There are three important elements of a meal blessing: So I was looking at some old manuscripts (apparently from 1496) and found this: On top (after the title) is a version of the standard meal blessing used by Chaldean and Assyrian priests: Below it is one I haven’t heard before, which fulfills the first two […]
Just in time to be too late, here’s a talk I did at school on preparing for Lent:
Some of you know I have a volume on Narsai (d. 503ish) forthcoming from Paulist Press. I figured I’d share a draft of one of the chapters now, at the beginning of Sawma/Lent. Enjoy.
I decided to stand completely still for this one.
Here’s a selection of some of the hymns sung in the Chaldean and Assyrian Churches at the end of each month, and especially at the end of the year, asking God to “order” the coming year toward his glory and the good of our souls. The translation is singable according to a pretty common melody, […]
Blest is the Fruit who dawned from you, O blessed woman. – No one knows what to call your mother, O Lord: if one calls her a virgin, her Son appears; if married, no man has known her. And if your mother is incomprehensible, who could know you? – She alone is your mother, and […]
