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Metanoias (metaniat) during the Holy 50 Days of Resurrection
I was wondering what the Coptic Orthodox practice is in regards to metanoias during the Holy 50 Days? Do we not do them at all during this time (in remembrance of the Resurrection)?
I was visiting a church during liturgy and I noticed that even during the bowings to the Holy Body and Blood of Christ, the deacons serving inside the altar did not bow down fully (although this is not technically considered a metanoia)...they just simply bowed their heads or at the waist slightly...is this the correct practice while serving at the altar as well?
Thanks
I was visiting a church during liturgy and I noticed that even during the bowings to the Holy Body and Blood of Christ, the deacons serving inside the altar did not bow down fully (although this is not technically considered a metanoia)...they just simply bowed their heads or at the waist slightly...is this the correct practice while serving at the altar as well?
Thanks
Comments
I instructed my own congregation not to make any metanias today but to bow. Indeed I was reading a homily of St John Chrysostom yesterday which described this as his own practice.
Do Copts tend to obey the canons which forbid prostrations in this season? Or do the canons get rather forgotten in view of people's habitual behaviour?
Father Peter
i suggest you climb lots of stairs so your muscles don't hurt when you start doing them again!
;)
i think you can still touch the ground and make the sign of the cross with a mid-waist bow, i hope someone corrects me if i'm wrong!
you can make up for the lack of metanoias and fasting by reading the Bible more and praying a lot :)
we don't prostrate during this season, everyone seems to know it. but lots of people don't know about not prostrating generally on sundays.
So for metanias or honor (communion), respect (to bishops, priests, even each other sometimes) and the taking of blessings (blessings from God after a reading or an action in church).....those are still going.
Canons are canons...despite what people will do. many don't know about them. many do and don't do them. many even know, understand and just don't do them.
What do you mean by saying that some prostrations are allowed. I can understand those directed in respect towards a bishop, as they are rather cultural, but it seems to me that the canons just forbid all prostrations in a religious sense.
What canonical basis is there for allowing prostrations and defining them as not being for repentance?
Does your congregation, for instance, prostrate during the absolutions this morning at the Raising of Incense? I did not allow my congregation to do so.
Fr Peter, nothing keeps us away from prostrating other than (and that is debatable too) receiving the holy mysteries.
the "mid-waist" bow is basically only done when we the deacons ask to "bow" rather than "worship.....i learned that from Anba David.
Why do you prostrate when the canons and tradition forbid it?
well that's what i have never been taught. i was taught that only prostrations of repentance are forbidden and that is caused by the fact that we are not fasting. this is like not prostrating on sundays of the years (when we always celebrate the Resurrection).
So did you prostrate this morning during the absolutions of the raising of incense?
i wasn't in liturgy....i am in school...and will be for the next week and half. but i would be if was there yes.
Well that does confuse me because it is a Sunday and it is the season of Pentecost and everything I have read says that Orthodox should not prostrate.
well a prostration (or a bow) during the absolution is needed to receive it. do books specify the type of the metania forbidden?
http://stpaulatlanta.org/images/Prostration_on_Sundays.pdf
Thanks
I am posting it all here as text because it is so important. The question I would like to know is when the practice changed since most other Orthodox Churches do not allow prostrations on Sundays and in this season, and clearly the Coptic Orthodox kept this universal tradition until the Middle Ages at least.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prostrations on Sundays
All the Church canons prohibit prostrations on Sundays for it is a day of joy.
Consequently, the Coptic Church’s rites, as mentioned in the original ritual books forbids prostrating, or making matanoiaon Saturdays, Sundays, Feasts, holy fifty days and the period between Christmas and the Theophany Baramoun, as well as, after communion.
This rite is most evident during Great Lent during the matins prayers. On Saturdays and Sundays the priest does not command “klinomen ta gonata”, but does so during the weekdays.
In all these periods, with no prostration, it is enough to bend forward or to kneel whenever the deacon commands to prostrate.
Following are quotations from the fathers, canons and the scholars describing what the early church used to practice. We shall also present quotes from medieval Coptic writers and scholars describing the Coptic rite.
