A Little Gnostic Divine Office for Evening

Continuing from my post yesterday on my work toward a Gnostic Liturgy of the Hours, I put together a Little Gnostic Divine Office for evening again under the inspiration of the service for the same as found in the BCP. As an ecumenical service for Gnostics across different traditions, there are some further considerations to be made, especially in regards to the rotation of readings.

A Little Gnostic Divine Office for Evening

An Act of Confession

Officiant                   We have come before God and before you and before the ordinances of the Holy Church that we may receive pardon and penance for all our sins in thought, word and deed from our birth until now and we ask of God mercy and of you that you pray for us to the Holy Father of Mercy that He forgive us.

People                       Lord, have mercy.

Officiant                   By our tongues we fall into idle words, vain talk, mockery and malice, detraction of our brothers and sisters whom we are not worthy to judge nor to condemn their faults.

People                       Lord, have mercy.

Officiant                   For numerous are the sins by which we daily offend God, night and day, in thought, in word and deed, wittingly and unwittingly, and especially by the desires the evil spirits bring to us in the flesh which clothes us.

People                       Lord, have mercy.

Officiant                   May the almighty and ineffable God, have mercy on us, forgive us our short-comings and draw us nearer to the light of gnosis. Amen.

The Invitatory and Psalter

All stand

Officiant                   God, come to my assistance.

People                       Lord, make haste to help us.

Officiant and People

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as

it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

Except in Lent,    Alleluia    may be added.

O Gracious Light                                Phos hilaron

O gracious Light,

pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven,

O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!

 

Now as we come to the setting of the sun,

and our eyes behold the vesper light,

we sing thy praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Thou art worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices,

O Son of God, O Giver of life,

and to be glorified though all the worlds.

Then follows

The Psalm or Psalms Appointed

At the end of the Psalms is sung or said

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: *

as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

The Lessons

One or two lessons, as appointed, are read, the Reader first saying

A Reading (Lesson) from _______________.

A citation giving chapter and verse may be added.

After each Lesson the Reader may say

The Word of the Lord.
Answer                    Thanks be to God.

Or the Reader may say

Here ends the Lesson (Reading)

A Hymn of Grace for Gnosis            from the Hymns of Hermes

We give Thee grace, Thou highest and most excellent! For by Thy Grace we have received the so great Light of Thy own Gnosis. O holy Name, fit Name to be adored, O Name unique, by which God only must be blest through worship of our Sire, of Thee who deignest to afford to all a Father’s piety, and care, and love, and whatsoever virtue is more sweet than these, endowing us with sense, and reason, and intelligence;-with sense that we may feel Thee; with reason that we may track Thee out from appearances of things; with means of recognition that we may joy in knowing Thee.

Saved by Thy Power divine, let us rejoice that Thou hast shown Thyself to us in all Thy Fullness. Let us rejoice that Thou hast designed to consecrate us, still entombed in bodies, to Eternity.

For this is the sole festival of praise worthy of man-to know Thy Majesty.

We know Thee; yea, by the Single Sense of our intelligence, we have perceived Thy Light supreme,-O Thou True Life of life, O Fecund Womb that giveth birth to every nature!

We have known Thee, O Thou completely filled with the Conception from Thyself of Universal Nature! We have known Thee, O Thou Eternal Constancy!

Form the whole of this our prayer in worship of Thy Good, this favour only of Thy Goodness do we crave: that Thou wilt keep us constant in our Love-of-knowing- Thee, and let us ne’er be cut off from this kind of Life.

The Prayers

The People stand.

Officiant                   The Lord be with you.
People                       And also with you.
Officiant                   Let us pray.

The Lord’s Prayer

Officiant and People

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our tresspasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.

O Holy Mother                                    a 13^th Century Cathar prayer

Officiant and People

O Holy Mother

Rightful Queen of all the faithful souls

Who never erred

Who never lied

Follower of the rightful course

Who never doubted

Lest we should accept death

In the realm of the false god;

As we do not belong to this realm

And this realm is not ours:

Teach us Thy Gnosis

And to love what Thou lovest.

