What does «ektenia» mean in Spanish?
- A series of petitions that occur in Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic liturgies; it is a type of litany. The predominant ecclesiastical word for this type of litany in Greek is Συναπτή (synaptê), while ektenia is the preferred word in Church Slavonic (ектенїѧ ekteniya). A litany is usually intoned by a deacon, with the choir or people singing the responses. At the conclusion of each petition, the deacon raises the end of his oratory and crosses himself; if there is no deacon serving, the petitions are intoned by a priest. During many litanies the priest says a silent prayer; after the last petition of the litany, the priest says an Exclamation (or Ecphonsis) which, when a prayer is said silently during the litany, is the final phrase of that prayer. When there is no priest present during the canonical hours, the litany is not said, but is replaced by the lector saying "Lord, have mercy," three, twelve, or forty times, depending on which litany is replaced.