www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Scripture and Patristic Writings Question about Byzantine Catholic liturgical cycle

Hi!

I'm visiting my folks in Arizona and my dad just asked me a question I couldn't answer.

Does the Byzantine Catholic Church use the same 3-year cycle of Scripture readings that the Latin Rite Church uses, or are they on a different cycle?

Different.

Dear Theist Gal,

Hi. I was advised by our parish priest that we use a 1 year cycle. We will always have the same readings on the same Sundays each year for all movable feasts.

Happy Pascha!

Michael

Thanks!

Dear Theist Gal,

Christ is Risen!

Please remember that the selection of Scripture readings was never intended to limit the readings to Sunday only. In most cases, the Saturday reading compliments the Sunday reading. The weekday readings bring additional Scriptural themes for the spiritual edification of the faithful.

Even though we may not attend liturgical services beyond the usual Sunday Divine Liturgy, we are greatly encouraged to read the Scriptures in our �church at home�, our own individual families.

My prayers are with you for a most blessed Paschal season.

Deacon El

This is always a fascinating question. You know the west has always been accused of witholding Scripture from the people but that is not true.

For many centuries those in the monastic life lived apart from the world, but the world always managed to make its way to the monk. The life of the monk was so imbued with Scripture that their mouths were fountains of revelation. They recited Psalms, Prophets, Gospels etc from memory and the people heard the Word from their mouths as it was intended to be passed down.

Ancient oriental liturgies often had many more and longer passages from the Epistles and Gospels than they do today.

That contact with the monastic world continued relatively uninterrupted in the east while it suffered a mighty set back in the west with the dissolution of monasteries in Europe and in England. So that constant exposure to Scripture went missing from parish life and the spiritual lives of the faithful.

In the eastern liturgies the readings still tend to be many lines longer than in the west even though one may not have the variety of readings through a cycling of the Liturgy of the Word through the Synoptics. Also the liturgical hours are still connected to the divine liturgy in the east and so you have those additional readings as well, which are missing in the west. The chanting of psalms is relatively non-existant in the western liturgies while it is the heart of liturgical prayer in eastern parishes to a level unimagined in the contemporary west.

Spiritual elders are still a great part of the spiritual life of the east for the laity, and the focus is our ought to be on the contemplation of Scripture.

You will find in the west with the lay members of religious orders, lectio divina, has become a password for "spiritual reading" of any spiritual text, rather than lectio divina being the equivalent of sacra pagina or Scripture itself, as it once was in both the east and the west.

In the west, Benedict, did say that the homiletics of holy men were also to be seen as lectio divina but only because those early lessons of the fathers were so thoroughly composed of meditations on the revealed Word.

So the cycling of Scripture through the Synoptics has filled a lacuna in ordinary knowledge of Scripture in the west that has never, until very very recently, been as apparent in the east.

These are just meant to be general comments and indicative of trends over time.

Eli

I have had some interesting conversations with my Dad lately about the Byzantine Catholic Church. He has attended their local BC church several times and really liked it, has read some books that I've recommended, and regularly uses the Byzantine prayer book I gave him last year for Father's Day.

He's still very much a Latin Rite Catholic but seems to appreciate the perspective he's gotten from looking at the Eastern Rite.

Eli,

You ake a very idealistic approach to the East and our use of Scripture.

What additional readings does the East have in the Divine Office? Greater Feasts have OT reading at Vespers and of course there is the weekly Resurrection Gospel during Vigil. The Roman Liturgy of the Hours has readings at every hour, everyday.

As to the chanting of the Psalms, the Kathisma Psalms are the first thing to be omitted in Vespers and Matins celebrated in parishes. Of course you have the fixed Psalms, but again I don't think we out do the West in this regard. In the Roman LOTH, 2 variable Pslams, 1 variable Canticle and 1 fixed Canticle are taken at every Vespers and Lauds. At Mass, the Romans take more Psalm verses in their Responsorial Psalm compared to our two verse Prokimen. They also have an OT reading on Sundays and Feastdays.

I think Eastern Liturgy is very Scripturally based but I don't think we outshine the Latin Church as far as use of Scripture is concerned. I think where we far outdistance them is in Church hymnography. We have stichera, troparia, canons, etc. The Latin Church has much less of this.

Fr. Deacon Lance

I see. Perhaps you missed a couple of things that said quite quickly as wrote. One is that I am including both Orthodox and eastern Catholic practice in my musings. And also that my approach was something of an historical one rather than a comparative one, east to west. You have responded as though it was primarily a comparative one, which does then tend to skew my messages.

If you consider the long view and the fact that Orthodox liturgical praxis in the parishes is redressing the short shrift given to psalmody, then perhaps you'll see that my remarks are not at all that far out of line.

There is no question that we could all profit from spending more time with Scripture.

My point was that we, east and west, have moved away a bit from the ancient practices and those practices encouraged by strong monastic presences in the daily and weekly lives of the faithful.

Eli

Dear Eli,

Actually, I believe you not only presented an excellent (and scholarly) overview of the history of the use of Scripture in East and West, but you did so by complimenting the East in a wonderful way.

You are obviously very well read in the spiritual wellsprings of monasticism.

Your comments about the memorization of Scripture were also touched upon in my morning college class today - although I'm sorry I couldn't have had you as a guest lecturer to present a much more comprehensive discussion!

Father Deacon Lance, leave my friend, Eli, alone!

(Not that Eli needs me to defend him!)

Christ is Risen,

Alex

I don't know if this helops any one but, about 7 yrs ago i was in a german baptist brethren sect...for 10+ yrs previously. I left, because they would not accept my 'baptist' immersion baptism,...it wasn't done 'their' way, trine 3X backwards, mine was forwards...! This sent me on a search for authority, and questioning most of the evangelical/baptist/reformist/sectarianist stuff that I had learned since 1971, when I got involved with them. I met an Orthodox priest, but it took me about 5 meetings, before I would call him.."Father"..! You know that Pauline injunction to call no man your 'father'..! So, I now am Eastern Orthodox, and the liturgy is still new for me. I have felt that I am worshiping, and that it is much the same as my ancestors did 100, 300, 500 yrs ago. What really got me was that the whole service was chanted, and it was just choked full of Scripture readings. And I thought that the EO's were just a knock-off of Catholics. How wrong I was..! Then, about 4 yrs ago, I happened to be in a local Roman Rite parish, on Sat nite, and was taken aback by the guitars, and tamboreens. I concluded I did not miss anything. There was even a woman in some liturgical garb, that was the last straw. So, here it is. mik