Monday of the First Week of Lent
March 10, 2014

Prayer:

Convert us, O God our Saviour, and instruct our minds by heavenly teaching, that we may
benefit from the works of Lent. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and
reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

Scripture:

This is the favourable time, this is the day of salvation.
(2 Corinthians 6)

Question of the Day:

What is meant by the Latin Church?
The Code of Canon Law at canon 1 addresses this notion of the Latin Church. The Roman Catholic Church is made up of twenty-two sui iuris or autonomous churches. Although having the same beliefs, the same sacraments and being in communion with the Bishop of Rome (the Pope), the churches differ in the way that they celebrate this common faith. What makes them different usually surrounds language, culture and history. One of twenty-two autonomous churches making up the universal (Roman Catholic) Church, is the Latin Church or what was formally called the Latin Rite. We are most familiar with this as it is the predominant church/rite of which we as Catholics here in Canada belong. The Latin Church follows the Code of Canon Law promulgated in 1983 while the other twenty-one sui iuris churches follow the Code of Canon Law of the Eastern Churches, promulgated by Pope John Paul II in 1990.

The division of the universal Church into East/West or Oriental/Latin came about in the year 293. Under the Emperor Diocletian those churches in the Eastern part of the Roman Empire came to be known as Oriental while those in the West belonged to the Latin Church. Each autonomous church is presided over by a Patriarch or major archbishop. In addition, within these twenty-two churches are found six different rites: Roman, Byzantine (Constantinopolitan), Alexandrian, Antiochene (or Syrian), Armenian and Chaldean. There are two ancient Eastern rites with further sub-divisions: the Antiochene rite and the Alexandrine rite. Furthermore, in many parts of Canada and the United States along with the Antiochene rite can be found the Alexandrine rite (Coptics) and the Byzantine rite (Ukranians, Melkites, Ruthenians, etc).

There are three basic ways in which a person becomes incorporated in one of these twenty-two autonomous churches: baptism, transfer of rite, and reception into full communion.