From Dr Eric Mascall:
"It is a mistake to suppose that there is nothing in the Eastern Orthodox Church like the private masses of the West. I have known an Orthodox priest celebrate the Liturgy for thirty successive days for the soul of another priest who had just died. On many of these occasions there was only one other person present who acted as both 'server' and 'choir', and on some of them the altar had been used immediately previously for another Orthodox Liturgy. The priest in question told me that this custom was quite common."
I remember being surprised to hear how, at a Russian Orthodox monastery in upstate New York, the daily Divine Liturgy was served by one of the many priests, with the assistance of but one server (rostered on for a week at a time) - the rest of the community was not expected to be present!
ReplyDeleteIn Bolshakoff's book on the Russian mystics he refers to S. Theophan the Recluse and Fr Michael of Valaamo as celebrating the Liturgy alone. I don't know if it was a more widely-spread phenomenon. If it was, I imagine it was probably limited to solitaries in the monasteries. I'll check on the exact references in the Bolshakoff.
ReplyDeleteCould be, could be, one would guess if the local ordinary allowed it. Rather monk-like, though, for the secular types. If indeed that were ever to become a thing, it would mutatis mutandi create a commensurate demand for the bad, old 15 minute Vetus Ordo daily masses one hears about which are always castigated by the (aren't they always intolerant?) Novus Ordo types (Ve muss hav da Laity participate! Silence ist verboten! Ve have vays of making you participate.)
ReplyDeleteThe Russian Orthodox practice I have witnesssed is that a priest may only serve the Divine Liturgy once a day, on the altar containing the antimension, a cloth blessed by the bishop which is in effect a symbol of his authority, and permission for the priest to serve the Liturgy in the absence of his bishop. In rare circumstances the bishop may exercise oeconomy and for good cause permit another priest to serve the Divine Liturgy on the same altar, but using the antimension blessed for use on another altar elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteParticularly in the west, it is not uncommon for a priest to serve the Divine Liturgy with only a single member of the lower clergy, or even just an acolyte or a chanter present. Our secular clergy are permitted to be married, so frequently a parish priest may have his wife available to chant from the kliros in the nave of the church, although she is not permitted to serve in the altar.
In the Orthodox phronema, "private masses" make no sense at all, because the Divine Liturgy is the Eucharistic assembly of God's people in thanksgiving. I have heard of certain monastics being given special permission to serve the Liturgy with one other person present (which should be the bare minimum) or even by oneself--but the latter is not normative at all. Likewise, the rule that only one Eucharist be offered on one Holy Table on a given day is observed in the breach. Yes, it happens, but it shouldn't.
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