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I was re-visiting some liturgical questions I've had and noticed this particular issue as I was looking at the Study Text of the Divine Liturgy that can be downloaded elsewhere on the Forum. I thought I'd ask for feedback from participants on the Forum.

The Antiochian Orthodox Divine Liturgy Text [orthodoxyork.org] contains a prayer that is common to all Orthodox Divine Liturgy texts, but is missing from all the Eastern Catholic Divine Liturgy texts that I've researched so far. After Communion, the commemorative particles are placed into the Chalice:

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When all have communicated, the Priest covers the Chalice with the veil and blesses the people with it, saying aloud:

PRIEST: O God, save thy people and bless thine inheritance.

CHOIR: We have seen the true light, we have received the heavenly Spirit; we have found the true faith, worshipping the undivided Trinity: for He hath saved us.

Meanwhile the Priest wipes the remaining particles on the Diskarion into the Chalice, saying quietly:

PRIEST: Wash away, O Lord, the sins of all those here commemorated, by thy precious Blood: through the prayers of thy Saints.


Then the Priest covers the Chalice and censes it thrice, saying quietly:

PRIEST: Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, and thy glory above all the earth. Blessed is our God.

The Priest takes the Chalice in his right hand and the Diskarion in his left and turns torward the people; he raises both slowly, with the Chalice above the Diskarion, saying aloud:

PRIEST: Always, now and ever, and unto ages of ages.

The Greek Orthodox Divine Liturgy Text [goarch.org] reads similar:

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People: We have seen the true light; we have received the heavenly Spirit; we have found the true faith, worshiping the undivided Trinity, for the Trinity has saved us.

(Having returned the Cup to the holy Table, the priest transfers the particles of the Theotokos and the saints into the Chalice, and then those of the living and the dead saying:) Wash away, Lord, by Your holy Blood, the sins of all those commemorated through the intercessions of the Theotokos and all Your saints. Amen.

The Slavic version [biserica.org] contains additional prayers and can be read in this text translated by a Bishop of the Orthodox Church in America.

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After communion, the priest enters the sanctuary, and sets the holy Things down on the holy table.

The deacon then, holding the holy diskos over the holy chalice, says these hymns of the Resurrection:

Having beheld the Resurrection of Christ, let us bow down before the holy Lord Jesus, the only sinless One. Thy Cross do we worship, O Christ, and thy holy Resurrection we hymn and glorify, for thou art our God; we know no other than thee; thy name do we name. Come, all ye faithful, let us worship Christ's holy Resurrection, for, behold, through the Cross joy hath come into all the world. Ever blessing the Lord, let us hymn His Resurrection. By enduring the Cross for us, by death hath He abolished death.
Shine, shine, O New Jerusalem, for the glory of the Lord hath risen upon thee. Dance and rejoice, O Zion, and, thou, O pure Theotokos, exult in the rising of Him thou didst bear.
O great and holiest Pascha, Christ. O Wisdom and Word of God and Power, grant us truly to partake of thee in the day without evening of thy kingdom.

He wipes the diskos thoroughly with the holy sponge, with heed and reverence, saying these words:

Wash away, O Lord, the sins of all those here commemorated by thine precious Blood, through the prayers of thy saints.


The priest blesses the people, exclaiming:

O God, save thy people, and bless thine inheritance.

Eastern Catholic Divine Liturgy texts do not contain this rubric or any of these prayers. For example, the Ruthenian Liturgicon [patronagechurch.com] says:


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It is to be noted that if there are any who wish to partake of the holy mysteries, the priest breaks the two particles, NI and KA, into smaller particles and the deacon (with a sponge) puts these and the other particles together with the consecrated lamb into the holy chalice.

Ruthenian and Ukrainian Catholic practice normally is to place the particles into the Chalice before Communion. As far as I can see, the Melkite text [faswebdesign.com] of the Divine Liturgy does not mention how the commemorative particles are dealt with after the Consecration, but then the Melkite practice does not place the Lamb into the Chalice, but serves Communion by intinction (without the spoon).

Some questions:

1) Why do the Orthodox texts have the particles placed into the Chalice after Communion?

