Roman Missal and Divine Liturgy

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In the Roman church, since Pius V, the liturgy can be seen as imposed from the top down, or from the center out, depending on your point of view. Leaving aside those religious orders which were allowed to maintain their idiosyncratic liturgies after Trent, the Roman Missal contains the definitive set of instructions for celebrating the Mass everywhere. (Indults and elements of “enculturation” in missionary contexts are temporary deviations from the norms.)

I wonder whether the same can be said of the Eastern Catholic churches and the Divine Liturgy. Is it even possible to generalize among those churches? Is there an equivalent authoritative set of instructions for the Divine Liturgy for each particular church, or is there in general more latitude given to local usage and custom than in the Roman church?
 
I probably am not person to answer such question as I only found out that a Missal is not a Missle . There are in Orthodox church three tipikon (ystav or liturgika) which have all kind notations of for Divine liturgy. These are Studite, Ieruslainski and Typikon of the Great Church (Hagia Sophia). Originally in Rus/Ukraina used Studite, now use Ieruslaim - version of 1695. All of indications are not rigorously followed although since 1918 perhaps have been more closely followed. Studite ustav is from Theodore Studite. Ieruslaim is from Lavra of St. Savva. Great Church is used by Greeks. Last revision of Typikon was in 1695.
 
The_Prodigal said:
I wonder whether the same can be said of the Eastern Catholic churches and the Divine Liturgy. Is it even possible to generalize among those churches? Is there an equivalent authoritative set of instructions for the Divine Liturgy for each particular church, or is there in general more latitude given to local usage and custom than in the Roman church?
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The Byzantine Divine liturgy has very little change other than linguistic drift; each particular church bases its liturgy off of one of the four major sources; the Antiochian litugies comprise a fourth source, one not used within the Russian sphere. The Melkites and Antiochian Orthodox are visually distinctive, and have a number of rubrical differences which go back over a millennium. That said, the casual observer would have trouble telling any of the non-latinized liturgies apart from each other and from the EO versions.

The major differences between the 14 Byzantine Catholic and 20+ Orthodox particular church liturgies are language; the Byzantine tradition is genuinely and authentically vernacular, EXCEPT in the Slavic traditions, where Church Savonic is the norm. Church Slavonic is as close or closer to most of the slavic languages than latin is to italian, spanish, portugese and french. Aside from the Melkite and Antiochian Orthodox, visual distinctions are minimal, mostly matters of how vesting is done, the specific details of the vestments themselves, where particles are placed on the patton, who is commemorated when, whether or not the particles are consecrated, and which litanies are abridged or repeated.

Tradition guides the East. When bishops make changes, it is almost always because some exterior force warped the liturgical praxis, and they pick one of the 4 sources, and revert to the ancient ways.
 
I would like to point out that the Greek Orthodox Churches do not use the vernacular in their Greek services, rather they are using a version of Attic or Classical Greek. As you said with the Slavic languages though, Classical Greek is closer to modern Greek then Latin is to italian, french, etc.
 
Formosus said:
I would like to point out that the Greek Orthodox Churches do not use the vernacular in their Greek services, rather they are using a version of Attic or Classical Greek. As you said with the Slavic languages though, Classical Greek is closer to modern Greek then Latin is to italian, french, etc.
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Actually, it’s Byzantine Greek–a middle form. Not as old as Koine or even classical.
 
The medieval Byzantine Greek is, from my limited understanding of Greek, a variant of Attic or Classical Greek. Its the Greek of the aristocracy that attempted to imitate classical forms, as opposed to modern Demotic Greek which is a lot closer to the medieval Greek spoken in every day language and by the people.
 
Demotic is a whole different ball of wax–sometimes with a completely different basic vocabulary.

For example, if you wanted oranges and bananas, you might go to a KAROPOPOLEION, but ask for the obvoiusly foreign FROUTA.

You would go to the OINOPOLEION to buy KRASI if you wanted wine.

