Friday, June 17, 2011

Book Review: Old Rite Horologion


Today I received (as a birthday gift from Dad) the Old Rite Horologion, as translated by Hieromonk German Cuba and published by the Old Rite Church of the Nativity. This is the third of their publications that has come into my possession and as with the other two, it does not disappoint.

First an explanation for why I, the laziest of laymen, owns a horolgion. In my research on the origins of the prayer rule for laity I discovered that the rule found in most prayer books (I am talking primarily about Russian style prayer books) is of recent origin, around the 19th century. I am not attacking these rules at all, and I still use them on occasion but I wanted to try and at least get a taste of what the Church (at least the literate Church) had practiced for the majority of its existence. This lead me to the horologion. The standard practice has been for Midnight Office and Compline to be read as morning and evening prayers respectively, with the 3rd, 6th, and 9th hours read during the day. I have begun to emulate this practice, though in a reduced form that takes me no longer than the rule prescribed in the Jordanville Prayer Book. I am not a morning person, and I generally cut it close with timing so generally in the morning instead of the Midnight Office (which is fairly lengthy) I read the 1st or 3rd (or on bad days, the 6th) hour, the 6th hour at midday, and the 9th hour in the afternoon. Then after dinner I read Small Compline, with or without the Canon to the Mother of God depending on how I feel. This is a very traditional and manageable rule. Other than for prayer, I also find it extremely useful to have "hard copies" of Matins and Vespers to look through for reference purposes, though I would never attempt to pray them at home. Now on to the review.

The text is an almost exact translation of a 1910 edition Old Ritualist horologion printed in Moscow. The Psalms are from the "Psalter According to the Seventy." It is well bound (at least it seems well bound, we will see how it holds up) and comes with four marker ribbons, a useful feature often missing from Orthodox publications, including my Jordanville horologion. It is divided into 28 chapters, the first 15 of which are devoted to the texts of the hours and intermediate hours themselves. A Canon to the Theotokos is included for private recitation of Small Compline, as is a Canon to the Holy Trinity for Sunday Midnight Office. The other chapters include troparia and kontakia for every weekday and Sunday of the year (one of the best features of the book), detailed rubrics on how to use said troparia and kontakia at all the services, all of the Odes, a Paschalion going all the way to 2099, and writings about the spiritual meaning of each of the hours. The differences between Old Rite and New Rite services seem to be extremely negligible, especially if like me you are not using the book for Matins and Vespers.

What it does not contain are the private devotions that take up so much space in the Jordanville Horologion. There are no extra morning and evening prayers or devotions for Holy Communion, and the book would seem to be meant to be used in concert with the Old Rite Prayer Book by the same publisher. The rubrics regarding seasonal changes are very clear and easy to understand, another shortcoming in the Jordanville edition. I have only used the Old Rite Horologion a couple of times, but so far I am extremely pleased with it. If anyone has any questions about the book that I have not answered here, please leave a comment and I will try to figure it out.

6 comments:

  1. Thank you for your review. I found it very helpful. I am looking to get one of these and now I think I shall go on with it.

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  2. Its a great book. The only problem is the temptation to try and do too much!

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  3. My biggest gripe about the Old O Prayer Book is no Compline. At least content wise. Second I prefer the morning and evening prayers of the Jordanville prayer book. They are the best in that. If it had compline it would be complete in its hours(on a basic level). Not sure why they decided to omit it.

    You can probably also do a Benedictine Office sans Matins (which can run over an hour to two hours) unless you just dont want to do western style. I prefer Eastern as well. It has more life to it and if I had to guess it would more resemble the continuation of Temple worship than western stuff does. But sometimes its nice to be able to do a complete office or day office, which is much more feasible with a monastic diurnale than a Horologion. Have a good one, pray for me a sinner...

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  4. I appreciate your comments. I had the HTM Great Horologion and have the Jordanville on line. I am looking forward to getting this one for myself -- from your description it sounds like it will be easier to use -- with moderation and modification ;-)

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  5. Wow, finally an EO publication of the lesser Horologion that can be used by the faithful. I have only found the Jordanville and HTM ones, which are obviously meant for the kliros and not so much the home. Thank you for posting.
    I have also been using the Diurnale Monasticum of St. Benedict, which is very rich, ancient, and prayerful, and will likely continue with it as my principle kanona, but this OR Horologion is definitely a must for Orthodox Christians.

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