2) Why do the Eastern Catholic texts have the particles placed into the Chalice before Communion?

3) Why the difference?

4) The Ruthenian Liturgicon states that the priest puts the NI and KA particles from the Lamb "and the other particles together with the consecrated lamb into the holy chalice." Is the Ruthenian Liturgicon distinguishing between the "consecrated lamb" and the commemorative particles as being unconsecrated?

5) In Eastern Catholic theology, are the commemorative particles consecrated into the Body and Blood of Christ?

6) In Orthodox theology, are the commemorative particles consecrated into the Body and Blood of Christ?

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The Ruthenian, the particles are consecrated along with the lamb, and used for communing the faithful, as are the two pieces of the lamb which are placed in. In fact, the deacon will empty the diskos into the chalice.

From what I've read, most of the Orthodox do not consider the particles consecrated, and therefore, do not put them into the chalice until after communion.

Note that the Russian Catholics use the Russian Orthodox Synodal DL with the addition of the papal commemorations in the ektenia.

Also, from what I've read, the Melkites allow both intinction by hand dipping each piece, or intinction by immersion and use of the spoon. The lack of rubrics may be an accomodation of this choice.

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Quote

Eastern Catholic Divine Liturgy texts do not contain this rubric or any of these prayers

Some of them do contain these materials. For example, the 1941 (reprinted 1962) Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, pp. 119-120).

One should bear in mind that often the practice arises before it finds its way into the books.

One should also bear in mind that "Eastern Catholic" in this context is far too broad. One would hardly expect the Armenian Soorp Patarag, to give only one example, to include such a rubric.

Fr. Serge

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Some of them do contain these materials. For example, the 1941 (reprinted 1962) Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, pp. 119-120).

Thank you, Fr. Serge, for this information (and for the correction re: the terminology of "Eastern Catholic" in this matter). Which usage does this text represent?

And thank you, Aramis, for the information on Russian Catholics. Are there any other Catholics that celebrate the Byzantine liturgy who put the particles in after Communion?

Why are Ruthenians and Ukrainian Catholics different in this regard? Does this represent one of those pre-Nikonian liturgical differences? What do the Old Believers do? Or, the Ukrainian Orthodox? Or, ACROD? What do the Old Believers, Ukrainian Orthodox and ACROD believe about what is consecrated?

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The Ruthenian, the particles are consecrated along with the lamb, and used for communing the faithful, as are the two pieces of the lamb which are placed in. In fact, the deacon will empty the diskos into the chalice.

That's my understanding of the Ruthenian view, also. For example, this statement from St Nicholas of Myra Byzantine Catholic parish [ak-byz-cath.org] in Anchorage, Alaska:

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Altar Bread: Our altar bread is made with yeast and therefore has a thickness to it. Before Liturgy, the priest cuts a loaf of specially baked altar bread into cubed particles that will be consecrated and distributed for Holy Communion.

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Just to explain for those unfamiliar with these terms. Here is a picture of the traditional arrangement on the diskos:

[Linked Image]

The large piece of bread is "the Lamb." It bears a stamp and is taken from the altar bread loaf (prosphora) prepared for this purpose. The smaller pieces are the "commemorative pieces" and are also taken from the prosphora loaf. Before Liturgy, the priest prays for the each of the individuals involved as they are commemorated. Some are prescribed in the liturgical text and some represent specific requests made by people to the priest.

The arrangement may be different for some Ruthenian and Ukrainian Catholic parishes if they use pre-cut particles.

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The Ordo Celebrationis has a lacuna in it. On the one hand, it provides a diagram of the Diskos after the Fraction, which says "Give Communion to the People with These Two Particles", but then proceeds to tell the celebrant or deacon to use the sponge to ensure that all particles and crumbs are placed in the Chalice. Obviously, if all particles are placed in the Chalice, that makes it impossible to give communion to the people just using the two pieces off the Lamb. I suspect that two different and incompatible usages were inadvertently captured in the Ordo, and that the editors did not catch this.

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Originally Posted by DTBrown
And thank you, Aramis, for the information on Russian Catholics. Are there any other Catholics that celebrate the Byzantine liturgy who put the particles in after Communion?

