Editing Song of Ascents (section)

====Anabathmoi====

At [[Matins]] on Sundays and [[feast day]]s throughout the year, special hymns called ''anabathmoi'' ({{langx|el|ἀναβαθμοί}}, from βαθμός, 'step'; [[Church Slavonic|Slavonic]]: ''stepénny'') are chanted immediately before the [[prokeimenon]] and [[Matins Gospel]]. These anabathmoi are compositions based upon the Songs of Ascents, and are written in the [[eight tones]] of [[Byzantine chant]]. The Anabathmoi for each tone consists of three ''stases'' or sets of verses (sometimes called [[antiphon]]s), except for Tone 8 which has four stases. On Sundays, the anabathmoi are chanted according to the tone of the week; on feast days which do not fall on Sunday, the Anabathmoi almost always consist of the first stasis in Tone 4 (based on Psalm 128).<ref>{{Citation
 | last1 =Kallistos (Ware)
 | first1 =Archimandrite
 | author-link =Timothy Ware
 | last2=Mary
 | first2=Mother
 | year =1969
 | publication-date=1984
 | title =The Festal Menaion
 | page =549
 | place =London
 | publisher =[[Faber and Faber]]
 | isbn =978-0-571-11137-4
 }}
</ref>

Symbolically, the anabathmoi are chanted as a reminder that Christians are ascending to the [[Heavenly Jerusalem]], and that the spiritual intensity of the service is rising as they approach the reading of the [[Gospel]].<ref name="Nassar">{{Citation
 | last =Nassar
 | first =Seraphim
 | year =1938
 | publication-date=1979
 | title =Divine Prayers and Services of the Catholic Orthodox Church of Christ
 | edition=3rd
 | pages =1086–7
 | place =Englewood NJ
 | publisher =[[Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America]]
 }}
</ref>