www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship Vespers, Matins & the Divine Liturgy The Revised Divine Liturgy Question

A couple of weeks ago I had the happy opportunity to attend Divine Liturgy at St. John Chrysostom in Houston. I generally followed the service in the service book in the pew. I presume this is not the RDL everyone is talking about. It was a pale green covered book. What edition of the liturgy is given in this service book?

Also there is a prayer to the Theotokos in the service. Since this was the first week of December and Our Lady of Guadalupe is on the 12th (her feast day) the prayer was to her. I was a little surprised to see the prayer to a Byzantine parish but it was very nice. Are these prayers locally written or are they universally used in the Byzantine Catholic Church?

Thanks for the clarifications?

Jim

Was the pale green book a fairly substantial hardcover, with the music interspersed with the text? Was "Jesus good and loves us all"? If the answer is yes, then you did indeed encounter the Teal Terror and the Revised Divine Liturgy. If not, you were looking at some locally printed "missalette". Before the RDL book, the official pew books were either maroon hardcovers or blue or brown softcovers. These had Slavonic side-by-side with the English text; the RDL book is "English only" ('cause if the Slavonic was right there alongside, people might realize how badly translated it is).

Stuart

Thanks. The description you give of the green book is exactly the one I used. No Slavonic in there. Of course, I would not have been able to assess the translation quality in any case. Is the order of the service essentially the same and just the translation different or are there significant changes to the Divine Liturgy that I would not have been aware of, not being familiar with the former practice?

Jim

Observance of the feast of O.L. of Guadalupe was introduced into the calendar of the Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic Church in the USA a few years ago. I can't say for certain what prompted the Hierarchs to introduce it but I can make a guess or 2. I understand in the Eparchy of Phoenix they have started some Byzantine ministry to Mexican-Americans & other people from Latin America, to whom this feast is very dear (I wonder what translation of the DL they are using in Spanish); my other guess would be they wanted to bring the Ruthenian Church into closer conformity with the Latin Church's observance here in the States. Kinda savors of a latinism, doesn't it? Or does it? I dunno...

But then, opportunities to glorify God by celebrating the great things He accomplishes through the intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos are beneficial and don't hurt anything.

It is a feast day for all of the Catholic Churches of North America. The Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic bishops in America were simply fulfilling the wishes of the National Conference of Bishops that this feast be celebrated in all North American Catholic Churches.

U-C

It was at the request of the Special Assembly for the Americas of the Synod of Bishops that Pope John Paul II named Our Lady of Guadalupe the Patroness of the Americas on 1/22/99. I believe it was at this time Bishop George Kuzma requested inclusion of the feast on the Metropolia's calendar, having already added it in the Eparchy of Van Nuys, where it is very popular.

Houston uses the RDL + a book of Marian hymns every Sunday.