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Chris_McAvoy
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I’ll have Eucharistic Adoration if you have The Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy on the first Sunday of ever lent and set up an Iconostasis in a Latin Church in the USA.
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Chris_McAvoy
Guest
First you must know the definition of adoration.
(yes this is from wikipedia but it is accurate)
Augustine was not talking about Adoration in the sense it is today in a monstrance publicly by the laity as an official ritual of the church for it did not exist until 800 years later.
So in the west developed a heresy of denial of the eucharist being God’s presence. Thus Corpus Christi was made a feast of the Church in the year 1321 in order to promote the fullness of truth.
Why this heresy developed is an interested question, was it random or was there an underlying instigation? (something done differently in the west) I have no idea. Nevertheless as the heresy did not develop in the East there is no reason to counter it. If you have Eucharistic Adoration as an official ritual you may as well add Corpus Christi to Eastern Churches too, and thats not going to work…it is unnecessary.
As a friend of mine once said, to a certain degree Eastern and Western Churches should have a policy somewhat like the Federation of Planets in the Star Trek series. There should be a recognition that the cultures have developed differently and interference in a culture which you do not understand will most likely lead to profound conflicts if you introduce your culture into it for them to use.
While I agree with this, I also think that for a Church to be united there is a degree which there should be unity. And I also think there is a degree which cultures must understand each other. But until they do understand each other, they can not pretend to speak for one another. For instance I believe that the west should use leavened bread as well, as it did for its first 800 years and for even longer in Italy, but this is because it is it’s ancient tradition, not because I wish for it to be exactly like the east, only that it retain the similarities which it had in the past which are beneficial to make its current culture orthodox.
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mgy100
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Eucharistic Adoration is not a practice in the Byzantine Rite.
I would say if one knows where, when, how and why Eucharistic adoration originated one would see that it was never intended for the Byzantine Churches.
In latter years it was practiced, aka “latinization.”
But no Orthodox churches or UGGC or Ruthenian parishes here do this anymore.
I would say if one knows where, when, how and why Eucharistic adoration originated one would see that it was never intended for the Byzantine Churches.
In latter years it was practiced, aka “latinization.”
But no Orthodox churches or UGGC or Ruthenian parishes here do this anymore.
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theistgal
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First of all, don’t you think there is a slight difference in kind between Eucharistic Adoration (which is, after all, simply the worship of Jesus Christ in the consecrated elements of the Sacrament) and the celebration of a historical church event (however important it may be)?
Second, I’ve been to a few Latin Churches with iconostases.
Third, I really appreciate this thread - I’m a Latin Rite Catholic who married a Byzantine Catholic last year, and have been struggling with trying to understand the differences between the Western and Eastern views of the Eucharist. I’ve learned a lot from the way those differences have been articulated in this thread and just want to thank everyone involved!
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East_and_West
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Deal.
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ac_claire
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Just wanted to drop in and say I agree with you.
I’ve had this very same thought before. I called in one of those Catholic apologetics radio shows and asked this very question.
Well, I asked if Jesus was present in us after we receive Him in the Eucharistic just as much as He is in the monstrance during adoration. And if so, why wouldn’t we treat other people at communion- and our own bodies- with the same kind of reverence. It was a sincere question; At the time I wasn’t trying to make a point or be rhetorical or difficult… My memory is fuzzy, I think the apologist/priest that day just answered by affirming Christ’s presence in the Eucharist and enthusiastically endorsing adoration.
I do visit Jesus in the adoration chapel, but the question does pop up from time to time. I keep thinking of how He said He was “food indeed.” I don’t know. But thank you all, I have enjoyed reading this thread.
Back to lurking…
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Marsha_Adams
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I have heard many instances of parishes who have begun perpetual adoration immediately having increased vocations. Why would that be, if there is no use to adoration?
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Servus_Pio_XII
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Perhaps it is not the practice itself, but the attendant growth in spirituality (which leads parishes to desire perpetual adoration) that is responsible for the increase in vocations.
After all, the intention of the adorers is usually quite sincere, and often reflects a genuine desire to become nearer to Christ.
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East_and_West
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Which is all the more reason to keep it around. A bad tree does not bear good fruit.
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Servus_Pio_XII
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A neutral tree might, tho.
