Christ is Risen!
It may take several posts to answer your questions precisely because there is some imprecision in the way the question is framed. Here is a quick, cursory answer; I can supply more information later in the week as time allows and as you explain how well I did, or did not, answer your questions.
Originally posted by Mexican:
Hello.
What are the main differences between the Divine Liturgy celebrated by the Holy Mountain's monks and the Greek Liturgy that most non-slavic Orthodox or Catholics have in their parishes?
The first problem is the distinction you are trying to make of Slavic versus non-Slavic:
There are two main fundamental versions of the Typicon in use in the Byzantine Rite:
1) The Typicon of the Laura of Saint Sabbas, used in Monasteries and in all churches in several countries, including most, but not all, Slavs, and Georgians and Romanians (I believe), as well as by daughter churches of the Russian Church (OCA, Finland, Japan, et cetera). In parishes, the services are greatly abbreviated, while in monasteries, they are less abbreviated and, in a handful of places in the world, performed in full. This appears to be what you are calling the "Slavonic tradition".
2) The descendants of the Typicons used in Constantinople where there were separate Typicons for cathedrals, parishes, and monasteries. The cathedral and parish services have combined; on the other hand, new variations have evolved, mostly due to mispractices and bastardizations that evolved under the Ottoman yoke when the parish clergy were barely literate. The latter became enshrined in a printed Typicon in the 19th century, but presently are gradually being done away with; and, they are only in Greece, Cypress, and Bulgaria, not in the rest of the places that use the Constantinopolitan Typikon. These appear to be what you refer to as the "Greek Liturgy".
It's my understanding that the Athos Fathers still keep some things that are only found in the Slavonic liturgy: the "Blagoslovi Dusche Moya" and the "Vo tsarsvie tvoye".
These entities are known as the "Typika and Beatitudes", which are used in place of the antiphons often, sometimes, or never, depending on local custom. In Greece, on Athos or otherwise, it is purely a matter of choice (except on feast days that have their own antiphons). Note that the Typika and Beatitudes are somewhat longer, so there is a tendancy to use them less in parishes while they are usual in monasteries. I have heard the Typika and Beatitudes in parish churches many times. In Russia, there are rigid rules governing which to use; most Sundays require the Typika and Beatitudes.
The Vespers services of the Slavic tradition parishes are different (a selection of all the vigil perhaps)
The only difference that I can think of in Vespers in parishes, is that the Greeks omit the kathisma entirely, while Russians and Ukrainians abridge it.
Vigils are a whole other matter. In Greek use, they are never short, and so are rarely served in parishes while Russians normally serve an abridged "All Night Vigil" whenever there is a Litia.
while the Greek parishes have the Gloria almost before the liturgy.
In the Constantinopolitan cathedral and parish usage, the First, Sixth, and Ninth Hours are omitted ... as they were in the Great Church of Agia Sophia ... and the litanies and dismissal at the end of Matins are dropped if there is a Liturgy: The censing of the Proskimidea takes place during the Great Doxology, which is sung with the Trisagion and Troparion, followed immediately by "Blessed is the Kingdom ...".
Do the Athos monks keep the "slavonic" tradition? [/QB][/QUOTE]
On Athos, as well as in any other Greek monastery, in places that have regular daily services (e.g., a laurus), the Hours are read between Matins and Liturgy (what you are calling the "Slavonic tradition"), but amongst the scetes and hermitages, where monks only assemble in church for Sunday or feast day Liturgy, the parish Typikon is usually used.
Photius, Reader
