Our series of articles about the “churching” of our home prayer is coming to an end. In the first part, we spoke about liturgical cycles and books, and about the easiest ways to include something from Churchwide practice into our home prayer. In the second part, we proposed an idea for how to fill the entire day with prayer (not so much in terms of duration as in terms of frequency), by reading short prayers from various services of the daily cycle. In the third part, we spoke about how to read Small Compline according to the lay order, and in the fourth, about how to read Midnight Office and the Hours according to the lay order.1
In this fifth and final part, I’ll try to talk about how to read the lay order for Vespers. It’s a bit more difficult than what we’ve spoken about already, if only because for Vespers you have to be able to combine texts from various liturgical books at once. Because of this, even those who regularly sing on the kliros sometimes feel like they’re just randomly juggling books and sheet music the whole service. But that’s not how it really is, and if you’ve made it to the fifth part, then you’re probably not afraid of it being a bit difficult; so I encourage you all to try to make sense of this question.
Books You Need for Vespers
For Vespers, besides the Horologion, you need the Octoechos2 and Menaion, which you should be familiar with if you’ve already tried to read Small Compline with a canon to the Theotokos from the Octoechos or with a service transferred from the Menaion. You’ll also need the liturgical rubrics to read Vespers. The rubrics lay out what’s included in the services for each day of the year: how many and which stichera are sung at Vespers, which canons are read at Matins, and so on. The rubrics are compiled every year based on the Typikon, and for beginners, it’s objectively much easier to navigate the rubrics than the Typikon. You don’t necessarily have to have the printed book for prayer at home—you can often find the rubrics online. The only thing is that if you want to read Vespers to some rare saint at home, he or she may not be included in the rubrics for the day, because there are many saints, and the rubrics give two or three options at most. This will be a challenge at first, and you’ll probably have to either transfer the service for your favorite saint to Compline or abandon the idea altogether. But with time and some practice and study of the rubrics, you’ll grasp the general patterns fairly quickly and you’ll be able to organize a service on your own pretty easily.
It’s also important to note that many prayers in Vespers are read, not sung. If you have the opportunity, that is, if you sing on the kliros or simply sing but aren’t well versed in Church singing, I recommend finding at least one version of the chanted prayer “O Gladsome Light” (notes and audio) and learn the basic melody. In principle, you can read this prayer, but it’s more beautiful to sing it.
Also, and this is the most difficult thing for beginners, since Vespers includes stichera and troparia, it would be good to familiarize yourself with the stichera and troparia tones. I mentioned the tonal system when I wrote about the Octoechos in the first part. Again, stichera and troparia can be simply read—it’s better than nothing. But singing is more correct and more beautiful, and beauty is one of the principles of Orthodox worship. There are various tonal traditions. For example, they’re different in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and Kiev has its own tones.3 So I suggest you find an Octoechos with the music for all the chants—for troparia, stichera, irmosi, and prokeimena—that are used in your area. Perhaps in your church some tones are sung in Moscow style, some St. Petersburg, and some Kievan, which happens quite often. So it’s a demanding topic, but very interesting, and you’ll learn many things if you dive into it.
I’m in favor of learning to get used to “real” liturgical books right away. But if you’re not sure of yourself and worry you’ll get confused, but you really want to try, you can probably find online resources where, unlike the Horologion, everything is spelled out down to the smallest details, including the ending of Vespers, which can be difficult to remember on the first try.
Ranks of Services
We’ve more or less covered the books and the music, but to read Vespers, you also need to know about the ranks of services. Let’s discuss this a bit. The ranks indicate the solemnity of the service, from the most ordinary weekday service to the most festive. We can’t go into a detailed description of each rank, we’ll simply note that there are six in total: simple service, double service, six-stichera, doxology, polyeleos, and vigil, as well as the particular vigil-rank services for the Twelve Great Feasts. We can also note the alleluia services served on weekdays in Great Lent, which are even more “Lenten” than the simplest services celebrated throughout the rest of the year.
If the framework of a particular service is preserved even on Lenten weekdays, even for the Twelve Great Feats (and even on Pascha the framework of Vespers is largely the same; the Paschal service is its own topic), then the changeable parts of the service that depend on the Church calendar vary quite a lot depending on the rank. The higher the rank, the more festive the service; that is, the more will be sung as compared to read. The higher solemnity also calls for certain special elements, such as the blessing of the artos loaves at Vespers, the polyeleos, the Gospel reading at Matins, and so on. It seems reasonable to begin studying the Typikon (and likewise to practice compiling services) with the simplest options—simple, double, six-stichera, and doxology services—and only then move on to the more complex ones. Thus, in this article I will cover only weekday Vespers served outside of Great Lent. Where appropriate, however, given that the Fast has begun, I’ll try to make note of Lenten services as well.
The Lay Order of Vespers. Beginning
Before starting the service, you have to study the rubrics and prepare everything you need: Print the sheet music for O Gladsome Light, open the Horologion to Vespers, open the Octoechos4 to the relevant tone and day of the week, and open the Menaion to the correct date. Recall that the liturgical day begins in the evening, so we need to find the services for the next calendar day in the Menaion. For example, in the evening of February 7/20, we open to the service for February 8/21. When we open the Menaion, we see the section for Great Vespers. Once you have all the books ready, we can begin. Lord, bless!
If we’re not reading the Ninth Hour before Vespers, then it begins like this5:
—The usual beginning6
—Come, let us worship… (x3)
—Psalm 103 (Bless the Lord, O my soul…)
—Glory, both now. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, glory to Thee, O God (x3)
—[In church, Psalm 103 is followed by the Great Litany, proclaimed by the deacon or priest. Since we’re reading without a cleric, the litany can be omitted or replaced with “Lord, have mercy” (x12).]
