Rite
RITE
A solemn act of religion; an external ceremony. (
See CEREMONY.) For the rites of the Jews, see Lowman’s Hebrew Ritual; Spencer de Heb. Leg.; Durrell on the Mosaic Institution; Bishop Law’s Theory of Religion, p. 89. 6th ed; Godwyn’s Moses and Aaron; Edwards’s Survey of all Religions, vol. 1: ch. 9.; Jenning’s Jewish Antiquities.
Fuente: Theological Dictionary
rite
(Latin: ritus)
Any one religious function, e.g., the rite of Baptism.
A group of such functions, e.g., the last rites (Extreme Unction, Viaticum, etc.).
The whole collection of services used in the public worship of any church or group of churches, e.g., the Roman Rite.
In this sense the term is often used as equivalent to Liturgy. The essentials of worship laid down by Christ form the foundation of every rite. The different prayers, actions, and customs used in the amplification of the fundamentals, distinguish the rites. Provided there be unity of faith, diversity of rite matters not at all. The four parent rites and those derived from them are:
I – Antiochene
Pure Antiochene
Rite of Saint James (Greek, Syriac, and Maronite)
Chaldean
Malabar
Nestorian
Byzantine
Armenian
II – Alexandrine
Greek, Saint Mark
Coptic (Saint Cyril, Saint Gregory, Saint Basil)
Ethiopic
III – Roman
Original Roman
African
Roman with Gallican additions
IV – Gallican
Ambrosian
Mozarabic
Celtic
In addition, some religious orders have their own rites, e.g., the Benedictine, Carmelite, Cistercian, Dominican, Franciscan (Friars Minor and Capuchin), Premonstratensian, Servite.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Rite
(Lat. ritus) is, in general, an external sign or action employed in religious services, and designed either to express or to incite a corresponding internal religious feeling. Such are, for instance, the uplifting or outstretchting of the hands in prayer, the imposition of hands, etc. The name rite is sometimes used to signify the aggregate of all the ceremonies used in a particular religious office, as a rite of baptism or of the eucharist. In a still wider sense, it is used of the whole body of distinctive ceremonial, including the liturgy employed by a particular community of Christians. In this way we speak of the Roman rite, the Greek rite, or the Slavonic rite. SEE CEREMONY.