RITES

As a direct consequence of the persecutions the entire experience of the Church was fluid for its first four centuries. That, of course, includes its liturgical practices. Communication, hindered as it necessarily was, made any standardization of practices in worship a slow process indeed. As in any police state, even in our own times, it was far more dangerous for large groups of people to move from place to place to exchange experiences directly than it was for single individual to convey messages to other groups. Messages are far more readily concealed than are human beings. When human beings must travel, it is rare for them to travel in concealment - concealed means of travel are rare indeed, and normally require at least the assets of a large corporation or a small state, even today. It ought not surprise anyone that for the first few centuries there were no hard, fixed rules on how the liturgy was to be celebrated, apart from the commonly accepted principles that certain fundamentals were essential. As, for example, the three main parts of the liturgy - the Offertory, the Consecration and the Communion. The precise rubrics of celebration were rather less important. It is true, of course, that everywhere the general patterns were observed - chants (hymns and psalms), readings from the Sacred Scriptures, and whatever readings they could manage out of what manuscripts were available of the New Testament, public prayer led by their presbyters and a sermon by the bishop or presbyter who presided over the liturgy.

In the very earliest days the bread and wine were brought directly to the place of sacrifice (the altar), often by the congregation themselves, along with their gifts for the clergy. Those gifts were what kept the clergy alive, for the clergy were the most hunted, and could not afford to be seen in public life, with 'normal' occupations and 'normal' lifestyles. The risks of being exposed by the casual and unintentional error were simply too real - as they are even now in the Soviet Union with Eastern Catholics, who are even now hunted down by the army with troops, guns and dogs. Literally. Hunted like animals. "Glasnost'" appears not to extend quite this far in the Soviet Union - and it is an oddity I never hear mentioned that it is legal in the Soviet Union, guaranteed not only by its constitution, but even in practice, to belong to any religion whatsoever, provided certain prohibited behaviors are eschewed. Except for ONE religion. One may be a practicing Roman Catholic, Jew, Moslem, Baptist, Lutheran - anything. Anything *except* a Byzantine Catholic, of either Ruthenian or Ukrainian rite. These two are banned specifically by law. Curious, isn't it? [It wasn't until the fall of the Soviet Empire that Eastern Catholics were able to legally surface again after nearly 45 years of oppression.]

As I was saying, (back to the Roman Empire), the clergy were the most exposed - and loss of the clergy would have been a prohibitive loss to the early Church. So the "gifts" that were brought for offerings to the liturgies included gifts not only for God, but for the support and nourishment of their clandestine clergy. The presiding bishop or priest would then choose a little of the bread and some of the wine, and offer to God that which would be used in the Eucharist. Remnants of that are still found in the "Proskomedia" - the Preparation - of the Liturgies of the Eastern Rites and at least of the old Tridentine Liturgy. I suspect there are traces of that as well in the Novus Ordo. There is a fascinating custom among Eastern Christians, Catholics and Orthodox alike, which are direct descendants of that custom. In Slavonic it is called "Mirovanije," and each language has its own variant. Mirovanije is a special anointing with blessed oil on special major holydays of obligation, accompanied by a distribution of blessed bread - the remnants of the Agape still alive in the Twentieth Century.

After a selection of the elements of consecration the priest or bishop would recite a prayer of thanksgiving, which we today call the Preface, in which God is thanked for all His benefits bestowed upon us - for the gifts of creation, of birth and life, of redemption and salvation, for the gift of this Holy Sacrifice itself, and the Gift of the Eucharist about to be shared, given us by the Lord Himself on the night before He died, or (as the Liturgies of St. Basil and St. John Chrysostom have it) "on the night on which He surrendered Himself for the life of the world..."

Perhaps the priest or bishop was particularly emotional. Or maybe of an oratorical bent - a not unusual phenomenon in a Roman Empire in which great emphasis was placed on oratorical skills. The Preface often turned out to be a LONG prayer. Perhaps, however, the celebrant was a simple man of short words, in which case the Preface was apt to be short and abrupt, surely direct.

The Consecration would follow, together with more prayers of thanksgiving, and adding prayers of adoration and petition.

The Lord's Prayer was the introduction to the Eucharistic Banquet. Again, the presiding clergyman would lead with prayers of thanksgiving, offer a blessing, and the liturgy would be ended.

This very simple outline of the liturgy in the early church was already apparent in the writings of St. Justin Martyr, who lived about the middle of the second century, less than 50 years after the death of St. John the Apostle.

Courtesy of Catholic Information Network (CIN)

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