The Ngắm Mùa Chay or

Lent Lent (, 'Fortieth') is the solemn Christianity, Christian religious moveable feast#Lent, observance in the liturgical year in preparation for Easter. It echoes the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring Temptation of Christ, t ...

meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique to train attention and awareness and detach from reflexive, "discursive thinking", achieving a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state, while not judging the meditat ...

, also known as ''ngắm dung'' (Standing meditation) is a

Catholic devotion Catholic devotions are particular customs, rituals, and practices of worship of Trinity, God or honour of the saints which are in addition to the Catholic liturgy, liturgy of the Catholic Church, described as "expressions of love and fidelity th ...

containing many hymns that developed out of 17th century

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

. The devotion is primarily a sung reflection and meditation on the

Passion of Christ The Passion (from latin language, Latin , "to suffer, bear, endure") is the short final period before the death of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, described in the four canonical gospels. It is commemorated in Christianity every year during Holy ...

and the sorrows of His Blessed Mother.

History

Alexandre de Rhodes Alexandre de Rhodes, SJ (; 15 March 1593 – 5 November 1660), also Đắc Lộ was an Avignonese Jesuit missionary and lexicographer who had a lasting impact on Christianity in Vietnam. He wrote the '' Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latin ...

, a

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

missionary to Vietnam, attached to the

inculturation In Christianity, inculturation is the adaptation of Christian teachings and practices to cultures. This is a term that is generally used by Catholics and the Orthodox, whereas Protestants (such as Anglicans and Lutherans), especially associated ...

of the Catholic faith, developed the Lenten meditations based on the Vincentian order, as he recounts in his ''Histoire du Royaume du Tonkin''. His purpose was to "enable the Christians to participate in the liturgy of the Holy Week, in particular the

Tenebrae Tenebrae (—Latin for 'darkness') is a religious service of Western Christianity held during the three days preceding Easter Day, and characterized by a gradual extinguishing of candles, and the ''strepitus'' or "loud noise" in the total darkn ...

, and to obviate their ignorance of Latin". The office was inspired from the classical Vietnamese theater (''chèo, tường''). It integrates the

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...

poetic form Poetry (from the Greek word '' poiesis'', "making") is a form of literary art that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, literal or surface-level meanings. Any particul ...

and lament style known as ''

song thất lục bát The song thất lục bát (雙七六八, literally "double seven, six eight") is a Vietnamese poetic form, which consists of a quatrain comprising a couplet of two seven-syllable lines followed by a Lục bát couplet (a six-syllable line and an e ...

'' (雙七六八, literally "double seven, six eight") with an old Christian tradition of popular lament on the sorrows of Christ, which developed alongside the

Via Crucis The Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross, also known as the Via Dolorosa, Way of Sorrows or the , are a series of fourteen images depicting Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ on the day of Crucifixion of Jesus, his crucifixion and acc ...

. The discovery of the original manuscripts of Jesuit missionary Giralamo Maiorica using the Nom script, revealed a continuous conservation of the original text, which was quoted verbatim by an 1865 set of the Passion meditations, still in use up to this day.

Structure

The office is written in

Vietnamese language Vietnamese () is an Austroasiatic languages, Austroasiatic language Speech, spoken primarily in Vietnam where it is the official language. It belongs to the Vietic languages, Vietic subgroup of the Austroasiatic language family. Vietnamese is s ...

and composed of a meditation on the mysteries of the Passion in fifteen ''ngam'' (meditations). The meditations are cantillated, according to the rules of

Đọc kinh () is the Roman Catholicism in Vietnam, Vietnamese Catholic term for reciting a prayer or sacred text. In communal worship settings, ' is characterized by cantillation, or the ritual chanting of prayers and responses. To Westerners, this form of p ...

, from the foot of the sanctuary by one, three, or up to fifteen cantors. The cantor bows his head at the name of

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a female given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religion * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also called the Blesse ...

and kneels at his death. A drum and gong serve as a rhythmical base, while the faithful stand in prayer. A crucifix is placed atop a platform outside the sanctuary and adorned with a fifteen-branch candelabrum, which is systematically gestured at after every meditation, to turn one candle off, as is done in the office of ''

''. After every meditation, the faithful answer by saying one

Our Father The Lord's Prayer, also known by its incipit Our Father (, ), is a central Christian prayer attributed to Jesus. It contains petitions to God focused on God’s holiness, Will of God, will, and Kingship and kingdom of God, kingdom, as well as h ...

, seven

Hail Mary The Hail Mary or Ave Maria (from its first words in Latin), also known as the Angelic or Angelical Salutation, is a traditional Catholic prayer addressing Mary, the mother of Jesus. The prayer is based on two biblical passages featured in the ...

s, and one

Glory Be The ''Gloria Patri'', also known in English as the Glory Be to the Father or, colloquially, the Glory Be, is a doxology, a short hymn of praise to God in various Christian liturgies. It is also referred to as the Minor Doxology ''(Doxologia Mino ...

Popularity

The Lenten meditation is celebrated in many parts of Vietnam, and around the world in overseas Vietnamese communities, on every Friday of Lent and each evening of the

Holy Week Holy Week () commemorates the seven days leading up to Easter. It begins with the commemoration of Triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, marks the betrayal of Jesus on Spy Wednesday (Holy Wednes ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ngam Mua Chay Catholic Church in Vietnam Catholic devotions Vietnamese folk art

History

Structure

Popularity

See also

References