www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Favourite private Latin Devotions of Easterners

Dear Mikey,

One should, of course, abide by the rules of the Church in which we are in if we can.

If you are in an Eastern Church and wish to genuflect, that's fine.

I never used to genuflect in a Latin Church, it was one of those things we Easterners don't do and still wouldn't in a Western Rite Church.

However, now that I've had an opportunity to study the rubrics of the Tridentine Rite and the reasons behind them, I've no problem with this tradition.

I also genuflect on the left knee when meeting a Latin Rite Bishop, but then ask him to bless me as I would ask an Eastern cleric.

I've also genuflected before our Sovereign, The Queen, and Her Majesty liked that so much she had her secretary write to ask if there was a picture of me genuflecting before her. There was and I sent it to her! (I had to put that in!).

As far as the Angelus goes, I cross myself at the end at the final words and bow.

Eastern Christians as a rule bow after making the Sign of the Cross and after every prayer in which the Holy Trinity is invoked, which is usually commemorated with the Sign of the Cross.

As you know, the genuflection was a civil act of respect before one's medieval superior whereby one made an act of obeisance to him or her by kneeling down, placing their hand between one's own two hands and reciting the act of allegiance.

This was later adopted by the Church in the West toward the Bishops who were, by and large, imbuded with secular powers as well.

The Germanic devotion to "Christ the King" that reflected the order of medieval society also insured that this practice became traditional in the Latin Church.

The full prostration in the East is more than the genuflection, insofar as the entire body is down.

Personally, I think one should do what one is comfortable with in any similar situation.

And yes, we've "Byzantinized" the Angelus - or some of us have tried to!

It can also be used as a Rosary prayer and we read in the life of St Louis of France that he recited the Angelus "half a hundred times before retiring for the night."

God bless,

Alex

Alex,

How is Eucharistic adoration done in the east? West Latiners have a nice flat host that fits neatly in a monstrance. As I understand it the bread y'all use for the Eucharist wouldn't be so easy to use for adoration.

-Mark

Dear Mark,

There are Ukrainian Orthodox Churches in western Ukraine who do use the monstrance in conjunction with the "supplicatsia" service which is the blessing of the people with the monstrance.

Certainly, Patriarch Josef did use the monstrance and performed the suplicatsia, and I have a photo of him holding one at Lourdes.

But usually we just adore Our Lord in the Eucharist before the Altar in Church.

One devotion that is actually quite popular in western Ukraine among Eastern Catholics is the 24 hour Eucharistic adoration.

I met a priest from there, for example, who has it in his parish and there are people adoring there 24 hours a day.

Even school-children, he told me, have voluntarily come forward to be assigned hours for keeping their watch in Church. He designed a prayerbook for this purpose to distribute to people as well.

Some Orthodox monasteries have a 24 Psalter watch where monks sign the Psalms four hours at a time in choirs 24 hours a day.

The Greeks had a similar tradition founded by St Alexander Akoimetes the Unsleeping One. His monastic followers were called the unsleeping ones as they sang the psalms and office in four hour shifts, day and night.

There are some Latin Church religious orders who likewise have the 24 hour Rosary, as I understand.

Monks in the Egyptian Thebaid were obliged to pray 12 Psalms at the beginning of each and every hour, day and night.

The monks of Ethiopia still do this.

Alex

+JMJ+

Do you know from whence one of these prayerbooks can be obtained.

Joe Zollars

Dear Johanam,

Shalom!

Unfortunately, the ones I know of are in Ukrainian.

But what they contain include the Stations of the Cross, Rosary, Eucharistic visits by St Alphonsus di Liguori (truly magnificent, as you know better than I), the devotion to the 5 Wounds of Christ, the Precious Blood meditations, prayers for the souls in Purgatory, Jesus Prayer and the Akathists to the Name of Jesus and the Annunciation of Our Lady.

The priest I spoke to told me that people have a choice, some like just saying the Rosary, others the Psalms and others like a more varied prayer "diet" as long as the continuous hour-long watch is fulfilled.

As you know as well, it is a wonderful experience and when one has fulfilled the hour, one often is filled with such tremendous peace and joy!

It's a blessing to see you here again, Servant of Christ!

Alex

Dear Friends,

I enjoyed reading the favorite Latin devotions
of some Eastern Christians.

