Today, for the first time, I went to a Malankara Catholic Church in Dallas (I am visiting my family) — St. Mary's in Garland. (The Malankara Church was founded by St. Thomas the Apostle in India; it's one of two native Indian Catholic churches.) Let me tell you, I have never been to a more hospitable church in all my life.
Thomas (about half the guys are named Thomas) greeted me as I was one of the first to arrive. He gently redirected me to the men's side of the church (like Orthodox Jews and many Orthodox, worship is segregated), told me the liturgy was an Malayalam, and looked for liturgical books for me. Then I met the priest (Fr. Thomas) who asked me where I was from and graciously made it clear that I did not have to follow their custom of taking my shoes off (I really wanted to, so I did anyway). Someone else got me a phonetic liturgy book during the liturgy. At the end of the liturgy, the priest introduced me to everyone, and they clapped. Joseph introduced himself to me after the liturgy and invited me to join them for food. I was served first, at their hand since my hands were full. I sat down and people gathered around me and introduced themselves to me, and even put extra food down for me. They even noticed when I had enough and insisted I not feel obligated to eat any more, and took my plate away. May God bless them abundantly! Would that the other Catholic churches I visit were as gracious.
Back to the liturgy. My favorite part was what they said when they administered communion.
The propitiatory live coal of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our God is given to the true believer for the pardon of offenses and the forgiveness of sins.
WOW!
I am accustomed to thinking of the Eucharist as the fruit of the tree of life, as if God wanted us to eat from the tree of life, but the fall made it necessary to "buffer" (as it were) that exceedingly powerful medicine by uniting himself to humanity and giving his flesh as food under the signs of bread and wine. (St. Ignatius of Antioch, my favorite saint, called the Eucharist the "medicine of immortality".) This prayer brings out the other side of it: the sanctifying coals of Isaiah given to us under the form of bread and wine! What an awesome image!
Anyway, for you liturgy junkies, here's the scoop on the other details of the liturgy.
It was the Liturgy of St. James (my patron), though I found it most resembled the Maronite liturgy, especially with references to fiery beings and Syriac terms ("Barakmor", or "Bless us, Lord"), fluttering hands, deeply mystical terms, Canon of the Twelve Apostles, and so forth. There was a "veil" (really a curtain) dividing the sanctuary from the nave, and no iconostasis as there would be in a Byzantine church. It was closed about three or four times during the liturgy.
There were some interesting references I caught in the liturgy. I find that liturgies often express oral traditions; I spoke earlier about the one in the Liturgy of St. Basil concerning Adam and Eve being "cast down to this world". One in this liturgy was a reference to "Abel's lamb." Now, I suppose, looking at Genesis now it seems fairly clear at least with my translation that Abel offered a young animal from his flock, and flock in Scripture means goats or sheep, but this was the first time I had ever heard Abel's sacrifice specifically referred to as a "lamb". I had always assumed that the choice of a lamb for the Jews to sacrifice was arbitrary, but it may not have been.
Another interesting tradition was to "twelve rocks and twelve streams" for twelve tribes. We know there was one rock (Exodus 17:6), but where did the twelve rocks come from?
Altar boys wore albs with what looked like blue karate belts tied at the side. This parish had a permanent monstrance mounted high up in the wall behind the altar. They had what looked like four altars: one altar of sacrifice in the sanctuary (which had three tiers), one smaller one (Latin-style) in the center in front of the sanctuary with a bible, cross, and candles, and two even smaller ones on the left and right sides that looked like devotional altars.
Men go to communion first, probably, I figure, because they need communion more than women do. The Filioque was omitted.
Some other interesting quotes: They prayed for "Pope N. who now rules over us". A term fairly uncharacteristic of Easterners with respect to the Pope. :-) A prayer I really liked was "May we never alter their true teachings through deceit or misinterpretation." A very relevant prayer, even today.
[Updated 6:30pm ET]
The peace was the traditional Syrian peace, that is, the one giving the peace bows with hands joined in the traditional form of prayer with palms open and fingers closed, and the one receiving the peace with open palms and closed fingers bows and closes them (in a V-shape) upon the hands giving the peace (making a sandwich) and pulls back (thus caressing the peacegiver's hands) until they separate, as if taking the peace. Kind of a T, Y, or gamma motion. It's always fun to see how people react when I know how to do this and they don't expect it. :-) Usually they extend their hand to shake mine and I end up embracing one palm instead of two.
Communion was by intinction (Latin hosts at this particular parish).
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