Feast of the Divine Body of Christ

On the Thursday after the Feast of All Saints (Sunday after Pentecost) many Byzantine Churches celebrate the Feast of the Divine Body and Blood of our Lord. While this Feast has its origin in the West, where it is known as Corpus Christi, devotion to our Lord in the Reserved Sacrament also grew in importance in the East. By the eighteenth century, the Melkite and Ukrainian Greek Catholic traditions had firmly fixed the celebration as a joyous time of adoration and devotion to our Lord's Incarnation and the great Mystery of His Body and Blood which we receive at every Divine Liturgy. In current practice, it is celebrated on the aforementioned Thursday or the Sunday after All Saints.

Since the Second Vatican Council, some in the Byzantine Churches have downplayed the importance of the Feast, even going so far as claiming that it should be suppressed as a "Roman innovation". This reflects and unfortunate misunderstanding of the Eastern mind and history. While it is wholly appropriate to embrace the fullness of our Eastern Tradition, we must be careful to distinguish between Western-influenced accretions and organic Byzantine developments that are coherent with our faith and customs, even if we find no counterpart to them in the practices of our Separated Brethren. The historic lateness of the development of a particular devotion or celebration is no argument against its orthodoxy. If it were, we would have to reconsider cherished customs such as the Iconistasion, administering Holy Communion via the spoon, Tabernacles on the Altar, etc..

The Church is One in confessing the real Sacramental presence of our Lord Jesus Christ in the sacrifice of the Divine Liturgy. The prayers, ritual actions, and devotions of the Divine Liturgy clearly indicate that the Bread and Wine become no less than the Body and Blood of our Lord. Iconography depicts the reality of this Mystical Gift in many ways, including our Lord situated in the Communion Chalice. St John of Damascus, as one example among many, discusses the reality of our Lord's Sacramental presence in his masterful refutation of the iconoclasts. It is meet to cherish this beautiful celebration.

Here are the Aposticha in Tone Six (Plagal of the Second) of the Great Vespers and the Troparion and Kontakion for the Feast.

Heavenly Bread who so generously satisfy with the wealth of Your goods those who hunger for justice: bestow Your grace upon us who now adore You, and save our souls!

Verse: Taste and see how good the Lord is; blessed are those who trust in Him.

Divine Food, Wheat of the Elect who feed with heavenly Grace the souls of those who receive You: inflame our hearts and spirits with the Fire of Your Divine Love for the salvation of our souls.

Verse: I will take the chalice of Salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord.

Most Holy Wine who nurture virgins by pouring the grace of sanctification upon the souls of those who partake of You: cleanse our hearts of every sin, make them holy, and save our souls.

Verse: Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

Lamb of God who take away the sins of the world, You move the hearts of all the faithful: they adore You deeply and reverently as they look upon You lifted up in the hands of Your holy priests. Together with the angels, they offer a hymn of praise to Your glory, crying out: O Lord, Life Itself, eternally living with Your Father and Your Holy Spirit: glory to You!

Verse: Now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

All the virgins come to you, Holy City of undisturbed purity, whose holy womb contained the King of Kings, from whose blood the Holy Spirit wove the porphyry robe of Christ Emmanuel, the One we now adore hidden in the Mystic Bread. O you who gave birth to the Incarnate God, intercede with Him for the salvation of our souls!

Troparion of the Divine Body in Tone One

Christ, having loved His own and loved them until the end, gave them His Body and His Blood as food and drink. Therefore, let us offer them adoration and say with fear: Glory to Your Presence, O Christ! Glory to Your Compassion! Glory to Your Condescension, for You alone are the Lover of Mankind!

Kontakion of the Divine Body in Tone Two

O Christ, do not turn Your Face away from me when I partake of the Bread which is Your Body and the Wine which is Your Blood. O Lord, let my sharing in these august Mysteries be not for my judgment or condemnation, but for my eternal and everlasting life.

