In addition to the liturgical services of Vespers and Matins, there are also the services of the Hours, Compline, and Nocturne. These services are chanted in monasteries but are seldom used in parish churches except perhaps during Lent and Holy Week, and on special feast days. The services of Hours are called the First, Third, Sixth and Ninth. These “hours” conform generally to
The morning service of the Church is called Matins. It opens with the reading of six morning psalms and the intoning of the Great Litany. After this, verses of Psalm 118 are sung: God is the Lord and has revealed himself unto us. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. The Troparion is then sung and, if
In the Orthodox Church the liturgical day begins in the evening with the setting of the sun. This practice follows the Biblical account of creation: “And there was evening and there was morning, one day” (Gen 1:5). The Vesper service in the Church always begins with the chanting of the evening psalm: “...the sun knows it’s time for setting, Thou makest darkness and
Prayer is essential to Christian life. Jesus Christ himself prayed and taught men to pray. No one who does not pray to God can be a follower of Christ. In the Orthodox Church all prayer is Trinitarian. We pray in the Holy Spirit, through Jesus the Son of God, and in his name, to God the Father. We call God “our Father” because
