Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Visiting a Maronite church in Austin

Traveling southward for a family reunion (the wife's Polish family) in the Austin/Houston area we were lucky enough to be able to go to a Maronite Qorbono before returning home. More lucky still were we that there was a baptism during the liturgy so that I was just another in attendance taking pictures (albeit with an iPhone).

Completely uninitiated in the liturgics of their liturgy I can only say that it seemed a mix of Syriac, Latin, and Byzantine practices rolled into one. The parishioners, while largely Lebanese, were also a representative cross-section of the area.

The "green book" they use is based on the 1992 universally accepted liturgy. There has also been a very recent synodal meeting which will further reorient the liturgy to its historical roots. I'm told some word will come out on this in the future (less than five years).





3 comments:

  1. I think the versus populum is a corruption. The Maronites are very Latinized.

    If I recall correctly, the 1992 decree requested that ad orientem was to be used when the prayers were addressed to the Lord, the genuflection replaced by a bow and Aramaic (instead of the Arabic vernacular) used during the Canon. Did you see this when you were there?

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  2. He did face the people.

    The bits that were not in English were listed as Syriac.

    As to the bow/genuflection I can't recall.

    What was odd was that most of the music was traditional save for the entrance hymn, which was a standard Roman hymn I've heard quite often.

    The baptism seemed like a standard Roman baptism except that the congregation as one faced West then East.

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  3. On Wednesdays Liturgy is Ad Orientem in the Chapel

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