Orthodox and Marian Beliefs

[dzheremi]

PS: I must take this opportunity to thank you for linking to this YouTube video somewhere on CAF. Oriental chant is so eerie, so haunting, so beautiful… Can’t get it out of my head.

You’re welcome. I don’t remember linking that one recently (I did link Fr. Yousef Asaad’s recitation of the fraction for the apostles fast recently, though, as we are entering it tomorrow), but listening to again, it is quite beautiful. I guess there’s a reason why the first question my Coptic friend Diana asked me after I attended my first liturgy back in August was “How’s abouna’s voice?” Of course, being in America, we usually get our fractions in English or by alternating verses, but it sounds pretty much the same.

*Do you or the Egyptians you know actually use this expression?

The people at church usually use standard/non-colloquial greetings…then apologize for forgetting who they’re talking to. I guess that’s what happens when you meet so early in the morning, and no one has had coffee. But I have heard that, yes (only in the morning, though, so sabah el-'ishta). I don’t know if it’s just an Egyptian thing or what. I think you can generally plug in any nice word to put in there and just manipulate it according to the time of day, so like for me because we meet in the mornings, I could say sabah el ward, sabah el yasmeen (according to the internet; never actually heard this one myself), etc. I never do, though.

 

[Fone_Bone_2001]

Gee, Fone Bone, I thought that little guy was smiling at the end of his eye roll…isn’t he? Perhaps I should have chosen a different smiley, as frustration is not what I was going for. But so be it. It is hard to convey emotion in text and I will try to keep that in mind in the future. My apologies.

No worries, dzheremi; it’s all good! I did indeed misunderstand you, then (in my mind, the eye-rolling smiley conveys sarcasm).

 

[GraceDK]

Masaa’ el-'ishTa*, ya basha. Of what ostensible misconceptions have your Coptic interlocutors cured you?

PS: I must take this opportunity to thank you for linking to this YouTube video somewhere on CAF. Oriental chant is so eerie, so haunting, so beautiful… Can’t get it out of my head.

*Do you or the Egyptians you know actually use this expression?

Yes, what a beautiful song… so deep and rich. I love Arabic, Its :*

 

[dzheremi]

I am so glad that everyone is appreciating the beautiful prayer recited by Fr. Boula. The “fraction prayers”, of which what you are hearing is one, are recited by the priest when breaking the Eucharistic bread (hence “fraction”) to be given to the people during communion. There are many such prayers, as they change throughout the liturgical year in order to express the truth of the faith as relates to the particular season we are in. For instance, since we are today beginning the Apostles’ Fast, liturgies held over the next 45 days will have a special fraction for the Apostles – I really cannot wait for next liturgy! Some other fractions include (among the 15 total listed in my copy of St. Basil’s liturgy, and I am sure that these aren’t all, as I don’t see the Fraction of Wisdom listed here): the Syrian fraction (so called because the Copts adapted it from the Syriac Orthodox), the Covenant Thursday Fraction, the Fraction for the Resurrection and the Holy 50 days, and more general fractions like the Fraction for the Son at any time.