Are you as excited as I am to learn about the Byzantine

Church!?

Well, You Should Be, Because…

As Byzantine Christians, We Believe…

The greatest gift of God to us is the gift of sharing His life.

What is a Byzantine Catholic?

• The Byzantine Catholic Church is a branch of the Catholic Church.  

• The Byzantine Catholic Church is in full communion with the Pope of Rome.  

• Byzantine Catholics hold the same beliefs as Roman Catholics, but often have different emphases.

• Byzantine Catholics have different customs and traditions that date back to the early centuries of the church.

Catholic Communion vs. Byzantine Communion

• During communion, both the Body and Blood of Christ are given to the person.

• Rather than wafers, the Byzantine Catholics use little chunks of bread cut from a loaf, which is usually baked by some of the parishioners.

• The bread is put in the chalice with the wine and is gently placed into the person's mouth with a gold spoon.

A Little Bit About…

Byzantines are Catholics in union with the Bishop of Rome (the Pope!) whom they recognize as the Head of the Catholic Church. Byzantines are recognized as being "Catholic" by the local Roman Catholic Bishops and the Bishops of the United States of America and the whole world.

Byzantines are also known as Eastern Catholics!

Isn’t that pretty cool?

What is distinctive about Byzantine Tradition?

• A belief in our god to be divinized.

• Union with God through the Holy Mysteries.

• The need for spiritual Warfare.

• A secret life of: Prayer, Fasting, and Sharing.

• A public life of: Worship, Fellowship, and Service.

“As members of God's family, we belong to one another, and so we live an active community life as Church. Most importantly, we join one another to worship in Christ. Our style of worship in the Eastern Churches reflects the presence of the risen Christ among us in glory and joy. All the senses take part in our worship to express this glory. We see icons, vestments, candles; we smell incense and perfumes; we hear continuous singing; we taste blessed foods and use physical gestures such as bowing, prostrating and crossing ourselves to express our wonder at the glory of God.”

-Unknown

What Byzantines/ Eastern Christians Believe…

The Mystery of God

The Holy Spirit: God is With Us

The Holy Mysteries

God Reveals Himself

The Holy Trinity

The Theosis

God Acts in Christ

The Church The Theotokos

The Mystery of God

• God's inner life is unknowable. It is far too great for us to know. He is the Holy One. He is so unique and perfect that He cannot be compared with others! He is the most excellent perfection of everything we know to be holy, true, good and beautiful.. As the Divine Liturgy expresses it, He is 'beyond our grasp or understanding, beyond sight or comprehension'.

God Reveals Himself

God can be found to reveal himself in the aspects of Nature.

He has reached out to everyone to see the wonders he has created.

More especially we get a glimpse of him by looking at the people he has created in his likeness and image.

He has directly communicated himself to us in what we call the Divine Revelation.

He not only has shown himself as the Holy One, but as Our Father, as well.

God Acts in Christ• The life, death, and resurrection of

Jesus Christ is the Supreme Passion of God’s Revelation to Us.

• In Christ, we see God as the lover of Mankind, emptying himself for us.

• We see Him as the victorious Lord, trampling upon Death and giving life to those in the tomb of separation from God.

• We see Him as the King of Glory, fully alive and in union with His Father - the definitive and irrevocable communication of God to us.

The Holy spirit: God is with us

o Christ promised his followers that he would send another in his place who would be with them forever.

The Holy Trinity The trinity is known as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

This shows us and allows us to see that God is One, and at the same time, Three.

He is one in essence and being, one in activity and power, but three in person.

The ChurchThis fellowship with the Holy Trinity comes to us in the Church, the assembly of those whom God has called to be His people.

While the Holy Spirit is the continuation of Christ's divine presence among us, the Church is His Body, the extension of His physical presence in the world. The Church is thus the Temple of God in which the Spirit dwells, as the human body is the dwelling place of the human spirit.

The holy mysteries

A Holy Mystery is also known as a Sacrament.

A mystery is a prayer of the Church in which we ask the Lord to help us.

Through all the mysteries and the Church's other prayers of blessing, every aspect of our life can be transformed and set apart as a means of praise to the One who calls us to share His life.

Catholic Communion vs. Byzantine Communion:

Theosis• The greatest gift of God to us is the gift of sharing His life.

•When we live a life of faith, this relationship is deepened, furthering the process of our divinization or theosis. This movement continues in us through life and death and will not be complete until the resurrection of all mankind on the last day. Then our risen bodies as well as our spirits will share in the resurrection life and partake in glory.

Theotokoso In our worship special honor is continually given to the Virgin Mary. This is not simply a matter of pious devotion. In honoring her as Theotokos (Mother of God), the Church is affirming two basic aspects of Christian faith:

o a) that the Jesus whom she bore is truly the Son of God incarnate, dwelling in our midst as true man; and b) that the journey of theosis which was opened to us with her assent to Gabriel's message (Lk 1:26-38) has been realized in her person....... 'for this all ages to come shall call me blessed' (Lk 1:48).

oThus it is that we place the icon of the theotokos containing Christ in her womb on the eastern wall of our churches. This image, placed as it were between heaven and earth, recalls that it is through the Theotokos that God and mankind are Joined in Christ.

A Closer Look at the Liturgy and Customs of the Byzantine Rite

Icons Incense Gospel Book

Bows and Blessings

Singing Altar Bread

Icons

• Icons are religious paintings.

• In front of a Byzantine church you will see two icons hanging above the altar.

Incense

We use incense as a sign of reverence for the sacred place and the sacredness of people who are made in God's image and as a sign of preparing for something important about to happen. It is our prayer ascending like the smoke of incense before the throne of God.

Gospel Books

• A gold covered Gospel Book is resting on the alter as a sign of God's special presence in His message through the teachings of His Son Jesus.

• This message is God's wisdom speaking to us.

Bows and Blessings

We bow and make the sign of the cross many times during the Liturgy as a sign of our faith and the receiving and accepting of God's blessings. As a rule, we bow slightly and bless ourselves every time we mention the persons of the Trinity by name or the priest blesses the congregation. We also bow and sign ourselves whenever we enter or leave the church.

SingingAlmost all

of our Liturgy is sung as a sign of our joyfulness in God's presence.

Altar BreadThe altar bread is

made with yeast and therefore has a thickness to it. At the beginning of the Liturgy, the priest will cut a loaf of specially baked alter bread and prepare cubed particles that will be used for the distribution of Holy Communion.