Liturgy of Addai and Mari

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The liturgy of Addai and Mari is a liturgy of the Eastern Syrian Rite , which - in various modifications - is used in the Assyrian Church of the East , the Ancient Church of the East , the Syro-Malabar Church and the Chaldean Catholic Church .

The anaphora (the “Eucharistic Prayer”) in this liturgy is particularly interesting as it is one of the oldest in Christianity and possibly dates from the Edessa (now Şanlıurfa ) of the 3rd century, although the elements of the present form only go back to Period of the Patriarch Mar Ischo-Jab III. can be traced back to the 7th century. The liturgy is traditionally attributed to Thaddäus von Edessa (St. Addai), a disciple of the apostle Thomas , and his disciple Mari. In the form that appears in the oldest manuscripts, throughout the Middle Ages, the anaphora does not contain any words of institution , which has provoked criticism in ecumenism .

use

The Addai and Mari liturgy had been in constant use in the Church of the East from at least the 7th century. Hymns from Ephrem the Syrian and others are often sung during communion . Ecclesiastical writers from Theodor von Mopsuestia (around 400) to Mar Shimun XXIII Eshai in the middle of the 20th century and Mar Aprem Mooken in India at the beginning of the 21st century have the epiclesis beginning with the words Neethi Mar Rukhada Kudisha ... ( May the Holy Spirit come ... ) begins as the climax of the Eucharist ( Aramaic ܩܘܪܒܢܐ ܩܕܝܫܐ, qûrbānâ qadîšâ) is celebrated.

In the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, this liturgy has three forms: a simplified, a main form for Sunday use and a solemn form, the so-called "Raza", which is used for solemn festivals. A reform of the solemn Raza with a return to the original form was carried out in 1985 and in 1989 the other two agendas were also reformed according to the same principles.

Another small change in the liturgy of Addai and Mari, as it is celebrated Catholic Chaldean of the church was implemented from January 6th 2007, making the many local traditions of the parishes were abolished, which over the centuries as an imitation of the Roman Rite originated were. The most important changes were the return to the traditional arrangement of the interior of the churches, the restoration of the preparation of bread and wine before the beginning of the service and the abolition of the filioque from the creed .

The liturgical prayers are divided into three types, depending on whether they are recited by the priest or the bishop:

  • cushapa : personal prayers of the celebrant
  • Gehanta ("bows"): mumbled prayers
  • qanona : final formulas of the gehanta that are pronounced aloud

A piece of the dough from the communion bread is kept from one week to the next, but not as a reserve for the administration of the sacraments, but as a sourdough base for the bread of the next week.

Absence of the words of institution

While in all Christian churches that follow the Apostolic Succession the Prayers (Anaphoras) contain the words of institution and the associated "institution report", the anaphora of Addai and Mari is the only exception and does not use these texts in the liturgy.

The oldest manuscript ( Mar Eshaya Text ) of this anaphora was published by William F. Macomber in 1966. It is dated to the 10th or 11th century and even there the words of institution are missing. Nor do they appear in other old manuscripts. Mar Aprem Mooken of the Assyrian Church in India has admitted that many priests of the Assyrian Church also follow these old guidelines and leave out the words of institution.

Some scholars believe that the medieval manuscript reflects a 4th century tradition, while others believe that the words of institution were originally included and only later dropped, possibly due to the liturgical reform of Mar Ischo-Jab III. around 650 AD The former include Macomber and Spinks, the latter H. Engerding and E. Mazza. B. Botte suggested that the words of institution were originally recited from memory.

Position of the Catholic Church

While the Orthodox Churches and the Oriental Orthodox Churches generally deny the Apostolic Succession of the Assyrian Church and thus also the validity of its priesthood, the Roman Catholic Church has always recognized the validity, but the validity of the consecration in the absence of the words of institution is disputed. The Council of Ferrara / Florence (1431–1445) had declared that the words (in Catholic theology the "form") of the sacrament of the Eucharist are "the words with which the Savior ( Jesus ) instituted the sacrament." At the 3rd Council the words were also established as: "This is my body" and "This is the cup of my blood".

