www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Byzantine/Eastern style Rosary ?

the other day i picked up a rosary card at my parish (its Ukrainian Catholic) and noticed it was a little different than the normal rosary. for example it instructs to bless yourself with the cross 3 times instead of one, and has different prayers in the beginning of the rosary prayer such as "glory to you O God, glory to you O God, glory to you O God," and a "O Heavenly King" prayer. instead of praying the apostles creed...it instructs to pray the nicene creed, ect. throughout the opening of the prayers it has different prayers than the normal rosary. however the mysteries of the rosary are the same and the hail mary and our father prayers are intact after the 10th bead. so again my question is, is this particular rosary a special format for eastern/and byzantine catholics ?

Yes, it is a way that Greek Catholics have adapted the Rosary to make it somewhat more "ours".

It didn't fall from Heaven, though, like the Dominican Rosary did, so we don't know if God or Mary hear our Rosaries or not. :rolleyes:

There are other even more-Greek Catholic-like rosaries, like the way Greek Catholic Rusyns from Slovakia do it: with tropars and other hymns in between the mysteries and such. Very nice indeed.

Dear Mateusz,

The Russian Orthodox Saint Serphim of Sarov, Saint Seraphim Zvezdinsky (shot by the Bolsheviks in 1937) St Seraphim Vyritsky et al. ALL prayed the "Rule of the Mother of God" daily and expected others to as well . . .

They taught that the rosary was actually revealed to an Eastern Monk of the Thebaid in the 8th century, well before St Dominic.

Jordanville published the monastic rules of prayer where the practice of saying 150 Hail Mary's and Our Fathers, with prostrations, is still there for Mt Athos.

The methods of saying the Rosary by St Louis de Montfort and by St Seraphim Zvezdinsky respectively are IDENTICAL except for some different mysteries.

Dear Lemko -

Is there a place I could write to to perhaps obtain a copy of such a rosary as you describe with Troparia et al?

Alex

Having been involved with the Dominicans (I almost became a cloistered Dominican nun a few years ago), I can assure you that they do not believe the Rosary "fell from Heaven".

And I'm sure that Our Lord and His Blessed Mother hear all prayers that are addressed to them. No matter where or who they come from.

thank u for all of your responses and information...and i must admit that i like this format of praying the rosary and i hope personally to use the byzantine catholic way of praying the holy rosary more frequently.

Alex, how about if I look around for it and get back to you? (Or you remind me in about 2 weeks or so?) I moved recently and my collection is in the midst of reorganization & being "put away" (only for me to look at it and never put it away again, like I usually do with all my stuff)!

The Byzantine Nuns of St. Clare also have a nice little pamphlet about the Jesus Prayer with a description of the chotki and the prayer, with quotes from the Way of the Pilgrim. It suggests the Nachalo Obychne, Psalm 50, 100X Jesus Prayer, the "It is truly proper to glorify you" and concludes with "through the prayers..."

I am not a big fan of public recitation of the Rosary so I do not always pay attention as closely as some but IIRC in Slovakia the GCs there do not use the Latin "Hail Mary" or the "Glory" but the Byzantine form. And, they use that "insert" that goes with the mystery. I expect they do not use the Apostles' Creed either but again when I ran into it I often did not stop to pay much attention.

Dear Mateusz,

Would it be possible for you to type out the rosary card, and post it here on the forum so all may benefit? Thank you for sharing this with us!

Michael

Alex,

I have a booklet entitled "Motlitvennik dl'a C^lenov Obsc^estva Z^ivoho Rozovoho Vinca" by Fr. Valentine Gorzo, published in McKeesport, PA in 1924. It received an "imprimatur" in 1917 from Gabriel Martyak (this is in Cyrillic, but the rest of the book is in Latinica). It is an interesting book.

I could try and give a run-down of the contents of the book when I'm not in a rush. It does, however, contain typical Byzantine elements like troparia and certain prayers to the Mother of God, as well as "popular" elements like para-liturgical hymns, as Lemko said.

Dave

OK, here is a bare bones view at the contents of the mentioned booklet:

*Beginning Prayers, consisting of the Trisagion Prayers, Creed, Oslabi ostavi, Prayers to the Mother of God, the "Intercessions" from Great Compline, and "The Father is my hope..."

*The Beginning of the Rosary, consisting of the Sign of the Cross, a prayer, the Troparia from the Paraklis/Moleben, and then an outline of the order of each decade, the Mysteries, etc.

*Each Decade is done thusly:
-Otc^e Nas^...
-10 Bohorodice Divo, in the Byzantine fashion *until* the end, when it says "...c^reva tvojeho: Isus, < insert appropriate line about the mystery >"
-Then "Most-holy Mary, Mother of Christ our God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen."
-Slava, i nyni...
-A prayer/meditation/Scripture passage
-Concluding Prayer

Each decade is like this. After five decades, there is a hymn: K tvojej sjvatoj ikoni, Molime Ta Divo and Radujsja Carice, respectively.

*The Ending consists of the Troparia of Repentance, the Stichera from Paraklis "Za vsich", and a lengthy concluding prayer.

*The book then includes various things about the Rosary, Q&A about indulgences, and so forth.

*Finally, there is an order to bless a Rosary; they even call it a chetki! The blessing is in the typical form you'd find in the Trebnik: Trisagion Prayers, Troparia, Prayer, Sprinkling with Holy Water, Dismissal.

That's all, folks!

Dave

here is a website that has the byzantine use rubrics and prayers to the rosary.

http://www.angelfire.com/pa3/OldWorldBasic/Rosary.htm