How does a priest live in the liturgy of the Church?
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III presents a practical and educational lecture on how the priest lives within the church rite and the importance of his training on the rites before his independent service.
Main idea
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The necessity for the priest to pass through a full year of the church’s rite to get to know all occasions and feasts and the manner of prayer, movements, and melodic ranks.
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The importance of receiving (training) from veteran priests and teachers to train on the rite, the melody and the responses so that the priest will not be new and inexperienced in a new church or when serving in the diaspora.
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The priest must know the readings of the rite and celebrations (feasts of the fathers and saints, readings of the patriarchs, the episcopacy, the angels, the Virgin…) and be trained on them.
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The priest should vary his sermons and not repeat them literally on repeated readings, and prepare the sermon days in advance, with having his own library of books of exegesis, doctrine, lives of the saints and rites.
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The importance of linking the translation to the melody when translating the liturgy so that the beauty of the Coptic melody is not lost, and attempting to reconcile the melody and the translated text where possible.
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The priest ought to explain the meanings of the rites to the people gradually (for example explanations of Jonah’s Fast, Aklinomen, special petitions) so that the faithful understand what happens in the rite.
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A recommendation that the priest use assisting means: images of the saints, summaries of their virtues and miracles, publishing references for the interested and distributing clarifying materials on feasts.
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Conclusion: the liturgical priest is the one who combines spiritual life, liturgical knowledge, and the ability to teach people and understand their spiritual needs, so it is not enough to be spiritual without mastery of the rite, nor liturgical without spirituality.
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