our Vespers[1] or to the Byzantine ἑσπερινόν, sung just after sunset. Then comes the Subâ‘â ("perfecting"), Compline or ἀπόδειπνον. This is now sung only during the great Lent, at the "Fast of the Ninevites" (p. 148), and on certain vigils, when it is joined to Ramshâ. The night-office (Nocturns, μεσονύκτιον) is Ṣluthâ dlilyâ ("prayer at night"); then comes Shahrâ (vigil), to be sung at dawn (Lauds, ὄρθρος). The first day-prayer is Ṣluthâ dṣafrâ ("morning-prayer," our Prime). As a matter of fact, the night-office is now rarely said. Shahrâ and Ṣluthâ dṣafrâ are joined together as the morning prayer, and the Ṣluthâ dlilyâ, if said at all, is also joined to this. There are, then, in practice two prayers in the day—at morning and evening. The people are summoned to these by the sound of a wooden Semantron,[2] and attend very religiously at the public morning and evening prayers.[3] The other services are, of course, first of all the holy liturgy; then baptism, ordination, marriage and other sacraments, funerals, the consecration of churches, and various blessings, sacramentals and so on.
The books in which these rites may be found are many and confused. It is a result of the archaic state of the Nestorian Church that its books have not yet been codified and arranged in an ordered scheme. There are, as a matter of fact, various alternative collections of prayers and services which overlap; so that the same matter may be found in different books. In this primitive state of liturgical books there does not seem any reason why a man should not write out the prayers of any collection of services he likes and call it by some suitable name. The usual books are: for the holy liturgy the Ṭaksâ (τάξις)[4] of the liturgies. With this are often bound up the Ṭaksâ d'mâdâ (rite of baptism), the Ṭaksâ dsyâmīdâ[5] (rite of ordination), and other services, to make a book corresponding to the Byzantine εὐχολόγιον.[6] The
- ↑ As in all Eastern rites, the liturgical day begins with its first vespers.
- ↑ A piece of wood struck with a hammer; now being supplanted by bells copied from Russia (Maclean and Browne: The Catholicos of the East, p. 213).
- ↑ For the composition of these services see below, p. 149.
- ↑ Ṭaksâ is a general name for the order of any service, as we say Ritus. So there is the Ṭaksâ of baptism (ritus baptismi), and so on.
- ↑ Syâm īdâ, imposition of hands.
- ↑ So the Chaldæan (Uniate) book is: Ṭaksâ drâzâ ‘am neḳpayâthâ (the Book of the Mystery with continuations).
