GUILD PAMPHLETS 

EUgar Sclimiedeler, O. S. B. : 
Concerning Parents The Family Your Children 

Most Rev. F u l t o n J . Sheen: 
Communism, the Opium of the People 

The Lord's Prayer on the Cross 

Rev. R. Southard , S. J . : Reporter in Heaven 

Rev. Jo seph S t a n g : Margaret Sinclair 

Eugene Cardina l T i s s e r a n t : The Iron Curtain Pastoral 

Flo rence W e d g e : Guardian Angels 

Sebas t ian Weber , O. F . M. Conv.: 
Butcher, Baker, Candlestickmaker — and Christ 

Complete Religion Divine Art of Living 
Inside Story of God Mystery in Catholic Churches 

Superman and the Sacrament of Confirmation 

Alexander Wyse , O. F . M.: 
Franciscan Vocation The Negro Saint 
No Small Matter St. Francis and the Christ-Child 
Shall Heaven Be Fil led? Why Penance? 

DEVOTIONAL B O O K L E T S 
Prayerbook for Our Times; Prayers for a Journey; 

Prayers to the Infant of Prague; Angelic Chaplet 

Sta t ions : The Way of the Cross; Crib and Cross; 
Priest's Via Crucis; Seminarian's Via Crucis; 

Stations for Eastertide; for Seminarians 

The Holy Eucharist in Our Daily Lives; Holy Hour; 
Three Hours' Agony Devotion 

Li t t l e T r e a s u r y : of St. Anthony (Engl i sh or I t a l i an ) ; 
of St. Jude; of St. Phi lomena; of the Sacred Heart; 

Litt le Manual of St. Madeleine Sophie; 
St. Anthony's Everyday Companion 

Novenas : in Honor of the Immaculate Conception; 
to St. Benedict the Moor; to St. Francis; 
to Our Sorrowful Mother; to St. Joseph 

The Portiuncula Indulgence; Marriage Legislation 01 
the Church; Ordination of a Pr ies t ; Mass Dial 

ST. ANTHONY'S GUILD, Faterson 3, N . J . 
Special pr ices on q u a n t i t y lo ts 



THERE'S 

MORE THAN 

ONE WAY 

TO SAY 

MASS 

B Y T H E O P H A N E CARROLL, O . F . M . 

The cover depicts the Most Rev. Fulton J. Sheen, D.D. , 
Titular Bishop of Caesariana and Auxiliary Bishop of New 
York, National Director of the Pontifical Society for the 
Propagation of the Faith ill the United States, vested for 
the celebration'of the Holy Liturgy. 

ST. ANTHONY'S GUILD 

PATERSON, N . J . 



Copyright, 1957, by 
St. Anthony's Guild 

Imprimi potest: 

DONALD HOAG, O . F . M . 

Vicar of the Minister Provincial 

Nihil obstat: ' 

BEDE BABO, O . S . B . 

Censor Librorum 

Imprimatur: 

t JAMES A . M C N U L T Y 

Bishop of Paterson 

June 7, 1957 

PRINTED I N THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



TF YOU mention the phrase "The Last 
Supper" to anyone, the chances are that 

he will immediately picture in his mind the 
painting by Leonardo da Vinci. This scene 
of Christ at table with His apostles is so 
well known that it has become a standard 
symbol of the Last Supper. On the table 
are the bread and wine which became the 
"body broken" and the "blood poured out" 
for the redemption of all men. 

If you say the word "Mass" to the average 
American Catholic, he pictures in his mind 
the parish priest in vestments at the altar 
of the parish church. 

Each of these mental pictures, although 
different, substantially represents the same 
thing: the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It is, 
of course, obvious in the two scenes that the 
manner of making the sacrifice is different. 

It is not surprising, in view of the history 
of the Church and the wide diffusion of her 
beliefs and practices among peoples of many 
cultures, that there is more than one man-
ner of offering the Sacrifice of the Mass. 
Most American Catholics, however, know 
the Mass only in the Roman or Latin rite. 
The other ways or rites of making the Holy 
Sacrifice are called the Eastern (Oriental) 



rites, and they differ greatly from the Latin 
Mass. They have been in use as long as 
the Latin Mass ceremonies. 

ORIGIN OF T H E D I F F E R E N T RITES 

The story of how different ways of offer-
ing Mass came about starts back in the time 
of the apostles. They were the first priests, 
and they said Mass. St. Luke tells us so in 
the Acts of the Apostles, and St. Paul 
sternly rebuked the Christians of Corinth 
who were profaning the table of the Lord. 
Nobody, however, has found a missal dating 
from the time of the apostles which would 
show just how they went about saying Mass, 
and no such missal will be found. 