St. Justin Martyr, 160
“And on the day called Sunday, all...gather together in one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits. Then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs and exhorts...Then we all rise together and pray...then bread and wine are brought...” (ANF01. The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus)
Tertullian, 210
"On the Lord's Day (i.e. Sunday) we consider it improper to fast or to kneel; and we also enjoy this freedom from Pascha until Pentecost" (Tertullian, "On the Crown", ANF Vol 3 ch. 3)
St Jerome, 330
There are many other observances in the Church which, though due to tradition, have acquired the authority of the written law, as, for instance, the practice of not praying on bended knees on Sunday.
John Cassian, 365
“This, too, we ought to know,— that from the evening of Saturday which precedes the Sunday, up to the following evening, among the Egyptians they never kneel, nor from Easter to Whitsuntide; nor do they at these times observe a rule of fasting”
(Institutes Book II chapter 18: How they do not kneel from the evening of Saturday till the evening of Sunday)
St Peter the seal of Martyrs: Canon 15
Wednesday is to be fasted, because then the Jews conspired to betray Jesus; Friday, because he then suffered for us. We keep the Lord’s Day as a day of joy, because then our Lord rose. Our tradition is, not to kneel on that day. (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIV/Additional Canons 4/Part 4)
Nicaea Canon XX.
Forasmuch as there are certain persons who kneel on the Lord’s Day and in the days of Pentecost, therefore, to the intent that all things may be uniformly observed everywhere (in every parish), it seems good to the holy Synod that prayer be made to God standing. (NPNF2-14. The Seven Ecumenical Councils)
St. Basil the Great
Of the beliefs and practices whether generally accepted or publicly enjoined which are preserved in the Church some we possess derived from written teaching; others we have received delivered to us "in a mystery" by the tradition of the apostles; and both of these in relation to true religion have the same force. And these no one will gainsay;--no one, at all events, who is even moderately versed in the institutions of the Church. For were we to attempt to reject such customs as have no written authority, on the ground that the importance they possess is small, we should unintentionally injure the Gospel in its very vitals; or, rather, should make our public definition a mere phrase and nothing more. For instance, to take the first and most general example, who is thence who has taught us in writing to sign with the sign of the cross those who have trusted in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ? What writing has taught us to turn to the East at the prayer?
Which of the saints has left us in writing the words of the invocation at the displaying of the bread of the Eucharist and the cup of blessing? For we are not, as is well known, content with what the apostle or the Gospel has recorded, but both in preface and conclusion we add other words as being of great importance to the validity of the ministry, and these we derive from unwritten teaching.
Moreover we bless the water of baptism and the oil of the chrism, and besides this the catechumen who is being baptized. On what written authority do we do this? Is not our authority silent and mystical tradition? Nay, by what written word is the anointing of oil itself taught? And whence comes the custom of baptizing thrice? And as to the other customs of baptism from what Scripture do we derive the renunciation of Satan and his angels? Does not this come from that unpublished and secret teaching which oar fathers guarded in a silence out of the reach of curious meddling and inquisitive investigation? Well had they learnt the lesson that the awful dignity of the mysteries is best preserved by silence. What the uninitiated are not even allowed: to look at was hardly likely to be publicly paraded about in written documents. ... In the same manner the Apostles and Fathers who laid down laws for the Church from the beginning thus guarded the awful dignity of the mysteries in secrecy and silence, for what is bruited abroad random among the common folk is no mystery at all. This is the reason for our tradition of unwritten precepts and practices, that the knowledge of our dogmas may not become neglected and contemned by the multitude through familiarity. "Dogma" and "Kerugma" are two distinct things; the former is observed in silence; the latter is proclaimed to all the world. One form of this silence is the obscurity employed in Scripture, which makes the meaning of "dogmas" difficult to be understood for the very advantage of the reader: Thus we all look to the East at our prayers, but few of us know that we are seeking our own old country, Paradise, which God planted in Eden in the East. We pray standing, on the first day of the week, but we do not all know the reason. On the day of the resurrection (or "standing again" Grk. anastasis) we remind ourselves of the grace given to us by standing at prayer, not only because we rose with Christ, and are bound to "seek those things which are above," but because the day seems to us to be in some sense an image of the age which we expect, wherefore, though it is the beginning of days, it is not called by Moses first, but one. For he says "There was evening, and there was morning, one day," as though the same day often recurred. Now "one and "eighth" are the same, in itself distinctly indicating that really "one" and "eighth" of which the Psalmist makes mention in certain titles of the Psalms, the state which follows after this present time, the day which knows no waning or eventide, and no successor, that age which ends not or grows old. Of necessity, then, the church teaches her own foster children to offer their prayers on that day standing, to the end that through continual reminder of the endless life we may not neglect to make provision for our removal thither. Moreover all Pentecost is a reminder of the resurrection expected in the age to come. For that one and first day, if seven times multiplied by seven, completes the seven weeks of the holy Pentecost; for, beginning at the first, Pentecost ends with the same, making fifty revolutions through the like intervening days. And so it is a likeness of eternity, beginning as it does and ending, as in a circling course, at the same point. On this day the rules of the church have educated us to prefer the upright attitude of prayer, for by their plain reminder they, as It were, make our mind to dwell no longer in the present but in the future. Moreover every time we fall upon our knees and rise from off them we shew by the very deed that by our sin we fell down to earth, and by the loving kindness of our Creator were called back to heaven.
