Saturday 28 December 2013

What can Slavonic do for us?




The answer to the question, what can Slavonic do for us is simple. It can help unite us as Christians.  If you look at the main languages of  Christianity you will find that they are, (in alphabetical order), Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Latin and Slavonic.The use of these languages can unite us in a way that overcomes lines on a map.

Also there is something to be said for a language that doesn't change too much with time.   We live in  an era of great change that occurs very fast and often there isn't time to fully appreciate the full impact some of the changes we make to language has.  There is something special too to have a language just reserved for worship of God.
Some people will say that you need to know what is going on in church, you need to understand it. My answer to that is that at first its good to "just be" present during the Divine Liturgy and then later when you are ready to find copies of the Divine liturgy in Slavonic and your own language.

It can be difficult to learn a new language and anyone who knows me knows that I am no linguist.
Pages like this http://www.utexas.edu which cover the basics of Slavonic leave me cold.  I have found it easier to learn Slavonic through liturgical music.
For those of you who want more detail of Our Father in Slavonic a very good link is here http://www.halfwayproductions.com .

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