The apostles did not sit down and com-
pose a single text of the Mass. We are sure 
of this because of the existence of the East-
ern (Oriental) rites. There is a ritual and 
set of prayers for offering Mass which is 
called the Alexandrian rite, because it orig-
inated in Alexandria. There is one called 
Antiochian, because it came from Antioch; 
and one called Byzantine, named for the 
city (Byzantium) from which it spread in 
the East. These rites are so old that nobody 

2 



can tell just exactly when they took shape, 
but they started in cities evangelized in apos-
tolic times. If the apostles had made a set 
form of prayers for Mass, their spiritual 
descendants would surely have been careful 
to retain that form. Since various forms 
existed and were in use, we conclude that 
there was no one, single, unvarying form. 

Yet these different rites or ways of saying 
Mass have a remarkable similarity in their 
skeletal structure and basic framework. They 
all have readings from Sacred Scripture at 
the beginning of the Mass, selections from 
the Epistles or the Acts of the Apostles, 
and a reading from one of the Gospels fol-
lowed by an instruction; the Offertory, Pref-
ace and Sanctus; the story of the Lord's 
Supper and the words of Consecration; the 
deliberate memory-making of Our Lord's 
passion, death, resurrection and ascension; 
prayers for the living and dead; the Lord's 
own Prayer; and the Communion. 

Why this basic framework of the Mass 
was established, is not hard to discover. 
During the first few years of their ministry, 
the apostles first preached, as they were told, 
to the Jews; and they did that in synagogues 
wherever they found a Jewish community. 

3 



The services of the synagogue mainly con-
sisted of the reading of the Scriptures, their 
explanation and prayer. The apostles took 
part in these services, until they were no 
longer welcome in the synagogues and they 
themselves judged that the Gospel had been 
sufficiently announced to the Jews. What 
they must have done then was to add the 
synagogue service to the oifering of the 
Holy Sacrifice, thus providing the universal 
fabric of the Mass as now found in all rites. 

In carrying out their ministry, the apos-
tles logically went to the big cities first. 
Jerusalem was their initial headquarters. St. 
Peter later moved to Antioch, where mem-
bers of the new 'religion were first called 
"Christians." St. Paul headed for the bigger 
cities of the Greek world, like Corinth and 
Ephesus and the others named in the Acts 
of the Apostles and his own Epistles. Rome 
became the center of the Church before Sts. 
Peter and Paul were martyred. According 
to an ancient tradition, St. Mark, the mis-
sionary companion who recorded St. Peter's 
teaching in the second Gospel, carried Chris-
tianity to Alexandria in Egypt. 

4 



After the death of the apostles, their suc-
cessors continued the work in the big cen-
ters, and the next phase of the apostolate 
was the spread of the Christian religion 
from the cities to the outlying districts. 
Rome converted the rest of the Italian pen-
insula; the bishop of Antioch saw to the 
evangelizing of all Syria; Alexandria evan-
gelized Egypt. The clergy sent out by the 
bishops of these places depended on them 
for their authority and for the way in which 
they offered Mass and administered the 
sacraments. Thus, these three — Rome, An-
tioch and Alexandria — became the points 
of origin for three great usages in the man-
ner of celebrating the Holy Sacrifice of the 
Mass. By the fourth century these usages 
were distinct rites. The Antiochian rite be-
came the parent of two others: the Ar-
menian, named for the people of that na-
tion; and the Chaldean, employed in Persia 
and the far Eastern portion of the Empire. 
Still another rite, also deriving from Antioch 
but soon developing an identity of its own, 
appeared because of political conditions. 

Constantine the Great, the liberator of 
Christianity, moved the capital of the Roman 
Empire from Rome to a city on the straits 

5 



of the Bosphorus called Byzantium. He 
named it New Rome, and it soon came to 
be called Constantinople, "City of Constan-
tine." Within a few years the bishops of 
the new capital received an extension of 
jurisdiction and, after the Council of Chal-
cedon in 451, were voted a primacy of honor 
at the expense of the neighboring arch-
bishops of Asia Minor by an arbitrary com-
mittee of bishops acting independently of 
the papal legates. (Their action was con-
firmed many years later by the pope.) The 
liturgical usage of the territory then began 
to follow the usage of the archbishop of 
Constantinople, which became the Byzantine 
rite. Later, missionaries from Constanti-
nople carried the faith to the Slavic peoples 
in the Balkans, among whom they intro-
duced this way of saying Mass. 

If everything had gone well with the 
Church, it would simply be taken for 
granted now by Catholics that Mass is of-
fered in different ways in four or five great 
sections of the world. Perhaps missionaries 
from Alexandria would have brought dark 
Africa into the Church, and the entire con-
tinent would now be following the Alexan-
drian rite. The rite of Antioch might today 

6 



have been the way of saying Mass used by 
the Chinese. (A version of this rite actu-
ally reached them in the early Middle Ages.) 
If all had gone well, many Latin Catholics 
would not have the mistaken impression that 
there is only one way of saying Mass in the 
Church, that the Latin language only is 
used, and that other ways of saying Mass 
are just foreign curiosities allowed by the 
Church but not encouraged because they are 
associated with revolt from its unity. 

