In all fairness, the actual article does specify the Roman Rite. I see nothing wrong with encouraging all Catholics to know of the devotions of the various Catholic Churches. Every Catholic should be made aware of the Divine Liturgy too, IMO, so we can begin to end this nonsense that pervades the Latin Church espescially of being “more Catholic than those Catholics”.
If we are going to call ourselves Catholic, universal, then it behooves us to aquaint ourselves with all Catholic traditions, or at least as many as feasible. Even saying “all Catholics should know these Gregorian chants” isn’t really a slap in the face of Easterns, nor is saying that similar chants and liturgies of the East should be known in the West. They really
should be known, because they are Catholic, and we are all Catholic, and while we may prefer our particular settings, traditions, and devotions, they are not things to seperate us, but rather to point us towards God. The moment we treat them as things that make us different, rather than things that make us Catholic, we have begun to commit violence of Christ’s Church.
We must cherish our differences as we cherish each course and plate in a meal, not use them to draw lines to seperate ourselves. This goes for people on both sides. I understand that it can be hard for Easterns who constantly hear Catholic equated with Latin, but I believe the Christian thing to do when this comes up is not to shout it down, but rather offer up Eastern traditions alongside the Latin ones. It’s very unlikely that most Latin Catholics, who often fall into the innocent error of thinking Catholic = Latin (let’s face it, it DOES in most of the world, at least superficially), would respond hostily to an Eastern Catholic, in a thread such as this, simply offering up twelve Greek chants that every Catholic should know. In fact, most Latins I know would be overjoyed at such an offer. Remember how many Latins reacted with pleasant and warm curiousity about the Eastern chants at JPII’s funeral?
This would serve the dual purpose of reminding the Latins that the Church IS NOT just about them, and would also give them an immediate eye-opener to the beauty and breadth of the Catholic Church, all without confrontation.
That being said, I can’t seem to get the Eastern chants to work in that link. They won’t play, and only the MIDI files work
Any suggestions?
God bless!
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