The Church, since her earliest days has continued growing and spreading to the ends of the earth. With her growth, came expressions of worship specific to the various regions the Church occupied, which are referred to as "rites." There are twenty-one rites of the Catholic Church, all of which are in communion with the Catholic Church and share in the same apostolic origin and Sacraments. The rites are different forms of worship unique to the individual cultures that separate them. A few examples of rites would be the Alexandrian, Antiochene, Armenian, Byzantine, and Chaldean rites.
It is great that the Catholic Church has different forms of worship within her. This allows us to not just be constrained to the traditional liturgy, but rather, be able to experience several modes of worship that have been touched by cultural presence in the Church. Through the rites, we can each have a special form of worship specific to a culture, and yet be in communion with the Catholic Church and share in the same body and blood of Jesus Christ.
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