Why are Ruthenians and Ukrainian Catholics different in this regard? Does this represent one of those pre-Nikonian liturgical differences? What do the Old Believers do? Or, the Ukrainian Orthodox? Or, ACROD? What do the Old Believers, Ukrainian Orthodox and ACROD believe about what is consecrated?
My Experiences in ACROD has been that particles are added after communion of the faithful. My experiences have also been that with a full proskomedia the number of commemorations does not allow for very large particles (shave the bread) which, even if allowing for consecration along with the Lamb, would not be suitable for distribution based on size.

I have never experienced, aside from the Russians in communion with Rome, any other church in communion with Rome which did not place the particles in before communion was distributed.

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Originally Posted by DTBrown
Some questions:

1) Why do the Orthodox texts have the particles placed into the Chalice after Communion?

2) Why do the Eastern Catholic texts have the particles placed into the Chalice before Communion?

3) Why the difference?

4) The Ruthenian Liturgicon states that the priest puts the NI and KA particles from the Lamb "and the other particles together with the consecrated lamb into the holy chalice." Is the Ruthenian Liturgicon distinguishing between the "consecrated lamb" and the commemorative particles as being unconsecrated?
A few points:

-The fact that Greeks and Slavs have different prayers that are prayed when the commemorative particles are placed into the Chalice suggests that the custom is either recent or has recently changed (and by recent I mean in the last 500 years or so).

-The Ruthenian custom of placing the commemorative particles into the Chalice before the distribution of communion might simply a bit of a short cut from the days when few received, and it did not matter whether he placed the particles into the Chalice before or after Communion.

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I think Fr. Taft and others have shown that the full blown Prosokmedia, with mutliple commemorations, was a thing whose final development was rather late. It is entirely possible the Ruthenian books preserve the original practice before commerorative particles were introduced.

Fr. Deacon Lance


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To put the question another way:

in the Ruthenian usage, do the Commemoration particles become sanctified (i.e. transformed into the Holy Mysteries) or not.

the end distinction is whether their faithful are receiving Holy Communion as Sanctified "bread" (Holy Body) or as merely blessed (unsanctified) bread that has been subsequently immersed in and soaked through with Sanctified "wine" (Holy Blood).

My impression is that the UGCC custom depends on where the presbyter falls on the Byzantine scale (i.e. more Orthodox or more "uniate"). Thus those presbyters who follow the more Orthodox tradition would use Prosphora and not put in the particles until after communion (because they are not Holy Communion) and the more latinized would use "croutons" (as I believe Archimandrite Robert Taft sj calls them) in which case the whole matter is moot because the so-called "lamb" is merely symbolic, commemorations are not made with particles and often the proskomedia prayers are not done.

As one deacon of the UGCC said to me once - "our prayer intentions are not transmuted into the Body of Christ"

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Anything on the Diskos at the time of the Anaphora gets consecrated.

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Wow! Fascinating!

I think the UGCC (proper) usage is different.

As I understand it, only the Lamb is sanctified and it is divided into various sections, some for the Communion of the Clergy and some for the Communion of the Faithful.

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Originally Posted by StuartK
Anything on the Diskos at the time of the Anaphora gets consecrated.


That's my impression of the Ruthenian view. Yet, the Ruthenian Liturgicon [patronagechurch.com] distinguishes between the "consecrated Lamb" and the "other particles."

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It is to be noted that if there are any who wish to partake of the holy mysteries, the priest breaks the two particles, NI and KA, into smaller particles and the deacon (with a sponge) puts these and the other particles together with the consecrated lamb into the holy chalice.

On the basis of this, could one argue that only the Lamb is consecrated?

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So. given that the commemorative particles are on the Diskos, and the celebrant says all of the prayers of the Anaphora over those particles, including the Words of Institution and the Epiclesis, how are they not sanctified and consecrated? The prayers only speak of the Holy Spirit descending upon the Gifts offered, making them the precious Body of Christ and the Blood of Christ. The prayer does not discriminate between the Lamb and the particles, so all must be consecrated alike.

That's a totally different issue from whether or not they should be distributed to the people at communion, though frankly, I fail to see why they should not.

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