www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Question about Divine Liturgy in Orthodox Church

I've noticed that the Orthodox churches in my area generally have services every day of the week-Matins,Vespers,Reader services-but Divine Liturgy is offered only on Sunday. This gives me the impression that communing often is not important in Orthodox Church. Why would that be?

In the Catholic churches frequent communion is encouraged,so it's possible to go to mass daily and in some EC parishes Divine Liturgy is offered at least twice a week. If EC parishes had higher weekday attendance my guess is Divine Liturgy would also be offered daily. Why is frequent communion so important in the Catholic churches?

Peace,
Indigo

Hello Indigo,

Frequency of communion is a recent thing in the West. If your great grandparents were Catholic they probably went to communion once a year, or maybe twice a year.

Strange to say, it was in the Middle Ages, "the Ages of Faith", that Communion was less frequent than at any other period of the Church's history. The Fourth Lateran Council compelled the faithful, under pain of excommunication, to receive at least once a year. The Poor Clares, by rule, communicated six times a year; the Dominicanesses, fifteen times; the Third Order of St. Dominic, four times. Even saints received rarely: St. Louis six times a year, St. Elizabeth only three times.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06278a.htm



Yes, but you will find that this commenced around 1905 with the publication of "SACRA TRIDENTINA -On Frequent and Daily Reception of Holy Communion" by Pope Pius X.

http://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/CDWFREQ.HTM


Canon law 917 (or 719?) allows you to go to communion twice a day.

Now about the Orthodox, there is a lot that could be mentioned about the frequency of Liturgy and frequency of Communion.... but right now time is short. Someone is knocking...

Faoi bhrat Mhuire Mhathair,
Father Ambrose

An honest question indigo, how often do you think you could keep a total fast from the previous night? I will say for myself, it is difficult to do even once a week, and I probably miss at least one Sunday a month. Keep in mind the more traditional parishes require confession before receiving communion.

Communing often is important, but so is preparation. Leave one part out, and you lose the meaning.

indigo:

Christ is in our midst!! He is and always will be!!

Receiving Holy Communion in the Orthodox Church has the same importance as it did in the Catholic Church of centuries ago, as Father Ambrose points out. The difference is that we Catholics have lost the sense of what we are actually doing that our own ancestors did. In fact, when comparing the requirements for preparation, IMHO, we were closer to Orthodox practice prior to Pope St. Pius X's time than today. Our almost absent preparation is a scandal to our Orthodox brethren.

The midnight fast--nothing to eat, drink, (or smoke)--was only shortened to three hours in my own lifetime. My grandparents and great grandmother never let it go. Then the time was shortened to one hour. And today you'd have a hard time finding many people who observe that one hour or are even aware of it. I've observed people feeding their children snacks to keep them quiet right up to Communion time in my parish.

Another area is confession. My mother related to me that she was in church waiting her turn for confession when a young man of about 25 approached her and asked if she knew where he could find a copy of the Act of Contrition and how to go to confession. He said he hadn't been to confession in so long he couldn't remember. (My guess is that he made his first one and never since, but that's idle speculation.) She happened to have her prayerbook with her and lent it to him. She was perplexed as to what this was all about--I told her it was God's way of showing her that she was supposed to be at that place at that time to just be there for this brother in Christ. How many receive thoughtlessly and without preparation--something St. Paul warns us about in I Corinthians 11:23-32. In my Orthodox prayerbook it is identified as the Communion Epistle and is part of the preparation. I can't tell you how many people I know who don't make use of confession even once a year, but receive Holy Communion as often as they go to Mass and without any more preparation than getting up out of the pew. Something wrong, IMHO, when one approaches the Lord without thinking and without regard for His Holiness or even a simple attitude of contrition for sin. The attitude that "I haven't murdered anyone so I can commune" is part of our current spiritual weakness and sickness.

The approach to the Divine Liturgy is different, too. The Orthodox Church does not take shortcuts. The Orthodox do not know a cut-down daily Mass like we have. My parish's daily Mass is about 25 minutes long, omits the Creed, the Gloria, sung parts, etc. I've been to daily Masses that are as short as fifteen minutes. Our Orthodox brethren are appalled by this approach to the holiest experience we have this side of eternity. I have to admit I am more than upset by many of these types of things. I remember the old adage "familiarity breeds contempt" and shudder. Sometimes too much of a good thing desensitizes us to what it really is. I'd say we have the greater obligation. The Orthodox who have a full schedule are using the week--Matins, Vespers, etc.--to prepare for the culmination of the week: the Divine Liturgy. They spend the week thanking God for the previous reception of Him and anticipating the upcoming reception: something I was taught in the turbulent years during the Council (a residue of the old school of thought) that has virtually disappeared in the Catholic Church.

The mandated preparation and thanksgiving period in the Latin breviary for priests prior to Vatican II was almost as long as the 45 minute Mass. (I just located a copy last evening and prayerfully skimmed it.) That's something that would make anyone pause before receiving because it does what the Orthodox prayerbooks do: makes one take a deep look inside at one's own state of soul before approaching the Holy One. Laymen had their own prayerbooks at that time; that's all disappeared.

When one studies the two Churches in depth and asks humbly what the attitudes are behind practice, one finds that the disparity you observe in practice is not what it would seem on the surface. Orthodox practice IMHO is our own; removed about a century; something we ought to be emulating; something that will have to be restored before we ever achieve full communion.

In Christ,

BOB