www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship Vespers, Matins & the Divine Liturgy "Low" Divine Liturgy

Praised be Jesus Christ!
First, I want to apologize to anyone who might find this thread inappropriate or possibly offensive, I am aware that Latinizations can be a sensitive topic. My question is this: does anyone know how Ruthenian “low” liturgies were celebrated in the United States? There is very little information on this, apart from the rubrics given in the Lviv Sluzebnik, which do not prescribe many of the “abbreviations” I have heard were practiced. If anyone could give me a rundown of what one of those "low" Liturgies looked like, I would be most grateful.

Glory Forever!

Welcome, RabBozji, to The Byzantine Forum!

You are right to say that Latinizations can be a sensitive topic, but it is part of the history of the Byzantine (Greek) Catholic Churches in America and should be remembered and learned from.

From what I understand a latinized Divine Liturgy (often called a “Low Mass” from probably the 1940-1990s) started to become common in America when many parishes had two Divine Liturgies on a Sunday to accommodate the number of people. My guess also is that there was some influence from neighboring Roman Catholic parishes which had multiple Masses on a Sunday to accommodate the needs of their faithful (and all of them were "Low Masses" except for the one Sunday "High Mass"). Over time they became the normal style of Divine Liturgy in some parishes, particularly as their long-standing pastors became older (I do not know how wide-spread this was, just that it was not uncommon).

The pastor at the parish I grew up in once told me that where there were “Low Masses” the priest was expected to pray quietly everything that he omitted vocally. Whether that happened regularly I don’t know.

“Low Masses” came in several forms. One style was to simply omit all litanies. But the “lowest” (or most abbreviated) was celebrated something like this:
- Blessed is the kingdom….
- Amen. First Antiphon (first verse, refrain, glory, refrain), skip litanies and Second Antiphon
- Glory… Only-Begotten Son
- Skip to “Holy God, Holy Mighty….” (no little litany, Third Antiphon, Little Entrance or Troparia)
- Epistle (sometimes omitted, prokimenia and Alleluia omitted), Gospel and homily
- Skip to Cherubic Hymn, Great Entrance and “That we may receive the King”
- Skip to “Holy, Holy, Holy” (no litany or Creed)
- Normal liturgy through the Hymn to the Mother of God
- Skip litany and continue to the Lord’s Prayer
- Normal flow through “May our mouths be filled”
- Dismissal (no litany, "Blessed be the Name of the Lord," etc. - just "The blessing of the Lord be upon you")

I’ve never quite understood the lowest of the “Low Masses”. I can understand that there are times – perhaps a weekday Divine Liturgy – where one might skip incense, or even the occasional Sunday where it is over 100 degrees and no air conditioning where the homily and maybe a litany was shortened or skipped, but such occurrences should be the extreme exception and not the norm.

It should be noted that the “Low Masses” of past generations were always an option. I think in most parishes the Divine Liturgy was generally celebrated in a fuller form. It was normal to omit the litanies between the Antiphons and limit the number of psalm verses to one (and this is now mandatory since the 2007 Ruthenian Church's neo-Latinizations) and other litanies were occasionally skipped (like those between the Gospel and the Cherubic Hymn) but the form celebrated was far more complete.

To be fair all around, it should be noted that abbreviations existed in other Byzantine Churches. It was (and is in some places) common practice for the Greek Orthodox to skip the actual psalm verses of the antiphons and the litanies from the Gospel to the Cherubic Hymn. The Melkites and others sometimes did (and do) the same.

If you have any other questions please post them, or send a private message.

It's not really a latinization to omit parts of the liturgy. The latins' own low mass lacks a deacon and subdeacon and is generally not sung but no texts of the mass are ever omitted nor skipped.

Practices vary Metropolis by Metropolis.

In the Metropolis of Pittsburgh the Psalm verses are not omitted, but only the first three verses are used so that the antiphon itself is sung just three times.

It was only this year that we were given permission to include the Post-Gospel Litanies....only one Sunday per month, and only in parishes which actually have catechumens.

The practice may be different in, say, the Metropolis of New Jersey.

Thank you for the information. I’m also curious if the European practice of placing the Diskos (In reality, the Paten) on top of the Chalice was also followed in the US dioceses.

Also for those interested in what the Lviv Sluzebnik of 1866 prescribes for the "Low" Liturgy, I have taken the liberty of translating text from the page 107 from aforementioned:

I have a strong urge to reply with a single word, "poorly."

they are something that shouldn't have happened, but they did, and we need to deal with the aftermath.

And there are still churches that lack the capacity to fully celebrate.

A few months ago, my daughter and her family were traveling, and ended up at a UCC parish. They approached before liturgy, to ask if they had music for their tones, as they knew the Ruthenian.

The response was to the effect of, "You can sing?. Please, just do what you know!"

The parish simply lacked anyone that could sing or cantor!

unfortunately, I have no idea how to bootstrap from that hole.