22. Evergetis - Dumbarton Oaks

ELEVENTH CENTURY
as he says, “Forgive me in the Lord, brothers, for I have sinned in word, deed, and in thought,” and
you should grant him forgiveness saying, “May God forgive you, father.” But you also should
immediately beg this from him by adding, “Forgive us also yourself, honored father, for we have
sinned in deed, word, and in thought,” then again he should pray for you and say, “May God
through the prayers of our fathers forgive you all.”
Then standing up and according him the required obeisance, you should go away to your cells
and carry out your night office in accordance with the regulation, and then full of gratitude and
spiritual joy you should turn to sleep until the one who is in charge of the clock 11 learns from it the
appropriate hour and goes to the superior, and receiving from him the required blessing then
shouts out with a loud voice in a rhythmic fashion, “Bless, O saints.” Then when he has struck the
semantron in the customary way and distributed lights to all, he will rouse you for the celebration
of the midnight office which he himself will also sing all the time as he carries out the prescribed
lighting of the church, and then when he has sounded the great semantron and the bronze one also,
he will call you all for the dawn worship, the preliminary part of which you must carry out as
follows.
For after the striking of the bronze semantron praise should be ascribed to God by the priest
who has the duty for the day, and as he praises God he should at once with the censer make the
sign of the venerable cross 12 in front of the holy table; and you replying “Amen,” should immediately
sing a trisagion together with the nineteenth and twentieth psalms and the usual troparia and
the Kyrie eleison, taking care to keep together as far as is reasonable while these are being sung.
The priest himself should go round all the divine church and cense everyone, and then, standing
before the holy screen, when he has once more made the sign of the venerable cross with the
censer, with the censing he should offer up praise to the all-holy Trinity, speaking audibly as
follows, “Glory to the holy and consubstantial and life-giving Trinity always, now and always and
for ever and ever, amen.” After replying “Amen” the ecclesiarch should at once begin the six
psalms, saying the words of the psalms in a low voice slowly, quietly, and carefully so that all may
then be able to recite them without error or stumbling. Then after the completion of the six psalms,
the whole office of matins [p. 29] should next be celebrated as the synaxarion describes. 13 That
constitutes the pattern of your daily office.
7. Concerning life-preserving confession.
We must also speak about life-preserving confession and the discourse about the table must wait
for a while. Well then, the superior must sit in a private place twice a day, and leaving aside all
other work whatsoever and all the trouble of managing and directing, must take most diligent care
to hear those who wish to make confession and set for each one the appropriate healing. We
specify that after the reciting of the psalms at matins has begun there should be one time when he
will bring healing to those who live continuously in the monastery and are not employed in any
ministries; and after compline he will bring healing to those ministering inside or outside who are
present. He is to be allowed, if perhaps he cannot act in person since the brotherhood is numerous,
to authorize whichever priests and deacons he wishes, and even some of the more reverent brothers,
to hear the thoughts of the more uneducated majority, the thoughts that trouble us day by day
and hour by hour which must always be easy to absolve and not have caused more deep-seated
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