—Kathisma7 (see the order for reading Kathismas, as found in the Psalter and in various places online)
—The Little Litany is either omitted or replaced with “Lord, have mercy” (x3).
This is the very beginning of Vespers—the same for all the simplest ranks of services we’re discussing. Next are the stichera on “Lord, I Call”—the part that tends to intimidate new kliros readers and singers, who sometimes feel like the stichera are selected arbitrarily.
Stichera on “Lord, I Call”
Of course, the services aren’t actually arbitrary. There’s a system by which stichera from the Horologion and a certain number of stichera from various books are brought together.
Information about the number and “source” of the stichera can always be found in the rubrics, including the relevant tones. But just to be safe, I’ll outline here the general pattern by which the stichera at “Lord, I call” differ depending on rank of service:
—If it’s a simple service, first three stichera from the Octoechos8 are sung (according to the tone and day of the week), then three from the Menaion. At “Glory, both now,” the Theotokion or Stavrotheotokion is sung— these are usually given in order, i.e., immediately following the stichera of the saint.9
For a double service, sing three stichera from the Menaion to the first saint, then three from the Menaion to the second saint.
—If it’s a six-stichera service, then all six stichera are sung to one saint, taken from the Menaion. If the saint only has three stichera in the Menaion, but the service calls for six, then each stichera should be repeated. At “Glory, both now,” the Theotokion or Stavrotheotokion is sung.10
—If it’s a doxology service, then just as with the six-stichera service, six stichera are sung from the Menaion. But there’s an important difference: After the doxasticon is sung to the saint on “Glory,” we don’t sing the usual Theotokion on “Now and ever,” but a festive Theotokion known as a dogmatikon.11
That’s the whole general principle. But we also have to discuss how to combine these stichera with verses from the Horologion. For someone reading the lay order of the services, the stichera are a tricky but fascinating moment when you have to juggle several books at once. If someone’s reading Vespers alone, he reads and sings everything himself—canonarch, choir, and reader all rolled into one. But if there are at least two of you, and especially if both happen to be singers, it’s worth trying to split things up. The “script” goes like this:
—Canonarch: In the # tone: Lord, I call upon Thee, hear me.
—The choir sings in the appropriate tone: Lord, I call upon Thee, hear me… Let my prayer arise in Thy sight as incense… (see the Horologion).
—Reader: Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord…, and the remaining verses of Psalms 140, 141, and 129, down to the V. 6 mark—If Thou, O Lord, shouldst mark iniquities… Found in the Horologion.
—The canonarch announces the first part of the verse: If Thou, O Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? And the choir finishes the second half of the verse: But there is forgiveness with Thee. Then the first stichera is sung.
—Then the canonarch announces the first part of the next verse: For Thy Name’s sake I wait for Thee, O Lord. My soul has waited for Thy word. And the choir sings the second half: My soul has hoped on the Lord.
—In the same fashion, the remaining stichera are interspersed with the rest of the verses from the Horologion, down to “Glory, both now.” Note! Each time the tone changes, the canonarch announces the new tone before reciting the verse from the Horologion.
—Next, “O Gladsome Light” is sung (or read).
—Then the prokeimenon (from the Horologion)is read just as we hear it in all the services. For example, this is how the prokeimenon is read on Sunday evenings in church:
—Priest: The prokeimenon in the eighth tone: Behold now, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord (Ps. 133:1).
—Choir: Behold now, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord.
—Then the priest recites the verse: You that stand in the house of the Lord, even in the courts of the house of our God (Ps. 133:2).
—The choir repeats the prokeimenon: Behold now, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord.
—Then the priest reads the first part of the prokeimenon: Behold now, bless the Lord…
—And the choir finishes: All you servants of the Lord.
So the prokeimenon is proclaimed by the priest in church, but it’s not exclusively for priests. It shouldn’t be omitted when reading the lay order of Vespers at home.
—The prayer, “Vouchsafe, O Lord” is read.
—In church, this would be followed by a litany, but at home it can either be replaced by “Lord, have mercy” (12x) or simply omitted.
Aposticha
The Aposticha are a little easier than the stichera on “Lord, I call.” For all the ranks of services that we’re considering here, the main three stichera are taken from the Octoechos.12
There’s no verse before the first sticheron on the Aposticha—the canonarch simply proclaims the tone of the first sticheron and reads its first phrase, and the choir sings this sticheron. Then the canonarch proclaims the first verse from the Horologion and the choir sings the second sticheron. Then the second verse is proclaimed and the third sticheron is sung.
If the service to the saint of the day includes a doxasticon (sticheron on “Glory”) for the Aposticha, then it’s sung here. Then at “Both now” the Theotokion comes from the relevant appendix in the Menaion. If there’s no doxasticon for the saint, then the Theotokion is sung, which is found in the Octoechos immediately after the three stichera on the Aposticha.
However, sometimes a doxology service includes its own stichera for the Aposticha in the Menaion. If so, then they’re to be sung, and the verses between the stichera are also found in the Menaion. At “Glory,” the sticheron to the saint is sung, and at “Both now,” the Theotokion in the same tone as the Glory verse is sung, found in the relevant Menaion appendix.
The Ending of Vespers
—After the Aposticha, the Prayer of St. Symeon is read: Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace…
—Trisagion prayers up through the Lord’s Prayer
—Troparion to the saint (found in the Menaion at the end of Vespers)
—Glory, both now: Theotokion (found in the relevant appendix to the Menaion, depending on the service rank)
—Instead of the Augmented Litany, “Lord, have mercy” (40x)
—“Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers…” Amen.
—“Confirm, O God, the holy Orthodox faith of Orthodox Christians, unto ages of ages.”
—“More honorable than the Cherubim..” Glory, both now. Lord, have mercy (3x)
—“Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us. Amen.”
