Does the Maronite Church offer a Requiem Divine Liturgy

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gmcbroom

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Hello All it’s been along time since I’ve posted.

I’ve been reading of Requiem Masses in the Latin Church and there benefits to the Holy Souls in purgatory . I was wondering if the Maronite Church had a similar Divine Liturgy.
 
I believe Requiem Masses are strictly a Roman/Latin thing, but I’ll check with my pastor the next time I see him (God willing, on Sunday).
 
Thank you. I’d been reading about purgatory and that made me curious about the Maronite equivalent if there is one
 
There’s not really a Maronite equivalent to purgatory… at least not as well defined as in the Roman tradition. The East in general recognizes that some sort of purification after death is a possibility, but we prefer not to define what that purification might look like. The language we use around it is more image-based and poetic. The Maronites in particular use the image of a ship crossing the sea to port at a safe harbor.
 
I can’t speak for Maronite and other Oriiental, but the funeral rites for Byzantines (both EC and EO) are not the DL.

THat’s not because they don’t exist, but because it’s not the DL.
 
gmcbroom said:
I’ve been reading of Requiem Masses in the Latin Church and there benefits to the Holy Souls in purgatory . I was wondering if the Maronite Church had a similar Divine Liturgy.
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It seems to me that the question bears some clarification.

Do you mean
(a) Requiem Masses such as on All Souls Day or anniversaries, or
(b) the actual obsequies for a departed soul?
 
Am I correct in assuming you are rejoining us at CAF after a long absence? If so…welcome back!
 
It was my understanding that the Orientals (Syriacs and Copts in particular) believe that most souls go to Hades, the abode of the dead, either to a foretaste of heaven or a foretaste of hell…moving on to eternal bliss or eternal damnation later. Is that not the case? Or perhaps the Maronites don’t have the same Oriental tradition. If so…I would see that as the equivalent of purgatory, except the “location” is Hades and not “somewhere” else.
 
No Eastern Church has a requiem mass. That’s a strictly western thing.

All Eastern Churches have optional additions to the litanies to commemorate and pray for the dead.

Deacon Christopher
 
I don’t know much about the Maronite Church, but in the Byzantine Tradition the traditional funeral service is Parastas.

In 2001, Professor Joseph Roll adapted music for Parastas with Divine Liturgy. He gave the keynote address at SingCon 2019 on the history of music at St. Basil’s Seminary in Stamford and got a standing ovation at the end:

 
The Maronites have an incensing service after Divine liturgy, on specific days after someone’s passing (3, 9, and 40 days). The 40 day liturgy is most common, and family members will distribute Qurban (offering) bread after the service.

The funeral service itself is basically an office, called a Ginnazat. It has stations for the wake, the church and the cemetery, with hymns for the road in between each.
 
I love the incensing service. The hymn we sing is worth sitting with and meditating on for a few hours.
 
Yet so many people refer to the Divine Liturgy as “Mass”. I try to correct people but habits are hard to break.
 
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