Amen.

Prayer of Thanksgiving                     from the Nag Hammadi Library

Officiant

The thanksgiving of one who attains to You is one thing: that we know You. We have known You, intellectual light. Life of life, we have known You. Womb of every creature, we have known You. Womb pregnant with the nature of the Father, we have known You.

People

Eternal permanence of the begetting Father, thus have we worshiped Your goodness. There is one petition that we ask: we would be preserved in knowledge. And there is one protection that we desire: that we not stumble in this kind of life. Amen

Then may be said

Let us bless the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Optionally, the Officiant may lead the Dance

The Hymn of Jesus & Dance

Officiant

I have recognized myself and gathered myself
together from all sides. I have sown no children to the ruler of
this world, but have torn up his roots;
I have gathered together my limbs that were scattered
abroad and I know thee who thou art.

Officiant

and People                Amen. Amen. Amen.

Officiant                   For the Logos danceth.

People                       Amen!

Officiant                   And the Sophia danceth.

People                       Amen.

Officiant                   The Ogdoad playeth to our dancing.

People                       Amen.

Officiant                   The Dodecad danceth above us.

People                       Amen.

Officiant                   The Heptad danceth with us.

People                       Amen.

Officiant                   Yea, and we all dance the dance!

Officiant

and People                He who danceth not, knoweth not
what is being done.
Officiant                     May we all within the All forever dance.

Officiant

and People               Amen. Amen. Amen.

At present the suggested format for readings is to loosely follow those outlined according to the A, B, C yearly cycle in the Revised Common Lectionary. Naturally, some variations will need to be modified as a more comprehensive liturgical format is innovated or used in accordance to one’s pre-existing Gnostic community.

The current format, according to the Revised Common Lectionary is as follows:

Year A:  2007-2008, 2010-2011, 2013-2014

Year B:  2008-2009, 2011-2012, 2014-2015

Year C:  2009-2010, 2012-2013, 2015-2016

Readings for the Gnostic Gospels can be chosen from those suggested in A Gnostic Book of Hours, combining the readings of Laudes, Prime, and Terce for the Morning Office and None, Vespers and Compline for the Evening Office. These, naturally, can change according to one’s specific liturgical tradition.

Ethiopic-inspired painting of St.Tekle Haimanot by Laura James

 

A Gnostic Divine Office

The other day, I got to thinking about how much of a role the liturgy of the hours played in my spiritual formation. Nearly every day while in college I would attend at least one of the prayer services lead by the monastic community at Saint Martin’s Abbey. After leaving college, I missed the prayer cycle and the liturgy and the communal worship and, as life would have it, ended up adapting the prayer services used in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. Naturally, as the heretic that I am, it left much to be desired for me as a Gnostic to be using a prayer service that didn’t have room for my own personal spiritual experience.

On a whim, I made a post asking members of one Gnostic community if there was anything in their tradition resembling the Liturgy of the Hours – sadly there was not, but fortunately for me I was pointed in a good direction to a book that I owned at one time, never really got around to reading and likely sold or gave to someone at some point. Perhaps this was all for the better. Reading through A Gnostic Book of Hours by June Singer has immediately filled a small void that I have been missing and has inspired me to create a more in-depth Gnostic Liturgy of the Hours combining elements from my experiences in Catholic contemplative prayer, Episcopal devotional service and my own Gnostic beliefs.

Below follows what I’m working with right now as a sort of, Gnostic Divine Office going largely off the model set forth for the Morning Service, Rite One in the Book of Common Prayer. Naturally, this is still very experimental at present, but I’m hoping it will develop into something more fluid and organic as time and practice allows.

A Gnostic Divine Office

The Invitatory and Psalter

All stand

Officiant          O Lord, open thou our lips.

People             And our mouths will proclaim your praise.

Officiant and People

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as
it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Except in Lent,    Alleluia    may be added.

Then follows the Venite or Jubilate.

