Saint Barsanouphios the Great: Questions and Answers on Prayer and Psalmody

423.  Q. Many times, when I sing, I feel myself being puffed up. When this happens, what should I say to myself?

A. When the heart becomes puffed up during psalmody, remember what is written: "Those who afflict grief will not be raised up." Afflicting grief is when we sing without understanding (Ps. 47.7) and without the fear of God. Therefore, beware and search yourself so you do not deceive yourself during psalmody, then you will understand that you have been deceived and bring God to anger.

427.  Q. When I sing or pray or read and an improper thought comes to mind, should I stop singing, or reading, and be attentive to it until I have countered it with proper and good thought?

A. Despise it, and with exactitude be attentive to the psalmody and the prayer and the reading so you might receive strength from what is said. For, if we turn to do battle with the attacks of the evil one, we will never be able to do anything good-and this is exactly why he tries so hard. When you find your thoughts strangling yourself to the extent that they keep you from your prayer, psalmody or reading, not even then should you give them attention, because it is not within your power to conquer them. Instead, be quick to call on the name of God and He will come to your aid and destroy the machinations of the enemies.

For His is the power and the glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.

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428. Q. How does one attain compunction* in prayer and in reading and in chanting A. Compunction comes with continual remembrance and study. When someone prays, he should bring to mind his or her works, and how those who do them are judged, and that awesome voice: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels" (Mt. 25.41). I am speaking of the remembrance of one's sins, not necessarily each one separately—lest the evil one intrude and drag us into some other bondage—but to remember that we are over-burdened, weighed down, with sins. Even if after this there remains a hardness, let us not give in; for many times this concession is made by God to test us, so as to see if we will accept the suffering. And regarding the reading and the chanting, make the mind attentive to what it is reading or chanting, and to apply the meaning of what is said to one's soul. So that, if it is about the good, it may have zeal for the good; if it is about the judicial recompense for evil works, it may shun away from those who do evil, anticipating the menace. Remaining in these remembrances do not retreat if the hardness still remains, because is merciful and compassionate and slow to anger, and He waits to help our attempts and struggles. Always remember the Psalmist who says, "I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry" (Ps. 40.1). While you remain sincere in these things, hope that you will reach God's mercy.

429. Q. When I try to be attentive with exactitude to the meaning of the Psalter, many times I find evil thoughts rising up within me. Why? A. If you see that through the words of even the Psalmist the enemy contrives to create a struggle within you, it is not necessary to understand with exactness the meaning of what is being said, but only chant with soberness and without the scattering of the mind. For only because you say the words, the enemies know the meaning of the Psalms and cannot give opposition; in this way, your chanting becomes supplication to God and neutralizes the enemies.

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430. Q. While I am chanting or with others and pressed by my thoughts and call on God in my heart, since I cannot with my mouth, or I only remember Him, is this enough to help me?

 A. If while chanting or in the company of others and it comes to you to call on God's name, do not think that just because you do not call with your mouth that you do not call on Him. Just remember that He knows the heart and listens to it. So call on Him in your heart. That it what the Scripture says, "when you have shut your door, pray to your father who is in the secret place" (Mt.6.6); that is to say, let us close our mouths and pray to Him in our heart.

So, he who closes his mouth and calls on the name of God or prays to Him in his heart fulfills exactly this commandment. If, though, you do not call on Him with the inward word, but only remind yourself of Him, this is even a quicker calling on His name and is enough to help you

 * κατάνυξις= devotion, contrition, compunction. A deep penitence. Included is a feeling of both sorrow and spiritual joy. Sincere repentance.

 

 

The Mystic Zion

by Photios Kontoglou

Byzantine art (techni) is for me the art of arts. I believe in it as I do religion. I do not deny this, but it even gives me great pleasure when, most of the time, someone uses it as an accusation. Only this art nurtures my soul with its deep and mysterious powers, it quenches the thirst which I feel in the dry desert which surrounds us. Next to Byzantine Art, all other art seems to me light, "distracted by many things," while only "one thing is needful." That one thing, when it is perceived by someone, it is understood.

Many times I question myself how man was made worthy by divine grace to reach the unteachable, to express the inexpressible, and to express it with means so practical and simple: neither vain wisdom, neither foresight, neither false transcendence with soft delicateness, neither sentimentalism, theatrical and meaningless. Everything is serious, contemplative enough, mystical worlds revealed under phenomenal worthlessness and simpleness. A trigger descends to the depths of the oceans of the soul and, at the moment when most think it cannot descend another fathom, it reaches a world no one can measure. "Let no profane hand touch" (Canon of the Feast of the Annunciation; Ninth Ode, First Troparion.) Whoever does not understand that mysterious language "setting aside all worldly cares," will not understand even till the end of his life. The root of his soul will remain dry of the dew of heaven.