I have been studying the Eastern Churches for
14 years, enjoying icons, studying Eastern
liturgy and participating in a few Divine Liturgies. I find the Eastern Churches
inspiring and beautiful.

I have long wondered how Eastern Christians
view the Roman Church. These writings about
favorite Latin devotions help me understand
Eastern Christian sentiments and my own
Latin tradition. What these add up to is the
universality of the Church.

One of my favorite Latin prayers is the
Hail Mary.

Among my favorite Byzantine prayers is the
Trisagion. I also find the priest words said
to the communicant, "The servant of God N....,"
humbling and inspirational.

Thank you all for your contributions to this
discussion.

Paul

Mark,

For the Service of the Supplication of the Holy Eucharist, the Holy Gifts aren't actually exposed. In fact the Byzantine monstrance isn't a monstrance at all, as it does not show the Holy Gifts. It is a simply a chalice/ciborium with a lid. This is what the Gifts repose in normally inside the tabernacle in Byzantine Churches with the larger Latin style tabernacles. Traditional Byzantine tabernacles are usually smaller and the Holy Gifts are reposed in a small gold box kept inside.

In Christ,
Lance, deacon candidate

Dear Lance,

But I've seen some Eastern Catholic priests use a formal monstrance for the serving of the Suplicatsia.

This must be a Latinization, eh?

Alex

Dear Paul,

Thank you very much for sharing your innermost thoughts on this issue, Friend!

We often talk about Eastern vs. Western theology, history, liturgics etc.

But I think the best way that we can come to understand and respect one another is through our exchange of personal devotions of our respective traditions that truly radiate the Light of Grace that exists in all of them.

I remember meeting a Latin Catholic who was eager to show me his prayer rope - just as I pulled out my Rosary!

Isn't life a beautiful thing?

Dominus Vobiscum,

Alex

Alex,

I have heard of Byzantine priests consecrating Latin Hosts to be used in a Latin Monstrance in the past. I have never seen this and hopefully this type of disregard for our tradition is a thing of the past. I would also add that the only place I have seen the Supplication done is at our Otpust in Uniontown.

I don't see the Supplication so much as a Latinization as it is the Byzantinization of a practice started in the Latin Church. The Supplication is, as you know, the same blessing with the Holy Gifts that is given at the Divine Liturgy preceded by the Trisagion and a litany. The Holy Gifts themselves are not exposed when the service is properly done. Byzantine theology and practice are not violated by this Service in my opinion and I don't think that it needs to be suppressed. Although, it does need to be put into the context of our traditional services. I would suggest appending it to one of the Hours. I am opposed to supplanting the Liturgy of the Presanctified with Stations and Supplication in imitation of Latin practice as some of our more Latinized parishes are fond of doing.

In Christ,
Lance, deacon candidate

Dear Friends,

I have a question about the Presanctified Liturgy. I know it is done during Great Lent. Is it commonly done during the rest of the year?

As you know, the Latin Church has Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament quite frequently and sometimes "Perpetually". Part of the parish's spiritual life is in the frequency and continuity of these services.

Can a Byzantine Parish, using only Traditional Liturgies, have this sense of continuity for parishioners who want a more continuous sense of worship?

I understand that Metropolitan Andrew Sheptytsky forbade the use of a Moleben to the Sacred Heart. What was his reasoning? Can we develop new forms of Molebens and Akathists? Or do parishioners who want more or different devotions have to go to the RC Parish?

Just a few questions. I really do know nothing about liturgical standards and historical development.

Have a Blessed Day!

John
Pilgrim and Odd Duck

John,

Outside of the Great Fast the Liturgy of the Presanctified is not served. Why it was and is not served during the other Fasts I am unsure. Perhaps because weekday Liturgies were forbidden only during the Great Fast. (At least as far as I can know, please correct me if I am wrong anybody)

As for continuity, I believe the only way a Byzantine parish can have continuity is to do the traditional services, Vespers, Compline, Matins, Hours, Akathists, Molebens. If Latin practices are brought in or parishoners go to the Latin Church during the week a a certain amount of eccelsial cognitive dissonance is bound to accrue. While both traditions are beautiful they are not interchangeable. The mystagogical formation of the Byzantine services are not duplicated by the Latin tradition.