(NPNF2-08. Basil: On the Holy Spirit)
Ibn Alassal
But there are times in which we are commanded not to kneel like the Pentecost Season, the feasts of the Lord (“Ayaad Saideiah”) and after receiving communion. (Chapter 13)
Do not prostrate yourself on Sundays and the Lord’s feasts because it is days of joy (Chapter 19) (Canons of Ibn Ala assal)
Ibn Kabar
“They all prostrate themselves before the Lord, or they kneel on the days where are no prostrations.”
(Mosbah Al Zolma in Clarifying Service Chapter 17)
Ibn Sebaa’:
“He (the priest) prostrates before the altar on time if it is a day other than Sunday. If it is a Sunday or a feast, then there is no prostration but thrice bends”
(Al Jawhara Alnafeesa chapter 62)
Command: “O you seated stand”:
Manuscripts of Dallal Esboo’ Al alam (Holy Week Guide), Tarteeb Al Bayaa, and Mosba’ Al Zolma mention that in the paschal liturgy (Easter) and in all the liturgies of the holy fifty days, this command is not said but to say “Lord have mercy” instead.
However, the Church’s practice today is different than the original rite as the deacon says the previous command regardless of seasonality. Therefore, there is a great need to study the Church’s ritual resources mentioned on this site, to return to the Church’s proper rites.
Thanks be to God, there are modern scholars who are studying these resources like Fr Shenouda Maher and Fr. Athanasius Al Makary:
Fr Shenouda mentioned most of what was aforementioned in his book Sunday the Day of the Lord chapter 5 p.42 1st ed. (Arabic)
Fr Athanasius in his book Dictionary of Church’s Terminologies 2nd book p.187 1st ed (Arabic).
Fr Athanasius in his book Dictionary of Church’s Terminologies 3rd book p.291-292 1st ed (Arabic).
We wish more studies like these are conducted so that we may discover the spirituality of our beloved Church’s rites and know their roots.
And European visitors in the past (even in 1946) noted that Copts did not prostrate on Sunday.
I wonder then if the practice of prostrations on Sundays and in the 50 days is actually modern?
I think the reason is that in the last 30 years most people started attending liturgies on Fridays because it is a national holiday and were not allowed to take Sunday off or be late. So, people got used to prostrate in the liturgy and got carried over to Sundays in the immigration land.
I believe that you are right about how it has come about. I have read that in the Greek Church, where prostrations are also forbidden on a Sunday, it happened that churches starting in the US and elsewhere were often unable to have a full calendar of services and often only served a Sunday liturgy. In such a situation some of the laity wished to prostrate as they were used to during the weekdays, and the practice of prostration on a Sunday became tolerated.
Father Peter
Do you have y suggestions on how to correct?
interesting how some of the church canons allow kneeling.
i must confess (if that is the right word!) that i tend to kneel on sunday (with straight back) but not prostrate. it's a bit like a compromise, i wonder if that's ok? where there are heavy pews, it's difficult to waist-bend without head-butting the person in front! most people compromise by sitting with head bowed instead of prostrating, but for me, that's a position of being sleepy, so i try to do something else!
Fr. Peter, from what I was taught, bowing is out of respect/reverence while a metanoia is a physical endeavour of directed repentance.
Interestingly I've been to several Antiochian churches and during the consecration they are kneeling and bowing as well (but their heads are not touching the floor- ie. not a metanoi.
