Eastern Catholic devotions?

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ConstantineTG

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Hi!

I go to First Friday Mass for the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Now I’m wondering about such devotions in Eastern Catholicism, especially Byzantine Catholicism. Anyone care to educate me?

Thanks!
 
Hey Constantine,

I’m not aware of many of the devotions, but there are some. I’ll try and track some down for ya. Devotions however are not as developed as in the western church. Where the mass took precedence over the Divine Office, something else was needed to fill that gap and so devotions became public services such as the recitation of the rosary and the adoration of the eucharist. Whereas in the east, the Divine Office remained and provided the daily prayer for the church as is noted by Father Robert Taft in his essays or as Newman speaks of in his homily of Anglican prayer titled “Daily Service”.

So novenas, Rosaries, Adoration services, stations of the cross, all these don’t really have an eastern counterpart. The Jesus prayer and the Chotki which is the Eastern prayer rope has only recently begun to be used amongst the laity. For a long while it was mostly a prayer aide for monastics.
 
Thanks! Devotions played a huge part in my upbringing as my Mom’s a very devout Catholic. She goes all around Metro Manila in the Philippines for devotions which includes the National Shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Help on Wednesdays, St. Jude on Thursdays, Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene on Fridays, and she frequently travels north to Our Lady of Manaoag (about a 4-5 hour trip one way by car). She also observes First Friday for the Sacred Heart and First Saturday for the Immaculate Heart.

I used to go to First Friday Mass all the time and stopped for a while and I just recently started again. Now that I’m getting more into Eastern Catholicism I’m wondering how much of these exist in the East.

Thanks for sharing Little Boy Lost!
 
I still pray the rosary from time to time, but I don’t think it should be a public service in Byzantine churches. I know St. Anne’s in San Luis Obispo does not celebrate the divine hours and has a weekly rosary service.

They aren’t bad, but if we are called to be examples of Orthodoxy in communion with rome, at least the public services should be enriching and teaching us to live in the byzantine tradition.

I don’t know if you’d consider this a devotion but I have an icon stand with icons and a censor where I burn incense when I pray.
 
That is interesting, there not being a devotion to the rosary. Do you have some other practice for meditating the Scriptures?
 
The Dominican rosary is not a devotion, but there are many other contemplative prayers that one can say whilst meditating on the scriptures.

Blessed Seraphim of Sarov taught that all Christians should pray the Rejoice o Blessed Virgin prayer (Which is considered the byzantine equivalent to the ave maria) everyday and that will lead them closer to God. This prayer is just not connected with the prayer rope or prayer beads. But definitely could be used with a chotki.

Also here is a similar thread that may help
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=353767
 
ConstantineTG said:
Hi!

I go to First Friday Mass for the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Now I’m wondering about such devotions in Eastern Catholicism, especially Byzantine Catholicism. Anyone care to educate me?

Thanks!
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Barbkw said:
That is interesting, there not being a devotion to the rosary. Do you have some other practice for meditating the Scriptures?
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There is public worship and private. For private the Jesus Prayer is traditional, and many will offer their own prayers in family for various purposes.

For Byzantine, public worship see MCI - Liturgy,etc.:
metropolitancantorinstitute.org/liturgy/Liturgy.html
MCI SiteMap:
metropolitancantorinstitute.org/SiteMap.html

Divine Liturgy (Saint Basil or Saint John Chrysostom) equivalent to the Mass, every Sunday, the Eucharistic celebration will focus on the Resurrection and other chants are added for specific intentions, in the context of the liturgical calendar with the four penitential periods (Nativity-Theophany, Pascha, Sts. Peter & Paul, Dormition).

