Question about the Eucharist

[MilesVitae]

I really do not know much about the eastern rites within the Church.
What sort of Eucharistic traditions/practices are there within these rites? Specifically, I am wondering if they practice eucharistic adoration, and if Mass (or Liturgy - I forget the proper term in the eastern rites) is celebrated daily.

 

[Alveus_Lacuna]

Only speaking for Eastern Orthodoxy and thus also those Eastern parishes in communion with Rome of the Byzantine heritage.

No Eucharistic Adoration as a part of the native praxis of the church, though I believe that it does exist as a Latinization in Ukraine and perhaps other places. But the Orthodox don’t have the formal devotional. Eucharist is for consumption, not to be consecrated and then reserved for the practice of adoration.

In the Eastern tradition daily serving of the Divine Liturgy is not the normal practice and never has been. The only exception is in monasteries where there are daily services and also sometimes at Patriarchal cathedrals and sometimes at normal cathedrals. But in the typical parish life, the Divine Liturgy is only on Sundays, the Twelve Great Feasts, and other local major feasts such as the parish’s patron or to celebrate a regional saint.

 

[malphono]

In the Eastern tradition daily serving of the Divine Liturgy is not the normal practice and never has been. The only exception is in monasteries where there are daily services and also sometimes at Patriarchal cathedrals and sometimes at normal cathedrals. But in the typical parish life, the Divine Liturgy is only on Sundays, the Twelve Great Feasts, and other local major feasts such as the parish’s patron or to celebrate a regional saint.

FWIW, in the Syriac Tradition, the Holy Oblation was traditionally offered on Wednesday and Saturday, in addition to Sunday and major feasts (the exception noted for monasteries etc, also applied). I used the past tense since, among the various Syriac Churches in communion with Rome, the practice has come to mirror that of Rome, i.e. daily Mass is the rule.

I’m not certain about traditional Byzantine usage, but I somehow think it’s just about the same as the traditional Syriac.

 

[Hesychios]

I really do not know much about the eastern rites within the Church.
What sort of Eucharistic traditions/practices are there within these rites? Specifically, I am wondering if they practice eucharistic adoration, and if Mass (or Liturgy - I forget the proper term in the eastern rites) is celebrated daily.

I will speak to the Byzantine tradition, as far as a can. Others may wish to correct me, or enlarge on the subject, and that’s fine.

Divine Liturgy is only really possible if there is a congregation [someone to make the responses], the tradition does not allow for private Mass. This is one of the reasons Divine Liturgy is not offered daily everywhere. Secondly, the altar must be fasting [one liturgy per altar per day] and the priest must be fasting including he abstain from conjugal relations. Therefore since most priests are married, unless there are several married priests available to a parish or a priest-monk assigned, it is not likely that there will be a daily liturgy scheduled in a parish. The parish also has to be big enough to have some kind of congregation, at least a cantor of some sort, available every day.

These limitations do not apply to a monastery, when the priests available are always celibate and the congregation is always on site. So there can be daily divine liturgy, and in many places there is, but not in most parishes. I am not aware of any ironclad rule in the tradition for specific days during the week other than each Sunday and all Feast days, although I am aware there is a prescribed schedule for the Pre-Sanctified liturgy served during Lent and Holy week before Pascha.

On the question of Eucharistic Adoration, the concept is different.

It is thought of differently. The eucharist is in the eating [the act of receiving, chewing, swallowing]. Put another way, in the Byzantine East (and perhaps elsewhere) the eucharist is a verb, in the Latin west it tends to be thought of as a noun. In truth both senses are correct, but the emphasis is different. So certainly there is intense adoration while receiving, but otherwise not so much. There is no special ceremonial devotion to the reserved species.

This is one reason the bishops meeting at Brest, who agreed to come into communion with the Pope, made a point of not being required to participate in Corpus Christi processions [the fact that they made a special mention of this suggests that they were being pressured on this point at the time].

