Saturday, September 12, 2009

Regarding the alleged less than 1 hour RDL liturgies

Today, a simple divine liturgy for the leave-taking of the feast of the birth of the Theotokos; Divine liturgy consisted of Fr. and myself as cantor. Liturgy was just under 1 hour due to no homily. I didn't rush anything nor did Fr. That said, how then, can a full congregational DL be under an hour with a homily and communion and announcements before the blessing if it takes an hour to celebrate a DL with exactly two people-a priest and cantor (with no homily, communion for one, and no announcements?

2 comments:

Charles said...

I am a cantor at St. Nicholas in Barberton, OH. Fr. Miron, his wife, and I routinely sing the RDL on a weekday in 45 minutes with no homily, of course. I think Fr. Miron is fairly fast with the priest's prayers which he may be doing in Slavonic or Slovak. For example, two slow cherubicons is usually enough.

Steve P said...

Some priests seem to "speed think" the prayers so fast it makes me question whether they really PRAY during the celebration of the Divine Liturgy.

I guest cantored in Perth Amboy, NJ (Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic) about 3 years ago and the priest "said" the cherubicon prayers so fast we were only able to get through a fast sung the cherubic hymn once! His hand elevations between the prayers almost seemed like he was flying.