But in both cases, this could be because of the physical difficulty/impossibility to do a proper metanoia with a pew in front of you...and partly because people don't want to stand up during the whole liturgy so they take the opportunity to bow :)
I have instructed my own congregation to bow deeply when they would make a prostration.
I have also consulted my own authorities on the Coptic rite and they also insist that the Tradition is that there should be no prostrations on Sundays or in the 50 days, and that the practice of prostrations on these days is a modern custom which has been allowed to take root.
Kneeling is considered the same as prostration, but I am aware of the difficulties where churches have chosen to install or use pews. In my own little church we have seats around the side so that people can sit if they grow very tired, but the central space is clear of all chairs.
Bishop Mettaous says the same thing. There are to be no prostrations during these days and this period, and not only of repentance but of worship also.
=======================================================
The British Orthodox Church within the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate is committed to following the spiritual tradition of the Coptic Orthodoxy of which we are a part. This commitment requires a constant vigiliance to ensure that without losing our British ethos we are also knowledgeable of the rites and spirituality of the ancient Orthodox community to which we have been joined. At this time of the Holy Fifty Days there are a variety of ritual traditions which especially come into focus, and one of these is the prohibition on making prostrations during this season. His Grace Bishop Mettaous, writing in his excellent volume, The Spirituality of the Rites of the Holy Liturgy in the Coptic Orthodox Church, says of prostrations,
The Church does not allow prostration on Saturdays and Sundays or during the fifty days of Pentecost or after having Holy Communion.
His Grace Bishop Mettaous is very clear in his instruction. It is not permitted to prostrate on Saturday, Sunday or during the fifty days of Pentecost, nor after having received communion at any time. Often the origins of various Coptic, and even universal Orthodox traditions and practices is lost in the passage of centuries. But in fact this teaching about prostrations has a very clear history which can be documented back to the earliest times.
There are several aspects to the practice of prostration, which is essentially placing the body in a kneeling position with the forehead lowered to touch the ground. It has always been used in human history as a demonstration of submission. The black obelisk of Shalmaneser III shows King Jehu of Israel prostrate before him after the conquest in 841 BC. Even today it is the practice of devout Coptic Orthodox Christians to prostrate themsleves in such a manner before respected bishops, or spiritual elders. There is no craven fear in such an attitude of submission, but rather a deep respect for the person before whom the prostration is made.
Another aspect, also universally present in human history, is the prostration of the worshipper before some idol, or religious symbol, and in the case of Orthodox Christians during services of prayer and worship. The Old Testament often describes various people as prostrating in worship. When Moses went up Sinai to meet with God we read,
And Moses making haste, bowed down prostrate unto the earth .
In similar circumstances, when our Lord Jesus Christ was transfigured, we read that the Apostles Peter, James and John, were witnesses to this event.
And the disciples hearing fell upon their face, and were very much afraid .
Extending this use of prostration in worship we can also understand and appreciate the use of prostration as an expression of repentance. We read that Moses when the Israelites had sinned against God by making the golden calf and worshipping it,
..lay prostrate before the Lord forty days and nights, in which I humbly besought him, that he would not destroy you as he had threatened .
Now all of these types of prostration are known and practiced in the Coptic Orthodox Church, even in our own time. There is the prostration of respect, the prostration of worship, and the prostration of repentance. But in the period of the Holy Fifty days, and on all Saturdays and Sundays, and on any occasion when communion has been received, the Church, in her wisdom, has instructed that the faithful should not make any of these types of prostrations.
If we consider some of the various statements of the Fathers, and the canons of the ecumenical councils, we will see that this prohibition is most ancient, and is universal in scope. All of the Orthodox Churches, whether Oriental Orthodox or Byzantine, are still aware of this prohibition, even if, in various places, the ancient discipline has been allowed to be ignored. But His Grace Bishop Mettaous shows us clearly, in his own explanation of the rites of the Coptic Orthodox Church, that as members of the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate this ancient restriction remains entirely in force.
Among the Fathers and witnesses of the early Church, we find that Tertullian, writing about 210 AD says,
On the Lord's Day (i.e. Sunday) we consider it improper to fast or to kneel; and we also enjoy this freedom from Pascha until Pentecost .