Despite this legal position, the Catholic Church has never officially challenged the validity of the Addai and Mari anaphora. In the last decades of the 20th century the ecumenical rapprochement between the Assyrian Church and the Catholic Church and the situation of the widely dispersed Assyrian and Chaldean Christians who lack their own priests raised the question of the validity of the Eucharistic consecration in the form of the anaphora of Addai and Mari tightened. The Eastern Catholic Churches use the East Syrian Rite, in which the institution narrative with the institution words is used. To address this situation, the Holy See declared on July 20, 2001 that the anaphora of Addai and Mari was valid. Three reasons were given for this assessment: First, the anaphora of Addai and Mari goes back to the Old Church . Second, the Church of the East has in another way preserved the Orthodox faith in relation to the Eucharist and the sacraments of Orders. And thirdly, the words of institution are not literally available, but in prayer-like form and divided into different sections.

Guidelines for the communion of the Eucharist between the Chaldean Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East

The Catholic canon law excludes the participation of Catholics in the Eucharistic services of Christian communities, whose services are regarded as invalid, and allows the participation of members of such communities in the Catholic Eucharist only in very special exceptional cases and only if those also have the same beliefs as the Catholic Church represented; but in the case of churches whose Eucharist is recognized as valid, mutual participation is much more straightforward. Accordingly, on July 20, 2001, with the Guidelines for admission to the Eucharist between the Chaldean Church and the Assyrian Church of the East , a firm framework for the recognition of the Holy Qurbana of Addai and Mari was given, as it is in the Assyrian Church of the East is celebrated:

  1. Assyrian believers are permitted, if necessary, to attend the Eucharistic celebration of the Chaldean Catholic Church and to receive the Eucharist.
  2. The Chaldean believers who do not have the opportunity to visit a Catholic priest are allowed to participate in the Eucharistic celebration in an Assyrian church and to receive the Eucharist, even if the anaphora of Addai and Mari is celebrated there in the form without the words of institution.
  3. Assyrian priests are encouraged to include the words of institution in the anaphora of Addai and Mari when Chaldean believers attend the liturgy.

These regulations do not lead to full communion between the two churches, even if the document quotes the Common Christological Declaration Between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East of November 11, 1994 by Pope John Paul II and Patriarch Dinkha IV , which abolished the main dogmatic differences between the two churches.

In contrast to the Catholic Church, the Assyrian Church of the East has the practice of intercommunion , in which every baptized Christian can receive the Eucharist.

Unfortunately, the dialogue between the two churches came to a standstill in 2002.

Catholic response

Some traditionalist Catholics condemned the recognition of the Addai and Mari liturgy. They argued that this completely overturned the sacramental theology of the Council of Trent . According to this understanding, three elements are necessary for a sacrament - the physical material, the form, and the disposition of the priest to do what the church does. The form, in this case the words of institution that are spoken over the bread and wine, is missing. The critics thus reject the judgment of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity , which says that the words of institution exist in a different form.

Structure of the anaphora

If one only looks at the typical and ancient parts of the liturgy, one recognizes the following structure:

  • The prefation (Sursum Corda),
  • the liturgical preaching ( first Gehanta ):

“Worth to praise from every mouth and from creed of every tongue is the adorable and glorious name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, who created the world through your grace and its inhabitants through your mercy and who saved humanity have through your compassion and on whom you give great grace to mortals. "

  • the introduction to the Sanctus (Pre-Sanctus):

“Your Majesty, O my Lord, extol a thousand times thousands of them on high, bowing and worshiping, and ten thousand times a thousand Holy Angels and hosts of spiritual beings, servants of fire and spirit, extol your name with holy cherubim and seraphine , the call and praise without ceasing and call and speak to each other: "

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts; Heaven and earth are full of His price. "

  • the Post -Sanctus ( Second Gehanta ), which revolves around redemption through Christ . This prayer and all that follow are addressed directly to Christ.

“And with these Heavenly Hosts we thank You, O my Lord, even if we, Your servants, are weak and frail, for You have given us great grace, beyond pure reparation, by accepting our humanity so that you can do it through Your Godhead want to improve, and have raised our baseness and restored our fall and abolished our mortality and forgiven our transgressions and justified our sinfulness and enlightened our knowledge and, O Our Lord and our God, you have condemned our enemies and us victory for the weakness of ours given to fragile nature in the overflowing mercies of your grace. "

“You, O my Lord, make in your ineffable graces a good and acceptable memory for all the righteous and righteous fathers who were pleasing in your eyes, in the memory of your body and your blood of your Christ, which we offer you on your pure and holy altar as you have taught us, and give us your rest and your peace every day of the world. Yes, O Our Lord and God, give us peace and love all the days of the world, so that all inhabitants of the earth may recognize that you are the only true God the Father and that you are our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son and yours Dearest, you sent. And he our God came and in his life-giving gospel he taught us all the purity and holiness of the prophets and the apostles and the martyrs and the confessors and the bishops and the doctors and the presbyters and the deacons and all the children of the holy common church, and also of those who are marked with the living sign of holy baptism. "

