Caldwell on the Psalter. He made clear that the Masoretic traditions are entitled to no assumed priority over those of Greek or Latin Christianity, particularly with regard to the numeration of the Psalms. (There sometimes appears to be a rather shamefaced attitude to the Vulgate (and Septuagint) numeration; this is completely unnecessary. 'Christianity' and 'Jamnian' Judaism are both descended from a first-century rupture; the unconscious assumption that the Masoretic texts are 'authentic' in a way that Christian texts are not fails to remember the Dead Sea scrolls, not to mention Margaret Barker. This is not a pedantic detail; it goes right to the essential point of difference between Synagogue Judaism and Sacrificial Christianity.)

Study Day with the Plainsong & Medieval Music Society

Psalm 141