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It’s Day 164!!
ARTICLE 2: LITURGICAL DIVERSITY AND THE UNITY OF THE MYSTERY
There are a number of liturgical traditions of the Church
What does that mean?
Most of us belong to the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church
There are a number of other rites in the Roman Catholic Church
There is a liturgical DIVERSITY
At the same time…
There is this incredible and beautiful UNITY or CATHOLICITY
LITURGICAL TRADITIONS AND THE CATHOLICITY OF THE CHURCH
Let’s say a prayer!!
Prayer by Fr. Mike: “God in Heaven, we love you and we thank you. We thank you for the way in which you have brought about a unity and a diversity. Variety and a catholicity, universality. Lord God, you have given us this cosmic world, this world that is so diverse and yet is one world. You have given us this Church that is so diverse and yet, it is one church. And you have made us, Lord God, individuals who are so unique and yet, we are one united into one Body in Christ. Lord God, you are the God of variety and unity. You are the God of uniqueness and oneness. And so we come before you as we are, as individuals. But we also come before you as a Body. We come before you as individual persons. But we also come before you as your Church. We just lift up our minds and our hearts to you right now and ask for you to send your Holy Spirit to fill our individual hearts and minds, but also to unite us even more closely as one Body. In the name of your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen”
So there we have it!!
Most people listening to this probably belong to the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church
AND YET…
There are a ton of people who belong to the Maronite Rite or Chaldean Rite
A lot of them have reached out to Fr. Mike
Not so sure about the Coptic Rite, Syriac Rite, Byzantine Rite, Armenian Rite, or Alexandrian Rite
There are a lot of places in the United States that have these little pockets of Maronite Catholics, Chaldean Catholics, or Byzantine Catholics
Whenever you get into any of these places, it is recognized as THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
The Rite, the way in which they celebrate the Sacraments and the mass is unique
It is not unique in a foreign way
It is unique and has the sense of familiarity
There is something POWERFUL and BEAUTIFUL about this
A lot of these liturgical rites, like the Byzantine Rite, have kept some of the more ancient forms
In Vatican II the Latin Rite underwent some change/update in the way the Mass is celebrated
People are critical of that
Other people are grateful for that
There is something really POWERFUL about the Traditional Latin Mass
In Church circles that could be a political statement but it is not
There is something beautiful about the Church’s history and that is the truth
The other rites (I’m not going to list them all) there is something POWERFUL and BEAUTIFUL here as well
This variety does not take anything away from the UNITY
IN FACT…
This is a great example where variety truly is the spice of life
This variety is UNITED IN A UNIQUE WAY
You could go into a Maronite or Chaldean Rite Catholic Church and realize that it is FULLY CATHOLIC even if you are Latin Catholic like Fr. Mike
Fr. Mike highly recommends…
(SQUIRREL!! 😉)
How in the world is there such a difference?
Paragraph 1202 says, “The diverse liturgical traditions have arisen by very reason of the Church’s mission.”
The Church was COMMANDED by Jesus Christ to go out into ALL NATIONS and MAKE DISCIPLES and BAPTIZE THEM
The Apostles went out
Their successors went out
This mission impulse of the Church going out to ALL PLACES and then bringing what Jesus had given to the Apostles and the Church
THE SACRAMENTS!!
As Apostles, missionaries, bishops, priests, and other people are encountering these various CULTURES, there are a variety of ways in which the seed that the Lord God had given to the Church grew differently in different soil
IT IS THE SAME TREE
IT IS THE SAME KIND OF FRUIT
IT WAS GROWN IN DIFFERENT SOIL
Because it was grown in different soil, it looks slightly different
BUT…
It is the same species
Does that make sense?
Paragraph 1202 continues, “Churches of the same geographical and cultural area came to celebrate the mystery of Christ through particular expressions characterized by the culture: in the tradition of the ‘deposit of faith,’ in liturgical symbolism…”
What is one example?
The Tabernacles where we keep our Lord in the Eucharist look a certain way
They don't’ have a lot of art in their structure
In some Churches in other Rites the Tabernacle is in the shape of a dove or some other kind of image
That makes sense because liturgical symbolism grows differently in different soil
The theological understanding of mysteries or various forms of holiness
There are certain traditions or rites in the Church that have emphasized certain ways of becoming holy by saying yes to the Lord that are not as emphasized in other rites
BUT…
IT IS ALL ABOUT THE SAME THING!!
THERE IS UNITY!!
IT IS THE SAME TREE JUST GROWN IN DIFFERENT SOIL!!
Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!
Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!
I cannot WAIT to see you tomorrow!!
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