www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship Vespers, Matins & the Divine Liturgy The Revised Divine Liturgy Vladyko Blahoslovi.... why Reverend Father Give the blessing?

It should be, if a deacon is serving..
Master give the Blessing...... at the beginning of the Liturgy..
Also during the proskomedia, there are times that say master bless.. and during the liturgy.. the deacon says... Master do this or that.............
Why not so in the new liturgy?

I believe the feeling was master should be reserved to the bishop.

So "the feeling" is more important than accuracy?

Fr. Serge

That's ridiculous. 'Eulog�son, Despota' should ALWAYS be 'Master, bless' or 'Master, give the blessing'. Which bunch of illiterates is responsible for this tomfoolery?

Archbishop Joseph Raya?

Somewhere, in the past(unfortunately, I forget where), I read a defense of the use of the term "Master" in a Divine Liturgy served by only a priest. The essence was that, the Bishop, who has the fullness of priesthood, or the simple priest, who shares in that priesthood, in the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, is an "alter Christus",or "another Christ", and that when we address the Bishop, or priest, in the Divine Liturgy, as "Master", or "Vladyko", we are actually addressing Christ. I am a bit tentative on this, not remembering where I read it. Perhaps someone can be of help on this.

Dn. Robert

Moderns have a great sixth sense to determine what men really mean when they are being accurate. What if only women were present at the Divine Liturgy (and I count that as a real possibility) and the term master was used? Now that would be sexist statement!

Really? Oh well, nobody's infallible, not even the Pope of Rome!

So, when the priest serves, he says master bless? When? It is the deacon's part to ask for the blessing. The priest is serving in stead of the bishop. That is why the blessing is directed to the bishop (master) and not father.

John

To the extent that the Passaic 1997 Liturgicon and practices can be seen as anticipating the 2007 Liturgicon, the trend would be that "Most Reverend Bishop" is used instead of "Master" for the bishop. Thus, for instance:

Lord have mercy.(3) Most Reverend Bishop give the blessing.

There is some precedent for this in the Ruthenian Recension. It the pre-1965 books: "Many years O master" was sung before "We have seen the true Light" This was removed for the same reason.

It should be <Blagoslovi Vladyko> or <Mater Bless> even when there is no Bishop. At least as far as I know.

Yes, it the bishop doesn't have to be there. It's always Master give the Blessing!

Perhaps certain people have a problem with the word Master (when referring to a person, not God) and its connotations? Maybe the BCC is now a much friendlier place and has dispensed with such rigid and unequal relationships.

Perhaps, or perhaps not. It could be that Archbishop Raya or Fr. Kucharek could have been closet modernists, or radical feminists. But the fact that both of them declined to use "Master" might indicate that there are other arguments involved.

Yours in Christ,
Jeff