[ Archive for the 'Liturgy' Category ]
Posted by Karl (December 1, 2006 at 10:50 am)
I provide you two links today: first, Patriarch Bartholomew’s wonderful homily on the feast of St. Andrew. Then see Amy Welborn’s trenchant comments, which I quote here:
The homily was on liturgy - its definition and power. The homily, whether purposefully or not, highlights a division between Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy less frequently noted than issues of papal authority and other questions of ecclesiology and theology.
Many folks, with only a superficial understanding of either or both churches, sees relatively formal liturgies, the importance of Eucharist and male priests and thinks, “So? What’s the big difference?” A lot, particularly since the Second Vatican Council. The salient question is…why would the Orthodox want to “reunite” (whatever that would mean), or more dramatically, be in any sense under the authority of a structure in which the theology of liturgy, as it’s been lived out on the ground, has turned into a free-for-all?
Posted by Karl (August 8, 2006 at 3:02 pm)
My church is very inconvenient. It’s not particularly close; I have another Catholic church across the street from me. It makes no accommodations for my convenience: there is no Saturday evening Mass where I can discharge my Sunday obligation, and the liturgies are long. I can never plan anything for a Sunday afternoon because I can never be sure how long the liturgy will be. Just when I think that I have it timed, there will be a baptism, or a procession, or a series of special prayers, and all of my timing is lost. There is no early service. There is one liturgy at 10am, for the whole parish. I can’t slip in at 7am for a short liturgy as I could at the church across the street from me.
I have to give up meat every Friday, when the rest of the Church has abandoned this practice. There are numerous days of obligation, which are never, ever moved to the nearest Sunday, which means I must often re-arrange my schedule, arrange babysitters, and otherwise turn my life upside down in order to attend church during the week. Inf fact, a few years ago Good Friday and the Annunciation coincided; rather than move the feasts, we combined them, and a most inconvenient and confusing day of liturgy ensued. Every liturgy is long, always more than an hour, and occasionally more than two. Everything is always sung, without the comfort of an accompanying organ or musical ensemble.
There are no creature comforts, no cry room, and few pews. Many of us stand the entire time. In Lent, we have to kneel and do prostrations, but—get this—there are no kneelers! One kneels on the cold, hard, terrazzo floor.
Why would anyone want to be a part of such a church, especially when there is another, easier church across the street? I wasn’t born into this church, and I have no ethnic or cultural ties, but I chose it. I have no one to blame but myself. I chose it, and you couldn’t pry me away with a crowbar.
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Posted by Karl (June 26, 2006 at 12:16 am)
This is, after all, an evangelization blog, isn’t it? I can best answer this with a story:
According to the “Russian Primary Chronicle,” probably compiled by the monks of the Crypt monastery in Kiev, late 11th century, Vladimir sent envoys to the Bulgars, the Germans and the Greeks to inquire as to their religious worship. It was the Greek that impressed them the most.
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Posted by JohnG (June 23, 2006 at 1:57 pm)
If anyone in the Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Church thinks that by including so called “Inclusive Language” into our liturgy is going to evangelize anyone please think again.
The whole issue of inclusive language is a non-issue. The only ones that really have an issue with non-inclusive language are those who really have separated themselves from the Church in the first place.
One only has to look at the groups that are clamoring for inclusive language to see that it is a who’s who of dissenting “Catholic” organizations that are in the process of dying off.
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Posted by JohnS (June 22, 2006 at 7:56 pm)
There is quite a melee underway in the Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Church in the United States over liturgical changes. A lively discussion has been underway here for several years.
Fr. Serge Keleher, a Ukrainian Catholic priest, offered a spirited and insightful post over here. Fr. Serge so astutely observes, “If we are to make any sense even to ourselves, let alone to anyone else, the theology of our Liturgy must be our own theology – and if it isn’t, the answer is not to change the Liturgy but to allow the Liturgy to inform our theology.”
When our liturgy truly informs our theology in each and every parish across the Metropolia, our particular Church will move from maintenance mode to true growth. Our liturgy is our theology!
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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.
