I noticed on the Melkite Calendar this is "Thursday of the Divine Body." Is this feast commemorated in any other Byzantine recessions?

Truth to be told, it is not commemorated, in many of the parishes of the Eparchy of Newton. There are also whole eparchies in the Middle East where the feast is all but unknown.

The Ukrainians have it on their calendar as well, although I don't know if it is emphasized or not.

There's even a service of benediction with the Blessed Sacrament in our Melkite Church. It's very beautiful!

http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2009/06/light-from-east-iii-melkite-catholic.html

We had it today in our parish. It was very moving!

I think it's not something against the Eastern "ethos". We venerate icons! And anyway we have blessings with the Bl. Sacrament during our liturgies.

Some years ago, an entire edition of the Patriarchate's magazin "Le Lien" was dedicated to the Feast of Corpus Christi and the astounding and well-done adaptation the Melkites did for the Byzantine rite.

Before continuing this orgy of latinisation please consult Archimandrite Robert Taft, S.J. on the topic of this and other such feasts of abstractions, (Christ the King, Divine Mercy, Sacred Heart etc.). They are most certainly inconsistent with the ethos of the Christian East. Verb.sat.sap.!

Okay, Father, so is it much better to the celebrate the delivery of the Mother of God's ceinture and to venerate "parts" of saints and icons as "Baby Jesus" and "Christ the Bishop"...

Even though I already knew that argument, I'd be interested to read Arch. Taft's explanation. Where is it available?

And why why should we freeze our rites, not developing them? It seems to be even contrary to the genealogy of the rites. Imagine if the antiochians rejected the "byzantinization" of their rite and so on?

No way am I going to engage in your silly reductio ad absurdum argument. Suffice it to say that the East does not authentically celebrate abstractions such as Corpus Christ, Christ the King, the Sacred Heart, the Divine Mercy and the Immaculate Conception (the conception of St. Anne is not an abstraction but is very much part of the historical economy of salvation). Those Eastern Churches that have adopted and adapted these latinisms have done so out of a profound inferiority complex brought by the hegemonic and rite-chauvinistic missionaries, reinforced by Roman seminary training. What do you think Vatican II meant by insisting that we take pains to return to ancestral traditions? Further, the development of the rite, according to the same Council, needs to take place in an APPROPRIATE and ORGANIC way. What you suggest is metastasis! Sorry, I calls 'em like I sees 'em! Now please allow me 'to lead the rest of my life in peace and repentance'!

Please, Father, consider my affirmativeness as a dialogical manner. I'd like to learn indeed. If my questions trouble your ascetical life, pls feel comfortable to ignore them.

You admit the rite can develops in an organic and appropriate way. And why could not we take some inspiration in the Latin Rite for that? The assimilation of the Corpus Christi by us, Melkites, does not seem a metastasis or an unorganic development.

It seems a generalization that everyone who assimilate Latin customs would be moved by an inferiority complex or by external negative influence. It is not the case of my Parish Priest, who deeply loves our Byzantine Rite, but still accepts Corpus Christi, for example.

About "abstractions", is not Pokrova, for example, a very secondary-element-celebration? I'm quite sure it does not belong to the history of salvation.

I believe I read it on this forum where there was a quotation from one or the other of the "unions", maybe Uzhorod, where it stipulated that the Greek Catholic Church would not be obligated to take part in Corpus Christi processions because "our understanding of the Eucharist is different"

I know of scant few Roman Catholic churches that have Corpus Christi processions any longer so I can't imagine why the Church of the East would feel obliged in that regard, in any event.

It is mentioned in Article 7 of the Union of Brest - "That we should not be compelled to take part in processions on the day of Corpus Christi, that we should not have to make such processions with our Mysteries..."

This commemoration is or was on the calendar of every Eastern Catholic Church.

The Eparchy of Mukachevo will be celebrating the Feast of the Holy Eucharist tomorrow. Last year, there was a procession with the Most Holy Eucharist [mgce.uz.ua] which began from the cathedral in Uzhhorod.

