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The book of daily prayer of the Assyrian Church of the East
#1
Dear beloved Rafa and all in our Mari Yashua,Berek Alaha. Beloved Rafa,thanks for your post under the Diatessoron heading I had posted in regards to the link you sent me for the daily offices of canonical prayer in the Church of the East.I have been using for a long time the Shimo which is the prayer book of the hours for the Syrian Orthodox church.It is very,very beautiful but I would love to find a legible,user friendly copy of the prayer book of the Church of the East in English.The link you sent me was wonderful and the prayers posted are beautiful beyond words.Do you know where I can order a copy in English? I ordered East Syrian Daily Offices from Gorgius press trans by Maclean in the late 19th century but it is set up only for communial,liturgical use and not user friendly.I payed over 60 dollars I believe(Gorgius press is very,very exspensive but is one of the only places to find an exstensive supply of Syriac Christian books)but cannot use the book for prayer due to its set up.It will give the number of the particular psalm but not the complete psalm and also abbreviated other prayers and is set up for use in church with a priest,deacon,ect. It also doesnt explain the meanings of certain liturgical words for the divisions of the prayers,ect.It will state 1st monday Karzuta ext without making it clear how to follow and pray the services.It was obviously trans for acedemic reasons and not for individual devotion and prayer unto Almighty Alaha the Father,Alaha the Son,and Alaha the Ruach Ha Kodesh.If you or someone,maybe Deacon Younan knows where I can order a copy of the Book of daily prayer of the Assyrian Church of the East I would really appreciate it and be blessed.I understand there is possibly,ensha-Alaha a monastery for the Church of the East to be built here in the USA in the next few years.I have a very strong monastic calling and will wait to enter that monastery when it is finished,Alaha willing.I'm an Ordained deacon in the Oriental Orthodox church via the Coptic church 25 years ago but would be an official member of the Church of the East if there was a parish where I live in Minneapolis.I'm currently going and serving at the local Armenian Orthodox church as this is te closest I can get in Minneapolis besides the local Antiochian Maronite Catholic church where I sometimes go during the week to attend Quorbana to recieve the Holy Eucharest.They celebrate the Quorbana mostly in English but with certain prayers in Aramaic.The Armenian church uses ancient liturgical Armenian which was given an alphabet in the 4th century by St.Mesrob and Sahak as before this they only had a spoken language and used exclusively Aramaic for the Quorbana.Over all the Armenian church is very,very similar to the Church of the East liturgically and Apostolic tradition wise.I suppose alot of this has to due to their close proximity geographically to oneanother and that Armenia is the oldest national church in the world,Christianity being made the official religion of the state 20 years before the edict of Milan and Constantine making Christianity the state religion of the Roman empire.The ancient Assyrian church is just as old and this is surely a miracle that the Ruach Ha Kodesh has preserved these beautiful churches to this day along with the other Oriental and Eastern Orthodox churches,although it is the Church of the East and the Syrian Orthodox church who have preserved all the original semitic ancient Judao-Christian Apostolic trad of the original church to the fullest.Sorry for rambling.In Yashua,D.Michael.
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#2
There is also a newer English translation of "The Book of Before and After" (kthabha da-qdham wa-d-bathar) by Fr. Andrew Younan. I have a copy of it myself, and I consider it a great resource and aid when reading the Aramaic original. You can grab a copy of it at Amazon.

Also, since there is no preview available at Amazon, I took the liberty to scan the Introduction and Preface into a PDF. http://dukhrana.com/shared/Fr_Andrew_You...reface.pdf

