بدأ قداسة البابا تواضروس الثاني منذ قليل صلوات رفع بخور عشية بكنيسة السيدة العذراء والقديس الأنبا رويس بالكاتدرائية المرقسية بالعباسية بمشاركة عدد من أحبار الكنيسة، وذلك قبل أن يلقي قداسته عظته باجتماع الأربعاء الأسبوعي.
“التسبيح بهجة الكنيسة”… عظة الأربعاء لقداسة البابا تواضروس الثاني
بسم الآب والابن والروح القدس الإله الواحد آمين تحل علينا نعمته ورحمته من الأن وإلى الأبد آمين.
بمناسبة اقتراب شهر كيهك وهو شهر التسبيح في الكنيسة لذلك أريد أن أتأمل معكم في هذا العنوان “التسبيح بهجة الكنيسة”
كلمة البهجة كلمة أشمل وأعمق من كلمة الفرح، وكلمة البهجة ذكرت عندما قالت إليصابات “هوذا حين صار صوت سلامك في أذني ارتكض الجنين بابتهاج في بطني” والمرة الثانية عندما سبحت أمنا العذراء مريم ” تعظم نفسي الرب وتبتهج روحي بالله مخلصي”
التسبيح هو الصورة الأرقى والأرفع التي نقدمها في الصلاة، ممكن أن تكون الصلاة عبارة عن كلام نقوله باعتبار أن الإنسان كائن ناطق الله أعطى له قدرة النطق ثم جاء ت اللغة، وأصبح هناك لغات كثيرة، لكن التسبيح هو الصورة الأرفع مقامًا في مخاطبة الله، عندما نخاطب الله نستخدم لغة التسبيح، والتسبيح باختصار هو الصلاة التي يصاحبها الموسيقي أو النغم، التسبيح في الكنيسة يأخذ المساحة الأكبر في العبادة كل صلواتنا عبارة عن تسبيح مثال صلاة العشية هي عبارة عن تسبيح سواء في ألحان الشمامسة وصلوات الكاهن والشعب في مشركته كل هذه أشكال من التسبيح وأيضًا القداس تسبيح وهناك تسبحة نصف الليل وهناك التسبحة الكيهكية وهناك تسابيح الأعياد والترانيم والألحان هناك زخم وتراث كبير في كنيستنا القبطية، التسبيح هو بهجة وفرحة وسعادة الكنيسة.
لماذا التسبيح بهجة الكنيسة؟
أولًا: التسبيح هو صلاة حية متجددة
التسبيح يجعل الصلاة التي نقدمها متجددة في كل مرة، والتسبيح عماده الألحان. كنيستنا بها أكثر من ١٠٠ لحن هناك ألحان صغيرة مثل كيرياليسون ونقولها بطرق كثيرة أو هيللويا نقولها بطرق كثيرة، لكن التسبيح الذي عماده الألحان هو أكثر وسيلة تحافظ على العقيدة وليس مجرد كلمات حلوة، الألحان التي في التسبيح هي احد الوسائل التي تحافظ على العقيدة الأرثوذكسية التي نعيشها ونؤمن بها والتسبيح لأننا نكرره في كثير من المناسبات حسب كل مناسبة يكون التكرار وسيلة لحفظ العقيدة من الأنحراف أو النسيان وتكون العقيدة ماثله أمامنا باستمرار ولذلك التسبيح يشرح العقيدة والإيمان والتسبيح يرسم العقيدة في وجدنا يجعلك من داخلك تعي معنى الحياة القبطية الأرثوذكسية وتعرفها وإذا جائت نغمة غريبة أو فكرة غريبة أو تعليم غريب اذنك تكون حساسه له ووجدانك يشعر به، التسبيح يشرح العقيدة ويرسمها بسهولة في الوجدان لذلك عندما نعمد الأطفال نعلم الأم أن تحضر الطفل الصغير إلى الكنيسة حتى تنسكب ألحان الكنيسة داخل وجدانه وهذا مهم جدًا وينموا الطفل تنمو الحياة الكنسية في وجدانه و يكبر وهو ابن النعمة ويكون مليان بالروح وعارف ونامي داخل كنيسته وتكون الحضن الكبير الذي يحتضنه، التسبيح هو الصلاة الحية المتجددة التي تشرح العقيدة وترسمها في الوجدان بسهولة.
