Explanation of eastern liturgy

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DeusExMachina

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I apologize if this is in the wrong forum, but a I was wondering if anyone could explain to me how the various Byzantine liturgies(ie St James, John Chrysostom) work and how they eachdiffer from typical “western liturgies”

Your brother in Christ
DeusExMachina
 
Ignoring the obtuse “non-modernism” parenthetical, I think this video is a good comparison between Byzantine and Latin patrimonies: youtube.com/watch?v=RdwYX8MnntA

While many are quick to see the differences between Byzantine and Latin liturgy, I see them comparatively closer than Latin and the Oriental liturgies (Syriac, Assyrian, etc.). It would be quite the task to enumerate the structural difference between Byzantine and Latin liturgies though - if you find websites which give the structures individually and then compare them, that would probably be helpful in answering your question.
 
Basically a liturgy whether it is from the East or from the West is much like a recipe to give us all the same final product which of course is our Lord Jesus Christ. It is like when you go to any restaurant and you are receiving this from one restaurant and then receiving another from a different restaurant. While the chefs have their differences in every restaurant you are getting pretty good food from them. Basically any valid Liturgy or Mass
gives us Jesus Christ. What is important is not the recipe but the final product. While this is true the Eastern Liturgies differ from the Latin Mass in that they are usually much longer. In fact the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom shortened the St. Basil’s Liturgy quite a bit and it is still much longer than the present Catholic Mass. The Catholic Mass to make it is what it is today inserts hymns to present a sung Mass. This means that if you take out the hymns the prayers of the Mass are actually very few compared to the Eastern Liturgies. The amount of prayers said at a Mass are quite short. The amount of prayers prayed at a Eastern Liturgy is quite extensive. The Eastern Churches do not have hymns with many verses sung at their Liturgies. Rather they have many prayers situated throughout the Liturgy. These prayers are usually sung. The antiphons, litanies and those parts which are sung before the Trasigion of the Divine Liturgy are not the same as hymns are for the Catholic Church. There is way much more praying in the Eastern Liturgies.
 
rciadan said:
Chimo:👍
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Thank you. I appreciate the thumbs up. I noticed the quote you have at the bottom from Nicholas Cabasilas and it has caught my attention. I agree with what Nicholas has said and I will be interested in reading his book. I thank you for adding him to your post. I had never heard of him.
 
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