The sweetness of this art is apocalyptic. Men who have need of triviality, cannot find anything other than—would be—rational comments, about crooked feet, unnatural bodies and the such, but how can its deep human content, which is the holy of holies, be weighed with such means? And when they praise it, then they say the worst, idiotic comments, generalities.

For man to commune with that which "is a fire and burns the unworthy," no one benefits from those bulky tools which are called: smartness, education, rhetoric, diplomacy, analysis, etc., but something more honorable is needed, something which is usually found in the simplest man and is some magical characteristic, that reveals to man the depth of the divine harmony of the whole. "What do I look upon? None other but the gentle, the humble, and the quiet!" Souls which are deep and closed have the hidden privilege to be initiated into this revelation.

So, he who has this grace, only he understands the mystic and unearthly tongue which the East speaks, Byzantium. In the works of this "mystic Zion" he finds the fount and quenches his thirst, whosoever burns from the thirst for the original.

When he enters into a Byzantine chapel, he expects to find something apocalyptic in its paintings, something original, something which presents mystical things, while he can pass by a great European gallery, without satisfying this type of desire. It is, however, in the first drawer who drew "without prototype"—according to the image—where the true prototype is found, where the combination of colors and forms are not new, within a perception appointed from before nature, but it is the presentation of worlds and feelings by totally spiritual means, with the indefinite pulse of the hand, a bowing of the head, clothing where the threads disappear in an air which blows beyond the earth, a color which reminds of the depth of the sea, an exotic rock, a wild tree which brings you the mystical composition of the world. The colors and the forms retain their evocative power because they are not recreated by the artist to represent something natural, but they are utilized in such a way that their identity and their apocalyptic power becomes more intense. Whoever feels this will be left passionless to the external charms and pointless perfections.

The works of Byzantine art are the most apocalyptic man had done, architecturally, poetically, musically and artistically: the "O Gladsome Light," poem of Athenogenous the martyr, the rolling melody of the Cherubic or Communion Hymns, immerse the soul into the mystical half-light of the East. This mysticism has no relation to the infirm mysticism of the North, but is full of health, happiness and richness, even as it is ascetic and austere.

One rich example of apocalyptic drawing is the icon of Saint John the Forerunner. This scene was created during the years of Turkish occupation (Turkocratia), that is, a period condemned by art history. Nevertheless, it is the most astonishing accomplishment! Saint John is shown as a wild bird, a bird of prey, bony, with hands and feet of sticks, sun-baked, with some great wings of a vulture. He stands perched in a deserted place, on soot and dry rocks, in one hand he holds the mystical hand blessing, and in the other he holds a paper on which he writes his complaint, as if telling it to Christ who bends down from heaven. In one corner, planted on a dry rock , is a wild tree which is troubled, tortured, like the Forerunner, an oak tree with a hatchet stuck into its trunk. His clothing is as green oil, a symbolic color made to match the face that wears it.

How many times, I ask, was man made worthy to create such sights, such fearful works as the Forerunner and the "O Gladsome Light," poem of Athenogenous the martyr!

[Charleston, South Carolina: December 27, 1994.]

Original article in Greek is © "Astir," Athens, Greece, and found in Volume 3 of the WORKS of Photios Kontoglou.

 

Canon CXXV (75)
of the Sixth Œcumenical Synod

We wish those who attend church for the purpose of chanting neither to employ disorderly cries and to force nature to cry aloud, not to foist in anything that is not becoming and proper to a church; but, on the contrary, to offer such psalmodies with much attentiveness [προσοχiς] and contriteness [κατανiξεως] to God, who sees directly into everything that is hidden from our sight. 'For the sons of Israel shall be reverent' (Lev. 15.30), the sacred word has taught us.

Interpretation.

The chanting, or psalmody, that is done in churches is in the nature of begging God to be appeased for our sins. Whoever begs and prayerfully supplicates must have a humble and contrite manner: but to cry out manifests a manner that is audacious and irreverent. On this account the present Canon commands that those who chant in the churches refrain from forcing their nature to yell, but also from saying anything else that is unsuitable for the church. But what are the things that are unsuitable for church? The expositor Zonaras replies that they are womanish members and warblings (which is the same as saying trills, and, an excessive variation or modulation in melodies which inclines towards the songs sung by harlots). The present Canon, therefore, commands that all these things be eliminated from the church, and that those who chant therein shall offer their psalmodies with great care to God, who looks into the hidden recesses of the heart, i.e. into the psalmody and prayer that are framed mentally in the heart rather than uttered in external cries. For the sacred word of Leviticus teaches us sons of Israel to be reverent to God.¹