ثانيًا: التسبيح ينشط الروح وهو دواء لسلامة النفس، لذلك عندما تدخل الكنيسة تشعر بالخشوع، التسبيح يجعلك نشيط “الألحان هى هدوء للنفس وراحة للروح وسلطان السلام الذي يسكن الأمواج ويسكت عواصف حركات قلوبنا ” القديس باسيليوس، ” لا شيء يعطي للنفس أجنحة وينزعها من الأرض ويخلصها من رباطات الجسد ويعلمها احتقار الأمور الزمنية مثل التسبيح بالنغمات الموزونة ” ذهبي الفم، هناك دراسات كثيرة في العالم عن معالجة بعض الأمراض بالموسيقي، فيكون التسبيح ينشط الروح ويكون دواء للنفس.
ثالثًا: يحول الإنسان إلى قيثارة
القيثارة آله وترية بها حوالي عشر أوتار تعطي نغم جميل وحرف اليوتا هو الحرف العاشر في اللغة القبطية وهو أول حرف في اسم ايسوس ( يسوع) احد الألقاب التي نخاطب بها السيد المسيح نقول “أنت هو العاشر” يقولوا في احد التأملات أن للإنسان جسد ونفس الجسد له خمسة حواس والنفس لها خمسة قدرات (مثل العقل والوجدان والعواطف…) فيصبحوا عشرة قدرات وكأن كل واحد منا عبارة عن قيثارة عندما تعزف هذه القدرات من خلال التسبيح فيشعر الإنسان بالسعادة الداخلية، القيثارة هي رمز للإنسان الذي له عشرة أوتار والتسبيح يضبط هذه الأوتار العشرة فيشعر الإنسان وهو يسبح أن جسده ونفسه وروحه وعقله وقدراته كلها متناغمة مع بعضها نقول في تسبحة كيهك”قلبي ولساني يسبحان الثالوث” القلب تعبير عن الحياة الداخلية واللسان يعبر عن النطق والعقل، كل كياني يشترك في التسبيح، التسبيح هو الذي يحول الإنسان إلى حالة فرح داخلي والذي جرب هذا الشعور هو الذي يفهم هذا الكلام، عندما يدخل الإنسان في حالة التسبيح يشعر بهذه الحلاوة ويتحول كيانه كله إلي قيثارة وهي التي تعطيه الراحة النفسية لذلك يستخدم الأطباء الموسيقي التي تعطي نوع من الراحة الداخلية مثل موسيقة التسبيح التي نسبح بها ” أن المؤمنين صاروا أنهارًا تفيض عليها المياة من النهر الأصلي ربنا يسوع، تصفق بالعمل الروحي المستمر كما بالأيدي تسبح للثالوث القدوس بالسلوك الحي” القديس جيروم، هذه بركات التسيبيح الثلاثة تعطينا صلاة متجددة ، ونشاط للروح، وتعطينا بهجة وفرح داخلي
عندما تقول العذراء مريم ” تعظم نفسي الرب وتبتهج روحي بالله مخلصي” نربط بين كلمة تبتهج ومخلصي نسميها “بهجة الخلاص” ونقول في الأجبية في صلاة الساعة السادسة ” ملأت الكل فرحًا أيها المسيح لما اتيت لتعين العالم يا رب المجد لك” عندما يسبح الإنسان ويعيش بهجة الخلاص يمتلئ بهذه البهجة الداخلية وهذه ما نسميه السعادة الروحية
ماذا سنصنع عندما نذهب إلى السماء؟
سوف نعيش حالة من التسبيح الجديد المستمر، مثل أن تستعمل شيء جديد للمرة الأولى يعطي احساس بالسعادة وهذه السعادة هي حياة السمائيين ويكون الاحساس جديد دائمًا
عندما نصلي بالتسبيح هي كلمة ونغمة، الكلمة تخرج من اللسان والنغمة تخرج من القلب والكلمة مع النغمة يكون بها المشاعر مثل عندما نسمع لحن “ابؤرو” دائمًا تشعر بالفرح في المقابل عندما نسمع لحن “امونوجنيس أو غولغوثا” تشعر بالحزن وبعض الالحان ترجع للموسيقى الفرعونية الكنيسة القبطية حفظت الموسيقي الفرعونية مع تغير الكلمات
