Din „rânduiala cea de taină“ a preotului (I): Rugăciunile de la utrenie şi semnificaţiile lor teologice, liturgice şi duhovniceşti

Abstract

Few Christians know that, apart from what it is seen in the church (movements, gestures or small liturgical rituals), the priest also performs secret ordinances, required by his status as a sanctified person and by the liturgical services. Some of these “secret ordinances” are prayers that the priest says in the Holy Altar, in parallel with the service that takes place in the church, without them being heard by the faithful.
Of these, in the present study, I have chosen to make a theological, liturgical, and spiritual analysis of the text of the prayers which the priest reads “in secret”, while the six psalms from the beginning of Matins are read aloud at the pew.
Apart from a few brief references by the priest professors Petre Vintilescu, Ene Branişte and Dumitru Stăniloae, in Romanian theology there is, so far, no analytical study on this topic.