Besides learning a lot of new things about Islam during the Gathering, Marco and I were surprised how much we learned about the Catholic Church and how many more rites exist within it than we realized previously. When we returned home we did a little research to understand better how the new rites we discovered were related to the one we were already familiar with, which is the Roman/Latin rite (which most catholic churches in the West follow).
A Rite represents an ecclesiastical tradition about how the sacraments are to be celebrated. There are three major groupings of Rites based on this initial transmission of the faith, the Roman, the Antiochian (Syria) and the Alexandrian (Egypt). Later on the Byzantine derived as a major Group of Rites from the Antiochian. From these four derive the over 20 liturgical Rites present in the Church today.
St. Sergius monastery that we visited in Maalula for Easter services is part of the Melkite rite, which is part of the Catholic Church's Byzantine group of rites. The church we visited on Monday in Damascus was part of the Maronite rite, which is part of the Catholic Church's Antioch group of rites.
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