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mardukm
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Don’t know if anyone has ever noted this yet:
And Him we worship along with the Father and the Spirit, with one obeisance, ADORING EVEN HIS IMMACULATE FLESH, AND NOT HOLDING THAT THE FLESH IS NOT MEET FOR WORSHIP.
(St John of Damascus, Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 8)
And Him we worship along with the Father and the Spirit, with one obeisance, ADORING EVEN HIS IMMACULATE FLESH, AND NOT HOLDING THAT THE FLESH IS NOT MEET FOR WORSHIP.
(St John of Damascus, Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 8)
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East_and_West
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Are you kidding me? Neutral? How many saints in the west have been spiritually fed over the centuries by the practice of Eucharistic adoration. Look, if the Holy Eucharist is Christ in the flesh, why would you not want to draw near to him in so great a sacrament?
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Woodstock
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So there is no possibility that others find it foreign to their theology or spirituality? To be a good Catholic, one must practice Eucharistic adoration?
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Diak
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I’m not sure E&W is making that point; certainly the Church has never included Eucharistic adoration as a necessary means of salvation and it could definitely be foreign to one brought up in another particular Eastern Catholic tradition.
While it is a beautiful tradition in the West, one I particularly like in the Western liturgical corpus and sincerely hope it is maintained as an important Western custom, it is likewise just as important for our Eastern Churches to restore their own traditional liturgical practices and not those directly borrowed from the Latins as we have been directed by our own hierarchies and Rome.
FDRLB
n.b. Even some Ukrainian Orthodox churches practiced Supplikatsia (I would imagine in most cases these were former Greek Catholic).
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East_and_West
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Amen to all of the above!!!
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Ghosty
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On another forum this same topic is being discussed, and it was brought up that not only does the Melkite Church have an “Canon for Corpus Christi” which was written by one of the early Melkite Patriarchs after reunion (rather than simply adopting the Latin Office), but the current Patriarch still encourages Melkite “Corpus Christi” processions in the areas that they have become a custom, and while acknowledging them as something from “outside” the Byzantine tradition he says that it is something the Melkite Church has modified and made its own.
It’s worth reading the Patriarch’s document from the Year of the Eucharist, IMO. It gives an interesting account of the Melkite perspective on this matter.
Peace and God bless!
It’s worth reading the Patriarch’s document from the Year of the Eucharist, IMO. It gives an interesting account of the Melkite perspective on this matter.
Peace and God bless!
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Servus_Pio_XII
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How many saints has the East produced, saints with a profound love for the Eucharistic Lord, who had no inclination towards Adoration?
Why would you want to look, and draw no closer, and fail to enter into full union with Him through the Sacrament?
If the Holy Eucharist is Christ in the flesh, why would you be satisfied with mere Adoration from afar when He offers Himself much more fully to you?!
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ASimpleSinner
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Why must we continue to harken to a crtical false dichotomy?
I will say yet again that it isn’t an “either/or” sort of proposition.
We don’t do it - that is fine.
The Latins do it - that is fine.
Having adoration doesn’t mean they don’t commune. Many I know who participate in that form of prayer go to communion daily. It isn’t a “one or the other” sort of proposition. They aren’t satisfied with “mere Adoration” I don’t know why it keeps coming back to that consideration. Frankly I would be just as befuddled if a Latin came here and started asking:
The dichotomy is false. They don’t have to be wrong just because we don’t do it that way.
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Marsha_Adams
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Why would a husband or wife sometimes want to just stare into each other’s eyes rather than go to bed? Or why would they rather just sleep like spoons rather than have relations?
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Dee_Dee_King
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it was pointed out earlier that we can’t consummate our marriage continuously, or receive continuously, but we can adore in between by being in the presence of our Lord in the eucharist. eucharistic adoration completes our worship of God during the divine liturgy/holy mass.
i belong to an eastern rite church but when i can i go to adoration. the best you can do in a day is confession, mass and adoration. nothing beats it. the east should adopt it. i don’t understand why people don’t think there can’t be cross fertilization between the liturgies. it happened in the past.
i think some things are better emphasized in the east, some are better in the west. that’s why the JPII asked all catholics to better understand eastern traditions. the east has something to give to the west.
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