Venite                                    Psalm 95:1-7

O come, let us sing unto the Lord; *
let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving *
and show ourselves glad in him with psalms.

For the Lord is a great God, *
and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the corners of the earth, *
and the strength of the hills is his also.
The sea is his, and he made it, *
and his hands prepared the dry land.

O come, let us worship and fall down, *
and kneel before the Lord our Maker.
For he is the Lord our God, *
and we are the people of his pasture
and the sheep of his hand.

O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; *
let the whole earth stand in awe of him.
For he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth, *
and with righteousness to judge the world
and the peoples with his truth.

Jubilate                                 Psalm 100

Be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands; *
serve the Lord with gladness
and come before his presence with a song.

Be ye sure that the Lord he is God; *
it is he that hath made us and we ourselves;
we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.

O go your way into his gates with thanksgiving
and into his courts with praise; *
be thankful unto him and speak good of his Name.

For the Lord is gracious;
his mercy is everlasting; *
and his truth endureth from generation to generation.

Bread of Heaven                The Gospel of Philip

“Before Christ came, there was no bread in the world, just as Paradise, the place were Adam was, had many trees to nourish the animals but no wheat to sustain man. Man used to feed like the animals, but when Christ came, the perfect man, he brought bread from heaven in order that man might be nourished with the food of man. The rulers thought that it was by their own power and will that they were doing what they did, but the Holy Spirit in secret was accomplishing everything through them as it wished. Truth, which existed since the beginning, is sown everywhere. And many see it being sown, but few are they who see it being reaped.”

Then follows

The Psalm or Psalms Appointed

At the end of the Psalms is sung or said

Officiant                Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: *
People                   As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

The Lessons

One or two lessons, as appointed, are read, the Reader or Officiant first saying

A Reading (Lesson) from _______________.

A citation giving chapter and verse may be added.

After each Lesson the Reader may say

Officiant               The Word of the Lord.
People                   Thanks be to God.

Or the Reader may say        Here endeth the Lesson (Reading).

Silence may be kept after each Reading. One of the following Hymns is sung or said after
each Reading. If three Lessons are used, the Lesson from the Gospel is
read after the second Canticle.

Hymn to the Living Soul                  A Manichaean hymn in Parthian.

You, oh Soul, would we praise, our bright Life!

You would we praise, Jesus Messiah!

Merciful savior, look upon us!

Worthy are you to honor , redeemed Soul of Light!

Salvation to you, and may we also receive salvation!

Worthy are you of the Soul of Light, bright shining limb of Light.

You have salvation, bright Soul of the gods that shines in the darkness.

You sons of Truth, praise the Soul, the valiant god eager for battle.

This fettered Soul has arrived, gathered in unity

Coming forth from heaven and from the depths of the earth,

And from all creation.

Meritorious and blessed is the auditor who gathers the Soul

together, And blissful is the elect who purifies it.

This redeemed Soul has come,

It has come to this Church of Righteousness.

Praise it forever, you elect,

So that it may wondrously purify me

And lead me to life.

Blessed are you, oh Soul, you with the divine form!

Blessed are you, oh Soul, weapon and battlement of the gods,

Blessed are you, radiant Soul,

Splendor and glory of the … Worlds of Light!

Blessed are you, divine radiant Soul,

Weapon and might, soul and body, gift of the Father of Light.

 

A Triple Trisagion                  from the Hymns of Hermes

Holy art Thou, O God, the Universals’ Father.

Holy art Thou, O God, Whose Will perfects itself by means of its own Powers.

Holy art Thou, O God, Who willest to be known and art known by Thine own.

Holy art Thou, Who didst by Word make to consist the things that are.

Holy art Thou, of Whom All-nature hath been made an Image.

Holy art Thou, Whose Form Nature hath never made.

Holy art Thou, more powerful than all power.

Holy art Thou, transcending all preeminence.

Holy art Thou, Thou better than all praise.

Accept my reason’s offerings pure, from soul and heart for aye stretched up to Thee,

O Thou unutterable, unspeakable, Whose Name naught but the  Silence can express!