 

[dvdjs]

I really do not know much about the eastern rites within the Church. What sort of Eucharistic traditions/practices are there within these rites? Specifically, I am wondering if they practice eucharistic adoration, and if Mass (or Liturgy - I forget the proper term in the eastern rites) is celebrated daily.

As others have pointed out, more or less, daily liturgy (DL or presanctified) - apart from Good Friday - is the part of the Byzantine rite. There is considerable laxity about holding to this practice in most EO parishes. Even worse, somehow this situation has been elevated to Tradition by some. It isn’t. (See also:
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=527163)

As to Eucharistic adoration. There seems to be some confusion on this point among some Orthodox. The Eucharist is adored in the East. There is reservation of consecrated particles in the East. There is, however, no separate rite of adoration among EO’s.

This absence has been raise again almost to a matter to Tradition by some who go so far as to consider the Western practice an abuse. However the practice has not (yet) been suppressed among Western Rite Orthodox. (westernorthodox.blogspot.com/2006/06/byzantines-demand-eucharistic.html). As far as I can tell, the modern day theologizing against the practice is weak and tends to communicate a wrong idea that the Eucharist should not be venerated.

In the meantime, some Eastern Catholic churches developed a service of Eucharistic adoration. This service was practiced, for example, at the end of a pilgrimage - a farewell service long after the day’s divine liturgy. This service was very very byzantine in structure, with key elements modeled after the Eucharistic adoration in the divine liturgy. Quite extraordinary. It is being suppressed, as an inorganic accretion. That view is unfortunate and rather short-sighted IMO. This development cannot of course be compared with the article from Brest. We have not and do not hold processions with the Mysteries, nor do we have the feast of Corpus Christi.

 

[Evan]

I heard a lecture at our local Byzantine Church concerning Icon Veneration.

Within the lecture he addressed this issue.

During the reformation, in the western Church, there was a denial of the real presence. So, in reaction, the practice of Eucharistic Adoration was implemented. Since the East never denied the real presence, this practice never occurred.

However, the Iconoclasm that occurred and was put down in the East fostered a reverence for Icons that has continued to this day. Since this denial of the value and holiness of Icons and material things never occurred in the West, Holy Images were not given the high reverence they find in the East.

So, both practices, were initiated because of a denial of an aspect of the faith. The practices continue as a way of affirming

1. the holiness of created things (image, people, etc)
2. the real presence of Christ in the Eucharistic elements.

 

[ConstantineTG]

Ours have a Divine Liturgy Tuesday-Saturday, in addition to the regularly scheduled Sunday ones. We have the Sisters who attend everyday. Although I heard once it was just the priest and his wife.

We do not have Eucharistic adoration, although I have heard places where they adopted this Latinization. The Byzantine view on the Eucharist is that it must be eaten as Christ has commanded. Christ gave his flesh and blood for us to eat and have life, so that is the only thing we will do with the Eucharist. Also on the practical side, leavened bread does not keep as well as unleavened bread.

 

[Aramis]

A couple of clarifications/addenda to Michael’s post -

Certain large parishes (including, before the conversion to a mosque, the Hagia Sophia) had multiple altars (remembering that the byzantine Altar is not just the holy table, but the space on the dais and/or inside the icon screen) in order to have multiple liturgies in the same edifice.

Likewise, adoration of the blessed sacrament was never a communal byzantine parish service, but it was documented to be a private at-home devotion through about the 6th century, and a private devotion done before the closed tabernacle in more recent times. The Body is not placed in a monstrance traditionally, nor is it revealed to the people, but contemplation of the presence of the Body in the Tabernacle is part of several private devotional prayers intended to be taken in the parish before the closed iconostas (or the open iconostas during Bright Week).

The Ukrainian Catholics, however, adopted roman-style monstrances and communal adoration services much like the Roman Benediction service, albeit with Byzantine style prayers.