Roman Rite

The Liturgical Rite of the Church of Rome is called the Roman Rite. The quite distinct term '' Latin Rite '', usually refers not to a liturgical rite but to the Particular Church within the Roman Catholic Church that was sometimes referred to also as the Patriarchate of the West, within which liturgical rites other than the now almost universally adopted Roman Rite have been and still are in use.

Like other liturgical rites, the Roman Rite has grown and been adapted over the centuries. The development of its , Tridentine , and Post-Tridentine .

While other rites use more poetic language, the Roman Rite is noted for its sobriety of expression. In its Tridentine form, it was noted also for its formality: the Tridentine Missal minutely prescribed every movement, to the extent of laying down that the priest should put his right arm into the right sleeve of the alb before putting his left arm into the left sleeve (''Ritus servandus in celebratione Missae'', I, 3). Concentration on the exact moment of change of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ has led, in the Roman Rite, to the host and the chalice being shown to the people immediately after each is consecrated. If, as was once most common, the priest offers Mass while facing ''ad orientem'' (towards the east) or ''ad apsidem'' (towards the apse), he shows them to the people, who are behind him, by elevating them above his head. As each is shown, a bell (once called "the sacring bell") is rung and, if incense is used, the host and chalice are incensed (''General Instruction of the Roman Missal'', 100). Sometimes the external bells of the church are rung as well. Other characteristics that distinguish the Roman Rite from the rites of the Eastern Churches are frequent genuflections, kneeling for long periods, and keeping both hands joined together, as is the custom also for East and South Asians at prayer.

The Roman Rite no longer has the ''pulpitum'', a dividing wall characteristic of certain Medieval cathedrals in northern Europe, or the Iconostasis or curtain that heavily influences the ritual of some other rites. In large churches of the Middle Ages and early Renaissance the area near the main altar, reserved for the clergy, was separated from the nave (the area for the laity) by means of a Rood Screen extending from the floor to the beam that supported the great cross (the rood) of the church and sometimes topped by a loft or singing gallery. However, by about 1800 the Roman Rite had quite abandoned rood screens, although some fine examples survive.

Western ears find the traditional chant of the Roman Rite, known as of Coptic Christianity , and, being entirely monophonic, it has nothing of the dense harmonies of present-day chanting in the Russian and Georgian Churches. But, when Western Europe adopted polyphony, music at the Roman-Rite Mass did become very elaborate and lengthy. While the choir sang one part of the Mass, the priest said that part quickly and quietly to himself and continued with other parts, or he was directed by the rubrics to sit and await the conclusion of the choir's singing. Again, while in all the other ancient rites the liturgy is chanted throughout, in the Tridentine form of the Roman Rite and for some centuries before, the priest normally merely spoke the words of the Mass, to a large extent silently. Chanting by the clergy was usually confined to special occasions and to the principal Mass in monasteries and cathedrals.

Comparing the Roman to the Eastern rites, Adrian Fortescue has here been reported (without quoting the source) to have said, "No Eastern Rite currently in use is as ancient as the Roman Rite." However, the information given in the article of the ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' on the Liturgy of the Mass {Link without Title} makes it clear that it was Saint Gregory The Great (Pope from 590 to 604) who "finally recast the (Roman) Canon in the form it still has." The Anaphora or Eucharistic prayer normally used in the Byzantine Rite is attributed to Saint John Chrysostom , who died in 404, exactly two centuries before Saint Gregory the Great. And the East Syrian Eucharistic Prayer of Maris and Addai, which is still in use, is certainly older than that. The ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' article actually states: "at Rome the Eucharistic prayer was fundamentally changed and recast at some uncertain period between the fourth and the sixth and seventh centuries."

SEE ALSO

EXTERNAL LINKS

The Roman Rite (Catholic Encyclopedia)

Australian site, mainly on present form of the Roman Rite

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