Pope John Paul Celebrating The Divine Liturgy Of St. John Chrysostom

[Apotheoun]

Pope John Paul II celebrating the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom at St. Peter's Basilica (7 July 1996):

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qasegnQ_Vc

[Nihil Obstat]

Pope John Paul II celebrating the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom at St. Peter's Basilica (7 July 1996):

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qasegnQ_Vc

Beautiful! I wish that had happened more often.

[Nihil Obstat]

Are my eyes playing tricks on me, or did I see Cardinal Ratzinger at a few points? 

[Apotheoun]

I don't know I haven't really been paying attention to the cardinals. 

 

I will say this: I find the placement of the choir behind the altar distracting. The choir is sitting in the presbytery which is reserved for the clergy. Also, the candles of the dikirion and trikirion do not cross over each other, and I have never seen that done in all my years as an Eastern Catholic. The candles cross over to indicate the unity of Christ's hypostasis (i.e., in the case of the dikirion), and the unity of the three divine persons (i.e., in the case of the trikirion).  I do not know what symbolism is attached to not having them cross over. Also the bishop who blessed with the dikirion and trikirion (about six minutes into the video) did a rushed job of it.

[Apotheoun]

They really should have had a taller platform around the altar, because the height of altar made it difficult for Pope John Paul to properly incense the holy gifts.

[CatholicCid]

What were some of the good things? :)

[Apotheoun]

What were some of the good things? :)

The fact that the Divine Liturgy was even celebrated in St. Peter's basilica, which during the first millennium was the metochion Church of the Ecumenical Patriarch in Rome, is a good thing.   :saint2:

[TeDeum]

I don't know I haven't really been paying attention to the cardinals. 

 

I will say this: I find the placement of the choir behind the altar distracting. The choir is sitting in the presbytery which is reserved for the clergy. Also, the candles of the dikirion and trikirion do not cross over each other, and I have never seen that done in all my years as an Eastern Catholic. The candles cross over to indicate the unity of Christ's hypostasis (i.e., in the case of the dikirion), and the unity of the three divine persons (i.e., in the case of the trikirion).  I do not know what symbolism is attached to not having them cross over. Also the bishop who blessed with the dikirion and trikirion (about six minutes into the video) did a rushed job of it.

 

I'm guessing they just didn't have the proper kind of candle holder, since dikirions and trikirions aren't used in Western liturgies. They probably just went with a candelabra since it was the closest thing they had. I doubt there was any intended symbolism.