Catholic Church is so vast and so rich that a complete version, within a reasonable, convenient compass, is utterly out of the question. Accordingly, I have selected those services which are generally used, and in- clude, practically, all that are ordinarily required. For instance, I have omitted even the skeleton of such services as the Midnight Service (Polunóshtchnitza), Little Vespers, the Blessing of a Ship (at launching), and many of a private nature, such as the Blessing of a Pectoral Cross, the Blessing when a Well is dug, and so forth.
In the original the Litanies, Prayers, and certain of the Hymns in the unchanging framework of the Liturgies, Vespers, Compline, and Matins are printed consecutively. The movable portions and specially appointed Hymns are inserted according to the rubrics, at the proper points, from various other volumes.
I have combined the fixed parts and have arranged them in such way as to show what takes place simultaneously within the Sanctuary and outside. I have also indicated the usual variations during Pontifical Services, Feasts, Fasts, and so forth, selecting these and the most important representative Hymns for various occasions from the numerous volumes in which they are dispersed.
For the sake of convenience, I have combined the Liturgies of St. John Chrysostom, St. Basil the Great, and the Pontifical Liturgy, thus avoiding repetition, but keeping them as distinct, otherwise, as in the original.
I have been obliged to leave the service for Vespers almost in a skeleton state, as it appears in the original service books (instead of filling it out, as in the case of the other services), because of its very great flexibility, which causes immensely wide variations dependent upon the seasons — the proximity of Fasts, Feasts, and so forth.
If in actual practice it shall prove desirable to have the more infrequent services (or others, which are abbreviated here) in fuller form, I shall endeavour to complete them, either in a new edition of the present work, should there be a demand for it, or in special volumes. In that case I shall hope to take advantage of all competent and unprejudiced criticism for the perfecting of a book which has long been so near my heart; also of any new translation into the Old Church-Slavonic, or revised edition of the Russian Service Books. In several cases I have preferred for this volume the older, rather than the more recent, editions.
It has seemed practical and advisable to retain the Slavonic nomenclature for the parts of the service, in addition to the corresponding English terms. Had I introduced the original Greek terms also, great confusion would have ensued. But the omission of the Greek is unimportant. Most of the Slavonic terms are sufficiently near those from which they were borrowed to make comprehension perfectly easy. In the exceptional cases there is no difficulty in determining the correspondence. Thus the book will be as useful for a comprehension of the Greek services as of those in the Slavonic countries.
