THE FESTAL MENAION, by Bishop Kallistos Ware and Mother Mary (traditional English)
So voluminous are the Orthodox service books that it will require many years of work by different translators before a full English version is made available. So far as our own contribution is concerned, we have chosen to begin with the Twelve Great Feasts, which — next to the supreme festival of
Easter — occupy a place of outstanding importance within the Orthodox calendar. Orthodox calendar. This book contains the special offices for nine of the twelve: of these nine, all are ‘fixed’, that is, occurring upon the same date each year, and the texts for all nine are found in the same set of service books, the Menaia. The remaining three of the Great Feasts are ‘movable’, and depend on the date of Easter.
There is little necessity to underline the profound significance, both devotionally and theologically, of the feasts included in this volume. It contains the texts for Christmas, Epiphany, the Annunciation, and the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple (the ‘Meeting’), which express the true Orthodox faith concerning the Incarnation of the Saviour. It contains the office of the Transfiguration, which is essential for any proper understanding of the Orthodox doctrine of ‘Divine Light’ and mystical prayer. It contains the office for the Exaltation of the Cross, which deserves to be studied with care by all who imagine that Orthodoxy concentrates solely upon the risen Christ, to the neglect of Christ crucified. It contains the services for the Nativity of the Holy Virgin, for her Entry into the Temple and her Dormition: without a knowledge of these three offices, it is impossible to appreciate the true character of Orthodox devotion to the Mother of God.
The texts for each feast are here given in full. This has been a fundamental principle in our work. We have not sought to make a selection, using our own private judgement to decide what is of greater or lesser importance: but we have attempted to render in its integrity all that stands written in the Greek and Slavonic service books. [From the Introduction]
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