May the Mystical Presence of our Lord in His Body and Blood lead us all in humility to repentance, forgiveness, and the Unity to which He calls us. Amen.

From the Patriarch of Antioch website

These are excerpts

Address of His Beatitude Patriarch Gregorios IIItoHis Holiness Pope Benedict XVI
(Apostolic Palace of the Vatican, 8 May 2008)


Most Holy Father,

May the Lord be blessed for this day which allows us this long-awaited meeting with Your Holiness, in the company of several Hierarchs, members of the Holy Synod of our patriarchal Melkite Greek Catholic Church, together with Superiors General and Mothers General of our religious Orders, priests from among our secular and regular clergy, and a goodly number of our faithful, including ministers, deputies, businessmen, and also fathers and mothers of families, all glad to be taking part in this pilgrimage, the memory of which will live on in their minds and in the annals of our Patriarchate.
...
Collegiality: strength and unity

A strong, united Church means, ad intra, effective and affectionate collegiality between the Patriarch and the Hierarchs who are members of the Holy Synod. It means a Church where love is the bond that unites the faithful with their pastors and with each other.

It also means a Church strong in its faith, that precious deposit that we must be capable of transmitting to younger generations. We have invented and popularised a saying in our community, “A Church without young people is a Church without a future. Young people without a Church are young people without a future.”
...
Ecumenical role

The other aspect of the ad extra mission of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church is its role in the ecumenical journey towards Christian unity.

Our Church has always been conscious of this role. The history of our Melkite Greek Catholic Church of Antioch, in full communion for close on three hundred years with the Church of Rome that “presides in love,” has been marked by many vexations. In particular, it has had to live in the catacombs for about one hundred and thirty years. Indeed, we are a Church of martyrs and confessors of the faith, especially in Lebanon and Syria. There are, standing before you, Most Holy Father, descendants of martyrs.

Absolute communion with Rome

These were martyrs for unity, martyrs of communion with Rome, that communion which was, and still is for us, an historic, existential choice for commitment, that is both effectual and emotional, a definitive and irreversible constituent of glory and humility.

Orthodox and Catholic

However, that communion with Rome does not separate us from our Orthodox ecclesial reality. We say this with profound humility, a deep ecumenical awareness and a touch of humour: we are an Orthodox Catholic Church.
...

Read it all here.

Holy Father Praises Vitality of the Melkite Church

Holy Father Praises Vitality of the Melkite Church
2008-05-08
VATICAN CITY, 8 MAY 2008 (VIS) - This morning in the Vatican, Benedict XVI received 300 members of the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchate, headed by His Beatitude, Patriarch Gregorios III Laham, who are on pilgrimage to Rome.

The Pope praised "the vitality of the Melkite Church, despite the difficulties of the region's social and political situation", affirming that "on drawing near to the beginning of the year dedicated to St. Paul, I cannot forget that the seat of your patriarchy is established in the city of Damascus, on the road to which the apostle lived the event that transformed his existence and opened the doors of Christianity to all the nations".

The Holy Father used the occasion of the Pauline Year to invite the patriarch to carry out "an intense pastoral outreach" to awaken in the faithful "a new impetus to know ever more closely the person of Christ, thanks to a renewed reading of Paul's writings". This focus," he emphasized, "will also guarantee a thriving future for the Melkite Church".

"In order to ensure the evangelical dynamism and unity of the communities, as well as the proper functioning of the ecclesial work in the patriarchal Churches," Benedict XVI observed, "the role of the Bishops' Synod is of primary importance. That is why it is necessary, every time the right allows for it, above all when it has to do with questions related to those same bishops, to give this venerable institution and not only the Permanent Synod, the standing it merits".

Referring to ecumenical outreach, the Pope recalled that "the commitment to the search for unity of all Jesus' disciples is an urgent obligation" and therefore "everything possible must be done to tear down the walls of division and mistrust that prevent us from achieving it. Nevertheless, we cannot lose sight of the fact that the search for unity is a task that concerns not only a particular Church but the entire Church, in respect of its nature".

