Focus of the Divine Liturgy

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Ora_et_Labora_1

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The Latin Rite (or the Gregorian Mass, if you prefer) tends to focus on the renewal of the sacrifice of the Calvary. What exactly is the focus of the Divine Liturgy? Does it have a “wider scope” than the Gregorian Mass? If so, how is it possible that they are that different, seeing as how these rites originated in a more-or-less coherent form around the same period?
 
Ora_et_Labora said:
The Latin Rite (or the Gregorian Mass, if you prefer) tends to focus on the renewal of the sacrifice of the Calvary. What exactly is the focus of the Divine Liturgy? Does it have a “wider scope” than the Gregorian Mass? If so, how is it possible that they are that different, seeing as how these rites originated in a more-or-less coherent form around the same period?
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The DL of St John fixes in form about 600 AD; the Gregorian does not fix in form until about 1200 AD.

We know this in part because the Dominican Liturgy (of the Order of Preachers) is fixed in form in 1200, based upon the Roman Missal in use at the priory, and because every archdiocese moderated its own liturgical missal, and the Carthusian and the Carmelite not long after; none matches the others. Plus the Sarum rite, the Celtic Rite, and the Gallican Rite are well documented; by comparing these, the West was positively brimming with local variations through the 1200’s and beyond. Trent abolishes anything under 300 years old, leaving the Roman, Dominican, Carthusian, Carmelite, Dalmatian, Bragan, Mozarabic, and Ambrosian liturgies permitted, and abolishing the Gallican and Celtic as having fallen from use, and the Sarum as too new (as well as a dozen gallo-roman and brittano-roman diocesan variant missals).

While there has been some development rubrically, the text of the DL of St. John is the text St John wrote. It’s further a redaction/reduction of St. Basil’s liturgy.

WHile the Roman Canon is essentially intact about the same time as St John’s DL, the Roman-Tridentine mass can not be said to be intact at that time, and the Gregorian mass evolves significantly. Popes kept changing stuff… and not every diocese kept it the same.

As for the focus: The Byzantine liturgy is dual focused…
  1. The representation of the Sacrifice of Christ
  2. The education of the faithful.
    This latter element is generally downplayed in the gregorian mass, especially during the dark ages.
 
A priest had mentioned to me that the canon of the Gregorian Mass was pretty much stable from since around the 5th or 6th century (with the various differences being those rites you mentioned) and that Trent just served to “polish” some minor details.

My question came up though, due to the fact that I have recently started attending the EF. I only returned to the Church some 2 years ago, and had never even heard of the EF up until about a year ago. I started going to the EF because I felt that the OF “wasn’t enough”, i.e., that the Mass had more to offer than what I was getting at the OF. I know that both forms are valid, yet I didn’t feel as though I were getting anything else besides the Eucharist at the OF (no, I’m not downplaying the importance of the Eucharist). The EF seems to me to be much richer, still its wording or focus is different from what I would say is my view of Christian spirituality. The more I read about the Eastern Churches, the more I see that their theology is very similar to the way I have come to understand the Faith. And so my interest in the DL has grown.

Seeing as how you’ve changed rites, in what manner does the DL focus on education of the faithful and how is that lacking in the Gregorian Mass?
Aramis said:
The DL of St John fixes in form about 600 AD; the Gregorian does not fix in form until about 1200 AD.

We know this in part because the Dominican Liturgy (of the Order of Preachers) is fixed in form in 1200, based upon the Roman Missal in use at the priory, and because every archdiocese moderated its own liturgical missal, and the Carthusian and the Carmelite not long after; none matches the others. Plus the Sarum rite, the Celtic Rite, and the Gallican Rite are well documented; by comparing these, the West was positively brimming with local variations through the 1200’s and beyond. Trent abolishes anything under 300 years old, leaving the Roman, Dominican, Carthusian, Carmelite, Dalmatian, Bragan, Mozarabic, and Ambrosian liturgies permitted, and abolishing the Gallican and Celtic as having fallen from use, and the Sarum as too new (as well as a dozen gallo-roman and brittano-roman diocesan variant missals).

While there has been some development rubrically, the text of the DL of St. John is the text St John wrote. It’s further a redaction/reduction of St. Basil’s liturgy.

WHile the Roman Canon is essentially intact about the same time as St John’s DL, the Roman-Tridentine mass can not be said to be intact at that time, and the Gregorian mass evolves significantly. Popes kept changing stuff… and not every diocese kept it the same.

As for the focus: The Byzantine liturgy is dual focused…
  1. The representation of the Sacrifice of Christ
  2. The education of the faithful.
    This latter element is generally downplayed in the gregorian mass, especially during the dark ages.
Click to expand...
 
The ideas that the Roman Liturgy was a “renewal of Calvary” and the Byzantine Liturgy was a “proclaimation of the Resurrection” are not actually said in the PRAYERS of the Liturgy itself, but were rather devotional interpretations.

A Maronite commentator saw their devotional emphasis to be eschatalogical–“until He come again.”

All these are true as far as they go, but none is the whole story.

The Eucharistic Sacrifice is ALL of these, and others, besides.
 
Ora_et_Labora said:
Seeing as how you’ve changed rites, in what manner does the DL focus on education of the faithful and how is that lacking in the Gregorian Mass?
Click to expand...
Roman propers are very much minimalist; an invocation of the saint, sometimes a brief hint of history, not much else.

Byzantine propers are church composed prayers intended to teach the theology to the faithful.
 
That’s why Eastern and Oriental DL’s are so much longer than the Latin DL’s, because there is instruction included in the Liturgy itself, aside from the Homily.

I have gone to OF Masses, and I really do appreciate the ones with long homilies on the meaning of the Faith, and feel deprived when all the priest talks about is community spirit.

I should mention that in the Coptic Church, EVERYTHING is regarded as a preparation for the Sacrifice and communion, which is the pinnacle of the Mass (or DL - Copts don’t really mind using the word “mass,” even those not in communion with Rome).

Blessings,
Marduk
 
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