Our Lady’s Maronite Catholic Church
Posted on 04/24/2015 4:22:35 PM PDT by NYer
Our Lady’s Maronite Catholic Church
I was raised as a Latin Rite Catholic. I did not hear that there was such a thing as the “Eastern Rite” until I was about 20 years of age. I was attending Christian Brothers College (now Christian Brothers University) in Memphis, Tennessee, and I took a concentration of courses in Religion and Culture (one short of a minor). My father, who was not Catholic, and I were talking about religion one day when he mentioned the Eastern Rite.
Like many Catholics I have met since then, I asked what is often the question when someone mentions Eastern Rite churches: “You mean Orthodox?” My mother, who had been a Catholic since she turned 11 years of age, echoed my question.
“No,” my father corrected us. “I mean Roman Catholic, Eastern Rite.”
Fast-forward thirty-three years, to 2011. I am 53 years of age. I am attending a Latin Rite parish in Austin, Texas. I am not happy there. I did not have any kind of an issue with a priest, or congregant, I just simply was not happy. And I began to consider my options. My father’s mention of the Eastern Rite came back to me. I talked to a friend who told me she had attended a Maronite parish when she lived in Boston.
I got online immediately and I found Our Lady’s Maronite Catholic Church in Austin. The following Sunday, which happened to be the Sunday before Memorial Day, 2011, I attended my first Divine Liturgy at a Maronite Church.
My friends, I was absolutely enraptured. The church is beautiful, filled with icons of Our Lord Jesus Christ, of our Mother Mary, of St. Maron (from where we get the term “Maronite”), and of one particular saint I had never heard of before but who was to become my favorite in a very short period of time – Saint Sharbel. Incense was used during the Liturgy (I really like that). When I heard the pastor, Msgr. Donald Sawyer, pronounce the words of consecration in Aramaic, the language that Jesus spoke, I felt much closer to the Lord. Perhaps the Aramaic of today is not pronounced exactly like it was in Jesus’ time (I wouldn’t know), but I knew that what was being said was much, much, MUCH closer to what Our Lord would have said than English, or even Latin or Greek.
I asked Msgr. Don to accept me as a Maronite a short time later. And I would like to take this opportunity to share a few things about the Maronite Church (our Catholic Church is made up not of “rites” actually but separate churches which are in communion with Rome).
So what’s different?
Our liturgy, for one. As I mentioned earlier, parts of the liturgy are in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke.
Second, we do not kneel during the Divine Liturgy. Why? Because in the east, the way respect was shown to a person of importance was to stand, not kneel. And so we stand before Our Lord.
We do not give communion in the hand. The Maronite Catholic Church gives communion by intinction, which is dipping the host into the precious blood and then giving the communicant communion on the tongue.
Our liturgical cycle is somewhat different. For example, we Maronites have six (6) weeks of Advent, not four (4). We begin our liturgical year with the Consecration and Renewal of the Church, and then head into Advent, which we call the Season of Announcement, and in which each Sunday commemorates a particular happening in the season of Our Lord’s birth: The Announcement to Zechariah; the Announcement (Annunciation) to the Virgin Mary; the Visitation to Elizabeth; Birth of John the Baptizer; Revelation to Joseph; Genealogy Sunday; and then the Glorious Birth of Our Lord.
We also have Holy Days which are not mandatory in other churches. For instance, we have the Feast of St. Maron, our founder, as a holy day of obligation. This falls on February 9.
We also don’t normally move holy days which fall during the week to the next Sunday. Ascension Thursday is celebrated on Ascension Thursday; the Feast of the Dormition (Assumption of Mary) is celebrated on August 15 whenever that falls.
I would recommend to any and all – if you have never attended an Eastern Rite liturgy you should. It is a wonderful experience.
Let me end this blog entry with what I think is a slightly humorous anecdotal story. It illustrates how many still do not know about the Eastern Churches and their place in the Catholic Communion.
I serve as a Greeter at Our Lady’s here in Austin. The job of a Greeter is, of course, to greet people who come to the church for Divine Liturgy, but also to help them with any questions they may have. Due to the location of Our Lady’s in Austin, we get a lot of visitors who happen to be in town and are staying at a nearby hotel. We are often the closest Catholic Church.
One Sunday a very nice lady came to Divine Liturgy. A Latin Rite Catholic, she had a number of questions about the Maronite Church. I took a lot of time before and after the liturgy trying to help answer her questions. I showed her around the church, and pointed out to her the pictures of our Patriarch, Beshara Peter Rai, who is a cardinal of the Catholic Church and is in Lebanon; our Bishop of our Eparchy (diocese), A. Elias Zaidan, and next to them was hung on the wall a picture of the Holy Father, Pope Francis.