الموسيقي أقدم الفنون “سبحيه أيتها الشمس والقمر سبحيه يا جميع كواكب الأرض” مزمور ١٤٨ فالموسيقي التي هى عماد التسبيح هي من أقدم الفنون، وهي علم له قواعد ونظرات وحروف وتدرس وهي لغة تكتب وتقرأ وتسمع ويتعلموها في كليات التربية الموسيقية وهناك النوتة الموسيقية
أول موسيقي عرفت في تاريخ البشر هي الصفارة والثاني التصفيق إلى أن وصلت لدرجة الغناء، والموسيقي عندما نقول بها الألحان نستخدم فيها الآله الموسيقية الطبيعية وهى الحنجرة والأحبال الصوتية وهي من أكثر أعضاء جسم الإنسان حساسية ولها طريقة في الاستخدام يتعلموها المغنون
أول نوع من التسبيح هو بأستخدام العضوالموسيقي الطبيعي في الإنسان الحنجرة
ثانيًا : نستخدم آله والألات الموجودة في الكنيسة الناقوس والمثلث وهي آلات بسيطة لها امتداد في الكتاب المقدس
بصورة عامة النغمات البطيئة تعطي مشاعر الحزن والنغمات السريعة تعطي مشاعر الفرح والنغمات المثيرة مثل الأغاني العسكرية تعطى الحماس، عندما نرتل يكون من خلال خوراسين البحري والقبلي وفي فترة الصمت هناك فائدتين الراحة والصلاة ( طريقة الأنتيفون) المرابعة وهي أشهر وأسهل طريقة والطريقة الثانية واحد يقول و الجموع ترد عليه هناك طريقة أن الجميع يشارك والطريقة غيرالمستحبة في الكنيسة أن واحد يقول والباقي يسمع وهي ليست كثيرة في الكنيسة ويجب أن يغلف التسابيح بروح الأتضاع فيصير صلاة مرتفعة وعندما يقع الإنسان في فخ أن يعجب بنفسه يقع في فخ الذات فلا تصير صلاة ولا تصير تسبيح وإذا أخذت مديح الناس فلا تصعد لله
في الكتاب المقدس هناك الكثير من المسبحين مثل يوبال وتوبال ومريم أخت موسى وداود النبي وأساف والملائكة وسفر الرؤيا مليان بتسابيح كثيرة وهو السفر الذي يؤهلنا للسماء، وجميع تسابيح سفر الرؤيا جماعية ويعبر عن الحياة في السماء يكون الجميع يسبح ونعيش التسبيح على الأرض لنكمله في السماء، عندما نستخدم الألات الموسيقية البسيطة النقوس هو تمثيل للشفتين وللاحبال الصوتية والمثلث لضبط الأيقاع لتكون الفترات الزمنية في اللحن متوازنة والكلام راكب على النغمة فينساب اللحن لأعماق الإنسان.
المهم في هذا كله أن الإنسان يعيش في هذا التسبيح بتوافقية، ذهنك مشغول وتقرأ التسبحة وتعيش الكلام وتفهمه وتنساب النغمة داخلك وتسابيح شهر كيهك اخذت الصورة الشعبية وسمي سهرات سبعة وأربعة وهي تسمية شعبية والهدف منها أن نقول السبع ثيؤطوكيات الخاصة بالعذراء مريم وكل يوم له ثيؤطوكية ويجعلنا نعيش مع أمنا العذراء نفهم كيف قالت ” تبتهج روحي بالله مخلصي” هي وضعت العنوان “بهجت الخلاص” ونحن نعيش هذه البهجة، وأربعة هوسات كلمة قبطية معناها تسبحة وهي قطعة من الكتاب المقدس
الهوس الأول تسبحة مريم من سفر الخروج
الهوس الثاني مزمور الشكر ١٣٦ في مزامير داود
الهوس الثالث صلاة الفتية الثلاثة ويدعوا الخليقة كلها للتسبيح
الهوس الرابع أخر ثلاث مزامير ١٤٨، ١٤٩، ١٥٠ وهي تسابيح تعد للإنسان مكان وسط القديسين
يتخلل هذه الهوسات ألحان غايه في الأبداع من حيث الموسيقي أو الكلام هذه الأربع هوسات التي نصليها مع بعض المدائح التي وضعت بطريقة شعرية وأحيانًا أبجدية ويحفظها الناس ويتمتعوا بها ويصبح الشهر كله شهر تسبيح شهر كيهك الشهر الرابع في السنة القبطية، التسبيح هو بهجة الإنسان والكنيسة ، شهر كيهك نفرح فيه بأمنا العذراء ونعيش الأختبار ببهجة الخلاص. لإلهنا كل مجد وكرامة من الأن وإلى الأبد آمين.