That the world picture is not as it might 
have been, is in fact due to revolt from the 
Church. 

HERETICAL C H U R C H E S RETAIN RITES 

The efforts of the devil to stop the spread 
of Christianity by bloody persecution in 
pagan Roman times hardly ceased before 
attack came upon the teachings of the 
Church, this time from within. The assault 
centered on the basic doctrines of Christian-
ity, around the Person of Jesus Christ, the 
Son of God. Nestorius, patriarch (arch-
bishop) of Constantinople, began to say that 
Mary could not be called the Mother of God 
because she gave birth, not to a divine 

7 



Person, but to a human person in whom 
God dwelt in a special way. To Nestorius, 
Christ was logically two persons. Nestorius 
did not invent this doctrine, for its origin 
dated back a hundred years to the time 
when Arius, a priest of Alexandria, denied 
that Christ was divine at all. Arius' opinion 
had been condemned by the General Council 
of Nicaea in 325. The teaching of Nestor-
ius was rejected by the Church at the Coun-
cil of Ephesus in 431. His supporters formed 
a party which would not submit. Pagan 
Persia gave them asylum, and Catholics of 
the Chaldean rite who formed the Church 
in Persia left the universal Church to estab-
lish a national, heretical church. 

It is important to note the results. Two 
changes were made by the heretics, and 
they were vital: a doctrine condemned by 
the Church was professed, and its profes-
sion meant breaking off relations with the 
rest of the Church. Everything else went 
on as usual: people recited the Nicene Creed 
(which is used at Sunday Mass in the Latin 
rite), went to Mass, received the Holy Eu-
charist, were baptized, confirmed, absolved of 
their sins, married, and anointed in Extreme 
Unction. Bishops consecrated new bishops 

8 



and ordained new priests. Outwardly, it 
looked like the Catholic Church functioning 
in the Chaldean rite as usual in Persia. 
Actually, it was an independent, heretical 
church. 

A similar thing happened a few years 
later. Another poor theologian affirmed that, 
since Our Lord is really one divine Person, 
He could not really be human. This error 
was condemned by the General Council of 
Chalcedon in 451. Once again there was a 
party that would not submit, this time in 
Egypt. The chief Egyptian archbishop chose 
to persist on the wrong side of the decision, 
and he and the entire Egyptian nation se-
ceded from the Church. Why such a solid 
bloc should leave the Church at one time 
is hard to explain, except on the basis of 
a mixture of motives. One of them was 
that the emperor at Constantinople had sup-
ported the condemnation, and his rule in 
Egypt was anything but popular. The seces-
sion was a national protest against the civil 
ruler. Again, there was an independent, 
heretical church, dead wrong in its teaching 
about Our Lord's Person and natures, cut 
off from the unity of Christ's Church. Ac-
tivities seemed to be going on the same as 

9 



before: bishops ruling dioceses, priests min-
istering to parishes, sacraments being re-
ceived as usual, and Mass being offered ac-
cording to the rite of Alexandria. 

More sympathizers with the condemned 
doctrine were found in Syria. Although 
they did not comprise the whole nation, they 
also formed an independent church using 
the same Antiochian rite as the Catholics of 
Syria. 

At about the same time, Armenia — Cath-
olic up to this point and using a form of 
Mass received from Asia Minor — refused 
to accept the true doctrine. This was very 
probably due to national reasons; the doc-
trine was backed by the emperor at Con-
stantinople. 

The situation by this time was bad enough, 
but already a build-up was forming for an-
other and greater catastrophe; greater be-
cause it involved a much larger number of 
the faithful. 

Once the dioceses of Egypt and Syria had 
defected, those who remained Catholic in 
these regions looked more and more to the 
patriarch who resided at Constantinople, the 
New Rome. Old Rome had ceased to be 
the residence of the emperor, barbarians 

10 



overran the West, the Western half of the 
Empire crumbled and fell. The Church alone 
remained standing, with the pope, the suc-
cessor of St. Peter, directing the conversion 
of the barbarians and striving to uphold 
some semblance of civil government and 
control. He was still recognized as head 
of the Church by both East and West. The 
immediate supervision of the East, however, 
was done by the patriarch in the Eastern 
capital. 

Here must be recalled a circumstance 
which makes it easier to understand what 
was coming. All Christians of those times, 
and for a long time to come, realized that 
the head of the Church was the man who 
sat in the Chair of St. Peter at Rome. 
Echoes of that belief are found even in the 
writings of the separated Syrians hundreds 
of years after the fifth-century schism of 
the Church in that country. We do not 
have the space to trace the abundant evi-
dence of belief in the primacy of the Roman 
bishop from the letters of St. Clement and 
through the general councils of Nicaea, 
Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon. 
The Fathers, who under the guidance of 
the Holy Spirit defined sacred doctrine in 

11 



the early general assemblies of bishops, ex-
plicitly affirmed their belief in the primacy 
of jurisdiction and honor reserved exclusively 
to the pope. 

