Maggie:
Hmmmm. So this may be a dumb question, but you guys have been awfully nice in answering most of my dumb questions so far… what language is used in the celebration of Mass? Sometimes you guys greet each other in what appears to me to be a different language, so I’m wondering if it’s because a different language is used in the celebration of Mass…
Hi, Maggie!
Good questions!
The Eastern Churches have always held to the idea that the Divine Liturgy should be celebrated in the vernacular of the people. Whereas the Roman Catholics used Latin as the universal, worldwide language of the Mass well into the 60s and even 70s, the Eastern Churches would adopt their Divine Liturgy to the language of the people, wherever they happened to be.
Speaking for the Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Church in America, The language of the Divine Liturgy had been, up until this same time period (60s/70s) a Slavic dialect known as
Church Slavonic, even in America! Now, at first glance, this may appear to be a contradiction of the Eastern Catholic practice of using the vernacular of the people… it is not. Here’s why…
The Ruthenians who settled in America during the first half of the 20th century were, for the most part, first generation immigrants. They quite naturally settled into their own neighborhoods an built their own churches there, populated, in turn, by their own Slavic-speaking people. Many if not most of these folks never enjoyed the benefit of an American education - they came here strictly to work and survive. For this reason, most never even learned the English language, so for them, Church Slavoic
was the vernacular!..
even in America!
The children of this first-wave of immigrants
did, however, attend American schools and learn the English language. They would, naturally, attend these same churches as their immigrant ancestors, but they brought with them the benefit of knowledge of the English language. As these “kids” started replacing the older folks who were dying away, the Church recognized the need to “adjust” the language of the Divine Liturgy to accommodate
their language, hence English became,
and remains today, the language of the Byzantine Catholic Church in America.
There was, understandably, a period of “language overlap” where it was necessary to accommodate the language needs of
both groups. This period of overlap happens to be the era of our Church in America that many of today’s Byzantines, myself included, grew up in. It was not at all uncommon for a Byzantine Catholic Church to have one Sunday Liturgy in English and a second one in Slavonic. As an altar boy and a cantor, I couldn’t help being exposed to
both versions - the same holds for most of my chronological peers!
The greetings we occasionally post to each other are a carryover from these “days of overlap.” The most common greeting is “Slava Isusu Christu!” which means “Glory be to Jesus Christ!” The response to this greeting is “Slava Na V’iki!” which means “Glory be forever!” Another greeting that I’ve posted is “Mnohaja i blahaja l’ita!” which is a blessing upon someone wishing them “Many and blessed years!” This one is a
one-way greeting - no response necessary!
My guess is that as us “oldsters” die off (I’m 53), so will our Slavonic greetings, replaced exclusively by the English versions, which we’re already seeing at the ends of many posts here.
Hope this helps, Maggie!
a pilgrim