“التسبيح بهجة الكنيسة”… عظة الأربعاء لقداسة البابا تواضروس الثاني على الساوند كلاود
https://soundcloud.com/media-center-157147919/4-2019a
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. One God. Amen. May His grace and mercy rest upon us, from now and forevermore. Amen.
By the grace of Christ I will read a portion of the first chapter from the Gospel of our teacher St. Luke the Evangelist, from the section in which our mother the Virgin Mary met with Elizabeth and the praise our Mother the Virgin gave.
39 Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, 40 and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. 45 Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.”
46 And Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
48 For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; for behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.
49 For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name.
50 And His mercy is on those who fear Him From generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
52 He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty.
54 He has helped His servant Israel, In remembrance of His mercy,
55 As He spoke to our fathers, To Abraham and to his seed forever.”
56 And Mary remained with her about three months, and returned to her house.
Glory be to God always and forevermore. Amen.
We are now in the month of Kiahk, a month that is distinguished as being a month of praises, and this is why I would like to contemplate this message with you today: Praising is the Joyfulness of the Church. And the word ‘joyfulness’ here is broader and more inclusive than the word ‘joy,’ so we are not saying that praising is the joy of the Church but we are saying that it is joyfulness of the Church; praising is what gladdens the Church.
Humans are creatures that speak and so prayers can be just the speaking of words, but praises are a very elegant and refined form of prayer. God gave humans the ability to speak, and from speech came languages and there are now many languages in every country and we communicate through languages, and we have language interpreters and people who may know more than one language, but praising is the most refined way to address God, and so when we come to speak with God and address Him we use the language of praise.
And in general, praising is prayer that is accompanied by music or melody. And we can say that in the Church, praising encompasses the majority of our worship because all of our prayers are in the form of praises. For example, when you look at Vespers meetings you see that they are in the form of praises – all the way from the deacon chanting hymns and the priests praying prayers, to the deacon and the congregation in their responsorial participation; these are all different forms of praising.
The Liturgy itself is, of course, praising, and we also have the Midnight Praises, and during the month of Kiahk we have the Kiahk praises, and we have praises for each feast, and we have the hymns and the melodies, and so we have a great treasure and heritage of praises in our Coptic Church.
Praising is the joyfulness of the Church and that which gladdens the Church, and so please allow me to tell you why this is so.
1- Praising: Gives life to prayer and renews it
First of all, praising is a form of prayer that is alive and constantly renewed, meaning that praising makes the prayers we offer new every time we offer them, because if our prayers were just words we read over and over, after some time the words would eventually get old and lose their appeal to one’s ears, they would just be words, but praises bring life to the words and keep them always renewed.
I want you to know that the pillars of praise are melodies and tunes. Our Church has more than 100 tunes. There are long tunes and very short tunes, like “Kyrie Eleison,” this is a very short chant and there are so many different ways in which we chant it. Also “hallelujah” – another short chant that we also have so many different ways of saying.
At any rate, it is these very melodic praises that preserve the doctrine, and this may surprise you to hear that praising is not just a nice way to say some words, and you are right because praises and the melodies that make up the praises are one of the ways that actually preserve the Orthodox doctrine that we live and believe in.
And because we repeat praises over and over again, especially from one festal season to the other throughout the ecclesiastical year, this repetition protects the doctrine from wrong interpretation or change and protects it from being forgotten; it keeps the original doctrine before us at all times. And so it is that praises instruct us with regard to the doctrine and explain to us the nature of our faith.
At the same time, as an artist draws a picture, praises draw the doctrine upon our very being, meaning that they give you an inner comprehension of the very meaning of the Coptic Orthodox life, allowing you to be sensitive to it and to know it, so that if you were to hear a strange melody, thought, or teaching, your ears would be sensitive to that and your inner being would become aware of it.
