The Transfiguration of the Lord

Program: #05-44   Air Date: Oct 24, 2005

Dear Friends of Millennium of Music:

Even by the standards of our most popular program, we have
been gratified (and taken aback) by the overwhelming response we have received from this series dedicated to the work of the monks of Chevetogne. To this end, we are providing some extra information on how to reach the monks on line or by mail.

Monastère de l'Exaltation de la Sainte Croix
Rue du monastère 65
B - 5590 - Chevetogne
Belgique

Tel.: + 32 (0)83 21.17.63
Fax: + 32 (0)83 21.60.45

Email addresses of the Monastery: [email protected]
This is the current e mail address of Fr. Thomas
Pott, current music director--new as of January 2005.
Again, thank you for you enthusiastic support for the program;
we hope to continue this series for some time.

Robert Aubry Davis

As Fr. Maxime writes in his notes, "Like most of the twelve great feasts which constitute the "crown of the year" of the Byzantine liturgical cycle, each one being illuminated by the central mystery of Easter, the Feast of the Transfiguration is of Palestinian origin. However, in this case the oldest documents concerning the liturgy of the city of Jerusalem itself (before 439) make no mention of the Feast of the Transfiguration. Recent studies of a series of Armenian typika witness to the hierosolymitan rite in the first phase being adapted to a truly Armenian liturgy, and have allowed Dom Athanase Renoux (monk of En Calcat) to suggest the very plausible hypothesis that the feast was celebrated between 439 and 550 on Mount Tabor itself by the local community, the Bishop of which resided at Exaloth 5 km to the south. A pilgrim from Piacenza, one Antoninus Piacentinus, noted in his itinerarium in 570 the existence of three basilicas on this spot. The indication of Mt. Tabor as the place of Christ's Transfiguration does not come from the Gospel itself, but from the interpretation which Christian tradition gives to Psalm 88, 13: 'Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in Thy name.' One of the oldest sermons on the subject ...seems to be that of Athanasius of Sinai (d.700).
In the Orthodox Church the Feast of the Transfiguration has its own quite distinctive flavor; it is honored as being the 'Summer Easter' and it is at this feast that the first fruits of the year are blessed."

I. Great Vespers

--Stichera: Psalm 140: "I have cried unto Thee, hear me."
--Sticherion: "Before Thy crucifixion, O Lord."
--Theotokion: (Glory be to the Father) "Prefiguring, O Christ our Lord, Thy Resurrection."
--Theotokion of the Aposticha: (Glory be to the Father) "On Mount Tabor, O Lord."
--Troparion of the Feast: "Thou wast transfigured upon the mountain."

II. Orthros

--"The Lord is God and hath appeared unto us."
--Megalynarion: "We magnify Thee, O Christ the giver of life."
--Prokimenon: "Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in Thy name."
--1st Canon of the Feast: "The choirs of Israel passed dry-shod across the Red Sea."
--3rd Canticle: "The bow of the mighty has waxed feeble."
--4th Canticle: "I have heard of thy glorious Dispensation."
--5th Canticle: "Thou hast parted the light from the original chaos."
--6th Canticle: "In my affliction I cried unto the Lord."
--Kontakion: "Thou wast transfigured upon the mountain."
--7th Canticle: "In Babylon the children, the sons of Abraham."
--8th Canticle: "In Babylon the children, burning with zeal for God."
--9th Canticle: "Magnify...the Lord who was transfigured on Tabor."
--Expostilarion: "Today on Tabor in the manifestation of Thy Light."
--Lauds: "Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord."
--Theotokion: (Glory be to the Father) "Christ took Peter, James, and John up into a high mountain."

III. Liturgy

--1st Antiphon: "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord."
--2nd Antiphon: "Mount Zion upon the north side is the city of the Great King."
--3rd Antiphon: "They say that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion."
--Troparion of the Feast: "Thou wast transfigured upon the mountain."
--Kontakion of the Feast: "...and Thy disciples beheld Thy glory."
--Megalynarion: "Magnify, O my soul, the Lord who was transfigured on Tabor.
--Communion Verse: "We shall walk, O lord, in the light of the glory of Thy countenance."