Great Fast: liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts Wed, Fri, analogous to the Good Friday communion service

Other:

Matins
Vespers
Akathist
Moleben
Paraklisis
Panachida
 
The Latin Rosary itself is not a Byzantine devotion. It is clung to by some Byzantines (often “converts” from Roman Catholicism) in the same way that many Latinizations are; i.e. as “proof” that we are Catholic (Catholic in this case being equated with the Roman expression of the Catholic faith). However, from what little I’ve found written on the topic, there are some who contend that the Latin Rosary is derived from a much older Byzantine devotion known as the “Prayer Rule of the Theotokos”. This “Prayer Rule” dates from around the 4th Century, I believe, was highly encouraged by the great St. Seraphim of Sarov, and is prayed to this day by the monks on the Holy Mountain of Athos. It is rumored that St. Dominic got wind of this devotion and adapted it for Latin usage, changing the “mysteries” ever so slightly to be meditations directly on the life of Christ, rather than meditating on the life of Christ through meditation on the life of the Holy Theotokos.

This link is a PDF copy of the Prayer Rule of the Theotokos bombaxo.com/blog/files/rule.pdf. If anyone is interested, I make 150 prayer ropes (chotki/komboskini) that are specifically set up so that one could either prayer the Jesus Prayer or the Prayer Rule of the Theotokos (in fact I’m wearing one on my wrist right now).

ICXC + NIKA,
Phillip
 
I need to amend my statement a little. I claimed that the Prayer Rule of the Theotokos originated around the 4th Century. I looked it up again and found that it actually originated around the 8th Century. Ooops! 😊 Still well before the time of St. Dominic, however.
 
One more thing, it seems that in the Byzantine tradition there is really no set form for the Prayer Rule of the Theotokos. One could simply prayer the Angelic Salutation 150 times, or one could follow a rule similar to that which I provided in the link above. Here is the Byzantine form of the Angelic Salutation as found in the Melkite Greek Catholic Eparchy of Newton’s newest prayer book:

Hail, Virgin Mother of God, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with Thee. Blessed art Thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, for Thou hast borne the Savior of our souls.
 
Yes your correct in your history. Also the Rosary as we know it came from the time of St Dominic. The Prayers to Mary just stopped in the Orthodox church? Wasn’t that the 150 Psalm to Mary? Or was that the early Catholic Church? I know that was way before the Rosary also.

I"m kinda surprized though considering how quickly is converts to Christ that it isn’t of bigger importance.there.

The Miraculous Medal Mass with the Rosary prayed fifteen minutes before Mass and five prayer to the Blessed Mother is basically worldwide on Monday. From my experience with this Mass. It seems to draw in and convert then direct those followers to Sunday Mass. The you see many continue to attend Mondays Mass also.

Don’t get me wrong there are many who are devoted to the Rosary specifically. Yet in itself it really isn’t just a reverence to Mary. But the Angelic Salutation which is the Lords Prayer and Hail Mary starting with the Apostles Creed. I believe in God. So in this sense its a deeper reverence than only Mary. And it includes the Glory Be, to the Father Son and Holy Spirit, and the fatima Prayer which is to Jesus Christ.

Magnificent weapon that converts and leads to God.

Thats said whats similiar is striking. Interesting
 
The Apostolic Penitentary of the universal Catholic Church has identified some prayers to the Blessed Virgin Mary as salutary, through granting of an indulgence associated with them, under the usual conditions.

The Rosary (grant 17) of the Latin Church as well as the Akathistos hymn or the Office of the Paraclesis of the Eastern Catholics (both in grant 23), may be said to receive a plenary indulgence, per the norms published in 1999, both public or private.

See 23 Preces Orientalium Ecclesiarum, if you can read Latin, or you can rougly translate with – translate.google.com/#la|en|

vatican.va/roman_curia/tribunals/apost_penit/documents/rc_trib_appen_doc_20020826_enchiridion-indulgentiarum_lt.html
 
The Prayers to Mary just stopped in the Orthodox church?
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The prayers to the Theotokos never stopped. How could we? Only this particular prayer and it’s rule around it. Which is why Seraphim of Sarov and his spiritual children sought to remind us of it.

The Divine Liturgy and the Divine Office continue to have a wealth of prayers to the Theotokos. At almost every liturgy we ask for her blessed intercessions and praise her holy God Bearing nature.

There are also later prayers have have been composed like the Agni Parthene which is a non-liturgical prayer.
 
