SINGING AND PRAYER - WAYS OF CULTIC EXPRESSION
SINGING AND PRAYER - WAYS OF CULTIC EXPRESSION

Summary/Abstract: This study entitled "Singing and prayer - ways of cultic expression", aims to show how the two modes of expression of the divine worship are found in the holy services of orthodoxy and also the special role they play both in the process of assimilating teachings of faith and to the elevation of the soul to God. The word (speech) - prerogative of the human being - is the most expressive and, at the same time, the most used means of expressing religious ideas and feelings, which form the basis and source of the divine cult. Within the cult, it is used either in the common form of current speech - as in sermon, in Bible readings, etc., - or transposed into the higher forms of literary art - as in poetry, that is, in religious song - either in the pathetic form of driven by feeling invocation, as in prayer. Liturgical prayers and religious chants, when spoken or sung, as the case may be, with humility and godliness, enhance the mystical and catechetical character of the Holy Liturgy and the services in general, helping both to acquire the teachings of faith and to elevate the soul towards God, through prayer and song, thus leading the believers to His saving knowledge. At the same time, singing and prayer remain the main forms or modes of expression of Orthodox cultic language.

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