Byzantine Worship is Manly Worship
Posted by JohnG (May 9, 2006 at 8:36 pm)
Today on Relevant Radio, the afternoon drive show was with Drew Mariani. The segment I caught was on the emasculation of the Liturgy and that of Priests.
Simply put I had to call in, which I did, to point out that not all Liturgies are emasculated. I pointed out that my parish, Annunciation of the Mother of God Byzantine Catholic Church, doesn’t suffer from an emasculated liturgy, and in fact, it is over flowing with men, men who chant, men who are dicerning vocations to the priesthood and deaconate, men who sing in the choir, men who serve on the Altar, Boys, lots of boys that almost fight for a chance to serve as Altar Boys.
Also I would like to point out that we are a growing Eastern Rite parish, one that is growing with new member and with new life from children being born into our parish. The reason why we are growing is that we don’t play with the liturgy. We don’t turn our Liturgies into a celebration of ourselves. Our Liturgies are in fact Heaven on earth, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
You forgot to mention men who are unwilling to sit down on a cushiony seat during the liturgy!
Comment posted May 11th, 2006 at 4:55 pm
AND men who stand and hold their kids for the duration of the liturgy!
Comment posted May 12th, 2006 at 11:18 pm
Holy smokes, your parish church is BEAUTIFUL!!!!
My priest at my (Latin) church is fighting hard to de-Hallmark-ify our 70s built church, but it’s hard work. Some benighted souls actually LIKE cheezy hokey junk and are mad at him for bringing back, like, dignity.
Pray for us!
Comment posted May 22nd, 2006 at 11:31 am
Ben,
We will pray for you. You have a wonderful patrimony but for nearly 40 years some of your leaders have sought to destroy it. Why? Only God knows. But, Axios for your pastor for trying to recapture what his predecessors have tried to destroy.
CDL
Comment posted June 19th, 2006 at 12:03 pm
For the first few Sundays of Liturgy our ears played tricks on us. First, we kept hearing a strange sound. Finally, we realized that the sound is male voices. One rarely hears that in a Protestant or Roman Catholic Church. Second, we thought we heard stringed instruments. Not so. It is just the pleasing sound of the chant sung by both women and men.
CDL
Comment posted June 23rd, 2006 at 5:03 am
Boys who almost fight to serve at the altar!!
Wow!!
We put out a general call for altar servers — any age welcome — and I was “it” as far as response goes.
Sad.
Eric….what are you guys doing that makes your parish so vibrant and alive?? How’s it that you are growing?
Whatever you are doing, we need lots more of it.
Brother Ed
Comment posted August 11th, 2006 at 2:37 pm
I will jump and comment for Eric, since I attend the same parish.
No holds bar full Divine liturgy, no excuses for 1.5 hours or 2 hour liturgies, Full scale in your face Byzantine goodness, and the rejection of almost all Latinizations.
If you want your Byzantine Church to grow you can’t do half measures.
This is why we have boys fighting to serve.
I have to remind my son not to RUN when he gets out of the VLUAV (very large urban assault vehicle… or actually our 10 passenger van) when we pull up to the Church.
John Gibson
Comment posted August 11th, 2006 at 3:56 pm