Excerpts from Kiahk Psalmody (Part2)
Excerpts from Kiahk Psalmody (Part2)
Swimming more in Kiahk Psalmody will reflect how the
composer of our Coptic Psalies were very acquainted with the prefiguration of
the Theotokos in the Old Testament and how they saw the reality in the New
Testament, let me introduce you to some verses the first Psali for Friday
Theotokia :
“For you are the
birth giver of God, the Mother of the True light, for from you has shone forth
us, The Sun of righteousness (Malachi 4:2)
The Master, the King
of the ages, the true Queen (Ps. 45:8-11)
gave birth to Him, with healing in His Wings (Malachi 4:2), for He is the
Creator.
Therefore, we dedicate a feast, with praises,
we exalt Him, He took what is ours, and gave us what is His. (repeated verse in
the writing of Irenaeus, Athanasius, Cyril )
Let us gather at all times, to glorify you, O
full of glory, for you are beyond understanding, who can declare your honor.
This is the city of the King ( Ps. 48:1;
87:3; Heb. 12:22; Ps. 9:7, 10) Sion, (Zechariah 8:3; Ps. 132:13, many other places in the Bible), the
Mother of Christ, for there is none like you, O Virgin Mary. Likewise, the city
of Jerusalem, is Mary, the birth-giver of God, for He Who is seated upon the
Cherubim, came and dwelt in her… Behold, we say, “Hail to you, O cloud (Is.
19:9; 16-19) that carries Christ, for you are the rational fishing rod, that
catches Christians.”`
The Composer of the second Psali on Friday Theotokia took
from the greetings of Archangel Gabriel "Hail, O full of
grace, the Lord is with you!" and Elisabeth greetings to Mary “"Blessed
are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” as a refrain to be
said after each verse in the psali , here are some verses
“This is Zion and the
new heaven, and the Throne of Christ (Ezek. 1; Dan. 7:7-13; Rev. 4:6-11): Blessed are you among women, and
blessed is your Fruit
For you are truly the ladder (Gen. 28:10-17), the bush (Exod. 3:1-7) and the ark (Exod.
25:10-16; 37:1-9; Ps. 131:8; Heb. 9:4) : Blessed are you among women, and blessed
is your Fruit
Likewise, you are the Gate (Ezek. 43:27-44; 4:1-3), that is pure towards the East: Hail
to you, O full of grace, the Lord is with you.
Another type
of poem is taken from Isaiah verse “[2] Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O
earth;” Isa.1:2 , the composer started by this verse , then extended to
“Hearken unto this, all ye nations,
rejoice and be glad, in the feast of the Theotokos, the mother of Emmanuel our
God, Let heaven hear her honor, and the earth proclaim her glory… Hearken unto
to the tongue of incense Paul ( the composer here follows St. Cyril of
Alexandria way in addressing St. Paul and the prophets). The apostle, who
symbolized the Virgin, to the new third heaven (2 Corinthians 12:2), Hearken to Solomn…..Severus, Cyril)
What I want to say ?
there are two types of psalies in the Kiahk psalmody, Arabic which is weak,
probably it was composed late maybe by 17th century or so, it served
its purpose in its time. The second type is the Coptic (Probably earlier as would argued by Dr. Youhanna Nessim Youssef)
, it is more guanine, more concrete , contains the dogma, the Old Testament
explained in the eyes of the New Testament. As we are in the immigration land,
I would highly recommend that we go in our mid night psalmody for the Coptic
psalies which was firstly translated by Holy Virgin Mary Church in Los Angeles,
then was revised by St. Mary and St. Abraam Church in Saint Louis, Missouri.
Online revised version was made by St. George and St. Shenouda Jersey City. I
would urge our deacons to pray more Theotokiat from the weekdays ( Monday
though Saturday). It has a deep theological understanding for the mystery of
Incarnation.
I will continue to
explore more deep meanings in Kiahk psalmody in the next blog.
The Above references
was made easy by the article written by Paul Ladouveur “Old Testament
Prefigurations of the Mother of God” and El Baramous Monastery edition of Annual Psalmody .
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