Went to my first Maronite Liturgy

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aussie_melkite

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I went to my My first Maronite Liturgy 2day with my Melkite Priest.
I assumed it was going to be something similar to Byzantine worship (as I have never experienced non-Byzantine Eastern Worship b4) but boy was I mistaken…I wouldn’t exchange my paticular type of worship for anything…but I was impressed by the dept of spirituality in their prayers and and Beautiful simplisity of the Liturgy, makes me very glad to belong to a Church that has so many different and Beautiful expresions of the one faith.

The Liturgy was prob about 80% English and 20% Aramaic

can someone tell me the origions of the Maronite Liturgy? and althought i believe there is no corropsonding Orthodox church 2 the Maronites does any other church use a similar Liturgy?
 
The Maronite Qorbono is similar to the same rite Syriac Liturgies of the Chadeans, Assyrians, Syro-Malabarese, and Syro-Malankarese.

It’s sufficiently different that some feel the Maronites are a separate rite, or at least sub-rite.
 
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Aramis:
The Maronite Qorbono is similar to the same rite Syriac Liturgies of the Chadeans, Assyrians, Syro-Malabarese, and Syro-Malankarese.

It’s sufficiently different that some feel the Maronites are a separate rite, or at least sub-rite.
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That’s correct. The Maronite liturgy is part of the West Syriac family and use a variant of the Syriac liturgy. The anaphorae are identical. (NB: One anaphora (Peter III aka “sharrar” from its first word) has a structure similar to Addai and Mari of the East Syriac (Chaldean-Assyrian) usage. That particular anaphora has been unused in practice for several hundred years.)

Briefly, what is traditionally called the “first service” (i.e., the Preparation) is nearly the same as the Syriac Church. But whereas the Syriac Church segues rather quickly into the Readings, the Maronite Church include what amounts to a canonical hour (prior to the re-Latinizations of the past 30 some years it was two canonical hours, each called a qaumo or “standing”). (That structure is not surprising when one considers that the usage was originally strictly monastic.) And yes, we do consider it a separate rite.

A lot more could, of course, be said but that will do it for this post.
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aussie_melkite:
The Liturgy was prob about 80% English and 20% Aramaic
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Your location shows Brisbane, so I assume you assisted at St Maroun’s in Greenslopes. To my knowledge, that parish is in the charge of the OLM (aka the Baladite Monks) which would account for the relatively high percentage of Syriac (Aramaic). The same would probably be at least as true in Melbourne and Adelaide, both of which are in the charge of the OAM (Antonine Monks). As a comparison, in most Maronite churches in the US, the amount of Syriac is usually about 5%. The three Orders of Maronite Monks have, in general, a far superior track record when it comes to preserving language and tradition. As far as I’m concerned, the more Syriac used, the better. It’s rather the hermeneutic of continuity of which we have heard PP Benedict XVI speak so well.
 
malphono said:
That’s correct. The Maronite liturgy is part of the West Syriac family and use a variant of the Syriac liturgy. The anaphorae are identical. (NB: One anaphora (Peter III aka “sharrar” from its first word) has a structure similar to Addai and Mari of the East Syriac (Chaldean-Assyrian) usage. That particular anaphora has been unused in practice for several hundred years.)

Briefly, what is traditionally called the “first service” (i.e., the Preparation) is nearly the same as the Syriac Church. But whereas the Syriac Church segues rather quickly into the Readings, the Maronite Church include what amounts to a canonical hour (prior to the re-Latinizations of the past 30 some years it was two canonical hours, each called a qaumo or “standing”). (That structure is not surprising when one considers that the usage was originally strictly monastic.) And yes, we do consider it a separate rite.

A lot more could, of course, be said but that will do it for this post.

Your location shows Brisbane, so I assume you assisted at St Maroun’s in Greenslopes. To my knowledge, that parish is in the charge of the OLM (aka the Baladite Monks) which would account for the relatively high percentage of Syriac (Aramaic). The same would probably be at least as true in Melbourne and Adelaide, both of which are in the charge of the OAM (Antonine Monks). As a comparison, in most Maronite churches in the US, the amount of Syriac is usually about 5%. The three Orders of Maronite Monks have, in general, a far superior track record when it comes to preserving language and tradition. As far as I’m concerned, the more Syriac used, the better. It’s rather the hermeneutic of continuity of which we have heard PP Benedict XVI speak so well.
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yeah it was St Maroun’s in Greenslopes. small church but very nice, decent turn out of youth.

the parts that were in Aramaic were “the Access to the Altar” the “preperation for the gospel” “Eucharistic prayer” and some random sentences scattered through the Liturgy…I liked the whole thing alot, luckly they celebrate on sunday evening at 6pm…so on certain weeks I can attend both my Melkite Church and the Maronite Church.
 
