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Dear Dmitri,

What you have said reminds me of something the Rev. Bohdan Lypsky said that was recorded in a book published by our parish.

He compared the Orthodox clergy with our own and with others.

He said that what impressed him most about the Orthodox was their deep conviction about the correctness of their traditions and ways.

He said when an Orthodox bishop is invited to give a blessing or a prayer in public, he doesn't take off his robes or change his mannerisms to suit "the world."

You are right - more power to them!

Alex

Glory to Jesus Christ!

The only problem that I have ever had with Orthodox Monastacism is that after the Moslem destruction of Constantinople and the final dismembering of the empire. We Byzantines lost something---it was not just the Imperial Glory---it was not just the right to rule ourselves---we lost the non-monastic cathedral Rite of the Byzantine Church with its many hymns, services that we now only have fragments of, a rite that by all reports could best be summarized as a much expanded pascha through out the year---greater joy, more dramatic, and celebratory.

With the destruction of the Byzantine Empire, the byzantines took on the more penitential, monastic rite that we know as the byzantine rites today. Aparrently there is some movement today to restore the Cathedral Rite in an effort to revitalize Parish (read than non-monastic) life. The Cathedral Rite,by all reports, was more consistent with married families with children than is the monastic rite we use today.

I love the monastics and the rite they gave us that preserved Byzantine worship---but I yearn for the restoration of the Cathedral Rite to restore the fullness of Buzantine worship. What do you think?

Your brother in Christ,
Thomas

Subdeacon Thomas,

Amen! Indeed, the spirituality of the cathedral, the parish, the lay people was lost and replaced with that of the monastery. Everything came to be judged by a monastic yardstick, which I think is unfortunate. Monastic spirituality is beautiful and has its place, unfortunately in the Byzantine Churches it has replaced all others. I think one of the greatest challenges for Byzantine Catholic and Orthodox Churches is to rediscover an authnetic spirituality of the parish, of married clergy, and laity that is not just an imitation or reduction of the monastic.

In Christ,
Lance, deacon candidate

Keep in mind that the change in favor of the monastic rite happened gradually and began under the Latin suzerainty in Constantinople (1204-1260), when the monastics were the ones capable of preserving the tradition.

I'm skeptical about resurrecting a rite that applied in a different era. A rite that was useful in Byzantine Constantinople is not, in my view, any more "applicable" to the circumstances in which we live today than the "abridged" Sabaite liturgical typikon we follow today. Life -- even for lay people -- was very different then, and in particular the society itself was completely different from our own. I'll agree that there can be some creative editing, particularly given the fact that we, de facto, serve abridged services today. But a return to the so-called "cathedral" rite doesn't seem like the way to go -- at least not to me.

Brendan

When you are born into and raised in an Orthodox spiritual environment that experiences the monastic way as spiritual joy and paschal radiance, your query would seem to be gratuitous.

Father Alexander (Schmemann), himself a married priest and "progressive" theologian, seems to have found nothing lacking in the "monastic way."

He believed the obvious: Byzantine Christian culture is essentially ascetical:

"Man's sin and alienation from God, the radical illness of 'this world,' the narrow way of salvation-these are the essential components of Byzantine religious experience, shaping in more than one way the whole life of Byzantine society. It is...a 'monastic' society in the sense that it accepts the monastic ideal as the self-evident norm and criterion of all Christian life. The doxological spirit of worship....not only does not exclude, but on the contrary implies as its very condition a deep penitential emphasis: 'I see Thy bridal chamber adorned, and I have no wedding garment to enter therein...'
It would be a mistake however....to view this ascetical and penitential aspect as made up of fear and pessimism. To be understood properly it must be referred to and judged by its goal: by the theme, central in Eastern Christianity, of theosis, by deification of man by the grace of the Holy Spirit.....Asceticism here is the 'art of arts.' for it is the means by which man ascends to his true nature and calling, fulfills his eternal destiny."---The "Orthodox World," Past and Present.

The monasticism of the laity, though modified for their circumstances and calling, retains the essence of the monastic way, which is joy and radiant pascal splendor in surrendering to the Truth...and living IT.

What do you think?

Xrisi aygi

ER

[ 03-07-2002: Message edited by: Ephraim Reynolds ]