Praises explain the doctrine and draw it upon the inner being, and this is why that although we baptize our children when they are but a few days old and they cry a lot, after the baby is baptized we tell the mother to bring him or her to the Church. The mother will say, “But the baby cries a lot and makes a lot of noise and I feel very embarrassed.” But we say to her, “No, because when he comes to the Church even when crying” – because it is a natural thing for a baby to cry; he may be hungry or cold or whatever – “but his presence within the Church, the hymns and melodies chanted in the Church will be poured forth into his very being and this is a very important thing.”
This is a very important thing because as the child drinks milk and physically grows little by little, you find that the love of Church life is also growing within his being and within him. And so he grows to be a child of grace, a person who is filled with and fully charged with the Spirit, a person who knows and is matured within the Church, and he grows within the embrace of the Church, which is an even greater embrace than that of his mother.
And so praising is a form of living and ever-renewed prayer, teaching and explaining the doctrine and drawing it upon a person’s inner being with ease.
2- Praising energizes the spirit
The second point is that praising energizes the spirit and is medicine for the peace of the soul. Praising is for everyone, not just for the deacons, and praising is for everywhere – both in the Church and in your home.
And you may think this is an exaggeration but the effects of praising – especially in our Church with its very great and long history over many centuries – can even be felt when you enter into a monastery or an old church in which hundreds and thousands of praises have been chanted; you feel that its very walls are permeated with these praises and its congregation satiated, and so you feel that this place has a special kind of spirit and as soon as you enter such a church you have a sense of reverence.
Praising energizes the spirit. One of the very nice things we practice in the monastery is waking up early for praises at 4 A.M., and you know that during the month of Kiahk it is especially cold at that time and it can be a bit difficult, well, not just a bit difficult but very difficult, is it not so? But the person gets up and goes to Tasbeha (Praise meeting), and when we go and praise for one hour and sometimes for two hours, it is now 6 A.M. and just two hours ago you wanted to go back to sleep and were feeling very cold and wanted warmth, but when 6 o’clock comes around you find that you have much more energy and you are ready to meet the new day.
And I may have told you before that in the monastery they teach us that when the midnight bell rings, we are to get up and make the sign of the cross on our body and say, “Holy, holy, holy, let me get up before Satan squashes.” Squashes what? Sometimes when a person is waking up he wants to stay in bed and will say, “Okay, okay, just five more minutes,” and five minutes brings on another five minutes, and so on. And so we are taught that as you hear the bell, make the sign of the cross on your body and get out of bed and say, “Holy, holy, holy. Let me get up before Satan squashes me and I get delayed from going to Tasbeha.”
What does St. Baselios say? He says, “Chants quiet the soul, give rest for the spirit, and give the power of peace that calms the waves and stills the storms of the movements of our hearts.” Within a person there are storms of thoughts – thinking about this thing and that thing, distracted by many thoughts, and his heart is full of many issues and stories, but when a person enters into the mood of praising, he begins to feel this sense of peace. Praising is quietness for the soul, rest for the spirit, and the power of peace that calms the waves and stills the storms of the movements of our hearts.
St. John Golden-mouth has a very nice statement, he says, “Nothing can give a soul wings and lift her up above the earth and liberate her from the cords of the body and teach her to despise the issues of temporary life and time, like praising with well-balanced melodies.” There have even been many studies done around the world about how we can cure various illnesses by means of music, and music is basically well-balanced melodies.
And so praising is a living and ever-renewed form of praying and praising energizes the spirit; the body can get tired but the spirit is always energetic. At the same time, praising is medicine for the soul.
3- Praising brings joy to our lives: It transforms the human body into an instrument
Praising also transforms a person into an instrument of sorts, and I want to explain this to you in a simple and not in an overly technical way.
The harp is an instrument made of around ten strings, and when we strike upon any single string it gives a certain sound and when the sounds harmonize together they give a single beautiful melody. And when these ten strings work together they produce a very pleasurable sound for the ear. It is said in some contemplations that a human is a body and a soul. The body has five senses and the soul has five capacities, including the intellect, the emotions, and so on, and so altogether we have ten: five from the body and five from the soul. And so in this way it is as if each one of us is a harp, and when the human’s strings are plucked by means of praising, a person has a sense of inner joy. Do you know how when a person is sitting alone and he will hum a tune or a hymn or some melody that’s stuck in his mind and he will feel so joyous when doing so?
And so the harp here is a symbol of a human because a human has ten strings, and praising is what keeps these ten strings in right order, and so when a person praises he feels that his body and his soul and his spirit and his mind and all his capabilities are in perfect harmony with each other.
