www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Eucharistic Adoration

Because they've said so.

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Western Orthodoxy Blog [westernorthodox.blogspot.com]

C. I. X.

Western Orthodox,

Sorry I did not mean to challenge you but those who told you THEY so believed. After reviewing the ceremony today I can see how they could develop the perception. What would certainly contribute is a lack of elementary (�first holy communion�) schooling and coming from a non-ethnic background.

When I toured a steel mill in Donetsk Ukraine it was so noisy even if one was fluent in the language they were using it would not of been any help. Body language and gestures accompanied with bows politely got me through it.

The second 2007 edition of the magazine of the Patriarchat Greek-Melkite "Le Lien" has as main subject the Feast of "Corpus Christi" and it marks the value and the beauty of the melkite adaptation of that Feast. It comments of its great importance in Zahl�, Lebanon.

Does your church in R�o de Janeiro have Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament? If so, do you have any photos?

Continuing, then I don't think it is on disuse in the Melkite Church, neither it is something rejected...

On the day of "Corpus Christi" in Zahl�, bishops and clergies of the various churches (melkite, antiochean orthodox, maronite, syriac catholic, syriac orthodox, armenian catholic, armenian apostolic,...) go on procession by the streets with the Most Blessed Sacrement.

Dear Byzantinophile, at least in the last year the priest did it, but using the Roman Rite. In this year, I will insist with him to use our Rite.

By the way, a few days ago, when I was in the city of S�o Paulo, where there is our Cathedral, the Archbishop Far�s on the Ash Wednesday blessed an oil mixed with ashes with the proper byzantine prayer of blessing the oil and, drawing a cross on the people with this "black paint", said: "By the Holy Cross seal, all the evil may be smashed!".

Instead of dismiss the people who want some type of foreigner ritual, why not adapt it?

Do you have any photos you can put up?

In 2001, I attended Divine Liturgy for the feast of the Holy Eucharist at Saint Anne's Melkite Church in North Hollywood. This what the pastor had to say about the feast in an article from that year:


I found the following quote from the website of Saint Joseph Melkite Catholic Church in Lawrence, Massachusetts [stjosephmelkitecatholicchurch.org]:



And last but not least...

Here is what His Beatitude Patriarch Gregory had to say during the Year of the Eucharist [pgc-lb.org]

Wow, thank you griego. I didn't realize how widespread it is.

Mykhayl wrote: Funny; it's always been ethnic people I've seen with this perception; "converts" know all the answers to all the questions (and a few are even right). Many simple Orthodox believers hold that the Great Entrance is the Body and Blood of Christ, though their priests gently try to make them understand as it comes to their attention.

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Western Orthodoxy Blog [westernorthodox.blogspot.com]

C. I. X.

One person�s perception and another�s supposition often lead to a miscommunication of realities. I am talking about a reality that may not be one of yours, yet. We have �parishioners� whose emigrant pioneers are not mom and dad nor grandma and grandpa but long dead great-great-great grandparents. These �visitors� travel from their nova riche communities passing their usually attended church and a dozen others to come home to an antique church building located in a presently stranger repopulated ghetto for several yearly visits. They know the three fanatically learned �password� greetings to get them in. They also learned a half dozen names for kin and dishes they will use here but no where else. They know they are not Russians but don�t ask what the capital city of the motherland is. They come with a nice tax deductible bank check gift dragging their grandchildren as there were dragged to keep the faith. Their inherited perceptions are mixed fragments of handed down information, what they know from their usual attended church, glib explanations from the local church ladies and assumptions made from the Discovery Channel TV documentary about someone�s Christianity they cought. If they go to a common denominator Roman Catholic Church they are Catholic entitling them welcome in any Greco Catholic Church especially of their clan. This can included family baptisms, wedding and funerals so they can be hatched, matched and dispatch according to �po-na/shu-mo� (our ways).

I have no idea where the Orthodox Vatican is but here it is expected many families will have three sets of church offering envelopes in their buffet drawer. The first is where they go with mom and dad on Christmas and Easter. The second is where they attend usually because it is meaningful to them. The third is where they go with friends mainly to volunteer working at fundraisers for charitable causes. I do. Yes one can be an Evangelical Orthodox Catholic. Unfortunately their understanding of church/religion/theology in many cases is suspect or even superstitious. Unfortunately the understanding of them by many of the �DP� (WW II cradle stock), �newgrant� (ex-Soviet motherland missionaries) or "AC-DC" (bi-ritual convert) clergy are no better than their understanding of us.

At least in the Roman Rite, I have noticed that 'ethnic' parishes often have a better idea of orthopraxy than the 'territorial' parishes.

We read that our glorious bishop-martyr, Blessed Theodore Romzha, having his carriage rammed by a Soviet truck, had his jaw broken and wired, and could not take solid food. He was not able to receive the Holy Eucharist by the mouth. So his friends had the Blessed Sacrament placed in his room for him to adore.

Prior to the Revolution in Russia, Catholics (Byzantine and Latin) and Orthodox would come together and form associations and pray for unity together. These associations were formed in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Kyiv.

Blessed Exarch Leonid Feodorov and Servant of God Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky were involved in the formation of a couple of these associations. Patriarch Tikhon even gave his personal endorsement to the one formed in Moscow.

The association formed in Kyiv practiced Eucharistic devotions as part of its prayers for unity.
The following excerpt comes from the chapter titled, "Russian Catholics and Ecumenism in the 20th Century" by Irene Posnoff. This chapter is from the book, Rediscovering Eastern Christendom: Essays in Commemoration of Dom Bede Winslow



Is anyone familiar with an "Akathist to the Blessed Sacrament"?

I am not aware of an Akathist but traditionally among Carpatho- Rusyn Greek Catholics the Moleben to the Sacred Heart was served with the Supplication Service to Blessed Sacrament appended to it was the primary Eucahristic Adoration Service. It was still served at the Uniontown Pilgrimage up until a few years ago.

Fr. Deacon Lance

<<Is this really the case in the Western Church, though? We've had Eucharistic Adoration since the Middle Ages (circa 12th-13th centuries).>>
Actuaaly, there was a major wave of eucharistic heresy/skepticism in that very era. We sometimes tend to idealize certain eras of Church history. The Medieval Western Church was, of course, very corrupted by materialism, and Medieval theology was corrupted by Averroeism.

Priests began to doubt transubstantiation. In response came many of the famous Eucharistic Miracles where the Host turned into real flesh, etc. There's one story about a non-believing priest saying mass, and the Host bleeding. They say that the blood stains are still on the altar and floor of that church.

The Feast of Corpus Christi, and the worship of the Sacrament outside of Mass were established in response to these events. St. Thomas Aquinas was commissioned by the Pope to write the texts for those services.

I used to teach at an independent school "in the Catholic tradition" that was renting facilities from the local Orthodox Church. This was in Virginia. In the actual chapel, they had some kind of cognate to a monstrance sitting on the altar at all times. It looked like a reliquary and had the Blessed Sacrament in it. Anyone know about that?