Maronite Liturgy

Mass/ Liturgy:    Maronite

Date: 08.01.2009

Time: 17-17.40h

Place: Al-Hamra, Beirut, Lebanon

Name of the Church: Sayyidat al-Wardieh (Our Lady of the Rosary)

Kind of Liturgy: daily-prayer

Season: The Baptism of Christ

By Verena E. Kozmann

A group of Nest’s students went to watch the liturgy in a Maronite church on Friday the 8^th of January 2010, between 5 – 5.40 pm, in Al-Hamra area. According to the church’s lectionary, the prayer of that day was on the baptism of Jesus.

We entered the church using a side-door and sat among other worshipers.  The mass started with singing, in the absence of the priest. There was only one person, with no special garments, just in a light yellow pullover, leading the singing. He was standing in front of the altar at the right hand. I will call this guy later on, “the male-assistant priest”. One of my colleagues told me later that the hymn was about the baptism of Jesus and is taken from the book of prayer.

After the first hymn, the priest, in his simple white garments entered quietly the sitting and stood in front of the altar with his back facing the people. Few seconds after his appearance, an elder woman came in. I will call her later on “the female assistant”. She, like the male- assistant, didn’t wear any special garment. Obviously, she was responsible of the incense. The difference between her and him (the male-assistant) was, that she stood next to the priest and she was allowed to help him preparing the Holy Communion behind the altar and carrying the incense. To the contrary, the face of the male-assistant was most of the time directed toward the people, who were participating in the service from their pews. He, for example, was playing the role of the leading singing-voice.

The male-assistant recited a hymn. And, the people, instead of replying to him, responded to the priest with the word “Kadischat” which means: “holy holy”. As I´ve heard later, the language of the mass was mainly Arabic with some Syriac. The lesson of the evening was taken from the Epistle first letter of Paul. There was a woman reading the text from Paul’s letter, which was not initially about the Baptism of Christ.

During the times when he had nothing to say or to do, the priest sat opposite to the male- assistant on a simple chair, located at the left-hand side of the front-altar, wherefrom people could see a profile of his right side.

After the “reading lady” went back to her seat, the priest read from the gospels of John and Matthew about the Baptism of Jesus. At the end of the reading, the people said: “For you Christ all the prayers and blessings.” Then the audience, the male-, the female-assistant and the priest recited the Creed of Faith.

At the end of this sequence, the priest went for the first time behind the altar and started the preparation. Now he was talking in Arabic, and only when he carried the wine and the bread, he talked in Syriac. Some supplications followed afterwards, like the prayer “peace to the altar of God and peace to the holy sacrament.”

While the priest was preparing everything behind the altar, the following step was “giving peace” to the people. For this purpose, two persons went to the front toward the priest and then down to share the peace with the rest of the audience.

The priest, who continued his role behind the altar, bowed down in a kind-of a devotional gesture before God. On the first row, there was a woman making a short prayer. She didn’t leave her place. She only stood up in her place. Meanwhile, the priest broke the bread and blessed it. The whole worshipping congregation said altogether “The Lord’s Prayer”. After this, the priest said the grace in the name of God, the holy trinity, and everyone who wanted the Holy Communion moved forward to the front altar. Most of the audience were females, elder ones. Only one or two were men. The women didn’t had to wear a veil. Some did, and others didn’t.

After everybody partook the communion, the priest had a speech and then gave the sign of peace to the worshipers, saying: “Go in Peace”. This was the last act and the end of the liturgy.

My impression about the liturgy is that the whole mass seemed like a routine, monotonous activity; very short and compressed. Nearly the whole audience were females. And, it was the first time I saw in Lebanon a woman allowed to go behind the altar and help the priest. In general, the service’s nature reminds me of the Roman-Catholic mass liturgy. The Church’s building does not seem to be so old and its architecture is simple. Right at the front side of the church, at the lit altar a big, wooden cross is hanged up high above the altar table with the crucified thereupon. The altar-section as such is round, and the columns which come out of the altar-section divide it into three parts.

Figure no1: Altar with priest (left side) and male assistant[1]

There are four coloured windows at the front of the church on the same level of hight with the cross. Each one is showing a different man. The white dove is beyond the scene in a round image, made of glass. The altar itself is made of white stone, simple and transparent. It invites for following every step the priest makes. There are no curtains, no hidden rooms, and no secrets. Also, there are no icons, no painted walls, and no dark corners. All is light and clearly disclosed.

On the backyard, there were two corners at the left and the right side of the church’s main entrance, which was closed on that evening. One is dedicated the Virgin Mary, and, as usual in Christina churches, you can pay some money and lit a candle. The difference from other churches I have so far seen lies in this church’s presentation of itself in such a     clean and tight manner (e.g. even the candles were run by electricity instead of fire).

Figure no.2: an electricity-candle-box

This was the first time I see a Maronite liturgy. I felt familiar with this kind of mass service, because it looks similar to the Roman-Catholic’s that I am used to see in Europe. But at the same time it seems as if celebrated in an anonymous manner. Nevertheless, the most surprising element for me was after all the fact that women have the possibility to participate as an assistant for the priest, even behind the altar, and that woman hadn’t had to wear a veil while getting the communion.

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[1] All pictures are taken by Thomas Schönberger.