My Agpeya Arrived

The other day on whim I decided to purchase a copy of the Agpeya, or Coptic book of hours. It is essentially a horologion except that it has no changing parts at all. The Copt's don't have the Greek and Russian tradition of morning and evening prayers. From what I have read, all Coptic Christians are to read all of the hours every day, at least that is the theory. I gather that many Copts only pray a couple of the hours a day. If one did pray all the hours in a day, you wouldn't have time for much else. All of the hours have very extensive psalmody, with 12 psalms being the established minimum. As far as I can tell, the first and 12th hours are the most important. Or at least they include more prayers, such as the trisagion (the other hours don't.) The midnight prayer is divided into three "watches" of psalms and prayers. I have read numerous things about the watch system, practice seems to vary from person to person. Some read all three watches at once (which must take a lot of time!) Others read one watch a night and alternate durning the week. Still others (the most hearty I guess) read all three, but spread them out during the night with the first at 9pm, the second at midnight, and the third at 3 in the morning. The communion prayers are extremely short, with one before and after respectively. I have to say, the spirit of the desert fathers really comes out in this demanding book. The version I got is all modern English, I didn't shop around enough. The version I really wanted had Arabic side by side with traditional English. Since I am not really planning on using this book very much it doesn't matter a great deal. Agpeya's are available for extremely cheap and come in many different editions. Many parishes seem to publish their own. One of my favorite features is the recitation of the "prayer of thanksgiving" which is read at every hour.

"Let us give thanks to the beneficent and merciful God, the Father of our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ, for He has covered us, helped us, guarded us, accepted us unto Him, spared us, supported us, and brought us to this hour. Let us also ask Him, the Lord our God, the Almighty, to guard us in all peace this holy day and all the days of our life. O Master, Lord, God the Almighty, the Father of our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ, we thank You for every condition, concerning every condition, and in every condition, for You have covered us, helped us, guarded us, accepted us unto You, spared us, supported us, and brought us to this hour. Therefore, we ask and entreat Your goodness, O Lover of mankind, to grant us to complete this holy day, and all the days of our life, in all peace with Your fear. All envy, all temptation, all the work of Satan, the counsel of wicked men, and the rising up of enemies, hidden and manifest, take them away from us, and from all Your people, and from this holy place that is Yours. But those things which are good and profitable do provide for us; for it is You Who have given us the authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, by the grace, compassion and love of mankind, of Your Only-Begotten Son, our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ, through Whom the glory, the honor, the dominion, and the adoration are due unto You, with Him, and the Holy Spirit, the Life-Giver, Who is of one essence with You, now and at all times, and unto the ages of all ages. Amen."

I took this version from the online Agpeya which can be found at agpeya.org.