Other photos:

http://preobrazenia.org.ua/parochy-news/items/svjato-presvjatoji-jevxaristiji-u-nashomu-xrami.html

http://osbm.lutsk-ugcc.org.ua/gallery/umh/67/

http://mdzbarazh.at.ua/news/svjato_presvjatoji_evkharistiji_bozhogo_tila/2010-06-08-59

There are parishes either in or outside of Ukraine that are celebrating the feast today.

The feast is still celebrated within the Archeparchy of Lviv [ugcc.lviv.ua] and Metropolitan Ihor released a pastoral statement [ugcc.lviv.ua] on today's feast.

I came across this June 26, 2011 bulletin [stmarysbc.com] from St. Mary Ukrainian Catholic parish [stmarysbc.com] in Vancouver which provides brief but informative articles (scroll down to the fourth page) on the history of devotion to the Holy Eucharist within the Ukrainian Church and the background for the introduction of the feast into the liturgical calendar. It's definitely worth reading and I personally was surprised by what I read--for example, exposition of the Holy Eucharist during the Divine Liturgy.

Also, I happened to find this video of the Supplication Service to the Most Holy Eucharist (includes Benediction). [youtube.com]

The Bulgarian Byzantine Catholic Church also celebrates the feast under the name "Holy Eucharist". It is also a very special day for the Eucharistine Sisters - a Bulgarian Byzantine Catholic congregation to which belong most of the nuns of that church.

Procession on the feast at their monastery in Sofia:
http://web.archive.org/web/20071010043911im_/http://www.catholic-bg.org/bg/evharistinki/praznik1.jpg


Some information about their founders and history:
Giuseppe Alloati (1857-1933): An Apostle of Eucharistic Worship [cmglobal.org]

Photos of the Eucharistic procession from the cathedral in Uzhhorod for this year's Feast of the Holy Eucharist: http://www.mgce.uz.ua/photogallery.php?album_key=1755

Perhaps a silly question - how does the host bread used by Byzantine Churches (and most others) fit into the Latin Monstrance for said procession?

The monstrance has a "lunette" adapted to hold a piece of the cube-shaped Lamb.

Only if you subject the Holy Lamb to such manhandling as would have done the Mexican Revolutionaries proud!

I found more photos [mgce.uz.ua] from the Eparchy of Mukachevo website of a Eucharistic procession for the Feast of the Most Holy Eucharist in 2010.

Three photos in particular contain close-ups of the monstrance with the adapted lunette (you can click on each to enlarge further):
Photo One [mgce.uz.ua] , Photo Two [mgce.uz.ua] , Photo Three [mgce.uz.ua]

My concern is the amount of particles that can be generated from placing the Holy Lamb into the lunette.

Then, there is this photo [mgce.uz.ua] from a parish Eucharistic procession [mgce.uz.ua] in which the Holy Lamb appears reddish in color (moistened with the Precious Blood obviously). I am presuming the Lamb was allowed to dry previously or else it would have been a disaster to place It into the monstrance.

Another reason to not celebrate this purely Latin feast. If one wants to go and celebrate it with the Latins, fine.

In my purely layman's opinion, we run into trouble not so much for practicing Latin devotions and celebrating Latin feasts, but from neglecting and ignoring our own. For instance when I started attending a UGCC as a teenager we never had Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts in Great Lent. My current pastor didn't either growing up in the 50's and 60's in Pennsylvania. He said they just had "Stations of the Cross". Now, thank God we have the option of celebrating our own services as well as the resources to do it (i.e. service books in English).

Now I'd have to say that here everyone who would attend Stations also supported the Presanctified Liturgy, although some parishioners were concerned that the Presanctified Liturgy didn't focus enough on the "sufferings of Christ".

Best wishes to everyone!
Stefan-Ivan

Another option to help with "Stations withdrawal" that I have found helpful, especially when Presanctified is not celebrated, is to celebrate the Akathist to the Passion. It is beautiful, within the tradtion and was composed by St. Innokenty of Kherson and Odessa.

