(Fr. Daniel, a 51 year old Frenchman, arrived in the Near East 20 years ago. He has spent the entire time in the Assumptionist parish in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, where he had to learn how to speak a new language and how to celebrate Mass in a new rite. The Assumptionists founded their first mission in the Near East in Bulgaria. Fr. Victorin Galabert, an extraordinary missionary, who held doctorates both in medicine and theology, arrived in 1863 in Plovdiv which became the launch site for more than 30 Assumptionist communities in the Near East. The Assumptionists are still present in Bulgaria as well as in Romania, Greece, Turkey, Israel, and Russia. The following interview was conducted by Sr. Laurence Levisse, an Oblate Sister of the Assumption living in Lille, France. It appeared in the November/December 2012 issue of L’Assomption et ses oeuvres.)

-  What has your experience been living in two different rites, the Latin and the Byzantine?

- I experience the two traditions/rites in different places and, first of all, in the celebration of the Eucharist in both rites. Since our community is at the service of the Catholic Exarchate of Sofia, I celebrate the Eucharist daily in the Byzantine rite (sometimes called the Rite of Constantinople). On Saturdays, Sundays and feast days I am in charge of the small Byzantine-rite parish some 12 miles from Plovdiv in Kuklen. However, I also have a regular opportunity to say mass in the Latin rite as well; on Wednesdays, I go to say Mass for Mother Teresa’s sisters and once a month for the French-speaking community in Sofia.

Our community usually says the Divine Office according to the Byzantine rite, but when I’m alone I tend to use the Latin breviary since it has more variety and is shorter. Besides, since my formation was in the Latin rite, my personal prayer is markedly shaped by it, but I do like to use, especially when I am out walking, the prayer of the heart, so typical of the Eastern tradition.

I try to take advantage of both traditions in my spiritual reading. On the one hand, I read important Church documents, the writings of St. Augustine and our founder, Emmanuel d’Alzon as well as other authors of the Latin tradition. On the other hand, in order to understand the Byzantine tradition better or in order to be more prepared to foster Church unity, I read works by orthodox writers.

- What effect has this had on you, with regard to your relationship with God, with others, with society, with yourself?

- It’s not easy to answer that question because in these matters (one’s relationship with God, with others, with society, and oneself), it’s hard to distinguish by which tradition one is more affected. One must also remember that some personal growth is simply a factor of the maturity of age.

As I discovered and began to practice the Byzantine rite, characterized by a great wealth of signs calling more into play the different human senses than does the Latin rite, I think that my relationship with God has become less intellectual. This rite, with its wealth of signs, the breadth and depth of its perspectives (of the Creation and the Parousia) and its many repetitions (which can drive someone of the Latin rite crazy), far from imprisoning us in a logic, unveils a mystery to us and invites us to enter it. Coming into contact with this rite, my relationship with God has remained Christocentric, but it has given more place of honor to the other persons of the Trinity, the Father and the Holy Spirit, especially thanks to doxologies, always Trinitarian, which punctuate the Divine Liturgy and Office in the Eastern tradition. Moreover, the Holy Spirit is invoked at the beginning of every Divine Liturgy and every Divine Office (except during Eastertide) with the prayer, “Heavenly King, Consoler….”

- How has the emphasis on man as imago Dei in the East affected you?

- The Byzantine tradition, in which the creation of man in the image of God takes on special importance, invites me all the more to see in all human beings an image of God, even if they are disfigured, and thus to recognize the dignity of all. Enriched by this tradition, I have come to the conclusion that the fullness of the Christian life can be found in loving the least and loving one’s enemies.

Upon my arrival in Bulgaria, barely five years after the fall of the Communist regime, that had promoted atheism for 45 years, one of my great surprises was to observe that religious feast or events were so often reported on the evening news, something that would be unthinkable in France. It revealed to me the place that the Church holds in society here, even though Bulgaria is not one where Christianity is strongest. There is no strict separation here between Church and State and in fact there is a kind of way that the Church affects the State by osmosis. Religion in Orthodox countries is intimately connected with one’s cultural and national identity.

At the same time, somewhat paradoxically, I discovered that the social engagement of the Church in these countries is weaker than it is in the Latin tradition. I am sure that one explanation is the fact that these countries have just left the Communist orbit and the Church hasn’t really had time to address social questions adequately, but it may also be due to the fact that the Orthodox tradition places more emphasis of worship and the mystery of faith (the vertical dimension) than on the implications of the faith in daily life and in the marketplace (the horizontal dimension).

Familiarity with the Eastern tradition, which emphasizes a contemplative and global approach to the mystery of God in contrast to the Latin tradition which is more cognitive and analytical, fosters greater personal integration, in my experience. Likewise, the central idea in the East that man is made in the image of God encourages me to give precedence of being over doing.

- How have the two traditions (Byzantine and Latin) allowed you to live from your baptism?

- I think that each of these traditions, just like the four gospels, in different contexts, sheds light on the mystery of salvation given to men in Jesus Christ. This mystery is infinitely rich and no one gospel or no one tradition can alone pretend to reveal this wealth. And it is important not oppose these two traditions just as much as it is to dismiss their differences and try to unite them in some grand synthesis. In the end, there remains a tension that can be destabilizing, but fruitful, which prevents us from putting the mystery of God into a little box and bringing down to our measure.

The Byzantine tradition, in the midst of a world changing at infinitesimal speed and marked by unnerving volatility, offers me a broad view of the economy of salvation, one that helps me see the whole and not get overly agitated. It helps me to connect the call to holiness, inherent in baptism, to the fact that man is made in the image and likeness of God. This holiness invites me to seek the road of humility, illumined by the Holy Spirit, who allows us, in the image of Christ, to attain the fullness of love even in loving our enemies.

The Latin tradition affirms that true peace and true happiness are to be found in God alone, who is Love. It invites me to seek it through the Word of God in the silence of prayer in communion with the Church, Body of Christ, that conveys God’s grace in the sacraments. It underlines that the call to holiness, which is at the heart of baptism, is not only a call to personal holiness, but invites us to put our love concretely in action in the world. Baptism is a call to make God and his love reign not only in us, but also around us. In this way, the Latin tradition recalls that baptism is a sending out in mission.