Constantine, Byzantium and Monasticism
Constantine
“In 312 an event occurred which utterly transformed the outward situation of the church. As he was riding with his army through France, the Emperor Constantine looked up into the sky and saw a cross of light in front of the sun. With the cross there was an inscription: In this sign conquer.” (The Orthodox Church, Timothy Ware)
The Great Schism, the Protestant Reformation and the Church Today
In this brief lesson, we will cover a span of nearly a thousand years. Obviously much more study would be required to have a comprehensive understanding of church history but our purpose here is to highlight the main events which have led to the current state of Christianity in the world today.
There are eight tones. Most of the liturgies of the church are chanted using these tones.
Each tone has a special melody. The melody used to chant different parts of the liturgy are indicated by the tone number.
Resurrectional Troparia apply specific lyrics to particular tones. Each week, the resurrectional tone is sung at a designated place in the Divine Liturgy.
Your tomb was sealed with a stone by the _ Jews, and the sold-iers guard-ed Your most pure bo _-dy: yet You a-rose on the third day, O Sav _-iour, Giv _ _ _-ing life to the world. The heav-en-ly pow-ers cried out to you, O Giv-er of _ Life: Glo-ry to Your res-ur-rec-tion, O _ Christ! Glo-ry to Your King-dom! Glo-ry to Your plan of sal-va-tion, for You a-lone _ love man _-kind.
