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Would it be a possible idea, to keep what was popular about those prayers (the melody and dialogue praises) in a proper moleben service, and leave the mysteries undisturbed in the the tabernacle on tha altar?

Perhaps someone might produce a suitable book, with this altered rubric, and the service could be occationally used in that way?

Elias

Dear Reverend Monk Elias,

The Blessing with the Chalice, I believe, served to underscore the fact that it is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in the Eucharist who is blessing His people.

This began the train of the priest to the side altar with the Chalice.

The Kyivan Church developed the practice of touching the Chalice to people's heads, people who have already communicated, and those who wished to have this done lined up along the way to the side altar.

The blessing with the Chalice certainly extended to one and all, whether they communicated or not.

Certainly in the East, Christ is totally present in the Divine Liturgy from its very beginning, and not only at the Canon.

We receive Christ into our hearts but also adore Him as we kiss the Chalice, are touched by It and are blessed with it.

All these are forms of communion, to be sure!

But it is all done within proper liturgical context.

Vatican II was concerned that such extra-liturgical devotions were taking away from the centrality of the Divine Liturgy.

The Suplicatsia service was actually poorly translated from Polish into Slavonic.

For example, in the invocations the term "molisia za nami" is used or, literally, "pray after us" in Slavonic or Ukrainian.

And Fr. Lypsky our former parish priest (who couldn't stand the Suplicatsia) said, "but why not say, 'pray before us' rather than 'behind us?'"

So it showed an almost slavish devotion not only to a Latin practice, but to the Polish language from which religious culture it came from.

I would certainly not oppose any parish, Catholic or Orthodox, that has this devotion.

You'd have to ask Cantor Joe Thur for his view. But I think he likes Latin public devotions like some interior designers like plastic lawn furniture.

My grandfather who was a priest served this.

Perhaps, just perhaps, some liturgist, a la Fr. Isidore Dolnitsky, could develop this into a proper Moleben service, with Canon etc.?

Patriarch Josef, as you know, did hours of adoration.

This practice is popular in western Ukraine today, with 24 hour Eucharistic adoration in some parishes.

I met an Eastern Catholic priest who had this in his village, and even children took turns praying in Church for an hour each day.

Alex

+JMJ+

Alex:

I am going to have to correct you. The practice of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament exposed was in response to a heresy denying the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. It is in response to this heresy that St. Thomas Aquinas wrote the wonderful chants (Pange Lingua and O Salutaris Hostia, both personal favorites.).

This practice is maintained by the High Church Anglicans.

The Gregorian Liturgy (commonly called Tridentine) has strong roots in an attempt to immitate the Byzantines with the prayers before Holy Communion nad the chant etc. The history of this Liturgy is one that is definatly worth studying.

Joe Zollars

Dear Johanan,

Yes, of course, you are correct.

But I wasn't commenting on the reasons why this devotion developed in the West, but in the East, where it is really unnecessary since the blessing with the Chalice is part and parcel of our Divine Liturgy already.

We never had those heresies in the East, although the missionaries of those western denominations that represent them historically are certainly arriving there fast enough!

We have a dynamic view of the Eucharist and our Churches never quite understood the static devotion to Christ in the Eucharist in the West.

Again, there are priests in our Churches that are "fer" and "agin" the extraliturgical veneration of the Eucharist.

In general, the Divine Liturgy is where we of the East should be showing all our Eucharistic Adoration with respect to public liturgy.

And our blessing with the Chalice is a Rite that the Western Rites, including the Tridentine, never had, nor, as a result of their inner harmony and structure, could have.

Alex