The Office of Matins of Holy Saturday (Jerusalem Matins), recorded here, is the solemn conclusion of a long and intense period of spiritual and physical preparation (‘Great Lent’) for the feast of Pascha. We find ourselves at the tomb where the Lord Jesus was laid, sleeping the death of all mortals. Sadness changing to joy; death giving rise to life; despair and abandonment arousing hope, closeness, and love; all this determines the character and tone of the Office of the Myrrhbearers. The time that separates the evening of Great and Holy Friday on the one hand and the Great Sabbath on the other is a unique and inseparable moment when death and life embrace each other, when God unites Himself to humanity during a wedding night that knows no time. For this reason the announcement of the Resurrection, proclaimed to the Myrrhbearing Women by the angels seated at the tomb, already resonates throughout this night.

CHCD 105/307
Playing time: 79'38
Dir.: P. Thomas Pott
Booklet: Slavonic, French, English, German.
Introduction: French, Dutch, English, German. 

Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom - By learning to listen attentively to the hymns of the Liturgy, our spiritual feelings can be heightened by them so as to perceive the beauty of the heavenly chant which resounds within us, and moves us in communion with a new creation completely transfigured by God's love.

CHCD 105/387
Playing time: 67’11
Dir.: Dom Maxime Gimenez
Booklet: French, English, German, Slavonic. 

The Great and Holy Feast of Easter - The Pascal Service is sung at a vigorous pace, that of the women who hasten to the tomb and come back announcing the resurrection. The enthusiasm is powerful, but the triumph is not overbearing: it is a song of gratitude, of delight, sealed with peace and serenity.

CHCD 108/495
Playing time: 57'52 / 62'57.
Dir.: Dom Maxime Gimenez
Booklet: French, English, German, Slavonic.

Anthology of Byzantine Slavonic chant - This CD presents an anthology of hymns proper to some of the twelve big feasts of the Byzantine liturgical year or characteristic of the period of Great Lent and of Easter. These hymns, taken from earlier recordings made by the monks of Chevetogne, have been classified, as much as possible, according to their poetic style.

CHCD 109/300
Playing time: 75'36
Dir.: Dom Maxime Gimenez
Booklet: French, English, Dutch, German, Italian.

Historical recordings. Easter Matins, Divine Liturgy, Vespers, Monastic Profession, Ordination, Consecration of a Church, Vigil Service for the Dormition. - This CD is released on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the monastery of Chevetogne, in Amay-sur-Meuse in 1925. Slavonic liturgical and monastic chant has been sung according to the rules and customs of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Monastery of Chevetogne from its foundation. In the ’60’s, thanks to the insight and tireless efforts of choir director Dom Gregory Bainbridge, the monks choir produced several recordings. This CD is a compilation of pieces taken from those recordings. The strikingly fresh and lively style of the music in this selection is an historical tribute to the monastic choir of Chevetogne, and is certainly also a source of inspiration and prayer for many.

CHCD 109/301
Playing time: 66'15
Dir.: Dom Grégoire Bainbridge
Booklet: French, English, Dutch, German.

Matins of the Feast of Annunciation with recitation of the Acathist Hymn  - When nature awakes from its winter sleep and presents the world with the first signs of spring, two liturgical feasts, heralds of great feast of Easter that is now near at hand, fortify and rejoice the hearts of men: Annunciation (25th of March) and the Saturday of the Acathist (the 5th Saturday of Lent). These two feasts have their raison d’être in the announcement of the Archangel Gabriel to Mary: “Rejoice Thee” (Luke 1:28). This greeting is the prelude to the Good News, the good news about the Good News: the incarnation of God, which will allow man to become divine. On this recording you will find the matins of the feast of the Annunciation and the Acathist hymn (recited), such as they are celebrated if the 25th of March coincides with the 5th Saturday of Lent.

CHCD 105/302
Playing time: 76'40
Dir.: P. Thomas Pott
Booklet: Slavonic, French, English, German.
Introduction: French, Dutch, English, German.

