www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Omitted Litanies in proposed New Liturgy

Based upon what has been posted before it appears these sections of the Divine Liturgy will either be omitted or greatly abbreviated in the proposed new Liturgy. In many parishes these have not been taken, although I have been in parishes where most of them were taken. These texts are taken from the text published in 1966 (the little green paperback edition published by Byzantine Seminary Press).

The Little Litany (usually between the First and Second Antiphon):

D. Again and again, let us pray to the Lord in peace.

C. Lord have mercy.

D. Protect us, save us, have mercy on us and preserve us, O God, by Your
grace.

C. Lord have mercy.

D. Remembering our most holy, most pure, most blessed and glorious Lady, the
Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary, with all the saints, let us commend
ourselves and one another and our whole life, to Christ our God.

C. To You, O Lord.
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The Litany Before the Lord's Prayer

D. Now that we have remembered all the saints, again and again, in peace,
let us pray to the Lord.

C. Lord, have mercy.

D. For the precious gifts offered and consecrated, let us pray to the Lord.

C. Lord, have mercy.

D. That Our God, in His love for man, may receive them on His Holy and
heavenly and mystical altar, unto an aroma of spiritual fragrance, may send
down upon us in return the divine grace and gift of the Holy Spirit, let us
pray to the Lord.

C. Lord, have mercy.

D. That we be delivered from all affliction, wrath and need, let us pray to
the Lord.

C. Lord have mercy.

P. (Silently) In You, O gracious Master, we place our whole life and hope,
and we beseech, pray and implore You: make us worthy to partake with a pure
conscience of Your heavenly and awesome mysteries from this sacred and
spiritual altar, for the remission of sins, for the pardon of
transgressions, for the communion in the Holy Spirit, for the inheritance of
the kingdom of heaven, for trust in You, and not for judgment, or
condemnation.

D. Protect us, save us, have mercy on us and preserve us, O God, by Your
grace.

C. Lord, have mercy.

D. That this whole day may be perfect, holy, peaceful, and without sin, let
us beseech the Lord.

C. Grant it, O Lord.

D. For an angel of peace, a faithful guide, a guardian of our souls and
bodies, let us beseech the Lord.

C. Grant it, O Lord.

D. For the pardon and remission of our sins and offenses, let us beseech the
Lord.

C. Grant it, O Lord.

D. For what is good and beneficial to our souls and for the peace of the
world, let us beseech the Lord.

C. Grant it, O Lord.

D. That we may spend the rest of our life in peace and repentance, let us
beseech the Lord.

C. Grant it, O Lord.

D. For a Christian, painless, unashamed, peaceful end of our life, and for a
good account before the fearsome judgment-seat of Christ, let us beseech the
Lord.

C. Grant it, O Lord.

D. Asking for unity in the faith, and for communion in the Holy Spirit, let
us commend ourselves and one another, and our whole life to Christ, our God.

C. To You, O Lord.
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The Litany of Thanksgiving

D. Having received the divine holy, most pure, immortal, heavenly and
life-creating, awesome mysteries of Christ, let us worthily thank the Lord.

C. Lord, have mercy.

D. Protect us, save us, have mercy on us and preserve us, O God, by Your
grace.

C. Lord, have mercy.

D. Asking that the whole day be perfect, holy, peaceful and without sin, let
us commend ourselves and one another, and our whole life, to Christ, our
God.

C. To You, O Lord.

P. We give thanks to You, O Master, lover of mankind, benefactor of our
souls, that this day You have deemed us worthy of Your heavenly and immortal
mysteries. Make straight our path, confirm us in our fear of you, guard our
life, make firm our steps, through the prayers and intercessions of the
glorious Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary and of all Your saints

(aloud) For You are our sanctification, and we render glory to You, Father,
Son and Holy Spirit, now and ever and forever.

C. Amen.
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I realize that the "Grant it, O Lord" petitions actually occur twice in the traditional Liturgy (once before the Creed and once before the Lord's Prayer). However, the Greek text in use in the GOA omits the second "Grant it, O Lord" petitions and the Antiochian text indicates the second set is sometimes omitted.

The OCA and Antiochian texts I have have the Little Litany twice. The GOA text has it once.

Questions:

1. Will the new Liturgy mandate these sections be removed from use? Will a parish have the option to use them? Further, and not dealt with here so far--could a parish sing all the antiphons if it so desired? Or will it be mandated to follow the abbreviated antiphons?

2. If they are mandated to be removed (or severely abbreviated), what precedent do we give? I realize that there is variation in Orthodox usage and even in parish usage in various jurisdictions--but is there any precedent for mandating the removal of these litanies from the Divine Liturgy? Are we the first to do so?