Enjoy! <!-- sSmile --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/smile.gif" alt="Smile" title="Smile" /><!-- sSmile -->
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#3
Dear beloved Lars in Yashua,Berek Alaha! Thank you for your kind reply and letting me know of the Book of Before and After compiled by Fr.Younan.Glory to Maryah this is exactly what I was looking for.I will be ordering a copy of it today.I was already going to go to Amazon today to get Magieras Aramaic Peshitta New Testament translation-Messianic version as she uses the Divine names properly in this edition. I own and use her regular Aramaic Peshitta New Testment trans which is very good but in that version she uses the western names.I also have her Aramaic Peshitta New Testament Parallel translations that has Murdocks Peshitta trans,her new Peshitta trans,and also the King James version so the student-reader can compare these wonderful Peshitta translations,one old-Murdocks,and one new-Magieras with the King James version set up in 3 columns.I find it a very useful study Bible in this regard. I own,study,pray and use all of the good available Peshitta english translations published and consider Magieras one of the best,of course all are very good though.Deacon Younans is the best but alas not published yet in a readable format.Thank you again for letting me know of the Book of before and after.It seems way more consice and user friendly than Macleans outdated abbreviated liturgical,academic trans which is so far from being user friendly that it cant be properly used as a prayer book.A daily discipline of prayer of praying the Holy offices-hours of prayer is so very,very important to us as true Apostolic Christians as our lives then center around our Lord,God and Saviour Yashua Msheekha as its nucleus as well as other prayer throughout the day.Also,as we are instructed by the Lord to pray without ceasing,the repetition of the Jesus prayer is a very beautiful,humble and spiritually enlightening exsperience which together with the other forms of prayer deepens and enriches our spiritual lives and brings us ever closer to Almighty MarYah the Father,Alaha the Son,and Alaha the Ruach Ha Kodesh.The Jesus prayer is very common in Oriental and Eastern Orthodox prayer and spiritual life.The prayer is-Lord Jesus Christ,Son of God,have mercy on me a sinner.One closes their eyes and focuses on the heart and prays the first part of the prayer-Lord Jesus Christ,Son of God while inhaling,then prays the second half,have mercy on me a sinner while exhaling.I pray it in Aramaic as the Aramaic carries with it deeper nuances.I translated it and had 2 Syrian Maronite priests I know verify that is is correct.-"Moran Yashua Msheekha Bar Alaha Rehiem Ano Hatoyeh".Within this short but profound prayer our entire faith is contained.This is prayed very much by monastics-monks and sisters in the Orthodox churches.It is to be prayed at all times when the other services of prayers and other prayers and scriptural study,reading of the Fathers and Saints,ect are not being celebrated.It is traditional to use what is called a chotki which is a prayer rope usually made by monks or nuns from wool where a given number of knots are woven using a series of crosses wile weaving each knot.The person praying the prayer lets the knot slip trough their index and thumb each time the prayer is prayed.It is a beautiful practice.Of course the prayer rope is not neccesery it can aid by helping to focus and concentrate and unites the body with the Soul and mind which is essential in prayer as we must silience the mind and body during prayer and live entirely in the Soul-Spirit.Forgive my rambling.Deacon Michael.
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#4
Dear beloved Rafa in Yashua,Berek Alaha! In my own exsperience with the Jesus Prayer,I find praying it in Aramaic because of the deeper nuances present in the Aramaic enrich it for me as well as its rhythm and cadence in Aramaic.Because it is a short prayer,yet very profound as it carries our entire faith and creed within it,it is easy to fully understand the full,deep and profound meanings in the original Aramaic.Although English is my first and spoken language,I prefer praying it in English.No matter what language one may speak,read and understand,praying the Jesus prayer is a wonderful spiritual exercise that truely deepens and enriches our exsperiential relationship with our Mari Yashua Mshekha.All the rest of my prayers I pray in English but use the proper Divine names for Almighty God the Father,God the Son,and God the Holy Spirit.MarYah for God the Father and the Holy trinity,Yashua Msheekha for God the Son,and Ruach Ha Kodesh for the Holy Spirit.I will also use Alaha and Mari.In Yashua,D.Michael.
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#5
Brother Rafa in Yashua,Berek Alaha! I exspained that I prefer praying the Jesus prayer in Aramaic in my last post exsplaining why,then I acciedently wrote I prefer it in English.This was a typ-o.Forgive me my beloved brother.In the infinite love of MarYah,D.Michael.
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#6
Beloved brother Rafa,I believe the proper pronunciation is ESHOO-a.
In the love of Maryah,D.Michael.
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#7
Dear beloved brother Lars in Yashua,Berek Alaha! I recieved the Book of Before and After and it is very beautiful and more user friendly,however it is still very close to Macleans translation of East Syrian Daily offices.Could you help me to understand how to calculate the weekly cycle as it is divided into 2 cycles with a 3rd for Fridays.Other than that I can tell that the Morning office is the same everyday with the evening and night prayers of course being for the following day as we calculate the evening prayer,Ramsho and the night prayer for the following day as the new day begins at sunset.In Yashua,Deacon Michael.
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#8
Shlama! I had completely forgotten to reply to this one... but better late than never... <!-- sBlush --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/blush.gif" alt="Blush" title="Blush" /><!-- sBlush -->

I would suggest consulting an official ecclesiastical calendar used by the church in order to know which of the 57 Sundays that are actually observed any given year and on which dates they fall. For 2012 I have taken the liberty to scan one of the Assyrian Church of the East's calendars.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://dukhrana.com/shared/ACOE-Ecclesiastical_Calendar_2012.pdf">http://dukhrana.com/shared/ACOE-Ecclesi ... r_2012.pdf</a><!-- m -->

However, if one really wants to get technical and get down to the bare details, then the ACOE has a book called "the Little Chronicle" by Rev. Emmanuel R. Joseph, which discusses in great detail how to calculate when events occur during a year and even contains calculated charts up until year 2506.

//Lars
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