EAST DRIFTS A W A Y FROM W E S T 

But the Church in those times was not 
the closely knit organization we know today. 
The great centers of early Christianity in 
the East — Antioch, Alexandria and, later, 
Constantinople — administered their portion 
of the Church with, normally, only little 
recourse to Rome. They each elected their 
own archbishop and sent his name to Rome 
for recognition as the legitimate pastor. But 
unless there was trouble over doctrine or 
quarrels among bishops, their churches led 
an almost independent life. There was even 
a greater tendency toward independence on 
the part of the archbishop of Constantinople 
who, as a patriarch after 451, exercised au-
thority over a number of other archbishops. 
He sat in the cultural capital of the world, 
aided by the power of the emperor in his 
rule and in his missionary endeavors. 

It thus happened that there was a gradual 
drifting apart of the two geographical halves 

12 



of the Catholic Church, with the Eastern 
half becoming more and more independent 
of the West. 

The eighth and ninth centuries saw a con-
vulsion of the East which brought the role 
of the Holy Father once more to the fore. 
That was a heresy (Iconoclasm, "image-
breaking"), which claimed that the venera-
tion of images of Our Lord and the saints 
is wrong. (This same teaching appeared 
again during the Protestant revolt of the 
sixteenth century.) The heresy was at first 
favored by the emperor and, as a result, 
the Church of Constantinople had heretical 
patriarchs until an emperor who favored the 
truth took the throne. Meanwhile, the pope 
condemned the heresy, and so did the Gen-
eral Council of Nicaea (II) in 787. 

Even in these circumstances nobody 

dreamed of denying the papal leadership of 

the Church. It was the unfortunate mistake 

of one man, otherwise great, Photius, which 

cast doubt on the pope's prerogatives and 

the faith of the West. His quarrel arose 

from his false claim to the patriarchate of 

13 



Constantinople. East-West relations dete-
riorated with the passing of time and dif-
ferences flared again when another patri-
arch, Michael Caerularius, decided there 
was no need to have anything at all to do 
with the Bishop of Rome. The East, he 
felt, could get along very well by itself. 
Caerularius was excommunicated by the le-
gates of the pope, but the schism remained. 
Thus, millions of people who depended on 
Constantinople in ecclesiastical and civil 
matters became cut off from the unity of 
the Church by. their separation from Rome. 

When the Crusaders marched East some 

years later to attempt to rescue the Holy 

Land, it was hoped that the split between 

East and West might be healed. The net 

result of the crusading movement, however, 

was not only the loss of the Holy Land 

but also an increase in the frequency and 

bitterness of quarrels with the • Christians 

of the East. 

Attempts were made over and over again 

to heal the tragic schism. It remains to 

this day. 

14 



EASTERN RITE C H U R C H E S SEPARATED 

FROM R O M E 

The prevailing rite left in the Church 
when the East went its separate way was 
the Roman rite. That is one reason why 
many persons think of that rite as the uni-
versal rite of the Church. The Roman 
Church finished the conversion of Europe 
and evangelized the Americas. The Latin 
Mass and usages were spread, and the faith-
ful began to think of this form of the 
Mass as the only Catholic one. It was all 
but forgotten that the ceremonies of the 
separated Eastern churches were also once 
the legitimate means of channeling God's 
grace to the faithful. 

R E U N I O N M O V E M E N T S I N S E V E N T E E N T H 

AND E I G H T E E N T H CENTURIES 

The foregoing, however, is not the whole 
story, nor the end of it. If things had re-
mained exactly as described here, the exist-
ence of other ways of offering Mass, of other 
rites within the Church besides the Roman, 
would be just a matter of historical curiosity. 
Or it would serve to show that, besides the 
Catholic Church, there are other churches 

15 



which very closely resemble our own. But 
divine providence saw to it that something 
of the ancient state of affairs should be re-
established, as a promise and hint that the 
former unity of Christians would one day 
return. For the other rites — the Byzantine, 
Antiochian and Alexandrians^- do exist with-
in the Church today. 

The head of the church of Constantinople 
twice signed pacts of union with Rome — in 
the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries — but 
both times the union was broken almost im-
mediately. 

Toward the end of the sixteenth century, 
bishops of the Slavic peoples known today 
as White Russians and Ukrainians petitioned 
the Holy See to admit them to its com-
munion. In the course of time, some twelve 
million people of that area returned to unity 
with Rome. When they were received back 
into the Church, they retained the usages 
of the Byzantine rite. 

