www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West I think I want to be Melkite Catholic

In general, the Melkites believe in enjoying life, and languages are fun. Arabic comes from the Church's long sojourn in the Middle East - there are, after all, Christian Arabs, and it does no harm to remind the culture-bound Americans of this!

Fr. Serge

Whatever you choose to do--please be at peace with your decision, your life and yourself. That's the most important thing. If the Melkite's feeel "right" and the Latin Rite does not. Then pursue that course. You'll come to the same end of the road, just on a different road.

The Melkite's way of doing things is ancient, honorable and beautiful. I've always found the Arab language beautiful and enchaning. Almost as wonderful as Church Slavonic. (Sorry, couldn't resist a bit of boasting in my own heritage as a Ruthenian!)

Whatever happens, know that God loves you, wants the best for you and you will always have a home here on this Forum. "Ahlan wa sahlan" means this forum will always be your family and our ground will always be flat and easy for your tents!

Good luck and keep us informed.

Tim

Dear Tom,

But if you want to have the best of BOTH worlds, Latin and Byzantine, you should join the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church!

Good luck in whatever you decide!

Alex

Surprise - Melkites take great pleasure in a smidgin of Greek.

Fr. Serge

I'll always have a special place in my heart for Latin, but Greek and Arabic are just too beautiful when chanted together! Maybe it's just that it's so exotic to my ears and that's my fascination, but I can feel the Spirit present in Melkite chants.

for example:
Melkite Baptismal Chant [youtube.com]

Yes, this was one of the tracks in an Easter Sunday Divine Liturgy album recorded by the late Bishop (then Fr.) Sleiman Hajjar together with Orthodox monks (most likely Antiochian). The sample tracks led me to order the album through my friend in Canada. Very beautiful and really brings out a heart of worship, in a liturgical context of course. Evangelical Praise & worship have their place outside the liturgy

I love Latin too. But I hope to get past the video stage and see some live action...

Removing latinizations and reaffirming our Eastern Christian heritage is a good thing. I don't know why that would lead you away from the Byzantine Catholic Church.

i don't know if this is the best thing to say, but I have a funny feeling that some Catholics have the notion that only the Latin Rite is "right" and other rites are "not Catholic enough". If I am not mistaken, the late Archbishop Raya had some opposition from the Latin-Rite archbishop in the '50s for proposing to celebrate the Divine Liturgy in English.

"some opposition"? Now there's a classic understatement! It was a cause celebre!
Fr. Serge

Boy are you right. One parisioner I know, a former RC member, keeps telling us that we need to be more Catholic if we don't do things they way he thinks they should be done! News flash--we ARE Catholic. But my priest is a good man and knows how to respond to such statements.

Such is life. And the amazing part is that if you quiz 100 Roman Catholics about Eastern Catholicism, most of them will have no idea what you are talking about. And ask them about the Ambrosian Rite in the Roman Church. Most don't even know about that. Mind you, with over 1.1 billion Catholics in the world and most of them being Roman Catholic, it's not surprising. But it sure would be nice if there was at least one lesson in Catechism class about the Ambrosian Rite and Eastern Churches.

Tim

No kidding, and there seems to be a lack of exposure on them. That being said, what is the procedure like to start an Eastern rite parish in a place which doesnt have one?

I'm not sure what the procedure is. Our pastor is serving two established (but decling) parishes about an hour away from my town and about an hour away from eath other. We are in a college town and he also serves the Byzantine Ministry for the students, but that is only when the University is in full swing. I will ask him the next time I see him.

And now there's us--a "community" officially, since we don't have enough families to be officially called a "church." I don't know the difference or what the number of families would be. We are trying. There are lots of people in the area who are of Byzantine background (the two other parishes are in former coal mining towns) and people either moved to the "city" or commute. Then there are the people who have moved into the University town over the years.

Many people have joined either of the two Roman Catholic churches in the town, since there was no full time Byzantine church. One RC does a bang up business each Lent selling pirohis. I mean a BANG UP business! There are waiting lists and waiting lines. I understand the ladies in charge are very particular about the quality of their product. Many are of Polish background and many may even be Byzantine originally.

So there is room for growth and a source of people to join the church. Now we just need to do it. Last year we did two "ethnic" festivals and they were incredibly successful. Home made pirohy, home made halushki, home made pigs in a blanket, home made baked goods, very good quality kolbassi, etc. It went over like gangbusters. The last one we sold out of the halushi, the pirohi and I think the pigs as well. We had people ordering more than 12 dinners to feed guests they had invited just to enjoy the food.

But there are only about two or three familes who really do the work. I help out as much as I can, but had spinal surgery recently and was in a wheel chair for the first ethnic festival. I can't cook the way I would like and would gladly do. I asked at our recent Parish Council about doing them again and the two ladies who did the majority of the cooking said "not unless we get help!" And I can't blame them. Pirohi are not that hard to make. I can teach anyone in a few minutes. We just need "active" bodies, not bodies sitting in pews.

Suggestions? Thoughts? Comments? Advice? Anything is appreciated

Tim

Thank you for assisting me. While I am unsure as to how my RC Archbishop will respond to it, I hope that we will eventually make some inroads. If it doesn't happen, than its just not in God's time.


Whatever it is, a "community" is still a church. Big or small, it is an "ekklesia". We don't have a "kyriekon", but the spirit and strength of a church lies in the people, not the building. So praise God for that!


Unfortunately, that is something that we will continue to struggle with. To those who are not serving, we should try and see why people aren't "active", because not everyone is busy with work, family, business and studies. Lets look into that.

I really like the part in the Eastern prayer of the hours when you offer incense...do you think there's a part in the Evening Prayer of the Western canonical hours when I could burn incense? I was thinking during the Magnificat.

There is absolutely no reason - in my mind - why you should not burn incense throughout the Hours if you so wish.

Just do it