Here in Košice, we have presanctified liturgies, great lent molebens, stations of the cross, Jesus prayer services, pentential canon services, public recitations of the rosary, etc. None seems to draw anything away from the others. They meld together perfectly fine.

Lent isn't about getting a jag on with the "sufferings of Christ"; it's about winning the victory over our passions!

Very nice!

The Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox love the service of the "Passia" which is served during the first four weeks of Holy Lent (either on Fridays or Sunday evenings).

It is a service that I've seen only a few UGCC parishes hold.

I had the privilege of contributing to the cost of publishing such a service for a Ukrainian Orthodox church.

Together with the Passia service, they also have the Way of the Cross which is wildly popular in western Ukraine among MANY Orthodox parishes.

This particular version that I have has 12 stations of the Cross where a large three-bar Cross is carried in procession and then a stop is made where a Gospel reading is done. After this the priest takes the Cross and blesses the people with it. The procession then resumes. Quite beautiful and Ukrainian Catholics and Orthodox have been known to join together for such a service to which they often invited their Roman Catholic neighbours.

As for the much-pilloried public recitation of the Rosary, the Orthodox nuns at Diveyevo, at St Seraphim of Sarov's directive, daily walk around the holy "Kanavka" or pathway around Diveyevo, reciting the 150 Hail Mary's of the Rule of the Theotokos. On feast-days, the Hail Mary's are sung by the nuns and all pilgrims visiting Diveyevo make the walk as well.

Little booklets indicating how the Rule/Rosary is to be said are distributed and I've given these to Russian acquaintances, together with lestovkas designed for the purpose. They have always reported that they LOVE the Rule and join with others in saying it as often as they can.

Lord save us from the "Orthodox in communion with Rome" police!

Alex

It is my understanding that the feast is popular among Melkites in Lebanon, especially in the city of Zahle, which celebrates the feast with great solemnity.

Here is a photo of the 2012 celebration which is posted on the official website of the Melkite Greek Catholic patriarchate:

[Linked Image]

Source (in French). [pgc-lb.org]

One can see that the monstrance used is adapted to hold the Lamb. There is also the presence of clergy from various liturgical traditions, both Catholic and Orthodox.

What a joyous, festive (and ecumenical) celebration!

Thanks for posting this, Griego Amigo!

Alex

I thought today was the start of the Apostles' Fast. Is this the correct forum?

The Monday after All Saints Sunday is the beginning of the Apostles' Fast.

This is certainly the correct Forum if you are in favour of the Corpus Christi feast . . .

Alex

The feast--known as the Feast of the Most Holy Eucharist--continues to be celebrated in the UGCC.

I did a Google search and found mention of the feast on parish online bulletins and Facebook pages for this year (2015):

1) https://www.facebook.com/AscensionU...362/1628674694017801/?type=1&theater

2) http://www.stnicholaschurch.ca/2015/May_31_2015.pdf

3) http://sspeterandpaulucc.org/2015/0...feast-of-the-holy-eucharist-june-7-2015/

4) http://www.sacredheartucc.org/3.html

5) http://www.st-john-baptist-shrine.ca/

It's celebrated on the Sunday following the feast.

Photos of a Eucharistic processions from Ukraine:

1) http://www.pkm.if.ua/archives/7179

2) http://osbm.lutsk.ua/news/main/114/

Dear Griego Amigo,

You always do such comprehensive research on things!

In fact, the several Feasts in the UGCC calendar that were taken from the West - Corpus Christi, Jesus, the Lover of Mankind (aka the Sacred Heart), the Sorrowful Mother/Compassion, Christ the King and the Immaculate Conception - are not mandatory in terms of their observance.

In my neck of the woods, there are parishes that observe them or some of them, and others who do not, seeing them as Latinizations which, of course, they are.