In the two following centuries there were 
movements toward unity in the Middle East, 
resulting in the reunion of thousands of 
Syrians of the Byzantine and Antiochian 
rites, and members of the Egyptian national 
church. Remnants of the break-off churches 

16 



of Persia and Armenia also returned to the 
unity of the faith. These people formed 
considerable minorities in their respective 
countries and churches. Only the Maronites 
reunited with Rome as a whole body. 

The present situation, which is puzzling 
without a knowledge of this general back-
ground, is this: There are several rites in 
the Catholic Church. The users of the 
Roman rite are in the majority; but there 
are large numbers of people using Eastern 
rites for the celebration of Mass, and they 
are Catholics too. Even larger numbers of 
their compatriots of the East are still mem-
bers of independent churches. 

Since both Eastern Catholics and Eastern 
dissidents offer Mass according to the East-
ern rite, how can one tell a Catholic Church 
from a separated church? The rite does 
not distinguish between the two, becatise 
the rite is the same. The test of member-
ship in the Catholic Church must be in the 
answer to the basic question: Who is the 
head of the Church? If the answer is, the 
Pope, the Bishop of Rome, the Church is 
Catholic. 

17 



EASTERN RITE CATHOLICS I N T H E W O R L D 

Statistics show that there are 11,077,879 
Eastern Catholics in the world. 

The rites to which they belong, their 
geographical location and liturgical lan-
guage, as well as the membership* of the 
various rites, are detailed below. 

Alexandrian rite: (a) 61,521 Copts in 
Egypt, Palestine and Eritrea have Coptic 
and Arabic as their liturgical language, (b) 
53,483 Ethiopians in Ethiopia and Palestine 
have Geez as their liturgical language. 

Antiochian rite: (a) 117,477 Syrians in 
Asia Minor, the Americas and Australia; 
Syriac and Arabic, (b) 571,530 Maronites 
in the Near East, Africa, the Americas and 
Australia; Syriac and Arabic, (c) 85,119 
Malankarese in India; Syriac and Malayam. 

Armenian rite: 150,000 Armenians in the 
Near East and the Americas; Classical Ar-
menian. 

Byzantine rite: (a) 4,000 Greeks in 
Greece, Asia Minor and the Americas; 
Greek, (b) 375,000 Melkites in the Near 
East, the Americas and Australia; Greek 
and Arabic, (c) 4,400 Albanians in Albania; 

•1957 National Catholic Almanac, St. Anthony's 
Guild; p. 268. 

18 



Greek and Albanian, (d) 63,695 Italo-
Greeks in Italy and the Americas; Greek 
and Italian, (e) 1,500,000 Romanians in 
Romania and the Americas; Romanian, (f) 
25,000 Russians in Poland, Russia, the Unit-
ed States and Far East; Old Slavonic (g) 
1,000,000 Ruthenians in the Balkans, Poland, 
Hungary and Slovakia; Old Slavonic, (h) 
215,500 Hungarians in Hungary and the 
United States; Magyar, (i) 5,500,000 
Ukrainians in Poland, Russia and the Amer-
icas; Old Slavonic, (j) 55,000 Yugoslavs 
and Serbs in Yugoslavia and the Americas; 
Old Slavonic, (k) 7,000 Bulgarians in Bul-
garia; Old Slavonic. (1) 8,000 Georgians in 
Russia; Georgian. 

Chaldean rite: (a) 176,891 Chaldeans in 
Asia Minor and the Americas; Syriac and 
Arabic, (b) 1,104,763 Malabarese in India; 
Syriac. 

C H U R C H ARCHITECTURE AND DECORATION; 

T H E SACRAMENTS 

The most widely used rite, after the 
Roman or Latin, is the Byzantine. Some of 
its usages are outlined in the following pages. 

19 



Unlike the Latin rite, which has used all 
types of architecture from the Roman basil-
ica through Romanesque, Gothic, Renais-
sance, Baroque and the Modern, the Byzan-
tine knows but one form of architecture. 
It patterns all its churches after that marvel 
of the building art known as the Church of 
the Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) in Con-
stantinople, the work of the Emperor Jus-
tinian in 537, which is still standing. This 
form of church is essentially a square build-
ing covered with a dome. Viewed from the 
inside, the dome seems to float over the 
church. Later forms of building traced the 
pattern of a cross in adding to the basic 
square of the structure. The addition of a 
series of large and small onion-shaped domes 
produced the distinctive characteristic of 
Russian churches. 

The altar, as in every ancient Christian 
church, is at the eastern end of the church, 
where the line of the wall bellies out to 
form the apse, and is separated from the 
rest of the building by a screen. The screen, 
which has three doors through it, is com-
pletely covered with a series of holy pictures 
depicting Our Lord and Our Lady on either 
side of the central door, the patron of the 

20 



church, and two archangels. Above the first 
level of pictures may be several more levels 
presenting the apostles, principal events of 
Our Lord's life, and at the top a Calvary 
group. The custom of crowding together 
so many pictures dates from the time when 
the Church of Constantinople emerged vic-
torious from a struggle with eighth-century 
emperors who tried to suppress the venera-
tion of images as idolatrous. The rest of 
the walls and domes of the church also have 
murals of Our Lord, the Blessed Mother, 
and the heavenly company of prophets, pa-
triarchs, martyrs and confessors. 