In the Kiahk praises we say, “My heart and my tongue praise the Trinity.” The heart symbolizes the inner life and the spirit, and my tongue symbolizes my speech and my intellect, and when these two work together, the heart and the tongue, then my entire being is participating in this praise. And so praise can bring a person into a state of continual inner joy and give them a sense of deep inner happiness.
And of course I can sit here and describe this over and over to you, but if you do not have a personal experience of it you cannot know what it feels like, just like if I were to place a jar of honey before you and go on telling you, “This honey is so good and delicious, do you know what I mean?” But you won’t know what honey tastes like until you taste it, and so it is with praising.
When a person enters into a mood of praising he begins to experience its sweetness and his entire being can be likened to a harmonized harp, and the harmony of this harp is what gives rest to a person’s soul. This is also why when you go to a doctor’s office you may find light music being played in the background, because light music gives a sense of inner rest, exactly like the music of praise gives rest.
St. Jerome says, “The believers have become as rivers that flooded with the waters of the Source River, our Lord Jesus, continually clapping for the work of the Spirit as with the clapping of hands, praising the Holy Trinity in a living way.” This is a very nice illustration because we have all seen the beauty of water as it runs its course and overflows, and how the sounds of water can be very comforting. And so he says here that each one of us becomes like a river, a river that receives its water from the original Source River, which is our Lord Jesus Christ.
On a final note about the significance of the number ten, the tenth letter in the Coptic alphabet is the letter ‘iota’ – alpha, beta, gamma, delta … and the tenth letter is ‘iota.’ It is like the Greek ‘iota’ but without the dotted letter ‘i.’ And this tenth letter is the first letter in the name ‘Isous,’ which is Jesus, and one of the ways by which we address Christ is, “You are the Tenth One,” because His name begins with the tenth letter of the Coptic alphabet.
And so to summarize so far, the three blessings that praising gives us are:
Constant renewal and freshness to our prayers,
Energy for our spirits, and
Inner joyfulness in our lives – it transforms the human body into an instrument
When the Virgin Mary here says, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior,” I want you to connect the two words ‘rejoiced’ and ‘Savior,’ because this is what we refer to as ‘the joy of salvation.’
And in the Agpeya prayers we say, “O Christ, You filled everyone with joy when You came to the world to help it. O Lord, to You be the glory.” We say this in the Prayer of the Sixth Hour. You have filled everyone with joy, filled, like filling a cup – filled everyone with gladness. And so just by praising and experiencing the rejoicing of salvation, a person is filled with this joy and gladness and inner happiness, and this is what we call ‘spiritual joy’ or ‘the spiritual life,’ and this is the beauty of spirituality.
Praising: The only “job” we will have in heaven
Now let us talk about what we will do when we go to heaven, the eternal life. What will we be doing or what “job” will we have in heaven? Will a doctor practice medicine or will an engineer practice engineering? These types of work are of no use in heaven, not at all. And so what is it that we will be doing? We will abide in a state of continually renewed praise. The feeling will be exactly like when you buy something and use it for the first time; it gives you a sense of happiness.
As children, when we would get new clothes for the feasts and holidays, this was what made feasts a joyous time. It is the same feeling when a person uses something for the first time, that sense of joyfulness and happiness. This joyfulness and happiness is the life of heavenly beings, their constant state. And you might ask, “Wouldn’t we get bored of that?” No, because the feelings there are renewed every day, no, they are renewed every hour and every moment and that is why we call it “the new life,” because it is a constant feeling of newness and there is not a moment where it feels old or like living in the past or in darkness; none of that is found in the new life, the life in heaven.
As I have already told you, praises are both words and melody – the words come forth from the mouth and the melody comes from the heart, and with the words and melody come feelings. For example when we hear the tune of Eb-orro, upon the mere hearing of it you feel a sense of joyfulness, and you don’t even have to be a Christian person. Even a person who is not a Christian and does not understand the words of the chant, if he were to just hear the melody and the rhythm of the words he would feel this joyousness and happiness. Similarly, feelings of sadness are evoked when one hears the deeply melancholy tunes of the two Great Holy Friday chants of Omo-ghanis and the concluding burial chant. And while some people say that the musical origins behind these chants dates back to the days of the Pharaohs, okay, that’s fine, it is a good thing that the Coptic Church has preserved the music of the Pharoahs, although the words have changed.
