Daily Eucharist

[Cluny]

…ALL rites in the Catholic Church are equal in dignity. And the pope and magesterium defend ALL Catholic rites as equal.

I sure wish some of the people on this fora would.

 

[Diak]

Diak: I only meant that as the Pope and bishops of the Latin Church have deemed it fitting to encourage and even require a daily celebration of the Eucharist, I, as the Church’s faithful son, can only assume that Providence has deigned that a daily sacrifice be offered. Does it matter if the practice evolved over a period of many centuries? ‘whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven…’ I wasn’t suggesting that the Latin practice is superior. Many saints have, however testified to the immense graces the Church receives by virtue of the daily repetition of the holy sacrifice.

‘Whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven…’ applies to the entirety of the Magisterium and not just this or that practice that suits the individual. As the Magisterium has taught in various documents, equal dignity should be apported for all particular Catholic Churches who do not practice the exact same way as the Latin Church.

The Church has never required daily Communion of anyone, and even some religious orders in the Latin Church do not have this obligation anymore. Canon 904 of the Latin Code says “frequently” and not daily for priests. Daily is later recommended, but it is not required.

The particular law of my own Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the USA allows Vespers, Matins or the Divine Liturgy to fulfill any Sunday or festal obligation, and thus is attempting to restore the full Eucharistic cycle and importance of all three as making up the entirety of the Eucharistic cycle, rather than reducing everything to one, and does not require us to accrete a tradition or practice that is not our own.

I also believe as have many saints that fitting preparation is needed for the august reception of the Holy Mysteries; for myself if I were to do this without our traditional rule of preparation on a regular basis it would definitely lead to a lessening of reverence on my part for the Holy Mysteries.

I also am fully committed to following the leadership of the bishops of my particular Church who recognize the importance of the restoration of the full Eucharistic cycle, the necessity of fidelity to our received tradition, and the reintegration of the crucial catechetical, mystagogic and dogmatic content of Vespers and Matins back into this full Eucharistic cycle rather than a more scaled down and minimalized approach to liturgy.

 

[twf]

Father Deacon: Well put. I concede your point. I never intended to suggest that the Latin practice is superior. I guess it sometimes bothers me that Latins are perfectly comfortable taking cues from the East while Eastern Catholics seem to feel the reverse is abhorrent. Your explanation of why daily liturgy is inappropriate in the Byzantine tradition, however, makes sense. Sorry for any offense.

 

[Aramis]

I’m not understanding the argument. In the Latin rite, we have daily Eucharist. This is the height and summit of our worship.

Suggesting changes to a rite you are (1) apparently unfamiliar with and (2) based upon a rite you are familiar with implies that there is something wrong with that rite.

There is nothing wrong with the tradition of aliturigical days in Byzantine use, be it the ruthenian monday-friday year round, or the more universally byzantine wed-fri of fasts. (Yep, that means m-w-f of great fast are all aliturgical…)

Rome has said that the east is to return to it’s authentic traditions. In the Ruthenian praxis, that includes aliturgical days.

Rome has said that it is wrong to add Roman praxis into any of the Eastern Churches’ praxis (be they Byzantine, Alexandrian, Armenian, Syrian, or Chaldean). Doesn’t matter who is doing it.

Rome has absolutely forbidden hybridizing the rites.

 

[Diak]

Father Deacon: Well put. I concede your point. I never intended to suggest that the Latin practice is superior. I guess it sometimes bothers me that Latins are perfectly comfortable taking cues from the East while Eastern Catholics seem to feel the reverse is abhorrent. Your explanation of why daily liturgy is inappropriate in the Byzantine tradition, however, makes sense. Sorry for any offense.

Absolutely no offense taken. There is an inherently different approach spiritually and liturgically.