3. Time constraints are a consideration. Would it not be better, however, to consider removing repetitive litanies but at least retaining one set of them (such as keeping one set of the "Grant it, O Lord" petitions and one "Little Litany"?

4. Personally I do not have a problem with taking some of the traditionally silent prayers aloud. But, are the abbreviations suggested because taking these silent prayers aloud takes more time and there seems to be a need to abbreviate the Liturgy to meet this? If so, then, perhaps we should re-think what we are doing. We gain the rich prayers that are traditionally taken silently but are we not ending up distancing our liturgical text even further from all Orthodox jurisdictions (and most, if not all, other Byzantine Catholic jurisdictions)? Is this what we want to do?

Dave Ignatius DTBrown@aol.com

[ 07-18-2002: Message edited by: DTBrown ]

Dear Dave,

There used to be a Little Litany in the liturgy?

Since when?

Seriously though, we have some parishes that have just decided to take things into their own hands and do the full Liturgy regardless of what our bishops say or do.

St Nicholas is one such Church and I understand St Elias in Brampton is another.

Alex

Hey Dave,

You forgot the Litany of the Catechumens...


Sharon


Sharon Mech, SFO
Cantor & sinner
sharon@cmhc.com

Can any clarify this point:

Is the new plan to omit the litanies entirely, or will they remain "in" the liturgy but be taken "quietly" by the priest and servers (as in the old days)?

djs

Dear djs,

I certainly don't know, but what I do know is that when the Ukrainian bishops in Canada said one COULD POSSIBLY omit some Ektenias and the Second Antiphon - this became the rule of law in our Church from then on.

Some cite the lack of time for long liturgies as an excuse here.

This reminds me of what happened to a priestly friend of mine who was invited to give a sermon in St George's Cathedral in L'viv (L'vov for you incorrigible Russophiles!).

The parish priest spoke first for about 25 minutes and introduced Fr. Bohdan.

Fr. Bohdan approached the situation from the point of view that 30 minutes is the maximum for any sermon that the faithful in North America could be obligated to hear.

He then simply gave a five-minute sermon and "that's all folks!"

The parish priest then came to Fr. "Bo" as we call him afterwards and said, "Don't EVER do that to me again!"

"The people heard you were from Canada and came expecting a real SERMON from you, Father! And what did you do?! What did you do?!"

He realized that people who are truly starved for God through the liturgy and for the Word of God will spend long periods of time feeding their spirits on sermons and other opportunities to deepen their faith.

Perhaps the root of the problem here is that we've lost the sense of need for God in our lives?

Alex

Right again, Alex...we have a most beautiful Liturgikon in the Ukrainian Catholic Church, with all three full Antiphons, the Litany for the catechumens, litanies between the antiphons, teplota, etc. etc. all there in the "book".

The problem is that all too often in liturgy "optional" in rule becomes "mandatory" in practice, especially when it comes to abbreviations. Of course, when it comes to abbreviations I'm biased being an Old Believer nut.

Dear Diak,

And I'm an Old Believer nut too!

I raise two fingers in support of your view!

A priest from Ukraine visited our parish and everyone was eager to see him and hear him.

He then began the liturgy "the long way" by even getting vested in the middle of the Church . . .

Every single liturgical short-cut he could have made - he didn't!

Perhaps they should send some of our bishops to Ukraine for some pastortal retraining?

Alex

You're right. I left that out because in some jurisdictions it is omitted by some. I think, however, if we do restore a catechumenate to our Church it would be great to use!

Dave Ignatius DTBrown@aol.com

Alex wrote:


I'm not entirely opposed to some abbreviation for pastoral reasons. However, what is proposed now seems a bit excessive. Repetition of litanies and length of services is a hallmark of the Eastern Church and was noted by John Paul in _Orientale Lumen_:


[ 07-18-2002: Message edited by: DTBrown ]

Would that there was the same "groundswell" of approval for these diaconal prayers to be always taken aloud at the Liturgy too! I wish the people would demand that their hymns and psalms (the antiphons) also always be taken aloud!

If the pressure is only that "priestly" prayers be taken aloud, while diaconal and congregational prayers can be happily taken silently or left out, that is what I call clericalism.

Elias

Bless me a sinner, Venerable Father in Carmel!

Yes, I am against clericalism too.

I wish we could have a comprehensive and historical critique of how those clerics took over roles formerly reserved for deacons and the laity.

Lance commented on how the deacons used to serve the Proskomidie and this was taken over by the priests.

I wonder if it is possible to go back into history to make accurate and definite determinations in this regard today?

Kissing your right hand, I again implore your blessing,

Alex