Give ear to me who pray that I may ne’er of Gnosis fail — Gnosis which is our common being’s nature — and fill me with Thy Power, and with this Grace of Thine, that I may give the Light to those in ignorance of the Race, my Brethren and Thy Sons!

For this cause I believe, and I bear witness. I go to Life and Light. Blessed art Thou, O Father. Thy Man would holy be as Thou art holy, e’en as Thou gavest him Thy full authority to be.

Excerpta ex Theodoto

What makes us free is the gnosis of who we were, of what we have become; of where we were, of wherein we have been cast; of whereto we speed, of wherefrom we are redeemed; of what birth truly is, and of what rebirth truly is.

The Prayers

The Lord’s Prayer

The People stand or kneel

Officiant      The Lord be with you.
People        And also with you.
Officiant      Let us pray.

Officiant and People

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our tresspasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

We give thanks to You! Every soul and heart is lifted up to You, undisturbed name, honored with the name ‘God’ and praised with the name ‘Father’, for to everyone and everything (comes) the parental kindness and affection and love, and any teaching there may be that is sweet and plain, giving us mind, speech, and knowledge: mind, so that we may understand You, speech, so that we may expound You, knowledge, so that we may know You. We rejoice, having been illuminated by Your knowledge. We rejoice because You have shown us Yourself. We rejoice because while we were in (the) body, You have made us divine through Your knowledge.

The thanksgiving of one who attains to You is one thing: that we know You. We have known You, intellectual light. Life of life, we have known You. Womb of every creature, we have known You. Womb pregnant with the nature of the Father, we have known You. Eternal permanence of the begetting Father, thus have we worshiped Your goodness. There is one petition that we ask: we would be preserved in knowledge. And there is one protection that we desire: that we not stumble in this kind of life.

Then may be said

Officiant                 Let us bless the Lord.
The People            Thanks be to God.

As a note, at present I’m simply using the readings as assigned according to the Revised Common Lectionary for the readings from the Hebrew Scriptures and the synoptic Gospels. In place of the epistle (typically the second reading), I’ve been using the suggested readings from Singer’s A Gnostic Book of Hours to round things out according to her model of following the Liturgy of the Hours cycle.

An Ethiopian "Magic Scroll"

A Gnostic Rosary

A few weeks ago after attending Gnostic Mass at Horizon Lodge, a brother of mine in Ordo Templi Orientis commented on how I inspire him by the importance I place on living prayerfully. I know – one of the last things one would associate with a heretic. The fact remains, however, prayer is such a strongly engrained practice from my life and throughout my spiritual experiences, I can’t think of living without it as a natural response to life’s blessings and banes and all the events in-between. The particular brother in question is likewise someone I admire deeply for his dedication to yoga and his participation in a local Sikh community in addition to identifying as a Thelemite or Thelemic Gnostic. Likewise, although I am a Thelemite through and through, my experience of Thelema is informed through the lens of being first and foremost a Gnostic and for me a very big part of that experience is spent in prayer and meditation.

Growing up in a Catholic house-hold, the rosary was a very common part of my family’s (well, paternal grandmother’s) religiosity. During a brief stint in participating in a local Episcopal community, I was introduced to the Anglican prayer beads which I took up with a passion and still hold to this day. As described in the Wikipedia and King of Peace website, the Anglican, or Ecumenical rosary consists of thirty-three beads divided into groups. There are four groups consisting of seven beads with additional separate and larger beads separating the groups. The number thirty-three signifies the number of years that Christ lived on the Earth, while the number seven signifies wholeness or completion in the faith, the days of creation, and the seasons of the Church year.

Unlike the typical Dominican rosary which has the beads arranged in five groups of ten beads, or ‘decades’, the Ecumenical rosary is organized in four groups of seven beads called ‘weeks’. The typically larger beads between the weeks are referred to as ‘cruciform’ beads. When the rope or group of beads is opened into a circular shape, these particular beads form the points of a cross within the circle of the set; hence the term “cruciform.” After the cross on Ecumenical prayer bead sets is a single bead termed the “invitatory” bead, giving the total of thirty-three. The beads used are made of a variety of materials, such as precious stones, wood, colored glass, or even dried and painted seeds.