In 1904 at the time of the establishment of the Russian Catholic Church (aka "Russian Orthodox in communion with Rome"), the issue of the Sacred Heart devotion in June was raised. Rome decided in favour of the more Easternized "Jesus, the Lover of Mankind" although at least one such parish adopted the full Western style of this devotion as obtained in the UGCC at the time and there is an Akathist to the Sacred Heart by Fr. Isidore Dolnitsky and other similar devotions adapted to a Byzantine liturgical framework (how successfully is not for me to judge as that is just not my forte). The Ven. Metropolitan Andrew Sheptytsky, the impetus behind the Russian Catholic Church, actually dedicated the project to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

In fact, St Nicholas Cabasilas in his commentary on the Divine Liturgy makes mention of the "Heart of Christ." An Orthodox commentator said that the Orthodox Church honours the "Heart of Christ" and that this is different from the Western, 'pietistic' devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus etc.

At the same time, Ukrainian Orthodox in western Ukraine began to pick up some of these feast days and devotions, especially the feast of the Sorrowful Mother of God/Compassion for which some Orthodox parishes used EC liturgical texts which were otherwise placed under lock and key for the interim (there was a monograph on this published in Chicago but I've lost it and don't remember who wrote it).

Certainly, when the UGCC was forcibly reunited to the ROC in 1946, former EC parishes continued to celebrate these feasts (one Ukrainian priest once had an ROC prayerbook published in western Ukraine - during the Soviet era - which actually had the service of Supplication for Eucharistic Benediction!).

In fact, during the era of the Kyivan Baroque, very many Western devotions were adopted wholesale by Orthodox saints such as St Dmitri (Tuptalenko), St Peter Mohyla and others including the saying of a Hail Mary at the turn of every hour, night and day, the Western form of the Rosary, the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the 15 Prayers of St Brigitte, forms of the Way of the Cross (especially loved by St Tikhon of Zadonsk who had life-size "stations" placed in his cell) and others. The service of the Passia during Lent was developed at this time as well and it is very popular throughout Russia too.

The Immaculate Conception presents an interesting case example on its own. Kyivan Orthodox brotherhoods sprang up in honour of the Immaculate Conception (i.e. Confraternities) which took the "bloody vow" to defend to the death the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God, they wore special medals of the Immaculate Conception (there are a few miraculous icons even in Russia of the Immaculate Virgin Mary which can be found on the Russian-language site: "pravicon.com" and there is also the practice of enshrining an RC statue of Our Lady of Loreto in some Orthodox monasteries and churches . . . in Russia).

Their Confraternity invocation was "All Immaculate Theotokos, save us!" And St Dmitri of Rostov belonged to such, as did other Orthodox saints and scholars (the ROC actually called St Dmitri to appear before the Synod on charges he had gone too far in this and some other devotions).

The Russian theologian Fr. Georges Florovsky commented on the Kyivan Mohyla academy in the 19th century and was non-plussed, shall we say, at the tremendous devotion of the entire academy to the ... Immaculate Conception!

And, of course, the May devotion with daily Molebens and Akathists is very strong in the UGCC today and also in certain Orthodox parishes.

Should the UGCC and other EC's divest themseles of any of this? I personally would say, "no" since they have withstood the test of time and have earned their right of liturgical citizenship.

As Fr. Isidore Dolnitsky once said, he prepared liturgical propers for these feasts to enable EC's to celebrate them in their own parishes, rather than attending RC parishes to do so.

Alex

Photos from this year's (2015) celebration of the feast of the Most Holy Eucharist in Uzhhorod: http://www.mgce.uz.ua/photogallery.php?album_key=3565

As a point of fact, the recently promulgated Particular Law of the UGCC does list the Feast of the Most Holy Eucharist as a feast - a day when the faithful are exhorted to participate in the Divine Liturgy.

The popularity of this Feast is incontrovertible, even though the "very Eastern" parishes of the UGCC may choose to ignore it (and do).

Since this Feast is a moveable one and is often celebrated on the Sunday following, as is the Feast of Jesus the Lover of Mankind, the Feast of All Saints of Kyivan Rus'-Ukraine is moved to the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost (when the Orthodox celebrate it on the Second Sunday after Pentecost).

Ultimately, there is no good reason for that move as all the Eastern Churches involved should be able to celebrate the feast of their Particular Saints on the same day.

Alex