As was already mentioned, the Maronite liturgy is the west Syriac liturgy of St. James. From what I have heard this was the liturgy the Melkites followed before the 12th century. The Maronite liturgy seems to have some east Syriac influence due to the 3rd Anaphora of Peter so some Maronites have theorized that the Maronites are an east Syriac rite that moved to a west Syriac area and took on the west Syriac rite. It sounds like a bit of a stretch to me.

The spirituality of the prayers is very deep. Like the prayer of commixture which says:You have united, O Lord, your divinity with our humanity
and our humanity with your divinity;
your life with our mortality
and our mortality with your life.
You have assumed what is ours,
and you have given us what is yours,
for the life and salvation of our souls.
To you, O Lord, be glory for ever.

or,
The Lord reigns clothed in majesty. Alleluia.
I am the bread of life, said Our Lord.
From on high I came to earth so all might live in me.
Pure word without flesh I was sent from the Father.
Mary’s womb received me like good earth a grain of wheat.
Behold, the priest bears me aloft to the altar.
Alleluia. Accept our offering.
 
aussie_melkite said:
I went to my My first Maronite Liturgy 2day with my Melkite Priest.
I assumed it was going to be something similar to Byzantine worship (as I have never experienced non-Byzantine Eastern Worship b4) but boy was I mistaken…I wouldn’t exchange my paticular type of worship for anything…but I was impressed by the dept of spirituality in their prayers and and Beautiful simplisity of the Liturgy, makes me very glad to belong to a Church that has so many different and Beautiful expresions of the one faith.

The Liturgy was prob about 80% English and 20% Aramaic

can someone tell me the origions of the Maronite Liturgy? and althought i believe there is no corropsonding Orthodox church 2 the Maronites does any other church use a similar Liturgy?
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Shlom lokh,

Were you able to notice similarities between the Byzantine Divine Liturgy and the Maronite? I went to an Antiochian Orthodox liturgy a month ago and noticed many similarities. My priest back in VA told me the reason was because St. John Chrysostom basically took the Syriac Liturgy from Antioch and embellished it. I really like both liturgies, personally.

Glad to hear that you enjoyed it!

Alloho minokhoun,
Andrew
 
Harpazo said:
Were you able to notice similarities between the Byzantine Divine Liturgy and the Maronite? I went to an Antiochian Orthodox liturgy a month ago and noticed many similarities. My priest back in VA told me the reason was because St. John Chrysostom basically took the Syriac Liturgy from Antioch and embellished it. …
Andrew
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Yes, that’s pretty much it. Similarities abound, albeit that some are vestigial, especially these days. But I daresay that one would notice more structural similarities between the Byzantine and Syriac usages than between Byzantine and Maronite, particularly in what comes before the anaphora.
 
But I daresay that one would notice more structural similarities between the Byzantine and Syriac usages than between Byzantine and Maronite, particularly in what comes before the anaphora.
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I would agree. I see more similarities between the Syro-Malankara and Syriac Qurbana with the Constantinopolitan liturgical tradition than a comparison of the Maronite and Constantinopolitan.

And indeed, St. John Chrysostom did develop a synthesis not only of local Antiochian and Constantinopolitan usages but also Cappadocian, borrowing from (but not entirely extinguishing) the liturgical usage attributed to St. Basil that had previously caught on in Constantinople. And it did not stop in Constantinople - St. John’s reforms were even taken up in various degrees amongst the Armenians.
FDRLB
 
jimmy said:
As was already mentioned, the Maronite liturgy is the west Syriac liturgy of St. James. From what I have heard this was the liturgy the Melkites followed before the 12th century.
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I seem to think the Melkites adopted the Constantinopolitan usage around the time of the Arab conquest, perhaps shortly before or shortly after. That would put it somewhere in the 7th century AD. I’m sorry I can’t be more precise.
jimmy said:
The Maronite liturgy seems to have some east Syriac influence due to the 3rd Anaphora of Peter so some Maronites have theorized that the Maronites are an east Syriac rite that moved to a west Syriac area and took on the west Syriac rite. It sounds like a bit of a stretch to me.
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Yes, it’s a stretch. A big one. I’ve heard that theory for years and never bought into it. Not that it matters, but I believe I know at least some of the proponents of that theory personally.

As I mentioned in another thread, the Syriac usages (both eastern and western) have a common origin, so it’s not all that surprising that there is one lone Maronite anaphora (among 70+) which has a structure similar (but not identical) to that used in the East Syriac tradition.

As well, Beit Moroun was located in the Orontes valley (western part of north Syria) which rather dispels the contention that the “Maronites moved to a west Syriac area.” The only historical migration of the Maronites was (between the 7th and 11th centuries) to the mountains of what is now Lebanon, and that was undertaken to escape persecution.
 
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