An English translation of the Daily Offices of the East Syriac, used today by the Assyrain Church of the East, the Chaldean Church, and the Syro-Malabar Church. (World Religions)

A new and updated edition of a much-praised work, this is vital reading for anyone who wishes to understand the nature of prayer. Down-to-earth and accessible, yet applauded for its scholarship, it is, as reviewers said of the first edition, truly exciting to read and full of help and sympathy for the Christian who finds prayer difficult. Company of Voices begins with a problem that is all too recognizable. If all that Christianity claims about life and living is true, then prayer ought to be the most natural activity in the world. Yet apart from moments of crisis when prayer arises spontaneously, it is mostly an added extra to the business of daily living, something that is a struggle to find time for. George Guiver, CR, sets out to find why this should be so. His search takes him to study the practice of daily prayer throughout the church's history: the offering of prayer several times a day in churches, cathedrals and monasteries, and individuals at their private payer. He considers the form and content of prayers handed down over the centuries, prayer and human nature, our understanding of the church, the varying formulas of prayer in different spiritual traditions, symbolism and gesture, prayer as work and play, wordless prayer, and much more--all with the aim of learning from the past for the needs of today. Truly breathtaking in its scope, this important study deserves its reputation as a contemporary spiritual classic.

The origins and development of the Divine Office are traced through both Eastern and Western branches of the Church, providing a wealth of historical and liturgical information. From the small beginnings of a few Christians in New Testament Jerusalem, the prayer of the Church spread, changing and evolving as it met and was assimilated by different cultures. This classic study is a major resource for the liturgical scholar.

This volume is a collection of ten articles published between 2009 and 2016 by Mark Dickens on the Assyrian Church of the East in Central Asia, along with a new article on Mar Yahbalaha III, the only Turkic patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East. Most articles deal with the textual evidence for Syriac Christianity in Central Asia, including six on Christian manuscript fragments from Turfan (China) and two on gravestone inscriptions from Semirechye (Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan). As the volume title indicates, these articles remind us of the centuries-long presence of the Assyrian Church of the East at the centre of the Asian continent, now all but forgotten due to the general scarcity of sources from which this history can be reconstructed.

Excerpt from East Syrian Daily Offices If these prayers can in any way add to the body of modern devotional literature any fresh element which may correct some popular ten dencies, it will be a further gain to the Church. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This reference work incorporates the insights and expertise of leading liturgists and scholars of liturgy at work today, comprising 200 entries on important topics in the field, from vestments and offertories to ordination and divine unction. It is systematically organized and alphabetically arranged for ease of use. It also includes comprehensive bibliographies and reading lists, to bring the work fully up to date and to encourage further reading and research

The Psalms, initially shaped by the experience of Israel, have expressed religious impulses of both Jews and Christians across the centuries. Essays from a spectrum of disciplines demonstrate how the Psalms have functioned over time in these communities of conviction.