Services in the Syrian Orthodox Church are conducted in Syriac, an ancient language similar to what Jesus spoke. Below is the text of the Lord's Prayer in Syriac. Listen to Father Tony Kasih, a Syrian Orthodox priest in Zaidal, Syria, sing the Lord's Prayer in Syriac.
Beautiful. Have a listen!
4 comments:
I LOVE IT!
Don't know whether you know this, but I was baptized as a Maronite Catholic - that is, Lebanese! (Right next door to Syria.) Much of their Masses are conducted in Aramaic (which I suspect is very close to Syriac); we even had the priest who baptized me co-celebrate at our wedding.
So that chant sounded very... ancestrally familiar. Thank you.
There's a Maronite Catholic Church a few blocks from my parish. I've always wanted to check it out. And I hear they have an awesome Lebanese dinner each year!
He he he -- Syriac is very close to Aramaic indeed as it's actually a dialect of Aramaic. :)
While it's not a particularly Catholic text (though he did used to teach at a Catholic college), Neil Douglas-Klotz has a really great translation of the Our Father from the Aramaic in Prayers of the Cosmos. It will feel very "New Agey" to many but having studied Hebrew (a little) and Arabic (a little more), it does make a bit of sense to me. And on a devotional level it's been really helpful.
What Michelle said! I just learned tonight that Syriac is an Aramaic dialect. So Jesus would have understood it, no doubt about it.
And do check out the dinner. Might it be for Easter, the very best and appropriate time to make lamb? (Make sure it's cooked. Seriously.)
Post a Comment