Tertullian is the source of information about many other very early practices in the Church. Elsewhere he describes the making of the sign of the cross, showing that it is also a very early Christian act. We can see that he accurately describes the practice of the Church to the present day. Just as we still keep Sunday and the period of the Holy Fifty days as being free from fasting, so we have always abstained in these same days from kneeling and prostrating in prayer, whether in worship or repentance.
The same description of the unwritten tradition of the Church is found in the writings of Jerome in about 330 AD, who says,
There are many other observances in the Church which, though due to tradition, have acquired the authority of the written law, as, for instance, the practice of not praying on bended knees on Sunday.
This description of a prohibition on praying on bended knees may be taken to include both kneeling in an upright position, and kneeling with the head to the ground as in a full prostration. It is interesting that by the time of Jerome the prohibition was so universally acknowledged that it was considered as having originated in the most distant past, and had the force of a law which was not contradicted.
Perhaps it might be suggested that this ancient instruction was not one that applied in Egypt, but John Cassian, that faithful recorder of the life and teaching of the Desert Fathers, writes in 365 AD,
This, too, we ought to know, that from the evening of Saturday which precedes the Sunday, up to the following evening, among the Egyptians they never kneel, nor from Easter to Pentecost; nor do they at these times observe a rule of fasting .
Once again we see the same connection between the regulation of fasting and that of prostrations. If we accept the rules about not fasting on Sunday, or during the Holy Fifty days, then we are not able to deny the force of the same prohibition on making prostrations or kneeling in prayer and worship. Of course in this passage John Cassian is particularly describing the practice of the Egyptian monks, but it seems entirely reasonable to conclude that all the Egyptian Christians kept this same practice, and abstained from making prostrations during these times and seasons.
That this is the case seems to be clear from a second Egyptian witness. Pope Peter of Alexandria, the Seal of Martyrs, in his collection of canons, intended to govern the Egyptian Church, says,
Wednesday is to be fasted, because then the Jews conspired to betray Jesus; Friday, because he then suffered for us. We keep the Lord’s Day as a day of joy, because on that day our Lord rose. Our tradition is not to kneel on that day .
This is a useful text because we are given an indication as to why we should not kneel or prostrate at these times. It is because ‘We keep the Lord’s Day as a day of joy’. This is not the complete reason why we do not kneel or prostrate, but it is one aspect. Even in worship our prostration has an element of humiliation and repentance, and on Sunday, the day of our good Saviour, we are not to express such feelings, rather we are to be filled with joy, being raised ourselves by the resurrection of our Lord. But the text is also useful because it is clearly an instruction which had force among the ordinary faithful of the Alexandrian Church. When Pope Peter provides this instruction saying, ‘Our tradition is not to kneel on that day’, we are able to understand that as faithful Orthodox Christians in the Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria it remains the case that it is not our tradition to kneel and prostrate on Sunday.
Now it might be said that these are only the instructions and observations of individual bishops and Fathers, and that therefore their conclusions are of limited scope. But in fact this issue was raised in the context of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, and in the collection of canons associated with that council we read,
Forasmuch as there are certain persons who kneel on the Lord’s Day and in the days of Pentecost, therefore, to the intent that all things may be uniformly observed everywhere (in every parish), it seems good to the holy Synod that prayer be made to God standing .
In this important canon XX we see that there is still an attention to the practice of prostration on Sundays and during the Holy Fifty days. Indeed it is surely a witness to the great antiquity of this part of the Christian year that it appears in such early texts as a fixed and universally observed season. But it is also interesting that there is a constant connection between the status of Sunday, as a little Pascha, and the Holy Fifty days. The same spiritual attitude is to be observed in each case. The focus of our prayer and worship is the risen Lord, who has raised us up with Him, and who makes us sons and daughters of God in the resurrection. Therefore we find that the first Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, a council which is undoubtedly of great authority in the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate, teaches us, or rather instructs and commands us, that during Sundays and the Holy Fifty days we should not prostrate or kneel but should offer our prayer while standing.
