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On a trip to Austin I was able to visit the Maronite church in the downtown area (I was there once before for a Byzantine DL on the occasion of the all Texas picnic). As seems to be the custom in every good parish an elderly lady took it upon herself to turn around from time to time to tell me what I should be doing or reading. Quick questions on things I noticed:

1. The congregational moment where everyone turns to those near them with hands closed and the other person places their hands outside them. Where did the practice originate? Any more information on this practice in general?

2. Is there any easy delineation on the role of the deacon compared to the Byzantine or Latin use?

3. Instead of simply placing the ripidia in the direction of the celebrant, they shook it. How common is that in today's practice?

4. Can someone suggest a good book on the organization and development of the Qurbono (possibly with some information on the changes made in the official 1992 use)?

5. What is the proper way to greet a Maronite priest?

Thanks in advance!

Shlomo Byzantine TX,

quote=Byzantine TX]On a trip to Austin I was able to visit the Maronite church in the downtown area (I was there once before for a Byzantine DL on the occasion of the all Texas picnic). As seems to be the custom in every good parish an elderly lady took it upon herself to turn around from time to time to tell me what I should be doing or reading. Quick questions on things I noticed:

1. The congregational moment where everyone turns to those near them with hands closed and the other person places their hands outside them. Where did the practice originate? Any more information on this practice in general?[/QUOTE]

The practice developed as showing that we should all pray for peace. Therefore one recieves the prayer of peace from the priest, who passes it on to the other ministers (either deacons, other priests, alter boys, etc.


Actually there is. Each rank of deacon has a specific part within our liturgy.

A Subdeacon reads the Old Testment, excluding the prophets.

A Deacon reads the prophets of the Old Testment and the New Testment excluding the Gospel.

An Archdeacon reads the Gospel.

This is only if we have a full complement of clergy.


It is required since we are de-Latinzing our Church


I would wait since we just had our first Holy Synod in three hundred years that deals with our Liturgy. We should have a new Qorbono out in the next few years.


We call him Abuna in Arabic or Abun in Syriac- Aramaic.

Poosh BaShlomo,
Yuhannon

Many thanks for all the quick answers. I'll keep an eye out for a good book on the topic.

Hey thanks for posting this. I am actually thinking of moving to Austin and joining this parish. I'm glad you mention this, because this sort of thing is what I like about the Copts of my church (they tend to look out for you almost like family).

I've seen it in every BC church I've attended, too.

And a couple of years ago when interviewing at a Bendedictine college, I attended one of the prayere services. The abbot came over to make sure I'd received help finding the correct part of the book.

The priest in Austin is very personable and well liked. He is also instrumental in keeping the Byzantine Catholic mission down there afloat. Prayers to that fledgling community, please!

Yes I caught a glimpse of that. I've emailed him once before and he was very cordial. And in general I have a good feeling about him. While I intend to be Maronite I will defitely pray for the Melikite congregation (or are you talking about still another?). I think for the time being I'm prone to work graveyard, so I'm very interested in that Melkite service as a way of possibly meeting "Sunday obligation" if all else fails.


Besides that I also did enjoy attending Antiochian Orthodox services a long time ago when I first started to learn about Eastern Christianity.... (I understand this is essentially the Catholic version of that).

Addai,

The Byzantine Mission that uses the Maronite parish is Ruthenian, not Melkite. See here for details and a link to their website.

Many years,

Neil

Cool! do you know if that is one of the big Slovak Ruthenian parishes? I'm half Slovak.

It is not a very large mission at the moment. I don't know if any of them are Slovak, but I do know that it's a mix of Byzantine Catholics and those interested in Eastern Catholicism.