Questions on the Divine Liturgy

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rkrispies

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I’ve started to attend a Ukrainian Catholic Church recently and I was wondering about some things I’ve seen during the Liturgy (DL of St. John Chrysostom), mostly what people are doing and why. For example:

While we are all saying the Creed, the priest is waving what looks like a corporal over the gifts.

or

The priest places a small white cloth with a cross over the deacon’s left shoulder just before they bring the gifts out to the main altar.

I’m just curious about what things are called, what certain things mean, etc. If you have a good in-depth source for all things Divine Liturgy, that would be great.

Thanks all!
 
The aer is waived over the gifts. It’s a veil, and the use is sometimes considered to be “in defense of the gifts from flies” by some historians of liturgy; likewise the use of the Ripidia (fans… the big disks on poles) used by the servers.
 
The white cloth that you saw the Priest putting on the Deacon’s shoulder is the same aer or veil.
 
Probably because it didn’t have ties to tie it around his neck and let it hang over his head (he properly carries the Diskos on his head), as per the rubrics.

I realize this might sound like a smart answer, but is not intended as such.

Some drape it over their arm.

Now WHY the Deacon carries the Aer?

Because it’s needed to cover the Gifts when they are placed on the Altar after the smaller veils are removed.

I don’t know if there’s a symbolic reason.
 
Cluny said:
Probably because it didn’t have ties to tie it around his neck and let it hang over his head (he properly carries the Diskos on his head), as per the rubrics.
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This is a Mediterranian custom that is not found in the Slavic church.:eek:
 
It’s the “on the head” part… the deacon does carry the diskos and the aer, just not on his head! The Aer goes on his left arm, and the diskos in hand. (Ruthenian 2006 Priest’s Liturgikon, p64)
 
Cluny said:
Probably because it didn’t have ties to tie it around his neck and let it hang over his head (he properly carries the Diskos on his head), as per the rubrics.

I realize this might sound like a smart answer, but is not intended as such.

Some drape it over their arm.

Now WHY the Deacon carries the Aer?

Because it’s needed to cover the Gifts when they are placed on the Altar after the smaller veils are removed.

I don’t know if there’s a symbolic reason.
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Cluny-

Not a smart answer at all. Well . . . not quite how it ought to sound, but I hope you know what I mean there.

I was wondering if there is a website or something that would explain these little things, like a GIRM for the DL. Any ideas?
 
rkrispies said:
I was wondering if there is a website or something that would explain these little things, like a GIRM for the DL. Any ideas?
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Not really, for two reasons:
  1. There are so many variations among the different Churches–both Catholic and Orthodox–in the Byzantine tradtion. The wonder is not that these variants exist, but without a centralizing authority, why so much is the same.
  2. So many of the finer points are not mentioned in the rubrics, but are passed down from older priests to newly-ordained priests, in a living tradition.
 
Cluny said:
  1. So many of the finer points are not mentioned in the rubrics, but are passed down from older priests to newly-ordained priests, in a living tradition.
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I’ve always found it interesting that in the liturgical rubrics, many of the actions to be taken are instructed to be done “in the usual manner.”

Example: “The priest completes the censing in the usual manner, bows to the bishop, and enters the altar through the Royal Doors.”
 
rkrispies said:
Cluny-

Not a smart answer at all. Well . . . not quite how it ought to sound, but I hope you know what I mean there.
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Also bear in mind we have a tendency to ascribe symbolic meaning to almost everything. In reality often times there is a very practical and somewhat mundane explanation for various things in the liturgy. 🙂

Yours in Christ
Joe
 
Keep in mind also: Byzantines, be they Catholic or Orthodox, place great stock in received tradition. Generally, this is a good thing… Except when the received tradition isn’t authentic tradition.

(The mismatch between received tradition and historical tradition is a very serious problem in the Ukrainian and Ruthenian Churches. The result of delatinization is that both sides can make a factual claim that the other side is untraditional…)
 
On a more unsophisticated level, this reminds me of the following story:

A young newlywed was preparing to make a baked ham for the first time and asked her mother for advice. Her mother, in her instructions, said end of the ham should be cut off before putting it in the oven to bake. The young wife asked her the reason and the mother said, “I really don’t know why, but that’s the way your Baba taught me and how I have always done it. Let’s go ask her.”

So they called Baba and were told: “Well, that’s the only way it will fit in my oven!”
 
Aramis said:
Keep in mind also: Byzantines, be they Catholic or Orthodox, place great stock in received tradition. Generally, this is a good thing… Except when the received tradition isn’t authentic tradition.

(The mismatch between received tradition and historical tradition is a very serious problem in the Ukrainian and Ruthenian Churches. The result of delatinization is that both sides can make a factual claim that the other side is untraditional…)
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I see this in the different reactions of the age groups in my mother’s church. She is a 91 year old immigrant and the changes bring her back to how it was done in her childhood, so she is very comfortable with them. However, some of her younger friends tell her that they’ve always had Stations of the Cross and prayed the Rosary before “Mass” and want to keep their traditions. Each generation seems to want to hold on to what they themselves remember.
 
<>

EXACTLY!

In much the same way, the theme of upholding “traditional family values” seems to be no more than a nostalgia for the security, prosperity, and stability of the 1950’s.

The movie PLEASANTVILLE exposed the seamy underside of that world.
 
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