A brief history of music and our natural musical instruments
Listen to this verse from Psalm 148 that says, “Praise Him you sun and moon, praise Him all you heavenly hosts.”
Music is the pillar of praising and it is one of the oldest art forms. Music is a science that has its own principles and letters and study. Music is a language – a language that is read, written, heard, and taught in musical colleges. And you all know what a sheet of music is, it is “a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms or chords of a song or instrumental musical piece” (Wikipedia).
The first kind of music in human history was the whistle – yes, the simple whistling of a mouth. The second kind of music was hand-clapping. We all clap, and this has been since the beginning of time. Also finger tapping – as when you tap your fingernail on a surface or table, this produces a melody – and stomping with feet, these are all different forms of music. All the way until it reached to the stage of singing.
And so music went from whistling, to clapping, to finger tapping on wood or drums and so on, then foot stomping, and then to singing, with its many different forms and varieties.
1-The internal musical instrument: Your Larynx
And so when we chant praises we are using the most natural musical instrument, which is the larynx. The Lord gave us a larynx and a voice box and vocal chords. The vocal chords are some of the most sensitive parts of a human’s body and they are responsible for issuing sound when we speak words.
And may the Lord protect you, but when a person has a cold or influenza or any such thing, he is warned to protect his vocal chords. Also, when a person becomes overly exhausted, these cords also become weary and can develop illnesses to where they do not move and so a person will lose their voice, and then a person has to be avoid things that are too cold as well as things that are too hot and things that are overly spicy, like hot pepper and so on. All these things influence the wellbeing of one’s vocal chords.
And there are certain ways in which people can be taught how to better project and use their vocal chords, this is most common with singers, as they study to learn how melodies can be properly adjusted and the voice coordinated with the music. And so the first instrument used in praising is the larynx, which is the human body’s natural musical organ.
2-External musical instruments
The second way to praise is using external musical instruments like the simple musical instruments we use in our Church, such as the cymbals and the triangle. These are very simple tools and they have their history from the Holy Bible. And so we can use both our own voices as well as external musical instruments to hold the melody, or we can use the just the external instruments alone to hold the melody for us.
In general, slow tunes elicit feelings of sadness, fast tunes elicit feelings of joy and gladness, and rousing tunes, like those used for military marching and patriotic songs, give a sense of enthusiasm, and all these feelings are important for a person to experience.
Four main ways we chant in the Church
There are many different ways that we have of chanting hymns in our Church.
1-Two choruses responding to one another
The most common one is the two choruses within the church – one on the north-facing side and the other on the south-facing side. One chorus chants a quartet and the other responds with a quartet, and back and forth they respond to one another. We call this process “antiphonal,” whereby “short sentences or musical settings are sung, recited, or played alternately by two groups (wikipedia), and this is the most popular, most wonderful, and easiest way to chant hymns, and it is very well-liked by people.
And the periods of silence serve two benefits:
A person gets a rest break while they are listening to the other side respond, and
A person gets an opportunity to lift up their heart in silent prayer; he can pray during this time.
For example, when the chorus on the north-facing side of the church is singing “Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison, Kyrie Eleison,” this could be a time for each person on the south-facing side of the church to pray their personal prayers: “Lord, please remember this person, please remember this matter. Lord, please help me in this certain issue, Lord strengthen me. Lord, cover me in this situation,” and so on. Short prayers just like that.
2-One person chants, everyone else responds as a group
The second way of chanting hymns in the church is whereby one person chants and the entire congregation responds as a group, as is often done in Kiahk praises.
3-The entire group chants together as one
The third way is where we all participate together as a group, and this is nice because if a person takes a break from chanting for any reason while the chant is being sung, it is not noticed because the groups’ united voice covers the absence of any single person’s voice.
4-A single person chants and everyone else listens
The fourth and least desirable form of chanting in the Church is where a single person chants and the rest just listen. This is of course not very commonly done in the Church but we do see it done with a priest father or a deacon during the Liturgy, because there are some parts where it is only the priest father or the deacon saying something while the congregation listens, and then the congregation responds when he has finished.
As long as the praises we pray in Church are enfolded in a spirit of humility, they become prayers that ascend to heaven and lift a person’s mind upward, but as soon as a person falls into the trap of being proud of their voice or their singing style and so on, then they start to fall into the trap of pride and it no longer becomes prayer nor praise. And if it receives the praise of people, it will not even ascend to the church’s ceiling, not even to the ceiling.