On the fiftieth day after Easter, all Christian Churches celebrate the feast of Pentecost. They commemorate the pouring out of the Spirit of Jesus onto his disciples, when on the morning of the Jewish feast of Pentecost the Apostles saw descending on them tongues of fire. On this day Christians live more than the mere memory of a past event. It is for them a fulfillment of the ancient promises made by God to Abraham. The bestowal of the Holy Spirit, announced by Jesus before His Passion and Resurrection, is the first fruits of the universal blessing promised by God and now extended to the entire world. The Holy Spirit is both the object of the promise and object of the fervent supplication of Christians: He is the only drink that can
quench their thirst for God. This is why the liturgical celebration of this foundational event of the Christian life is not a mere commemoration: it is a sacramental act – a ‘memorial’ – which marks, evokes and intensifies the coming of the Holy Spirit into the community brought together in Jesus’ name. This recording includes above all extensive parts of the vigil of Pentecost Sunday as celebrated in the Byzantine-Slav tradition.

CHCD 304
Playing time: 77’24
Dir.: P. Thomas Pott
Booklet: Slavonic, French, English, German.
Introduction: French, Dutch, English, German

For the Churches of the Byzantine tradition, as with most Churches of the East, the feast of 6 January is considered one of the greatest solemnities of the liturgical year. The event commemorated is that of the Baptism of Christ, administered by John in the Jordan. In the Gospels this event marks the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. This feast of the Baptism of Christ deserves to be called for more than one reason the ‘Feast of the Manifestation’ or Epiphany, or again the ‘Feast of the Manifestation of God’ or Theophany. It is indeed the feast where one commemorates the Holy Spirit which, during the Baptism of Christ, “descends upon Him as a dove,” while the voice of the Father declares: “This is my beloved Son.” Thus, it is the unequivocal manifestation of God becoming man, of the new path of the History of Salvation, and of man’s calling to become the true locus of divine manifestation. Through the blessing of water, the feast shows once more that Jesus’ baptism is not simply an event of the past, but that it has a place today among the faithful, and that, in a more visible and sensible manner than other feasts, one participates in it authentically, by drinking and being sprinkled with the water.
This recording contains extensive parts of various offices which compose the services for the celebration of 6 January, according to the Byzantine-Slav tradition.

CHCD 105/305
Playing time: 77'57
Dir.: P. Thomas Pott
Booklet: Slavonic, French, English, German.
Introduction: French, Dutch, English, German.

Easter-tide and Ascension - In this CD, you will find certain chants brought together typical of the Byzantine/Slav traditions for Easter and Ascension. The period of Easter and Ascension is like a single great feast day where Christ, Son of Man and Son of God, appears and is present among his followers, the sons of men, in order to prepare them to become completely Sons of God. The singing that characterizes this period in the recalls feelings of joy, of reassurance, of triumph and of loving-kindness.

CHCD 105/306
Playing time: 76'26
Dir.: P. Thomas Pott
Booklet: Slavonic, French, English, German.
Introduction: French, Dutch, English, German.

Burial as practised according to the Byzantine rite actually begins in the house of the deceased as a proper ‘stational liturgy’. From there, the cortege proceeds to the cemetary, passing through the church along the way. The cortege – with its stop in church – is like an icon of human life. The way is a unique and identical one, both for the living and the dead, not only because everyone will have to cross over the same boundary from the present to the future life, but also because the road that leads from our first birth to our ‘new birth’ is nothing but the indivisible movement of life.
The present recording contains the funeral service nearly in its entirety, from the procession into the church to the one leaving the church.

CHCD 110/503
Playing time:
CD 1: 65'26
CD 2: 56'05
Dir.: P. Thomas Pott
Booklet: Slavonic, French, English, German.
Introduction: French, Dutch, English, German.

“Rejoice, O Star, that reveals the Sun,” formula from the Akathistos to the Mother of God, admirably summarizes both Orthodox theology and popular piety with which the Church surrounds the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom we can call the “Mother of God.” The Orthodox liturgy was able to maintain the balance between, on the one hand, the memory of the Incarnation of Christ – the fundamental mystery on which the divine motherhood of Mary rests – and, on the other hand, the piety of Christians who recognize in Mary both a sister and a real mother. The organic proximity between the mystery of Mary and that of her Son is manifest in the course of the liturgical feasts that are the subject of this CD and was highlighted in the selection of chants that have been recorded.

The hymnody of the two feasts is followed by six chants that belong to the oldest hymnographical tradition of the Byzantine Divine Liturgy.
Bell-ringing marks the beginning and the end of the CD, as well as the transition between the two feasts. Since the construction of the Byzantine church of Chevetogne, the monastery had a bell stand with four bells. In 2010, than ks to the construction of a new building which linked the monastery to the church, a proper belfry tower was erected to host seven new bells that were cast in Moscow.

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