This Byzantine art developed out of 
Roman and Greek painting, to which Orien-
tal elements were added. The figures may 
seem stiff, thin to the point of emaciation, 
serious, but, as religious paintings, they come 
closer than any other form of art to being 
channels of religious inspiration. They are 
really the adaptation of Roman painting to 
the needs of the Christian religion. The 
style is called Byzantine, and has a long 
history which is not yet closed. The people 
have great devotion to such pictures, called 
ikons (images), and keep them in their 
homes ' with- lamps burning before them. 

21 



All of the sacraments except the Anoint-
ing of the sick are administered in church. 
In the Byzantine rite, Baptism is done by 
immersing the infant in the font three times, 
after long exorcisms and litanies. Confirma-
tion is administered by the priest immedi-
ately after Baptism and is done by anointing 
the organs of the five senses with chrism. 
The Holy Eucharist may be given to the 
newly confirmed infant on the same occa-
sion. When administering the Sacrament of 
Penance, the priest places his stole over the 
head of the penitent and absolves him with 
a different formula than the one used in the 
Latin rite. At a wedding, the couple are 
prayed over at great length with litanies 
and hymns, are crowned like a king and 
queen and given wine to sip. In the Anoint-
ing of the sick the organs of the senses are 
anointed as in the Latin usage, but the 
prayers are longer. Holy Orders is admin-
istered by a bishop. 

The Mass vestments worn by priests of 

the Byzantine rite had the same origin as 

Latin rite vestments. The outer garment, 

however, has a greater fullness than the 

22 



Roman chasuble. It seems that these gar-
ments, now reserved for use in sacred func-
tions, were the standard dress of anybody 
anywhere in the Roman Empire around the 
fourth century. 

Greek, the language of Constantinople, 
was the tongue for all Catholics foe the 
first two or three hundred years after the 
apostles. Latin was later adopted as the of-
ficial language of the Roman rite. The policy 
of the Byzantines was to use the language 
of the country itself. Sts. Cyril and Metho-
dius, who converted the Slavs, used the 
Slavonic of their time in celebrating Mass. 
Wherever Byzantine missionaries went, they 
adopted the idiom of the people for use in 
divine services. Today Mass is said even in 
Japanese. 

An additional point of interest to Latin 
Catholics is the married state of Eastern 
clergy. Men may become priests whether 
they are married or not. If unmarried at 
the time of ordination, they must remain so 
for life. If married, they may not remarry 
on the death of their wife. Bishops must 
be unmarried or widowers. Since in former 
times most of the secular clergy were mar-
ried, the bishops were chosen from among 

23 



the monks. A married clergy still exists in 
the Byzantine rite because the rite is still 
following the canon law of the East as it 
was before the separation from Rome. At 
that time the unmarried priesthood was just 
becoming customary in the West, where 
celibacy was later prescribed by law. Mar-
ried priests may still be found here in the 
United States among the older Byzantines 
and some refugees who have recently ar-
rived in this country. Eastem-rite bishops 
in this country, however, no longer accept 
married candidates for ordination. 

T H E M A S S I S CALLED 

" T H E H O L Y LITURGY" 

Since the most widely used rite of the 
East is the Byzantine or Greek rite, it is 
the best example of what Easterners do for 
the celebration of Mass. Any rite, of course, 
is based on the consecration of bread and 
wine by the repetition of the words of Christ 
at the Last Supper. Any rite will have the 
prayer and instruction regarding the Holy 
Eucharist before the Consecration. Aside 
from this fundamental usage, there are con-
siderable differences. 

24 



In the Byzantine, as in all Eastern rites, 
the bread and wine are prepared at the 
start of the Mass. The priest does this in 
a little niche or at a table on the Gospel 
side of the altar. Taking a round loaf of 
ordinary bread stamped with religious sym-
bols, he cuts out a square host and other 
particles while reciting verses expressing the 
symbolism of the action. When the bread 
and wine are ready, he says a Prayer of 
Offering and incenses the oblations, the 
altar, the holy pictures and the people. 

At the altar a Litany for all classes of 
people is sung by the priest; the congrega-
tion answers, "Lord, have mercy." 

The Little Entrance comes next. In pro-
cession, the priest leaves the sanctuary car-
rying the Book of the Gospels, and then 
returns. He sings prayers especially selected 
for the day and the feast. These are fol-
lowed by the solemn singing of the prayer, 
"Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Im-
mortal One." 

The Epistle follows. It is read by the 
equivalent of an altar boy. The Gospel is 
sung by the priest who, flanked by candle-
bearers, faces the people at the middle door 
of the sanctuary. 

