www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Eastern Rite Rosary

I was surfing the web yesterday and found a tidbit on the Byzantine Rite Rosary. As a former Roman Rite the rosary is something that I have kept with my transition to the Byzantine Rite. However if there is an actual Byzantine adaptation of the Rosary it is something I would like to start praying. Does anyone here have information on this?

By byzantine rite rosary, do you mean the tradition eastern Christian prayer rope and "Jesus Prayer?" Or do you mean an eastern adaptation of the Rosary as popular said in the west?

Joe

Here is the link: http://www.angelfire.com/pa3/OldWorldBasic/Rosary.htm

The Link that Greico Catolico posted is quite helpful.

Also, to be a little simpler, you need only make a few changes to your Roman Rite practice of the Rosary:

1) Substitute Nicene for Apostles Creed;
2) Substitute "now and ever and forever (or unto ages of ages), for "as it was in the beginning, etc."
3) Byzantine version of the Hail Mary ("Hail Mother of God Virgin Mary, full of grace, etc... for you gave you birth to Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of our Souls").
4) Finally, substitute for the Hail Holy Queen one of the Byzantine Marian prayers, such as "It is truly Proper."

Those few, simple changes are enough to adapt the Marian Rosary to Byzantine usage.

Blessings,

Lance

Yup, that's exactly what I do.

So what's so wrong with saying the rosary as what it is - a Latin church devotion. Why does it need to be adapted to the east. Not that there's anything wrong with the rosary, it just isn't eastern. There are plenty of good eastern devotions that are also worth doing.

good comment Charles - as has been said many times in the past

There is nothing wrong with a Byzantine Christian reciting it in its Latin Form, and there is nothing wrong with reciting it with the Byzantine forms of the prayers.

I was told by a young Ukrainian woman who has moved here to the US recently, that back in Ukraine, her parish indeed recited the way I described above.

I agree with de-Latinizing our Parishes in public worship, and restoring our authentic traditions. The Akathist hymn to the Mother of God is more appropriate for our public parish use than reciting a Marian Rosary.

But I like the rosary, I grew up with it and it has been helpful in times of challenge.

Also, our blessed Hieromartyr, Theodore Romzha, was reciting the Marian rosary when the Soviet truck rammed his carriage, eventually leading to his glorious death & martyrdom. I do not see a problem at all with an individual Byzantine Catholic reciting the rosary.

Yes, me too- with the Trisagion prayers inserted at the very beginning.

Slava Isusu Christu!
Slava na Viki!

There is nothing wrong with using the Latin rosary and doing either the Latin version or the Eastern version that was on the link. But don't forget there is an Eastern European version of the rosary that looks nothing like the normal rosary. It is called a Chotki. It can come in various sizes and is usally used with just the Jesus Prayer. For more information:

http://folkart.uzhgorod.ua/ and do a search for "rosary."

http://www.marketworks.com/StoreFrontProfiles/default.aspx?sfid=78319 and scroll down the left side for "Prayer Ropes and Chotki."

Both of these are wonderful places, especially the last one. I get lost looking through all of their wonderful things.

http://www.iarelative.com/shop/index.html is also good. Lots of great stuff. And Greg Kopchak, the owner, is a great guy to do business with. I recommend him highly.

Best of luck and I hope I introduced someone to something they never heard of before! I have a Chotki hanging from a wall crucifix that is used comes apart and is used for home blessings and administering annointing to the sick and dying. It is wonderful and I have never seen anyting like it on any webpage yet. It belonged to my parents and I wouldn't give it up for the world!

Tim

I agree! I carry both my rosary and Chokti with me everywhere, along with my bible and prayer book.

The Church has given us so many great ways to pray!

I recommend the book, The Way of a Pilgrim, which is a narrative of a pilgrim and his wanderings and adventures through Russian country side as he recites the Jesus prayer.

I'll have to check that book out. Thanks for the recommendation.

Tim

What is a good prayer book of the Eastern tradition?

OH MAN - now you are asking

The ones that jump out and hit me are

The Old Orthodox Prayer Book [ from Erie ]

The Jordanville Prayer Book

I use both of these and am so thankful I was introduced to them early on.

From there you can go to

The Divine Liturgy - an Anthology for Worship from the Sheptitsky Institute in Canada

And the Divine Office Book published by the UGCC Eparchy of Stamford

This last is a source of useful information - but I don't fnd it as easy to use as the others - it is just no user friendly and is very expensive too

I use this one daily and like it a lot:

Let Us Pray to the Lord - A Daily Prayer Book (Volume I)
Price: $30.00 USD

#L01 - Let Us Pray to the Lord - A Daily Prayer Book (Volume I)
The Daily Office of Vespers, Orthros (daily and Sunday/Festal), Hours, and other various prayers. Pocket size, in black leatherette. 440 pages. $30.00

Available from http://www.ecpubs.com/browse.html

Byz Tex, do you know if A Daily Prayer Book will be rewritten because of the revised Devine Liturgy? I have one and plan on using it still. Has anyone seen or used Volume II? I"ve been told that it would be a good idea to memorize DL and eventually all of the feasts, etc.

Indigo

I don't think so. It's a pretty solid resource for personal use.

As for Volume II, I have it but have yet to use it at church. As I don't own the parish book it's mainly a reference text at home.

Does the daily prayer book have an ISBN number?

For what its worth, I just recently sent off the draft of a book I am publishing on praying the Holy Rosary with Icons. It is designed to be a "bridge building" book in the spirit of Orientale Lumen so that Western Christians (and Eastern Christians who are practicioners) can use the icons to enter more fully into the mysteries that form (and inform) the basic structure of the prayer.

I also use the four-fold method of patristic exegesis (bring Old and New Testament together) in the commentary on the mysteries.

I believe it will be released by Eastern christian Publications in early December. Please keep this project in your prayers!

God bless,

Gordo

I know that what I am about to post it a little off the subject, but now that I know about the Byzantine usage rosary, can anyone tell me about the prayers for the chotki? I looked it up on the internet and it seems like they vary from just being the Jesus prayer, to having parts of the Psalter.

I will not only keep your project in my prayers but the way you are describing treating the subject matter is so interesting to me I think I will order a copy when it becomes available.

I have only every heard of the Jesus Prayer being used with Chotki. When I was given a pair by a priest in my hometown, the instructions with it mentioned only the Jesus Prayer. But I suppose one could do other prayers. There are different sizes. The one I have has a small number of beads. If you had the 100 bead version, it would make sense to use something other than the Jesus Prayer.

Tim

Not at all - what do you think I do during the sermons in Ukrainian

So that's the secret. You're not being disrespectful and you're still awake. You never cease to amaze me!

Tim

There is a beautiful version of the Rosary used in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. If anyone is interested I can E-Mail you the Hail Mary as prayed in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Do feel free to let me know!

Slava Isusu Khrystu!

John Doucette

I have a prayer book which I bought from the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Parma. It has the Hail Mary in it like this: "Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with you. Blessed are you amongst women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. For you have borne Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of our souls." In the Byzantine version of the rosary, would the prayer "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death," be added after this?

Tom: No. But, after all, you can say it just as you wish. Our Lady doesn't mind. We're all her kids.


Edmac

Thanks, Edmac. I am sure you are right...that Our Lady wouldn't mind.