"I also appreciate," he added, "your good relations with the Muslims (.) as well as your efforts to resolve, with a sincere and objective spirit of fraternal dialogue, problems that may arise. (.) In line with Vatican Council II, the Melkite Church has sincerely sought mutual understanding and the promotion and a shared defense of social justice, moral values, peace, and freedom with the Muslims to the benefit of all".

On achieving its mission in the troubled and at times dramatic context of the Middle East," he concluded, "the Church finds itself faced with situations where politics plays a role that is not indifferent to its life. That is why it is important to maintain contacts with the political authorities and institutions and the different political parties. Nevertheless, it does not fall to the clergy to dedicate themselves to a political life. That is the duty of the laity. The Church, however, should propose the light of the Gospel to all so that all may dedicate themselves to serve the common good and so that justice may always prevail, so that the path to peace for all peoples in this much loved region may be opened".


AC/PATRIARCHY GREEK MELKITE/GREGORIOS IIIVIS 080508 (515)

Visit the Holy Land, Melkite prelate pleads

Visit the Holy Land, Melkite prelate pleads

London, Oct. 3, 2007 (CWNews.com) - A Melkite Catholic archbishop has urged Christians of the Western world to "visit the living stones of the Holy Land, the Christians who live there," the Fides news service reports. Speaking at Westminster cathedral in London, on the 60th anniversary of the Catholic relief organization Aid to the Church in Need, Archbishop Elias Chacour recalled that Jesus was born in Galilee and that Christians in the Holy Land are the direct descendants of "the first men and women who heard the Good News."

"My forefathers were the first to listen to Jesus and be fascinated by what He had to say," Archbishop Chacour said. "We have kept the faith for over 2000 years." Acknowledging that violence and bloodshed have cast a shadow across the Holy Land, the archbishop reminded his listeners that "there is also the news of the empty tomb, where Jesus the Christ was laid and is risen."

"It is important to visit the holy places, but it is even more important to visit the living stones, the Christians living in the Holy Land today," the archbishop continued. "Come and visit us, make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. We will make you welcome. Come and see."

Full article here.

Key Word "assent"

VATICAN CITY, JUN 26, 2007 (VIS) - The Holy Father gave his assent to the canonical election by the Synod of Bishops of the Greek-Melkite Catholic Church meeting in Ain Traz, Lebanon, from June 18 to 23, of Fr. Yasser Ayyach, pastor of the Melkite parish of Amman-Alwabdi in Jordan, as archbishop of Petra and Philadelphia of the Greek-Melkites (Catholics 31,300, priests 28, religious 21), Jordan.

The Melkite Greek Catholic Church is one of several sui iuris churches that collectively make up the Catholic Church. The largest sui iuris church is the Church of Rome, whose Archbishop is fairly well known. Thus, the Holy Father does not 'consent' to the election of a Bishop for the Melkites, he 'assents' to it. This assent is a sort of formal courtesy that respects the rights of both the Melkites and the Church of Rome. When a Patriarch is elected, he and the Pope exchange letters that confirm their unity in the Faith and mutual recognition.

The Patriarch of the Melkites is His Beatitude Gregorios III (Laham), the Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, of Alexandria, of Jerusalem.

See my earlier post on the Melkites here.

The Texts -- Where To Get Them

It strikes me that some of you might wish to know from where the texts in the "From the Triodion" posts are taken.

The Melkite Greek Catholic Eparchy of Netwon has translated and published nearly the entire collection of liturgical "hymn books" of the Byzantine Tradition. The excerpts in these posts are taken from the three volume set, The Triodion, published by Sophia Press.

The books are excellently printed in spiral-bound format with a "chanter's size" font on good-quality paper. The costs are moderate, and I highly recommend them for anyone wishing to deepen their appreciation of the Byzantine Tradition, especially during Great Lent.