|
Forums26
Topics35,511
Posts417,518
Members6,161
| |
Most Online3,380
Dec 29th, 2019
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 28
Member
|
|
Member
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 28 |
Hey all,
I'm not quite sure what forum to post this in, so I thought I'd post it here.
At the hospital where my wife works, one of the other nurses is Byzantine Catholic (we're Orthodox). This other nurse was talking about how she loves the traditions that come with being Byzantine Catholic, and then she mentioned one that she particularly likes...
She said that in her parish, when a child is being baptized, the parent (or maybe just the mother?) crawls down the isle behind the priest, who is holding the baby.
My wife was more than a little surprised, and so she wondered if I had ever heard of anything like that. I haven't, and so I'm curious.
Is that really a tradition in some Byzantine Catholic parishes? If so, where does it come from?
*confused*
Sbn John
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 668 Likes: 1
Member
|
|
Member
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 668 Likes: 1 |
I've been to lots of baptisms at our parish (Byz Cath) and I've never seen anything like that. Sounds a bit odd to me, but probably someone here will know. Could it be part of a particular ethnic tradition perhaps?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 1,206 Likes: 1
Member
|
|
Member
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 1,206 Likes: 1 |
I prefer the tradition where the mother is carried in :-)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 695
Member
|
|
Member
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 695 |
Never seen the like in the UGCC and nothing in the books certainly.
Could they be confused with the Churching? The mother is brought in and makes reverences down the sanctuary "aisle"...
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 392 Likes: 1
Member
|
|
Member
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 392 Likes: 1 |
Probably not a baptism, but I found this quote from C S Lewis:
"What pleased me most about a Greek Orthodox mass I once attended was that there seemed to be no prescribed behaviour for the congregation. Some stood, some knelt, some walked; one crawled about the floor like a caterpillar"
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 1,405
Member
|
|
Member
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 1,405 |
[...] the parent [...] crawls down the [a]isle behind the priest, who is holding the baby. [...] This is so ridiculous, I can't take it seriously. You've got to be joking!
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 6,765 Likes: 29
John Member
|
|
John Member
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 6,765 Likes: 29 |
She said that in her parish, when a child is being baptized, the parent (or maybe just the mother?) crawls down the isle behind the priest, who is holding the baby. Iz ancient Slavic kustom! First time it happened da mother had dressed da baby in baptismal robe with very long train, and she accidentally kaught very long train under her high heelz. Priest took baby for walk around holy table and mother fell and was dragged, bumping along. Preci-dent waz set! Haz been holy tradition ever since!  PS: Iz not in any liturgical book. Holy tradition custom dropped in every place except parish you hear about.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 1,405
Member
|
|
Member
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 1,405 |
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 979
Member
|
|
Member
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 979 |
Dat wuz a turrifik esplanshun. Tanks!
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 10,090 Likes: 15
Global Moderator Member
|
|
Global Moderator Member
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 10,090 Likes: 15 |
John knows not of what he speaks. Anyone knows that these moms are merely gathering up the coins tossed into the baptismal font by children and bounced out when little Vladimir or Anastasia was thrashing around in there. How else you think the family is going to start a college fund - selling pirohis off a pushcart?
"One day all our ethnic traits ... will have disappeared. Time itself is seeing to this. And so we can not think of our communities as ethnic parishes, ... unless we wish to assure the death of our community."
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 396
Member
|
|
Member
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 396 |
This seems to me to be a very good explanation. A few prostrations could easily be mistaken for crawling particularly by an uninformed observer. Probably the lady hasn't seen many baptisms and particularly the kind in which the mother is willing or able to perform full prostrations.
|
|
|
|
|
