How should we praise in the Church?

Besides the great awe of this inheritance, yet how much we distort it whenever the worship is changed to just a ritual and this appears a lot in:

• The competition of voices in the church, so that some people try to reply and sing the hymn before the people in church. They cannot even bear staying in church unless their voices are apparent to the people. The truth is that the hymns are a delight and a personal pleasure as a means for worship and the spiritual highness resembling the angels.
• The loud voices in the praises are not from the character of the angels. But it is a means by which the enemy misleads us so that by it we lose the tranquillity of the hymn and its magnificence.
• Chanting and praising — it is prayer — then how do we stand for prayer? Possibly we stand for prayer with submission, but at the moment of chanting the submission escapes. Indeed, worship uses the senses from the raising of hands and heart and thoughts and tunes that express the depth of the soul more than it expresses the words.
• And above all of this, we ought not forget that “My house shall be called a house of prayer.” We should say again, “Arise, O you sons of light to praise the Lord of powers…” We ought to say, “Let us praise with the angels..” We should say, “My heart and my tongue praise the Trinity.” Let us praise the praise of the four incorporeal beasts, “Holy, holy, holy,” and with the twenty-four priests cast our crowns before the throne and chant the new hymn, “For He redeemed us out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,” and also say with them, “We thank You, O Lord God Almighty …Amen. Alleluia.”
• Truly, the successful Kiahk evening gathering is that which the church is transformed to a part of heaven. May God have mercy on us for the worthless evening gatherings which is not credited to us, but on the contrary is reckoned as judgment on us.

Fr Bishoy Kamal