Typical Psalms

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The Typical Psalms are Psalms 102 (103), “Bless the Lord, O My Soul”, and 145 (146), “Praise the Lord, O My Soul,” which may be included in either the Divine Liturgy (in Slavic practice, and in Byzantine monastic practice) or the Typika. In the context of the liturgy, these Psalms form the first two antiphons along with Only-begotten Son. The third antiphon (which is also included in the Typika) is the Beatitudes.

If the service is a Weekday Simple Service, with no directions in the Menaion concerning the Beatitudes, Psalms 91, 92, and 94, or simple antiphons taken from them, are sung instead.

Each antiphon is followed by the Little Litany, except in the use of New Skete Monastery. The priest says a prayer during the antiphons and Litany, which at New Skete is said aloud instead of the Litany. These prayers are identical in the Divine Liturgies of St. John Chrysostom, St. Basil the Great, and the seldom used Liturgy of St. Peter, however, they differ in the 1893 edition of the Divine Liturgy of St. Mark published by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria (the synaxis of which is otherwise identical to that of the liturgies of St. John and St. Basil).

When the Presanctified Liturgy is served, four antiphons, consisting of variable psalms, are sung, and the priestly prayers for each are the Fourth through the Seventh Lamplighting Prayers from Vespers (as the Presanctified Liturgy is a vesperal liturgy). In some parishes the Presanctified Liturgy follows the Typika.


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