19th Week in Ord Time Saturday
Night Office Vigils
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| St Ephrem Ephraim the Syrian by Sarah Sallie Thayer 2012 |
First Reading 2 Kings 13:10-25
Responsory Sir
48:12-14
Throughout his life
no ruler could make Elisha tremble, no one could lord it over him. + No task was
too hard for him, and even in death his body prophesied.
V. In life he
worked miracles; in death his deeds were marvelous. + No task ..
Second Reading From
a poem by Saint Ephrem
Our generation is like a leaf whose time, once
it falls, is over,
but though the limit
of our life is short, praise can
lengthen it,
for, corresponding to the extent of our love,
we shall acquire, through praise, life that has no measure.
For it is in our Lord that the root of our faith is grafted;
though far off, he is still close to us in the fusion of love.
Let the roots of our love be bound up in him,
let the full extent of his compassion be fused in us.
a Lord, may the body be a temple for him who built it,
may the soul be a palace full of praise for its architect!
Let not our body become a hollow cavity,
let our souls not be a harbour of loss.
And when the light of this temporal breath flickers out
do you relight in the morning the lantern that was
extinguished in the night.
The sun arrives and with the warmth of its rising
it revives the frozen and relights what has been
extinguished.
It is right that we should acknowledge that Light which
illumines all,
for in the morning, when the sun has gone up, lanterns are
extinguished,
but this new Sun has performed a new deed,
relighting in Sheol the lanterns that had been extinguished.
In place of death who has breathed the smell of mortality
over all,
he who gives life to all exhales a life-giving scent in Sheol;
from his life the dead breathe in new life,
and death dies within them.
The scent of the buried Elisha who gave life to a dead man
provides a type for this:
a man dead but a day breathed in life from him who was
...long dead;
the life-giving scent wafted from his bones and entered the dead corpse -
a symbol of him who gives life to all.
Jesus has elucidated for us the symbols that took place at
Elisha's grave, .
how from an extinguished lantern a lantern can be relit, and how, while
lying in the grave, he could raise up the
fallen,
himself remaining there, but sending forth a witness
to Christ's coming.
Responsary Jn 11:25; 1 Cor
15:42-43
Jesus said to Martha: I am the resurrection and the life. + Whoever believes
in me shall live, even though he dies.
V. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. Sown in humiliation,
it is raised in glory. + Whoever ...
+ + + + + + +
Ephrem the Syrian: Hymns (Classics of Western Spirituality)
EPHREM THE SYRIAN-HYMNS
translated and introduced by Kathleen E. McVey preface by John Meyendorff
"Blessed be the Child Who today delights Bethlehem. Blessed be the Newborn Who today made the humanity young again. Blessed be the Fruit Who bowed Himself down for our hunger. Blessed be the Gracious One Who suddenly enriched all of our poverty and filled our need." Ephrem the Syrian (c. 306-373)
Ephrem was born in the Mesopotamian city of Nisibis toward
the end of the third century. An outpost of the Roman Empire, Nisibis and its Christian citizens were to be formed by the reign of Constantine and by the doctrines of the Council of Nicea. There, in the context of a large and sophisticated Jewish population and numerous Gnostic sects, Ephrem sought to defend orthodox Nicene Christianity. His teaching and writing made him an influential voice in the life of Syriac Christianity through the peaceful years of Constantine's patronage, the years of persecution after 361 under Emperor [ulian, and the conflict between Persians and Romans which ultimately forced Ephrem to move to Edessa where he stayed until his death in 373.
It was as a poet that Ephrem made his greatest impact.
Writing in isosyllabic verses called madrashe, he attained a literary brilliance that won him a place of prominence not only in his own tradition, but also in the Coptic, Ethiopian, Armenian, and Arabic traditions as well. His hymns, praised in the West by Jerome, had a formative influence on the development of medieval religious drama in Europe. Blending Greek forms with his native style, he wove a highly crafted poetry of rich symbolism, attempting to fit the events of his day into a cosmic framework of God's redemptive act in Christ. Ephrern's combination of elements of Stoicism and Middle Platonism with Christian belief in a form reminiscent of the great second century apologists produced a corpus that speaks of his own literary genius and even more eloquently of the majesty and beauty of the divine source of all true poetry.
translated and introduced by Kathleen E. McVey preface by John Meyendorff
"Blessed be the Child Who today delights Bethlehem. Blessed be the Newborn Who today made the humanity young again. Blessed be the Fruit Who bowed Himself down for our hunger. Blessed be the Gracious One Who suddenly enriched all of our poverty and filled our need." Ephrem the Syrian (c. 306-373)
Ephrem was born in the Mesopotamian city of Nisibis toward
the end of the third century. An outpost of the Roman Empire, Nisibis and its Christian citizens were to be formed by the reign of Constantine and by the doctrines of the Council of Nicea. There, in the context of a large and sophisticated Jewish population and numerous Gnostic sects, Ephrem sought to defend orthodox Nicene Christianity. His teaching and writing made him an influential voice in the life of Syriac Christianity through the peaceful years of Constantine's patronage, the years of persecution after 361 under Emperor [ulian, and the conflict between Persians and Romans which ultimately forced Ephrem to move to Edessa where he stayed until his death in 373.
It was as a poet that Ephrem made his greatest impact.
Writing in isosyllabic verses called madrashe, he attained a literary brilliance that won him a place of prominence not only in his own tradition, but also in the Coptic, Ethiopian, Armenian, and Arabic traditions as well. His hymns, praised in the West by Jerome, had a formative influence on the development of medieval religious drama in Europe. Blending Greek forms with his native style, he wove a highly crafted poetry of rich symbolism, attempting to fit the events of his day into a cosmic framework of God's redemptive act in Christ. Ephrern's combination of elements of Stoicism and Middle Platonism with Christian belief in a form reminiscent of the great second century apologists produced a corpus that speaks of his own literary genius and even more eloquently of the majesty and beauty of the divine source of all true poetry.
Enlargeinmg The Heart
Links Ephrem the Syrian (15)
Ephrem
the Syrian (c.306-373): The Harp of the Spirit,
77-78, tr. Sebastian Brock; from the
Monastic Office of Vigils, Saturday in Nineteenth Week of
Ordinary Time, Year 1.
http://salliesart.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/st-ephrem-ephraim-syrian.html
DRIFTWOOD
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| This large piece of driftwood looks, to me, like a monk, prostrate in prayer -- perhaps praying the prayer of St. Ephrem in the section above. He has chosen a prostration after each verse rather than kneeling. |
