Dear all,
I feel the following is an issue we need to address at the earliest.
We have a lot of written prayers - truely meaningful and wonderful.
But we waste that treasure by just using them as "chants", reciting
them at breakneck speeds.
I have no hesitation in saying that our clergy and elders have a big
role for the situation being as bad as it is today.
For example - we have this beautiful prayer song that we use in our
Daily Evening prayers by Mar Ephrem that goes "Njangalkulla
Karthave...."
I am yet to come across a elder or an Achen who would sing it slowly
and in tune (not that I know the correct tune or that I am a great
singer - but I do make an effort to sing it slowly - this maybe
because Malayalam does not come naturally to me (a blessing in
disguise?) , so the speed is lesser naturally for me.)
But all the elders that I have heard , perhaps because they are so
used to singing it, rap it all off as though they have a flight to
catch. "Whats the big hurry???????"
I remember my grandfather praying "Hail Mary" in Malayalam a few
years ago.(that incidently was destined to be the last time I could
see him in flesh and blood - he passed away last year.) There was
pain in his prayer, I could sense that it was coming from the depth
of his heart - my grandfather was a simple farmer.
Immediately I realised that this was a glimpse of my Church about a
generation ago. This was perhaps the secret why we could hold on to a
true undefiled faith all these centuries. Whenever they prayed even
their "written prayers" they prayed with all their being - their
bodies and souls. The prayer used to touch their hearts as also the
ones around them, as it made its way towards heaven.
This, I feel is lacking in our generation, and perhaps a generation
before us. We have no time to pray. Our attitude to prayers reflect
our attitude to life. How many meetings\appointments we plan after
our Qurbana! How can we concentrate on offering such a divine Holy
Sacrifice when we are so burdened with the thought of all the things
after the event. Ideally speaking - why should we even think there
should be life after a Qurbana - why cant we prepare our mindset to
offer a never ending Qurbana?
Our prayers today - due the sheer speed at which they are recited
make a detour and end up within the four walls of our Church
building\homes instead of transcending time and space and reaching
the gates of heaven.
Mathew
Austin,TX
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IndianOrthodox/message/3436
I feel the following is an issue we need to address at the earliest.
We have a lot of written prayers - truely meaningful and wonderful.
But we waste that treasure by just using them as "chants", reciting
them at breakneck speeds.
I have no hesitation in saying that our clergy and elders have a big
role for the situation being as bad as it is today.
For example - we have this beautiful prayer song that we use in our
Daily Evening prayers by Mar Ephrem that goes "Njangalkulla
Karthave...."
I am yet to come across a elder or an Achen who would sing it slowly
and in tune (not that I know the correct tune or that I am a great
singer - but I do make an effort to sing it slowly - this maybe
because Malayalam does not come naturally to me (a blessing in
disguise?) , so the speed is lesser naturally for me.)
But all the elders that I have heard , perhaps because they are so
used to singing it, rap it all off as though they have a flight to
catch. "Whats the big hurry???????"
I remember my grandfather praying "Hail Mary" in Malayalam a few
years ago.(that incidently was destined to be the last time I could
see him in flesh and blood - he passed away last year.) There was
pain in his prayer, I could sense that it was coming from the depth
of his heart - my grandfather was a simple farmer.
Immediately I realised that this was a glimpse of my Church about a
generation ago. This was perhaps the secret why we could hold on to a
true undefiled faith all these centuries. Whenever they prayed even
their "written prayers" they prayed with all their being - their
bodies and souls. The prayer used to touch their hearts as also the
ones around them, as it made its way towards heaven.
This, I feel is lacking in our generation, and perhaps a generation
before us. We have no time to pray. Our attitude to prayers reflect
our attitude to life. How many meetings\appointments we plan after
our Qurbana! How can we concentrate on offering such a divine Holy
Sacrifice when we are so burdened with the thought of all the things
after the event. Ideally speaking - why should we even think there
should be life after a Qurbana - why cant we prepare our mindset to
offer a never ending Qurbana?
Our prayers today - due the sheer speed at which they are recited
make a detour and end up within the four walls of our Church
building\homes instead of transcending time and space and reaching
the gates of heaven.
Mathew
Austin,TX
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IndianOrthodox/message/3436
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