What Does the Deacon Say? About the Lost Litanies, Part I
I am often asked, especially by those who attend Byzantine liturgies, if Maronite deacons used to have any more prayers or exhortations than they currently do in the missal that we use today - and this is a very good question! The role of the deacon, as his role suggests, is to serving at the altar, and an important aspect of serving is prayer and direction. Throughout the history of Christianity, the deacon both helped the priest offer the liturgy, as well as instructed, admonished and exhorted the faithful.
The 2005 missal we now use was put together largely based on the 1992 edition. The original 1992 edition, in fact, mentions the three litanies proper to the deacon that vary based on the occasion (eg a Wednesday, the Feast of the Holy Cross, memorial of a departed, etc). The three litanies serve an important function, such as linking the particular occasion to the purpose of offering the Eucharist, as well as pray for the priest making the offering, who would otherwise not be prayed for. These three litanies are ancient in their attestation - Dionysius bar Salibi, for example, mentions in his commentary on the liturgy already that by his time in the 12th century his contemporaries no longer used the first litany, which Maronites continued to use until the current missal. But it seems that it was never the current Maronite missal’s intention to remove these litanies! In fact, the 1992 introduction mentions these three proclamations - the Post-Gospel (ܟܪܙܘܬܐ), the median during the sign of peace (ܡܨܥܝܬܐ), and the last one during the fraction (ܒܪܕܝܩܝ). In fact, the current and official missal promulgated in Arabic actually recommends that the fraction proclamation be sung - curiously, this rubric was removed in the English translation.
The first of these litanies occurs at the conclusion of the Gospel. This first litany, following the Scriptures, often logically has a scriptural theme that directly ties whatever liturgical occasion is being celebrated with the Scriptures. Below is an example of the proclamation on a Sunday. The proclamation always begins and ends with the same two verses - an exhortation to stand and pray before God, and a concluding petition that God have mercy on those who pray. The intervening verses for Sunday synthesize the events of Scripture on Sunday - which, in Semitic languages, literally means “day one” (ܚܕ ܒܫܒܐ). The proclamation ties together the events of Sunday: the first day of creation when God separated the dark from the light (Gen. 1:1-5), the Resurrection Christ from the dead (Mark 16:1-8), and Pentecost (Acts 2:1-12). The recounting of these events is not simply a historical recollection, but calling to mind the realities we now live fully in the mysteries at hand in the liturgy: God’s expulsion of darkness, His creation of light, His destruction of Satan and Death’s power, His rising from the dead, and His sending of the Holy Spirit upon us. In that confidence, we can stand before Him and ask for mercy, proceeding with our liturgy.