One can only learn and become what one prays. So if you pray Byzantine one is and becomes more Byzantine. If one prays Latin one is and becomes more Latin. If a Byzantine only goes to Divine Liturgy on Sunday and practices Latin devotions or attends Latin Services the rest of the time, that person is going to be more Latin than Byzantine and so the person's Byzantine heritage is lost and the Church is poorer for it.

Our tradition is so rich. If only can we rediscover it and participate in it.

In Christ,
Lance

John,
I really don't know anything about liturgical standards either.
Would it not be GREAT if a couple of parishioners got together once a week or at least once a month to pray a Moleben for Vocations to the Priesthood & Religious Life ? There is not a celebration of the Eucharist so the priest does not need to be present. Just need a couple of devoted people to make the commitment to some time well spent! What do you all think ?

Dear Lance and John Two-Lungs!

Excellent points all!

Lance, I believe that the suplicatsia has NO place in our Church today for the reasons that you gave.

It may have had its "raison d'etre" at another time, but not today.

The devotion does persist, especially in western Ukraine among BOTH Catholic and Orthodox Churches.

We have the "pith and substance" of this service in the Divine Liturgy already, as you said.

We seem to be in such a hurry to get over the Divine Liturgy, as I see this in some parishes up here.

And yet the blessing with the Holy Gifts just as the Priest takes them to the side altar is so beautiful and richly meaningful, that we should realize the reason the Benediction was developed in the first place in the Latin Rite was to try and imitate Byzantine liturgical practice.

But the Latin Mass could not introduce this blessing with the Eucharist without doing serious violence to the integrity of its own liturgical structure and so a separate service developed.

The Eastern Catholic Church developed the practice of Eucharistic Adoration as a private thing and that is fine. Many martyrs and confessors emboldened themselves through such adoration.

But the Suplicatsia service is a different thing, it already exists in the Divine Liturgy, and therefore has no place in our liturgical life.

Instead of that service, why not solemnize the Divine LIturgy with prayers before and after Communion read in church? The practice of kissing the edge of the chalice after Communion? The practice of standing along with way to the side altar so the priest may touch our heads with the Chalice?

As for Akathists, Canons and Molebens, we may say these at any time, day or night.

St Jonah Atamansky (+1924)prayed Akathists all night until morning throughout his life. He was a great miracle-worker and healer.

Molebens are a beautiful "one size fits all" service that can be done to any feast, miraculous icon or saint, with the proper propers .

There are hundreds of Akathists a large number of which have been translated into English and are available from the St. John of Kronstadt Press and elsewhere.

We can write our own Akathists to our favourite saints if they don't have one and I've done that for two of my favourites that I use privately. (One of my Akathists has been approved for public worship by the Episcopal Church, the other by the Lutheran Church in Germany - O.K. you can start throwing things at me . . .).

In the "Son of the Church" a Russian devotional guide of the sixteenth century, it is said that a Christian may say a Moleben or Akathist at any time for any need. As subjects of the King of Heaven, we have the right to make a request of our Sovereign directly and at any moment.

Alex

Wasn't the blessing with the chalice at the Liturgy, like the service of benediction in the western Church, something that rose up in importance especially when frequent communion became rare? People who were not in the habit of communicating, except perhaps once a year, were drawn to this substitute consolation.

I know that in the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Churches, there is a significant movement toward the restoration of more frequent communion, and surely this is a good thing?

What does it mean to be "blessed" with the chalice, when we have just actually received the mysteries? What is added by this blessing, what does it convey?

I personally like the Byzantine "Supplicatio" service. And like everyone I have heard speak about it fondly, they all unanimously recall that haunting melody and beautiful (if somewhat sentimental) devotional hymns prayers. Where it is no longer done, they ask for it again, not so much for the devotion to the "reserved Mysteries" but because of their fondness for these melodies and prayers.

In that, they are very Byzantine still (despite the attempt at "Latinization") and reflect an abiding and more "Orthodox" attitude to the Liturgy and its meaning. My view, is that the service was beautiful and well written, a worthy Moleben and addition to the list of occasional services. For this reason, it was popular. But the theology of "Eucharistic Devotion" imported from the West, only partially understood, and was never really embraced in its entirety by the faithful.

Elias, monk