And of course in the Holy Bible we hear of many people who were praisers, like Jubal and Tubal, Miriam the sister of Moses, David the prophet, Asaph, and the angels with their praises, but the thing I would like you to always keep in mind is that in the Book of Revelation, which is the last Book of the Bible and so it is the one that gives us a glimpse and prepares us for heaven, is full of many praises, but the very important thing to notice is that all the praises in the Book of Revelation are collective and not individual praises. There is not even a single praise mentioned where one person praises and another responds, and they are certainly not divided into two choruses, no.
All the praises found in the Book of Revelation are collective praises, and this gives us an illustration of life in heaven, that we will all be praising, all of us [as a group]. And so we practice a life of praising here on earth so that we can continue it in heaven.
The Coptic Church’s two simple musical instruments: the cymbals & the triangle
The simple musical instruments we use in our Church also have symbolic meaning. The two cymbals symbolize two things:
The two lips from which words come forth, and
The two vocal chords found in the larynx. And so the two cymbals symbolize the melodies that come forth from the larynx, the natural human instrument.
The triangle is a means or a musical instrument that helps coordinate the entire chant. It does this by helping to make sure that the musical intervals are properly spaced and balanced and that the words are properly aligned with the melody, and in this way the melody enters in through the ears and is poured into the depths of a person.
The important thing in all of this is for a person to personally experience the praises in a harmonized way, that all of one’s organs are in harmony and working together. Your mind is busy with the reading of the words of the praises and imagining them, seeking to understand and experience them, and the grace is being poured forth within you as we move from one melody to another.
Kiahk Praises: “The nights of 7×4”
Notice that the Kiahk praises are held in a very social and simple way that the people have even given them the name “the nights of 7×4,” which of course is not a name that was given by the Church but it is a name given by the people. The meaning of this name refers to the seven Theotokos praises which are seven sections of praise specific to the Virgin Mary the mother of Light, the Theotokos, the mother of God.
And each of those seven days has a certain praise – the Monday Theotokos, the Tuesday Theotokos, and so on throughout the week, and this allows us to spend time, so to speak, with our mother the Virgin Mary in order that we may come to understand how she was able to say, “My spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” And so it is as if she set the title, the theme, and we go about in learning how to have the same experience by reliving it through the seven daily Theotokos praises.
The 4 Hoos Praises
And in the “7×4,” the four refers to the four Hooses. ‘Hoos’ is a Coptic word that means ‘praise,’ and the four Hoos praises have their basis in four portions from the Holy Bible. And we find within each of the Hooses tunes that are absolutely ingenious, from both the perspective of their music as well as their words.
The First Hoos comes from Exodus 15 and is the Exodus praise song that Miriam the sister of Moses the prophet sang.
The Second Hoos praise is Psalm 136, which is a psalm of thanksgiving.
The Third Hoos is the prayer and praise of the three young men, and how they invite all of creation to praise.
The Fourth Hoos is comprised of the last three Psalms – Psalms 148, 149, and 150. And in a way, these three Psalms prepare a person to have a place among the saints – “Praise the Lord all you His saints,” as the last Psalm says and which we pray at the conclusion of Liturgies.
And so these are the four Hoos praises and they are also accompanied by some praises and poetry that was constructed in a very basic and simple manner, for example, the first stanza begins with the first letter of the alphabet, ‘aleph,’ the second stanza begins with the second letter of the alphabet, ‘beyt,’and so on. And people have been practicing these praises and enjoying the month of Kiahk as a special month of praising, and it is the fourth month of the Coptic year.
My beloved brethren, praising is the joyfulness of the Church and the joyfulness of an individual. Whether you are at home or on when you are on your own praying the Psalms, merely incorporating the simple melody will allow you to sense joyfulness, and when we read the Bible here in Church we read it with a melody that imparts this joyfulness.
Our praises and our tunes, whether long or short, the responsorial chorus chants, all of these give a person joyfulness and praising becomes the joyfulness of the Church. The month of Kiahk is a very nice month, during it we rejoice in our mother the Virgin Mary and by the grace of Christ, it allows us to have a personal experience of what the rejoicing of salvation is really like.
To our God be all the glory and honor, from now and forevermore. Amen.