“And we too, O my Lord, your weak and frail and wretched servants, who are gathered here in your name, stand before you at this time and have received the example that was handed down from you to us, we cheer and praise and exalt and commemorate and celebrate this great and awesome and holy and life-giving and divine mystery of the passion and death and burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. "

“And it may, O My Lord, your Holy Spirit come and abide on these gifts of your servants and bless them and sanctify them, that it may be for us, O My Lord, for the forgiveness of transgressions and the redemption of sins and for the great Hope for the resurrection from the dead and for a new life in the kingdom of heaven with all those who are pleasing in your eyes. "

“And for all these great and wonderful gifts towards us we want to thank you and praise you without ceasing in the Church, which is redeemed through the precious blood of your Christ, with open mouths and open faces, we want praise and honor and praise for your living and living give holy and life-giving names now and forever and in the eternal world. "

The institution narrative is inserted before the oblation by the Syro-Malabar Church , while the Chaldean Catholic Church begins before the epiclesis .

Translations

  • A. GELSTON: The Eucharistic Prayer of Addai and Mari. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1992: 48-55.

References and comments

  1. ^ A b Addai and Mari, Liturgy of . Cross, FL, ed. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford University Press. 2005.
  2. ↑ Paul Pallath: La liturgia eucaristica della Chiesa siro-malabarese. Messaggero Abbazia di Santa Giustina, Padova 2000: 22. ISBN 8825008422
  3. ^ Congregation for the Oriental Churches , Decree December 19, 1985.
  4. ^ Congregation for the Oriental Churches , Decree April 3, 1989.
  5. ^ TQ & A on the Reformed Chaldean Mass. May 12, 2012.
  6. ↑ Paul F. Bradshaw, Stephen Wilson: The Anaphora of the Apostols Addai and Mari. In: Essays on Early Eastern Eucharistic Prayers. Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minn 1997: 20. ISBN 081466153X
  7. ^ William F. Macomber: The oldest known text of the anaphora of the Apostles Addai and Mari OPC 32, 1966: 335-6.
  8. ^ Mar Aprem Mooken: Anaphora of Addai and Mari from the Perspective of the Church of the East. In: Studies on the Anaphora of Addai and Mari , ed.Boscos Pothur, Kochi: LRC Publications 2004: 205-206.
  9. ^ Enrico Mazza: The Celebration of the Eucharist: The Origin of the Rite and the Development of Its Interpretation. Liturgical Press: 1999: 73. ISBN 081466170X
  10. ↑ Stephen B. Wilson compiled these theories: Stephen B. Wilson: The Anaphora of the Apostles Addai and Mari. In: Paul Bradshaw (ed.): Essays on Early Eastern Eucharistic Prayers. 1997: 19-37. ISBN 081466153X
  11. ^ "The words of the savior with which he effected this sacrament." Council of Florence, Decr. September 4, 1439, Denzinger 1321.
  12. ↑ Council of Florence, Decr. February 4, 1442, Denzinger 1352.
  13. ^ Concretely, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity in agreement with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Congregation for the Oriental Churches .
  14. ↑ a b "The words of Eucharistic Institution are indeed present in the Anaphora of Addai and Mari, not in a coherent narrative way and ad litteram , but rather in a dispersed euchological way, that is, integrated in successive prayers of thanksgiving, praise and intercession ". Guidelines issued by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity
  15. ^ Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, canon 671 §4 and cf. Code of Canon Law, canon 844 §4
  16. ↑ Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, canon 671 §§2-3 and cf. Code of Canon Law, canon 844 §§2-3
  17. ↑ churchoftheeast  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.churchoftheeastflint.org  
  18. ↑ To documento "ecumenico" que mofifica a doutrina relativa à validade da Santa Missa
  19. ↑ Choice of material as per: RCD Jasper, GJ Cuming: Prayers of the Eucharist: early and reformed . Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minn 1990, ISBN 0814660851 , pp. 43-44.
  20. ↑ Texts adapted from translation in: Frank Edward Brightman, Charles Edward Hammond: Liturgies, Eastern and Western, being the texts original or translated of the principal liturgies of the church . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1896, pp. 283-88.

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