Rustaveli
Constant In Opal... Ultramarine
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Faith: Orthodox Christian
Jurisdiction: Orthodox Eastern Church
Posts: 126
Saint Shota Rustaveli
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« Reply #45 on: July 17, 2004, 12:14:37 AM » |
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I quite agree with Etienne on two counts, which I glean from the last message:
First, that, although the ancient Western Liturgies are most fascinating and worthy of study, and that there is an affinity between some of the experiences of Orthodoxy in today's world and the life of the Church in Western Europe during the first millenium A.D. ...
[point the secondmost]
... how to resurrect a tradition that has been surpressed for so long ....?
... indeed, this may not be a question of "how", but "why" - given that the Byzantine Liturgy, although it has undergone slow, organic change, has been continually the wellspring of spritual life in the Church in unbroken succession throughout the centuries, I'm not sure why a recussitated Western Rite is callled for.
As a product of mostly Angle-ish and Saxon genes, I must admit that I (nonetheless) very likely have little "cultural affinty" of a specific nature in, say, Nineth-Century England, for instance ...
However, the lives of the Saints of Orthodox England (and elsewhere) can be a source of great inspiration.
(I highly recommend Vladimir Moss's volume "Saints of England's Golden Age", in this arena).
I'm quite fascinated, historically and liturgically, with the Old Roman, Beneventan, and Mozarabic / Visigothic "rites" or local traditions;
... the chant recordings of "Ensemble Organum" are both fascinating and beautiful with regard to a modern attempt to "re-create" these rites, at least musically -
And I'm reading a book entitled "Daily Prayer in Christian Spain: A Study of the Mozarabic Office" by Fr. Graham Woolfenden, a "priest of the (Russian) Orthodox Church" (back cover notes)!!
Examining these various traditions seems to me to emphasize the universality of the Church, from East to West, in all times and places ("Unity in essentials, diversity in accidentals" - Blessed Augustine), and the connectivity between them as the Holy Spirit moves in the world;
As far as participating in this continual, universal Liturgy, however, I believe that Etienne's reflections on continuity and living tradition are right on target.
Anywho[/i][/u], where "East" and "West" are depends on where one happens to be standing on the Earth's outer crust at any given moment -
and doesn't that Ooooole'-Timey hymn say [quoting a reliable source] that,
"In Christ there is no..." etc., etc. ....
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