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Reflections on the Eucharist

By Fr. David McCready

Introduction

When Our Lord Jesus Christ established the mystery of the holy Eucharist, He took bread saying, ‘This is My Body,’ and then took the cup saying, ‘This is My Blood’ (Matthew 26, 26-28; Mark 14, 22-24; Luke 22, 19-20; 1 Corinthians 11, 22-25). For this reason, as well as on account of the Lord’s teaching in the discourse on the Bread of Life (John 6, 22-59), the church has from the very beginning confessed the eucharist ‘to be (εἶναι) the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, that flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father of His goodness raised.’[1] And this is what we confess today. As we say prior to Communion: ‘I believe, O Lord, and I confess … that Thou art truly the Christ … and that this is truly Thine own immaculate Body, and that this is truly Thine own precious Blood.’ Continue reading “Reflections on the Eucharist”

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Western Rite Orthodoxy: An Apologia — Part 2

By Fr. David McCready

In the first part of this article we saw that the Fathers, who are the teachers of our holy Orthodox faith, not only recognized the variety of different rites which prevailed in the early church, but actively extolled this diversity. Our conclusion, therefore, was that of Fr Schmemann: ‘Orthodoxy has no objection to the Western Rite as such.’1

In this part, I want to look at the question as to whether or not the rites actually practiced today in the Antiochian Western Rite Vicariate are Orthodox. Continue reading “Western Rite Orthodoxy: An Apologia — Part 2”

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Western Rite Orthodoxy: An Apologia — Part 1

By Fr. David McCready

Part 1: The Witness of Tradition

Cet animal est très méchant. Quand on l’attaque, il se défend. I was reminded of this old French saying the other day, when, in what was quite a stark critique of the western rite, a certain priest-blogger accused those who questioned his theses of being overly defensive! In his hostility to the western rite, this blogger represents, I believe, only a small minority of Orthodox; as a western-rite priest, and, before that, as a western-rite seminarian, I have in general encountered nothing but warmth and welcome from hierarchs, clergy, and lay-people alike, both in the Antiochian Archdiocese, and in other jurisdictions as well. This said, there are some folk who do have honest concerns and questions about the western rite, and it is them especially that I want to address. I shall begin by looking at how Tradition vindicates the principle of a western rite, looking at the witness of the Fathers, at the post-patristic period, and at the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Continue reading “Western Rite Orthodoxy: An Apologia — Part 1”