Unlike the traditional rosary used by Roman Catholics, which focuses on the seminal events in the life of Christ and asks the Virgin Mary to pray for their intentions, Anglican prayer beads are most often used as a tactile aid to prayer and as a counting device. The standard ecumenical set consists of the following pattern, starting with the cross, followed by the Invitatory Bead, and subsequently, the first Cruciform bead, moving to the right, through the first set of seven beads to the next Cruciform bead, continuing around the circle. He or she may conclude by saying the Lord’s Prayer on the invitatory bead and/or a final prayer on the cross as in the examples below. The entire circle may be done thrice, which signifies the Holy Trinity.

In many ways, I feel that the ecumenical rosary is a good middle-ground between the Dominican Rosary and the traditional, Orthodox, prayer rope and can be used in a similar way to the latter as an aid in contemplative meditation or Hesychastic practice with the added benefit of being versatile enough that different prayers can be substituted according to different themes. Below is the prayer cycle that I use in my personal practice based off readings from the Hymns of Hermes, as translated by G.R.S. Mead:

Sign of the Cross

In the name of the Unknown Father, in Truth, Mother of all,

in union and redemption and sharing of the powers,

peace to all on whom this name reposes.

The Invitatory

He is the God beyond all name-He the unmanifest, he the most manifest;

He whom the mind alone can contemplate, He visible unto the eyes as well.

He is the one of no body, the one of many bodies, nay, rather, He of everybody.

The Weeks

From Thee Thy Will; To Thee the All.

The Cruciforms

Holy art Thou, Lord of the Universe.

Holy art Thou, whom Nature hath not formed.

Holy art Thou, The Vast and Mighty One.

Lord of the Light and of the Darkness.

The Hymn of Gnosis (from the Triple Trisagion)

Accept my reason’s offerings pure, from soul and heart for aye stretched up to Thee, O Thou unutterable, unspeakable, Whose Name naught but the  Silence can express!

 Give ear to me who pray that I may ne’er of Gnosis fail — Gnosis which is our common being’s nature — and fill me with Thy Power, and with this Grace of Thine, that I may give the Light to those in ignorance of the Race, my Brethren and Thy Sons!

For this cause I believe, and I bear witness. I go to Life and Light. Blessed art Thou, O Father. Thy Man would holy be as Thou art holy, even as Thou gavest him Thy full authority to be.

The Cross

Saved by Thy Power divine, let us rejoice that Thou hast shown Thyself to us in all Thy Fullness. Let us rejoice that Thou hast designed to consecrate us, still entombed in bodies, to Eternity. Amen.

I’ve found the tactile experience of using prayer beads to be a powerful adjunct to meditation or prior to my personal practice of Lectio Divina. Naturally, as mentioned above, the sets of prayers can be modified to suit one’s personal practice or even changed seasonally in a way reflective of the Dominican rosary’s meditation on the Mysteries in the life of Christ and Mary.

A Season for Krampus

As I have written in previous entries, I am and remain a very strong supporter of the Occupy movement and what it represents as the largest and most diverse social, economic and civil rights demonstration of the past sixty years. While some may argue that it is too slap-dash and incapable of formulating a coherent set of demands, it is important to consider that it is a peoples’ movement and there are a lot of questions and concerns and demands on the plate that still need to be sorted out. Discussing politics is, however, not the purpose of this essay – instead I want to talk a little bit about Krampus.

Krampus vs. Guy Fawkes

Since the beginning of the Occupy movement, the most iconic image has been supporters and demonstrators wearing Guy Fawkes masks reminiscent of the one worn by the anti-hero “V” in the recent film, V for Vendetta based on a graphic novel of the same name by Alan Moore. While I am definitely a big fan of the message of the film itself and think that there are many symbolic elements that can be utilized by participants in the Occupy, one must invariably consider that Guy Fawkes is something of a failed symbol in many ways despite the rehabilitation effort on part of the character, “V”.