25 



The interruption after the Mass of the 
Catechumens, formerly an instructional part 
of the Mass open to those learning the 
Faith, is clearly marked. The catechumens 
are dismissed with a prayer. Following this 
are a prayer and Litany for the faithful or 
baptized Catholics. 

The Great Entrance or solemn Offertory 
Procession then takes place. The priest first 
says a long silent prayer for himself, to 
prepare for the great act to come. Again 
he incenses the oblations, the altar, the pic-
tures and people. He goes to the table on 
the Gospel side and carries the veil-covered 
paten and chalice from there around the 
church. When he arrives back at the sanc-
tuary door, he announces the intention of 
the Mass in the prayer: "May the Lord God 
remember all of you in His kingdom, now 
and forever." 

After another Litany, the congregation 
recites the Nicene Creed. 

The most solemn moment of the Sacrifice 
is introduced by the Preface, which is very 
much like the Preface of the Latin rite. 
The priest recites it silently except for the 
last phrase, at which he raises his voice to 
introduce the singing of the Sanctus by the 

26 



choir. During the singing he recites the 
introduction to the words of Consecration. 
The theme of this introduction is thanks-
giving for all that God has done for us, 
down to the very night on which He gave 
us Himself. 

The words of Consecration are sung aloud, 
and the people sing "Amen" to both Con-
secrations. As the priest raises the Sacred 
Species in solemn offering, he sings: "Thine 
of Thine Own we offer unto Thee in be-
half of all and for all." 

A prayer to the Holy Spirit is then fol-
lowed by the Commemorations, in which it 
is noted that the Sacrifice is offered for all 
who have preceded us, back to the very be-
ginning of the Old Testament; special men-
tion is made of our all-holy, most blessed 
and glorious Lady, the Mother of God 
and ever-Virgin Mary. The dead are re-
membered and then the living, who com-
prise the hierarchy, the whole Catholic 
world, the Holy Father, and numerous 
classes of persons. 

A final Litany for spiritual gifts precedes 
the Our Father. The Sacred Body and 
Blood are elevated with the words, "Holy 
Things for the Holy." The Host is then 

27 



broken and commingled with the Precious 
Blood. The priest recites preparatory prayers 
for Holy Communion, consumes the Sacred 
Species, and distributes Holy Communion to 
the people under the forms of both bread 
and wine. During this time a Communion 
verse is sung. 

The Mass closes quickly after this. The 
consecrated Species of bread and wine are 
removed to the side table to be consumed 
later by the priest. A prayer of thanksgiving 
is recited, a prayer for all the people is 
said in front of the picture of Christ, a 
blessing is invoked upon all, and then the 
people are dismissed. 

CONCLUSION 

This brief description of the Eastern rites 
and churches was written with two main 
purposes in mind. 

First, to give the Western Catholic reader 
added knowledge of some aspects of the 
Church which are, perhaps, not very well 
known. Such knowledge is a good thing. 
It will arouse in Catholics of the Latin rite 
the understanding, respect and love they 
should give to their fellow Catholics of the 

28 



Eastern rites. In the past, Americans have 
perhaps wounded people of the East by a 
lack of understanding and a narrowness 
that should shame those who boast of their 
educational background and generally broad 
understanding. Mutual respect will lead 
those of the East to better relations with 
those of the Latin rite. 

The second purpose is this: Eastern Chris-
tians at present separated from Rome must 
be brought back to unity with the Catholic 
Church. Ways and means must be found to 
help them once again into the bark of St. 
Peter before they drift farther away into the 
mists of error and confusion. Prayer, of 
course, is the principal means; especially if it 
is motivated by real knowledge, love and con-
cern. We hope that this pamphlet will be 
of service in spreading knowledge of the 
separated Christians of the East. 

Knowledge is a reservoir which can be 
drawn on when needed. Who knows when 
you will meet a member of the Orthodox 
Church in this country, especially in the 
cities along the Eastern seaboard? He may 
be a neighbor, a fellow worker. If you 
know what he represents, where he stands 
in matters of religion, your knowledge and 

29 



sympathy may help to provide the bridge 
whereby he — and eventually his church — 
may cross to Rome, the harbor of unity. 

It can be safely said that, in the case of 
the Orthodox Church, the Catholic Faith 
has been substantially preserved as it was 
in the eleventh century. For nine hundred 
years the providence of God has worked 
through various circumstances to keep the 
main contents of divine revelation virtually 
intact for and among the members of this 
separated body. But there is danger that 
continued separation may lead to a dilution 
of the purity of the deposit of the truth, 
and even to its eventual loss. 

It will be the duty of theologians to talk 
theology with the separated Eastern clergy 
when the time comes. It is the duty of the 
laity to have and show the love that makes 
meetings possible. 