Concord

David the prophet, too, says, 'chant ye understandingly' (Ps. 47. 7). In expounding this text Saint Basil the Great (Epitomized Definitions, no. 279) says: 'Understanding the words of the Holy Scripture is like the quality of meals which the mouth eats: since, according to Job (12. 11), 'The throat tastes foods, but the mind discerns words'. So if anyone's soul discerns the power of every word just as the sense of taste discerns the quality of every food, he is fulfilling that commandment of David's'. Saint Basil himself adds (Epitomized Definitions, no. 281) that whoever does not go to chant in church eagerly should either be corrected or be ousted. If there are enough psalts available — many, I mean — the same saint (Epitomized Definitions, no. 307) says that they should practice chanting in rotations, once a week, that is to say, Canon 15 of Laodicea, on the other, commands that no one else must chant in church but canonical chanters, or psalts, and parchment-reading chanters, or psalts, or, in other words, except those who chant with membranous and other paper chant. In addition, c. XXIII of the same Council says that psalts are not to wear an orarion when they are chanting. Between the chants there ought to be reading (or praying) too, according to c XVII of the same Council.²

Endnotes.

1. That is why divine Chrysostom (Hom. on "I saw the Lord sitting on a throne," p.120, vol. v) strenuously prohibits theatrical singing, dances of gesticulators, and prolonged cries and yells, and disorderly intonations. For interpreting that passage in the Psalm saying "Serve the Lord in fear" (Ps. 2. 11), he severely censures those who mingle the secular gestures of theaters with spiritual songs, and who admix therewith theatrical postures and meaningless intonations (such as arenowadays the trills and quavers and other meanigless utterances); and he says that these things are natural, not to those engaged in the doxology of God, but to those playing, and mingling the sports of demons with angelic doxology. By means of many arguments he teaches that we ought to offer up doxologies to God with fear and a contrite heart, in order that they may be welcome, like a fragrant incense. What Meletius Pegas, a very learned man, says in his third discourse concerning Christianity is in truth to be praised and deserving of all admiration: "Precisely, therefore, as modesty and symmetry of music is attractive, it is adapted to render hearts more robust, by drawing the soul up from the body. For harmony is most agreeable to the spirit, having as it does an intermediate nature partaking of the crassness of the body, combined with the immateriality of the spirit. Thus again excessive music, pursuing what is sweet beyond moderation fails to excite pleasure, but, on the contrary, tends to enervate… for it is on this account that only the human voice finds acceptance in the Church, on the ground that it is inherent in nature and unartificial, whereas the percussions and efflations produced by instruments are sent packing by the divine Fathers on the ground that they are too artificial." Yet some of the musicians of today are striving to put these things back into the Church with their instrumental songs. The trills and quavers that are now being chanted do not appear to be old, but, on the contrary, modernistic, in view of the fact in the songs ascribed to John Damascene and other musicians of olden times such meaningless words and prolongations; they appear to have come into existence about the time of John Koukouzelos. But the prolongations which the psalts of today are chanting in the vigils, being double and often triple the standard length are in truth nauseating and become offensive to reverent listeners. Wherefore we beseech canonical psalts to chant their songs more quickly, in order that their songs may at the same time be more tuneful, and in order to leave time for readint ot be done; accordingly, the canons may be chanted more slowly, in which is rooted all the soulful (or physical) fruit of the vigil. Some say, however, that these meanigless trills were introduced into the Church with a view to attracting the simple laity by means of their pleasant effect on the ear.

2. Just as is now usually done in connection with the vigils, and especially those held in the Holy Mountain, and just as used to be done, as St Basil (in his letter to the clergy of the church in Neocaesarea) mentions in writing: "The customs now prevailing in all the churches of God are consonant and consistent. For among us the laity commences morning prayer in the nightime… lastly leaving off prayers they turn to psalmody, and, being now divided into two, they chant to one another alternately." Afterwards again: "Having allowed one to commence the song, the rest of them maintaining the balance; and thus in variety of psalmody they divide up the night, praying betweenwhiles." But note that psalmody differs from prayer, since psalmody is done with singing, whereas prayer is done without singing. And that among the ancients psalmody was domne in connection with the psaltery of David. That is why there are to be found old psalters all provided with musical notes. But today the contrary is done, and our prayer is the psalter read aloud, not sung (except for the first three psalms and the Polyeleios, whereas our psalmodyconsists of the troparia alluding to the new grace. Our God-bearing Fathers, however, the so-called Neptics, call praying by mouth and spoken words' psalmody', and praying done by means of the mind alone 'prayer'.

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Currently reading: The Philokalia, Volume 4: The Complete Text; Compiled by St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain & St. Markarios of Corinth (Philokalia)

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