The original Guy Fawkes, a British soldier and citizen, belonged to a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605 that was aimed at destroying the British Parliament and re-instating Catholic interests in post-Reformation England. Fawkes as inevitably discovered and was subject to trial during which he and his co-conspirators were to be “put to death halfway between heaven and earth as unworthy of both”, their genitals mutilated and burnt before their eyes, their internal organs removed, their heads decapitated, and what remains survived be put on display as “prey for the fowls of the air”. Fawkes was the last to stand on the scaffold. He asked for forgiveness of the King and state, while keeping up his “crosses and idle ceremonies”, and aided by the hangman began to climb the ladder to the noose. Although weakened by torture, Fawkes managed to jump from the gallows, breaking his neck in the fall and thus avoiding the agony of the latter part of his execution. In short, he died and celebration of his death continues in England to this day in which his effigies are placed on public display every November 5^th amidst chanting and celebration and publicly burned.

Guy Fawkes on Fire

Krampus, on the other hand, is an interesting symbol whose origins from the European Alpine region are largely shrouded in mystery.  In these regions, Krampus is represented by a demon-like creature accompanying Saint Nicholas, whose job it is to dole out frighten and doll out punishments to naughty girls and boys during the Christmas season. Throughout many cities in Switzerland, Austrai and Southern Bavaria, especially the market town Berchtesgaden; young men dress up as Krampus on the evening of the fifth of December and roam the streets frightening children with rusty chains and bells with the hopes of encouraging them to engage in more responsible behavior throughout the rest of the season and the year to come.

Krampus holding the torch

While there are many good reasons for members of the Occupy movement to related to the rehabilitated image of Guy Fawkes/”V”, I am personally convinced that the image of Krampus could potentially be a much more effective iconic symbol of the Occupy movement, especially in the coming weeks leading up to Christmas which is arguably one of the biggest and most lucrative times of year for large banking institutions and corporations that have been shown to have connections to less-than-equitable business practices. Krampus represents responsibility and accountability for one’s actions while more than willing to punish those who engage in harmful practices – business and otherwise.

Krampus has a long history of political action

Even though the image of Krampus is decidedly punitive in nature – a symbol that many in Occupy would gladly see extended to plutocratic industries – it is also creative in origin in that everyone can embody Krampus and each person who don’s that mask and costume puts their own creative faculties and energy into becoming something that is unique and individual and cannot be recreated or pre-packaged. Krampus very much represents community involvement on a highly radical level, something that many Occupiers can appreciate. In addition to the homespun creativity put into making Krampus come to life, there is music, dancing, and community celebration in addition to food. These elements, which are traditional to pre-Coca Cola Christmastide are also values that can be extended throughout the rest of the year as a part of radical self-reliance and community engagement. As an agrarian, pre-Christian folk deity; Krampus’ horns equally represent fertility and the hope for real change in the darkest part of Winter through the Spring.

For the above reasons, I propose the following “Top Five Reasons Why Krampus is Better Than Guy Fawkes” with the hopes that other readers will contribute their reasons in the comments:

Top Five Reasons Krampus is Better Than Guy Fawkes

• Encourages radical community involvement.
• Actually aims to punish wrong-doings.
• Horns are much scarier than a mask and pantaloons.
• Makes reasonable demands.
• Hasn’t been usurped by Time Warner and was never a Papist tool.

While arguing over which symbol is better is arguably childish, the fact is that symbols do have their own peculiar power and can be used by those who seek to make radical changes. I’m not saying that Guy Fawkes/”V” is a bad symbol per se, however I personally feel that Krampus would be a more effective symbol for the needs and goals of the Occupy movement which, hopefully, could provide a little bit of levity as we enter into the darkest part of the year – both in terms of decreasing daylight and the overwhelming suffering brought upon millions by depression, mass-consumerism and a culture addicted to personal gain over community involvement.