Among the early Fathers we find St Basil, writing in his book on the Holy Spirit, also describes the practice of the Church in regard to prostration in prayer. He says,
Thus we all look to the East at our prayers, but few of us know that we are seeking our own old country, Paradise, which God planted in Eden in the East. We pray standing, on the first day of the week, but we do not all know the reason. On the day of the resurrection (or ‘standing again’ Grk. anastasis) we remind ourselves of the grace given to us by standing at prayer, not only because we rose with Christ, and are bound to ‘seek those things which are above’, but because the day seems to us to be in some sense an image of the age which we expect….Of necessity, then, the church teaches her own foster children to offer their prayers on that day standing, to the end that through continual reminder of the endless life we may not neglect to make provision for our removal thither. Moreover all Pentecost is a reminder of the resurrection expected in the age to come. For that one and first day, if seven times multiplied by seven, completes the seven weeks of the holy Pentecost; for, beginning at the first, Pentecost ends with the same, making fifty revolutions through the like intervening days. And so it is a likeness of eternity, beginning as it does and ending, as in a circling course, at the same point. On this day the rules of the church have educated us to prefer the upright attitude of prayer, for by their plain reminder they, as It were, make our mind to dwell no longer in the present but in the future. Moreover every time we fall upon our knees and rise from off them we shew by the very deed that by our sin we fell down to earth, and by the loving kindness of our Creator were called back to heaven .
St Basil provides us with an insight into why we stand in prayer, rather than prostrating ourselves, during Sunday and the Holy Fifty days. It is because we have been made to ‘stand again’ by the resurrection of Christ. We have be recalled to heaven, and our hearts and minds are to be lifted heavenwards in prayer, rather than being brought down to the earth. Once again we not that St Basil does not speak of this practice of abstaining from prostrations as an opinion, or a personal reflection, but describes it as one of ‘the rules of the Church’.
In later centuries we find that the same universal practice was adopted in Egypt. The canons of Ibn Alassal from 1240 AD teach us,
But there are times in which we are commanded not to kneel like the Pentecost Season, the feasts of the Lord and after receiving communion. (Chapter 13)
Do not prostrate yourself on Sundays and the Lord’s feasts because they are days of joy (Chapter 19)
We can see that the instruction about which His Grace Bishop Mettaous reminds us is a universal rule in the Church and applies to all Orthodox Christians in all times and places. We are not excused from obedience to such a universal instruction, as if we were wiser or more spiritual than all of the Fathers of the Church who have preceded us. On the contrary, it is necessary for us to learn wisdom and to grow in our Orthodox spiritual life by meditating on the reason for this prohibition.
When we celebrate the Liturgy we sing together, ‘This is the day which the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it’. And this psalm teaches us the attitude we are to have when we worship. The celebration of the Liturgy is not a matter of concentrating on our own unworthiness, but is a time to lift our eyes and our hearts towards the one who is worthy of all honour and glory. The Holy Fifty days are not a time to concentrate on our own weakness, but to reflect on the great gift of salvation which has been granted to us and which we have participated in during the Feast of the Resurrection, and which is completed for us in the gift of the Holy Spirit which we look forward to at the Feast of Pentecost.
There is a time and a season for all things. Indeed the Church provides us with 210 days each year in which we may fast, and on these days, and those others weekdays which are not in the season of the Holy Fifty days we are able to kneel and prostrate ourselves in worship and repentance. But the Orthodox Christian life is not entirely one of repentance and of being filled with a proper sense of our own sins and faults. Therefore in her wisdom the Church also leads us to spend each Saturday and Sunday, and the Holy Fifty days, standing in prayer.
As members of the British Orthodox Church within the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate let us be careful to observe this tradition. Indeed it is more than a tradition, it is a universal rule in the Orthodox Church and we are required to grow in our spiritual experience of Orthodox life through obedience to instructions such as these.
Father Peter Farrington
thanks for the useful information.
:)
1. Metanoia (Repentance)
This is the one we do during the Great Lent and I believe the one forbidden until the "sagda" prayers after the Pentecost liturgy.
2. Worship
This is the bow we do when, for example, the deacon says "Worship God in fear and trembling," which is still allowed in the 50 days.
3. Reverence
This is the bow when entering the church or, for example, upon greeting HH the Pope, which is still allowed in the 50 days.
I was at the Abbey for the first few days of the Great Lent and during the Divine Liturgy we would still bow at the appropriate moments (as in completely prostrate), but during the Agpeya prayers the monks would not do any full prostrations of repentance (metanoias) at the part which they usually do, ie. at the intro to each hour when the leader says "Lord have mercy..." etc.
Father Peter, what does your reverence think?
but no sagda/metania/bowing with forehead on the ground at all, and no kneeling at all.
until after the 50 days.