Rites ( la, ritus), liturgical rites, and ritual families within

Christian liturgy Christian liturgy is a pattern for Christian worship, worship used (whether recommended or prescribed) by a Christian congregation or Christian denomination, denomination on a regular basis. The term liturgy comes from Greek and means "public wor ...

refer to the families of liturgies,

rituals A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized, ...

, prayers, and other practices historically connected to a place, denomination, or group. Rites often interact with one another, such as in liturgical Latinization, and contain subsets known as uses. There are two broad categories which ritual families fall into: Latin or Western rites associated with

Western Christianity Western Christianity is one of two sub-divisions of Christianity ( Eastern Christianity being the other). Western Christianity is composed of the Latin Church and Western Protestantism, together with their offshoots such as the Old Catholic ...

and Eastern rites associated with

Eastern Christianity Eastern Christianity comprises Christian traditions and church families that originally developed during classical and late antiquity in Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, Northeast Africa, the Fertile Crescent and ...

. The most common rite is the

Roman Rite The Roman Rite ( la, Ritus Romanus) is the primary liturgical rite of the Latin Church, the largest of the ''sui iuris'' particular churches that comprise the Catholic Church. It developed in the Latin language in the city of Rome and, while dist ...

, itself a Latin liturgical rite and further subdivided into uses.

Definition

The word ''rite'' is often used to describe particular Christian rituals. ''Rite'' has also come to refer to the full pattern of worship associated with a particular Christian denomination or tradition, typically comprising the liturgies for the

Eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...

ic celebration,

canonical hours In the practice of Christianity, canonical hours mark the divisions of the day in terms of fixed times of prayer at regular intervals. A book of hours, chiefly a breviary, normally contains a version of, or selection from, such prayers. In ...

, and sacramental rites. Rites typically result from local variations and traditions, sometimes becoming further distinguished as uses of ritual families. Some ritual families originated with the early focal points of Christianity, such as Rome (

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

(

Alexandrian liturgical rites Alexandrian rites are liturgical rites employed by three Oriental Orthodox churches, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, as well as by their Eastern Catholic co ...

), and

Antioch Antioch on the Orontes (; grc-gre, Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπὶ Ὀρόντου, ''Antiókheia hē epì Oróntou'', Learned ; also Syrian Antioch) grc-koi, Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπὶ Ὀρόντου; or Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐπ� ...

( East and West Syriac Rites). The Roman Rite is further subdivided between the liturgies from the post-

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st Catholic ecumenical councils, ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions) ...

period, such as the

Mass of Paul VI The Mass of Paul VI, also known as the Ordinary Form or Novus Ordo, is the most commonly used liturgy in the Catholic Church. It is a form of the Latin Church's Roman Rite and was promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1969, published by him in the 1970 ...

and

Liturgy of the Hours The Liturgy of the Hours (Latin: ''Liturgia Horarum'') or Divine Office (Latin: ''Officium Divinum'') or ''Opus Dei'' ("Work of God") are a set of Catholic prayers comprising the canonical hours, often also referred to as the breviary, of the ...

, and the pre-conciliar liturgies, such as the

Tridentine Mass The Tridentine Mass, also known as the Traditional Latin Mass or Traditional Rite, is the liturgy of Mass in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church that appears in typical editions of the Roman Missal published from 1570 to 1962. Celebrated almo ...

and Divine Office according to the

Roman Breviary The Roman Breviary (Ecclesiastical Latin, Latin: ''Breviarium Romanum'') is a breviary of the Roman Rite in the Catholic Church. A liturgical book, it contains public or canonical Catholic prayer, prayers, hymns, the Psalms, readings, and notati ...

. Some Christian denominations encompass multiple ritual families. The Catholic Church utilizes the various

Latin liturgical rites Latin liturgical rites, or Western liturgical rites, are Catholic rites of public worship employed by the Latin Church, the largest particular church ''sui iuris'' of the Catholic Church, that originated in Europe where the Latin language once ...

of the

Latin Church , native_name_lang = la , image = San Giovanni in Laterano - Rome.jpg , imagewidth = 250px , alt = Façade of the Archbasilica of St. John in Lateran , caption = Archbasilica of Saint Joh ...

alongside the rites that compose

Eastern Catholic liturgy The Eastern Catholic Churches of the Catholic Church utilize liturgies originating in Eastern Christianity, distinguishing them from the majority of Catholic liturgies which are celebrated according to the Latin liturgical rites of the Latin Chu ...

. The use of those liturgical rites are determined by the particular church of the celebrating clergy; other Catholic rites are associated with

Catholic religious orders In the Catholic Church, a religious order is a community of consecrated life with members that profess solemn vows. They are classed as a type of religious institute. Subcategories of religious orders are: * canons regular (canons and canon ...

, such as the

Dominican Rite The Dominican Rite is the unique rite of the Dominican Order of the Roman Catholic Church. It has been classified differently by different sources – some consider it a usage of the Roman Rite, others a variant of the Gallican Rite, and still o ...

and

Carmelite Rite The Rite of the Holy Sepulchre, commonly called the Carmelite Rite, is the liturgical rite that was used by the Canons Regular of the Holy Sepulchre, Hospitallers, Templars, Carmelites and the other orders founded within the Latin Patriarchate of J ...

. The liturgical rites of the

Eastern Catholic Churches The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also called the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern Churches, are 23 Eastern Christian autonomous (''sui iuris'') particular churches of th ...

are often distinct from the same rites as practiced by non-Catholic denominations, sometimes the result of Liturgical Latinization. Within

Eastern Orthodoxy Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first m ...

, the

Byzantine Rite The Byzantine Rite, also known as the Greek Rite or the Rite of Constantinople, identifies the wide range of cultural, liturgical, and canonical practices that developed in the Eastern Christianity, Eastern Christian Church of Constantinople. Th ...

–including the

Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom The Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom is the most celebrated divine liturgy in the Byzantine Rite. It is named after its core part, the anaphora attributed to Saint John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople in the 5th century. History It ...

and Byzantine adaption of the

Liturgy of Saint Mark The Liturgy of Saint Cyril (or Anaphora of Saint Cyril, , ''Ti-anaphora ente pi-agios Kyrillos'') is one of the three Anaphoras used at present by the Coptic Orthodox Church and it retains the liturgical peculiarities which have originated in th ...

–is predominant, with some limited usage of the Western Rite.

References

{{Portal, Christianity Catholic Church Christian worship and liturgy Eastern Orthodoxy

Definition

See also

References