The Roman mass never had an epiclesis as one finds in Eastern liturgies. St. Nicholas Cabasilas, in his commentary on the divine liturgy, addresses this by arguing that the prayer Supplices te rogamus contained in the Roman canon constitutes an epiclesis.
Much later, some Orthodox bishops appear to have ignored St. Nicholas' commentary and required Western Rite Orthodox to insert a Byzantine epiclesis into their mass.
just because it's included, that doesn't mean the bishops ignored what the saint said. no need to be snarky against our bishops.
The interpolation implies snarkiness not only against St. Nicholas but against all the Orthodox Western saints who, by implication, celebrated a defective liturgy. It also contradicts St. John Maximovitch's statement that one does not need to be Eastern to be Orthodox.
The differences in the core Roman rite today with its pre-schism forms are negligible, and the supplices te rogamus that St. Nicholas Cabasilas considers an epiclesis was never removed, so you're wrong about that. There is nothing in 21st century conditions that necessitates adding a superfluous Byzantine epiclesis. Rather, this decision was made on the basis of dubious early 20th century liturgical scholarship.
but, being a Western Orthodox convert myself, I could see it as being inserted to make the clear distinction that there IS a difference between Orthodoxy (to include the West) and the rest of Christendom.
1. If you recognize that the pre-schism Latin church was Orthodox, then this would contradict that; 2. The Novus Ordo mass in fact has at least one option for the canon that has a Byzantine-style epiclesis; likewise several modern Protestant rites.
How so Father?
It took a second for me to sound that out. I don’t typically use Greek lettering. For those not familiar with Greek, it is the epiclesis.In our Bible Study last evening, it was mentioned that in some western services the ἐπίκλησις has been eliminated. For Orthodox, the Eucharist is not complete without it. As far as I know, it was never part of the Lord's Supper in the protestant churches that I attended.
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