I walked out with her to the parking lot, continuing to answer questions. When we said our goodbyes, after all of this, she turned to me again and asked, “So, this really is a Catholic Church?”
It is indeed!
The author's experience attending a Maronite Divine Liturgy mirrors my own. However, as a point of information to visitors to this thread, there is no need to formally switch rites. Catholic is Catholic - same faith, different flavor. In my Maronite parish, nearly half the congregation is Roman Catholic. Only one ever made the formal switch of rites with the intention of pursuing the diaconate. Like the author, I too would encourage you to visit an Eastern Rite Catholic Church and attend one of their liturgies. They are steeped in traditions that date back to the early church with prayers that draw from some well known saints like St. Ephrem.
Lebanese Catholics are pretty much Maronite Catholics.
Thank you for this article describing the Maronite Rite (branch) of Christianity.
What’s the difference between Ruthenian and Ukrainian?
Many are Melkite Catholic.
ping for later
Are Coptic Christians Catholic or Orthodox?
How about you post some scripture for that...My bible says Barnabas/Paul were the first apostles there in Antioch...
(There are even Evangelicals in Egypt who call themselves "Coptic Evangelical" to distinguish themselves from Evangelicals sourced from non-Egyptian missionary efforts. They are extremely small in number.)
Mainly, there are Orthodox Copts and Catholic Copts. The Orthodox are by far the larger group, estimated at 5%-10% of Egypt's population, or maybe 8 million people. They are what's called "non-Chalcedonian Orthodox," which means they are not in communion with the Byzantines and Greeks and so forth: they do not accept all of the first seven Ecumenical Councils.
The Catholic Copts are much smaller, maybe 160,000, and they are in communion with the Pope and fully members of the Catholic Church.
Galatians 2:11
What’s the difference between Ruthenian and Ukrainian? >>
Don’t know for sure, perhaps their geography...it seems the Ruthenians are more Slovakian & Hungarian and a bit Ukrainian.
“What’s the difference between Ruthenian and Ukrainian?”
There are some geographical, linguistic, and cultural differences. Mind you, Ruthenians would generally get along with the Ukrainians just fine (outside of Church!) because they share so much.
http://www.antimoon.com/forum/2004/6162.htm
http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=624156
http://steen.free.fr/rtc/ruthenian.html
The differences have been argued for decades: https://books.google.com/books?id=_HpNAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Ruthenian+Question+in+Galicia++By+Wincenty+Lutos%C5%82awski,+Eugeniusz+Romer&hl=en&sa=X&ei=w6c7VbTeFoLJtQWq14HoCA&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=The%20Ruthenian%20Question%20in%20Galicia%20%20By%20Wincenty%20Lutos%C5%82awski%2C%20Eugeniusz%20Romer&f=false
Sadly, these differences - which seem very small to outsiders - have led to some real absurdities in the West and East. In Omaha there is a Ukrainian Catholic parish, I think this the one: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Assumption-Ukrainian-Catholic-Church/113780958643736 which is now offering a Ruthenian liturgy once a week in addition to it’s “Ukrainian” liturgies. I bet that almost all of the liturgies are in English and all are the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom so why split the congregation that way? What’s the real difference?
And others have noticed this problem:
Pavloosh: “Why would you want to organize an Eastern Catholic church when there already is one in Omaha?”
Fr. Deacon Lance: “Ukrainians had no problem starting a parish in Knoxville when there was already a Ruthenian one there.”
Pavloosh (responding to someone else): “What does THAT mean?”
Fr. Deacon Lance: (responding to Pavloosh): “Your full of it.”
Pavloosh: “And you are a deacon? God help us.”
http://www.byzcath.org/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/410667/Re:_Starting_a_Ruthenian_Commu
And this is what they were arguing about: http://www.chrismnews.com/#!Light-of-the-East-Beginning-to-Shine-Brighter-in-Omaha/cjds/5514ae710cf21d84af59e4de
The two churches restored communion with Rome at different times, which is why they're two churches with distinct hierarchies, etc. From the POV of liturgy and spirituality, they're both Byzantines (a/k/a "Greek Catholics"). The Ruthenians in America tend to be more westernized; their liturgies are almost always in English, etc. There are cultural differences between Ruthenians and Ukrainians, of course.
Having assisted at Divine Liturgy at Assumption Ukrainian in Omaha, I can attest that there isn't much there in English. IIRC, the priest gave a long homily in Ukrainian and a shorter one in English. All of the prayers and responses were sung in Ukrainian, though. Gospodi pomiluy!
Well, then that might explain why some want to bring in the Ruthenian. I never had a problem with the liturgy in Old Church Slavonic or Ukrainian. You can always follow it in a booklet. The homily, however, yeah, you only get the short version in English!
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