Phillip_Rolfes said:
The Latin Rosary itself is not a Byzantine devotion. It is clung to by some Byzantines (often “converts” from Roman Catholicism) in the same way that many Latinizations are; i.e. as “proof” that we are Catholic (Catholic in this case being equated with the Roman expression of the Catholic faith)
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As a BC of more than fifty years, I know many, many BC’s that love to pray the rosary, but know none who do it to prove that we are Catholic. Nonel the very idea is just ridiculous. I also suspect that Philip’s observations are far too limited for him to reliably draw such a conclusion.

It is a common argument. It is baloney, Yet some seemed to feel impelled to make it.🤷
 
For some, however, the Rosary is part of other Catholic obligations.

Knights of Columbus are charged to say the Rosary. I much prefer the Chotki; however, when my council has a public rosary, I often wind up leading a decade or two.

And there are other groups, which make no provisions for EC’s per se, that accept EC’s, but make use of the Rosary.

And Catholic Schools were noted for group rosaries… some still are… as part of the curricular praxis. If the school is doing a schoolwide rosary, one either says it or stands out.

St. Nick’s has a nice compromise: The Marian Rosary is said before 3rd Hour… and Third Hour before the Liturgy.
 
Dear Friends,

The Eastern Christian devotional life tends to be focused on liturgical prayer in the first instance.

Praying as much of the Daily Office is an ideal and there is a “Reader’s Office” or Horologion for non-ordained laity and monastics which omits the priestly prayers and exclamations.

Next is the devotional reading of the Psalms (read through each week and twice per week during Lent) which are divided into twenty stations or “Kathismata” with special penitential prayers at the end of each. Such reading can substitute for the Office.

Then there is the Jesus Prayer which can also substitute for the office if one says it several hundreds of times etc.

The Rule of the Theotokos or 150 Hail Mary’s with meditations et al. is part of Eastern Orthodoxy as a private devotion. St Seraphim of Sarov, an Orthodox holy father, said that the Mother of God revealed to him that the daily recitation of the rosary/rule is the most important devotion to her in order to obtain her intercession and protection during life.

The Orthodox nuns at Diveyevo in Russia walk around their monastery three times daily saying the 150 Hail Mary’s as a group and on feast days they actually sing the Hail Mary’s.

Recitation of 150 Our Father’s to replace the Office is also a devotion and it is customary to prostrate to the floor after each Our Father.

The devotional, liturgical prayer of the Akathist is a longer version of the litany and there are many Akathists to our Lord, the Theotokos and the Saints. Orthodox monastics will practice the “All Night Akathist Rule” which is the recitation of Akathist from evening until the next morning. The Orthodox married priest, St Jonah of Odessa, would do such All Night Vigils EVERY night and his prayer would miraculously heal people, such as the boy who was born blind etc.

Then there is the devotional reading out loud of the Gospel. Such reading is a prayer-exercise and many Orthodox saints would read the entire New Testament through each week but the rule is that one chapter of the four Gospels and two chapters of the rest of the New Testament are read each day and this will get one through the New Testament every three months.

Special prayer Canons and Molebens are prayed for various intentions to our Lord, the Theotokos and Saints and these abound in the daily office as well. One may also use one’s prayer rope to say short “ejaculatory” prayers like the Jesus Prayer to the Theotokos and the Saints. These can also replace “Molebens” or supplicatory services i.e. if we say “Holy Apostle Peter, pray unto God for me a sinner (or us)” 600 times, then this is equal to an actual Moleben/supplicatory service to St Peter.

There are also long offices of preparation for Confession and Communion which should always be said.

There are Lenten devotions such as the Passia and the Stations of the Cross served as Liturgical services and which can also be said privately. (The Passia is a service usually said on the first four Sundays of Lent where two chapters from each of the four Gospels relating to the Passion of our Lord are read. One may then read the Akathist to the Passion of our Lord or the Canon to the Sorrowful Mother - the rules don’t specify in a hard and fast way. This was created under St Peter Mohyla, the Orthodox Metropolitan of Kyiv).

Alex
 
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