Byzantine Catholic

353 Pages·2010·50.73 MB·English

by  Fr. Casimir Kucharek

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A BYZAhITINE CATECHISM FOR ADULTS
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CASIMIR A. KUCHAREK
OUR FAITH
A BYZANTINE CATECHISM
FOR ADULTS
ALLELUIA PRESS
By the same authorlhe Rite of Holy Matrimony (Byzantine-Slav)
The Divine Liturgy (With Rev. A. Muzyka)
The Byzantine-Slav Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom
(Alleluia Press, l97l)
To Settle Your Conscience (Our Sunday Visitor, lg74)
The Sacramental Mysteries, A Byzantine Approach,
(Alleluia Press, 1976)
Acknowledgment: Excerpts from THE JERUSALEM BIBLE, copyright
@ 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd., and Doubleday &
Company, Inc., used by permission of the publisher.
Imprimatur:
No. 2248182, A. Roborecki, D.D. Eparch of Saskatoon
6t9n982
Library of Congress Catalogue Code No. 82-073784
ISBN: 0-911726-43-8
Copyright;
Reverend Casimir A. Kucharek, Regina, Saskatchewan,
Canada, O 1983
by:
Pubtished ALLELUIA PRESS, Box 103, Allendale, N.J. 07401
and Combennere, Ontario, Canada
Printed and Bound in the United States of America.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword
...10
PART ONE
THE HOLY MYSTERY OF THE TRIUNE GOD
Chapter
I OurBeliefs
......15
II God
The Infinite ......25
m Spirit
God is .....33
IV ...
The Mystery of God in the Trinity .......41
PART TWO
THE HOLY MYSTERY OF CREATED BEINGS
V Creation
...53
VI Beings
The World of Spiritual ..... . . .65
VII God ......
Man, the Image of ....77
PART THREE
THE HOLY MYSTERY OF CHRIST GOD AND MAN
VIII History
Christ in ......85
IX Man
Jesus as ....91
X God .....99
Jesus as
XI JesusasRedeemer. .+...........
.111
XII The Resurrection of Jesus ..... 125
Xm
Commemoration of Christ's Death and
Resurrection . .... 133
Xry Mary, the Mother of God ...... l4l
PART FOUR
THE HOLY MYSTERY OF CHRIST'S CHURCH
XV The Images of Christ's Church ...... 153
XVI .
Christ Forms His Church ... . . 161
XVII Church l7l
Christ Shepherds His .
XVm How Christ's Church Can Be Recognized. .... 179
XIX ...
"Heaven on Earth" ... 189
PART FIVE
THE HOLY MYSTERY OF SHARING THE LIFE OF GOD
XX Spirit
The Holy .....203
X)(I God
Sharing the Life of ..215
XXII God
Preserving the Life of .....223
XXIII
The Commandments Relating to the
God
Love of ......229
XXIV
The Commandments Relating to the
Neighbor.
Love of .....239
XXV
The Commandments Relating to the
...
Love of Neighbor, cont. .243
PART SIX
THE HOLY MYSTERY OF GROWING IN
THE LIFE OF GOD
XXVI
The Byzantine Liturgical Worship and
Sacraments
the ...249
XXVII Baptism
The Sacrament of Initiation - ...257
XXVII
The Sacrament of Chrismation (Confirmation) .....267
XXIX Love
The Eucharist - A Sacrament of ....271
XXX Reconciliation
The Sacrament of . ..219
XXXI
The Anointing of the Sick
XXXI Orders
The Priestly Holy ......289
XXXII .
The Sacrament of Matrimony or Marriage ...295
XXXIV Sacramentals ......
The ... 301
PART SEVEN
THE FINAL MYSTERIES
XXXV ....
Death and the Judgmenr ...307
XXXU TheFinalDestinybftheJust......:
.3lg
APPENDIX
AbriefexplanationoftheEucharisticLiturgy....
...32g
Index ofProperNames ...... ...3M
IndexofTopics....
Words
Index of Foreign . . 350
Colophon. . . . . . . . ..
FOREWORD
If Christ's Church were but a human institution, it would
have disappeared without a trace during the persecutions lasting
from its beginnings to A.D. 313. The charge made against the
followers of Christ because they evaded the pagan emperor cult,
was always the same: high treason, punishable by death. There
was no comfortable way to be a Christian; the choice was between
apostasy or death. They died in droves, these early Christians
-
hundreds of thousands of ttrem in the first trvo centuries. Some-
times it seemed the Church would be crushed, utterly desfroyed,
but it always rose to new life like its divine Founder.
-
A new era began in A.D. 313 when Emperor Constantine
granted freedom of worship to Christians. With the danger of
arrest and execution removed, they came out of hiding, began to
organize and build churches. Till then, the forms of Christian
worship had been fundamentally the same everywhere,in spite of
local variations in details.
As churches organtzed and flourished during later centuries,
Christian leaders could better afford to turn their attention to
liturgical matters, ritual and Church law. Definite liturgical
patterns incorporating local tradition and customs evolved in the
main centers of Christianity, showing marked differences in the
way the common faith was expressed in word and action.
These main centers were Rome, Alexandria (Egypt), Jeru-
salem-Antioch and eventually Byzantium or Constantinople (the
Eastern capital of the Greco-Roman Empire). The three Eastern
centers gradually evolved daughter and grand-daughter
- -
Churches or Rites which now show enough differences in ritual,
tradition and discipline to warrant separate classification.
Anci.ent Centers Intermediate Rites Present-day Rites
I. Alexandria
Coptic
(Egypt)
Ethiopian
East Syrian Syro-Chaldean
Syro-Malabarese