Books for Public Worship

First of all, it is necessary to know that in order to compose a single service for any day of the year, it is necessary to use several books. This is because in the composition of each service one is constant, is an unchangeable part of the given service, and the other changes on different days of the week and on different days of the year. It would be impossible to set forth all this unchangeable and changeable in one book, because the divine services change daily depending on the sacred commemorations and commemorations of the holy saints of God celebrated by the Church. Therefore, in some books the unchangeable parts of the divine service are set forth, and in others those that change depending on the various fixed and movable feasts. The books relating to public worship are as follows:

Missal

It is a book that sets forth the unchangeable parts of the daily service, and exactly what priests and deacons should say and do. The service book contains the service of Vespers, Matins, the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great, the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, and additional sections, such as: a collection of dismissals, prokeimena, menologion, and at the end the Teaching News, which explains how the clergy should act in various perplexing cases of divine services.

Clerk of the Episcopal Priesthood

This is the same Service Book, but appointed for the use of bishops who perform divine services with an indication of all the features of the episcopal service. In addition to the rites of the three liturgies, it contains the rites of ordination to various ecclesiastical degrees and the rite of consecration of the Antimensions.

Book of Hours

This is a book that contains invariable parts of the daily service, except for the Liturgy, for use by readers and singers on the kliros. It sets forth the rite of the Midnight Office, Matins, the First, Third, Sixth and Ninth Hours, Vespers and Compline Great and Small.

The Book of Hours received its name from the exposition of the order of the hours in it. The Book of Hours also contains an additional part, in different editions of different content. Usually there are morning prayers, read before the Midnight Office, the rite of elevation of the panagia, the blessing of the meal, the canon to the Theotokos paraclesis, compiled by the monk Theostirictus, prayers for the coming sleep, troparia and kontakia, the Theotokos, which conclude the singing of troparia and stichera. In the Great Book of Hours, the Menologion is also appended. The Lesser Book of Hours is an abbreviation of the Great Hours. These abbreviations apply only to add-ons.

Octoechos, or Osmoglasnik

Octoechos comes from the Greek οκτω – eight and ηχος – voice. This book, which usually consists of two parts, contains prayers arranged in all eight tones (or melodies), which are sung at various church services of the weekly cycle, that is, changing depending on the day of the week, for each day of the week is devoted to its own special memories. The order of the altered services set forth in the Octoechos is as follows: the Sunday service of the first tone, the service of Monday of the first tone, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, then the Sunday service of the second tone, the service of Monday of the second tone, Tuesday and so on until Saturday, then the Sunday service of the third tone, the service of Monday of the third tone... and so on, in the same sequence, all the weekly services for all eight tones. The singing of all eight tones over the course of eight weeks is called a "pillar" in the Church Ustav. There are six such pillars sung in the church liturgical year. The singing of the Octoechos begins on weekdays with the Sunday of All Saints after Pentecost and ends before Saturday of Meatfare Week. During the period of Great Lent, adjacent to it at the beginning of Cheese Week and at the end of Holy Week, as well as in the period from Pascha to Pentecost, the Octoechos is not sung on weekdays. On Sundays, the Octoechos is not sung, beginning with the Sunday of Vai and ending with the Sunday of All Saints. In addition, if the Twelve Great Feast of the Lord occurs on any Sunday or weekday, the singing of the Octoechos is also abandoned. The singing of the Octoechos is left on a weekday on which any feast of the Divine or holy takes place.

Menaion monthly, festive and common

The monthly Menaion from μηναιον = month contains variable prayers for all days of the year according to the dates of each month for fixed feasts (that is, those that always fall on certain days of a certain month). Therefore, in accordance with the number of months in the year, the Monthly Menaion consists of 12 books. At the end of each book, special hymns of the Theotokos are printed, or the so-called "dogmatics", the Sunday hymns of the Theotokos, sung after the stichera in verse, the Theotokos, sung, "when there is 'Glory' to the saint in the Menaion"; then the Dismissal of the Theotokos, sung after the troparia on Sundays and feast days, and the Theotokos of the Dismissal, sung on weekdays after the troparia.

In addition to the Monthly Menaion, there is also the so-called festive Menaion, or "Anthologion", or "Trephologion", "Flower Books", which contains selected from the Menaion of the Monthly Service of the Lord, the Mother of God and especially revered feasts in honor of some Saints.