Preliminary Translation (Thanks Hoda)
About the Christian Hymns and their characteristics
- Music has an effect in life, we hear many types. for example,
therapy, army, and even music with movement like ballet.
there are 3 Charactristcs of hymns
1) For knowledge and teaching:
take something that already excises and make it a song. for example: the bible books song
A story with music ( kan fi 3n2od 3enab)
2) Spiritual fellowship,
spiritual meetings (kayfa ansa)
quite time
3) Hymns for spiritual unity
when my feelings and deep emotions are united with Jesus
for example like pope shenouda's hymns (kalby al kayak)
these are the hymns that we use a lot at prayer meetings (min al omk ya Rabi) these hymns are best in prayer (min el 23mak ya Raby)
there are hymns that has all three ideas in it, for example (kensty ken sty) all our children and us love it.
-i can't say there are orthodox, protosant or catholic hymns, these characteristics are not easily defined.
- i feel that the hymns should be suitable for our church that has great heritage 150 hymns with great music.
there are 3 characteristics for an orthodox hymn,
1) Sprit of worship: the hymn should bestow reverence. the spirit of reverence, it should bestow humbleness. thats the first characteric that is very important.
2) bestows joy: does not have a slow rhythm.
-Depending on the type of service at church:
-children
-elderly
-youth
-workers
-even in our hymns for the good friday (al gomaa al azeema) it ends up with joy. in its deepest sorrow it gives us joy when we pray the 6th hour, "thank you for fillings with joy.
-it bestows joy. even in the psalms you find Allulia alot.
3) the spirit of the fellowship of church.:
- the triangle of the spiritual life is between God, the church and me.
-in the Protestant church the church is not involved in their relation. it is only between God and me. hence no securements .
- How to use our hymn to fill the brains and eyes of our children from a very young age.
ex psalm 151: it is a great church hymn and the children can learn it at a very young age.
- parts of saturday's psali, give joy to our spirit. its full of joy and its from the depth of our church.
- the conclusion of prayers: our lord jesus christ.
-Morning doxology, has a lot of parts. it is amazing when said in a youth meeting and it conveys the original orthodox spirit.
-these are small signs on how hymns and how the church could be agreeing and suitable for our service.
-the hymn is orthodox when combined with church and the spirit of someone who put the words and music and the style to be living in church. meaning when we listen to a hymn parts of it in arabic we feel that in the depth of the church because the origin of the hymn is orthodox at heart
they are discussing this idea on the level of songs that are coming out these days and the video clips etc… and the compare it to the old songs
the people in the world are discussing this idea, that the level of music is deteriorating.
we all need these two things,
1) that we put a spotlight and concentrate on the suitable hymns that we can use in all our meetings and fellowships.
i know one of the houses, the wake up in the morning and they have no time to pray from Agpya so they say the morning Doxology together in arabic. it gives them a joyful spirit, gives them the feeling of the fellowship of the saints and Jesus with them from the begging of the day.
2) considering the hymn that is originally coptic orthodox, its spirit is orthodox and its music is orthodox. it should have the knowledge, fellowship and unity with jesus
- in short these are general points for objective hymns.
-we should not forget that the hymns revisied by HG Bishop Moussa and HG Bishop Hedra. a lot of non-orthodox hymns pollutes our brain and makes us forgetful and far and can't feel anything.
loosing the feeling of the hymn and style of coptic orthodox.
For the fulfilling sermon,- HG Anba Bakhomios when he was talking he said a very nice meaning, he said " the weak sermon", really there are a lot of weak sermons. and if you go and ask someone who was listening to one, what was the sermon about today, he would reply " it was about prayer, fasting, kindness, giving, mercy and all the fruits of the spirit". " abouna was talking. the weak sermon is like weak food, doesn't fulfill the human or protect him and also he would have bad nutrition. bad nutrition and bad knowledge.
1) the sermon is different then the lecture. the lecture could be in any topic and any form, the sermon could only be about
2) topics: talking about Jesus charter spiritual, theological, dogma, church. the other point is that it would be pushing for repentance. no matter what the sermon is, or who are attending, or how will they understand. it has to be a talk about jesus characteristics and a push for repentance. our people and congregation love to understand because of that every sermon when i prepare it, first of all the knowledge that all the attendees have to know, and know this thing and remember it, this thing has to be defined and understood.
and when abouna Botros talk about the explanation of baptism, i should understand everything about the church.