What’s odd is hearing modern Hellenophones taking leave of each other with ADDIO SOU, which can’t even be spelled in Greek!
 
Structurally demotic is similar to the Roman Greek of the middle ages spoken by the people. It has borrowed a lot of new words from Turkish, French, German, etc due to foreign influences.
 
I have always been fascinated by the large number of books/booklets required to celebrate the different Divine Liturgies and give the different blessings over a year. In the Latin Rite they have the Sacramentary and the Book of Blessings. In the East there appears to be several more.
 
Unlike the Latin Church It does vary greatly between service books for particular liturgical traditions. But even in the Latin tradition there was some variability in the printed or manuscript Missals until the 19th century. It was not until the pontificate of Pius IX that the uniformity of content and format one finds in Latin Missals was enforced.

One would need quite a library to have all of the service books for the Constantinopolitan (“Byzantine”) tradition. This would include the service book for the Divine Liturgy (Sluzhebnik/Liturgikon), a book of the Hours (Chasoslov/Horologion), books of propers for various times and seasons (Menion for monthly fixed feasts, Triodion for Lent, Pentecostarion for Pascha through the week beyond Pentecost), and a book containing the priest’s blessings (Book of Needs/Euchologion/Trebnik). Even here there are a number of different versions and translations. For example the Trebnik has a small and large version, the small being one volume and the large being four volumes.

After that there are even more used amongst some particular traditions, for example in my own Ukrainian Greek Catholic usage we have a book of musical settings for the propers (Irmologion), book of Akathists (Akafystnyk), Psalter, Epistle and Gospel lectionaries, and book of particular supplication services (Molebnik).

I think what you are looking for is perhaps the “Ordo”. This is a book that only includes the instructions for priests and deacons for celebrating Vespers, Matins, and the Divine Liturgy according to the “Ruthenian Rescension”, which includes the Ukrainian Greek Catholic tradition as well as several other Greek Catholic particular traditions. This is called the Ordo Celebrationis and was published in Rome in the 1950s and was the culmination of much editorial work over several decades by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky of blessed memory. This Ordo was again declared obligatory for the entire UGCC by act of the 2006 Synod. Two English translations, one by Fr. Matthew Berko citing Slavonic parts of the Liturgy, and one entirely in English produced more recently, are available from Eastern Christian Publications.
 
The books in use in our Ruthenian parish:
Priest’s liturgikon
Book of Amvon Prayers
Menaion (12 vol!) (has propers for all feasts, fixed and mobile)
book of blessings
Annual Typikon (has the specific feasts, their dates of observances, and which propers are used for that year)
People’s Liturgikon (missing much of the wording of the Anaphora, but includes most of the major festal and all the sunday propers)
Cantor’s Companion (guide to reading the typikon, and also has the melodies for lectors, and also has the psalms for during communion)
The Horologion (separate books each for matins, 3rd, 6th, 9th, vespers, and compline)
The book of the Epistles
The Book of the Gospels
Daily Vespers*
Metropolitan Cantor Institute Web Site **
Paschal Vespers*†
Resurrection Matins Book †
Holy Thursday book †

Other unapproved books in use***::
text-only people’s liturgikon without propers
reader’s vespers booklet
Reader’s 3rd hour booklet
Reader’s 6th hour booklet

*only in use as a private devotion at the moment;
** provides propers extracted from the menaion according to the typikon. Provides list of changes from priest-led hours to reader-led hours.
*** a number of adaptations to the hours are approved for reader’s services; these adaptations are not in the official books; local parishes often produce local use versions including those adaptations. Likewise, a lot of people are unhappy with the weight of the people’s liturgikon (it’s not small: 7x8x1.5"); several have made use of a locally produced version without the propers and music, but with the same text as the people’s liturgikon.
† older editions that are a people’s liturgikon with readings; the changes for use with the new liturgy are penned in by hand!
 
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