It may happen that these our separated 
brothers and sisters who have honored 
God's Mother so highly and so warmly in 
a thousand hymns and a thousand pictures 
•—who believe her to be body and soul in 
heaven as its Queen — will continue to honor 
her with us in the unity prayed for and willed 
by her Son, our common Lord. 

30 



GUILD PAMPHLETS 

Most Rev. T i m o t h y Mann ing : The Grey Ox 
(Jnnipero Serra) 

Rev. Wi l l i am M a n n i n g : Thoughts from St. Bonaventuxe 
about the Mother of God 

Rev. Char les J . McCar thy : 
Baptism Boy Wanted 

Boniface McConville, O. F . M.: 
Peace for Troubled Souls A Picture of the Man 

Owen P . McCormack, O. F . M.: The Catholic Family 

Noel F . Moholy, O. F . M.: Our Last Chance 

Very Rev. J a m e s H. M u r p h y : 
The Bread of Life The Church Matrimony 

When You Go to Confession Who Are Catholics? 

Rev. J o h n L. M u r p h y : Li fe Values of the Mass 

Alber t Nimeth , O. F . M.: St. Francis and the Eucharist 

Marius Noe, O. F . M. Cap.: "A Burning and a Shining 
Light" — St. Bonaventure 

Eric O'Brien, O. F . M.: Apostle of California 

I s idore O'Brien, O. F . M.: 
Blessed Are the Clean of Heart Brides of Christ 

Christ the Physician The Church Our Mother 
Compensation Hands Let Us Look at Life 

Light of the Cross Loneliness and Consolation 
Lord, Teach Us to Pray Meaning of Christmas 

Member for Member Our Dead Our Father 
The Plain Truth Resignation (also in F r e n c h ) 

St. Anthony St. Joseph Sculpturing Truth 
Shadow of the Cross Soldiers of Christ 

Ten Commandments of Reason The Third Order 
The Parables (4 pts . ) The Sacraments (2 p ts . ) 

Rev. J o h n A. O 'Br ien: 
The Christian Home Until Death Do Us Part 

Fal l ing in Love Why Be Profane? 
Happiness! But Where? W h y Not Receive Daily? 

Conall O'Leary, O. F . M.: 
What It Means To Be a Tertiary 

Why the Third Order of St. Francis? 

T h o m a s P lassmann , O. F . M.: 
The Seven Words of Mary Upon This Rock 

F r a n c i s J . Remler , C. M.: 
A Bank Account in Heaven Catholics and Sin 

Can the Bible Be the Only Rule of Faith? 
Is Life Worth Living? What Is a Good Catholic? 

i Alphonsus Ryan , O. F . M.: 
Discouraged, Sister? Confidence, Sister! 

Doctor A. F . Sava: A Doctor's View of Birth Control 



GUILD PAMPHLETS 

Method C. Billy. O. F . M. Conv.: Life in the Service 

Dean Corcoran, O. F . M. Cap.: They Burned a Porest — 
The Story of Blessed John Forest 

Maire Cot te r : A Mother and Mystic at Home 

Most Rev. R icha rd J . Cush ing : The Third Order In 
Our Day 

Wil l i am J. Doheny, C. S. C.: Give Us This Day Our 
Daily Bread 

Very Rev. J o h n J . D o u g h e r t y :The Complete Catholic 
Victor Elmer , O. F . M.: St. Bernardine of Siena 

Fel ic ian Foy, O. F . M.: Christ and You, Redeemers 
Rev. Richard Ginde r : 

The Christian Nobil i ty Life Begins at Baptism 
Peace of Mind and Heart 

F r a n c i s J . Greiner, S. M.: Mary's Work in the World 
Most Rev. Wi l l iam Griffin: Veni, Sponsa Christl 

Marion A. Habig , O. F . M.: 
Man of Peace St. Prancis Solano Vico Necchi 

Our Iiady of the Highway 

W a l t e r Hammon, O. F . M.: The Power of l o v e 
Rudolf Harvey , O. F . M.: 

A N e w Birth of Freedom The Pursuit of Happiness 
This Nation under God What Is Man? 

Augus t ine P . Hennessy , C. P . : God's Troubadour 
and His l>ady 

J e f f r e y Keefe, 0 . F . M. Conv.: 
The Gospel Truth Miracles: Pacts or Fantasies? 

Gordon Krahe , O. F. M.: What the Mass Is for You 

Giles Lawlor , O. F . M.: Don't Be Afraid To Go 
to Confession 

J a m e s M. Linehan , O. F . M.: A Living Crucifix 

Valent ine Long, O. F . M.: 
Christmas The Sternal Cross 

A Judge Speaks to the Graduates 
The Last Supper Every Day 

The Nobody Everybody Loves 
On Thanking the Hand That Feeds 

On Using the Brain The Troubled Mind 
The W a y Home Who Believes In Sin Any More? 

Why Not Take God's Word for It? 
Youth — Springtime of Love 

Cuthbe r t Malone, O. F . M.: St. Paschal Baylon