I am shocked and sadden by all the negative talk about the Liturgy.

I am shocked and sadden by all the negative talk about the Liturgy. I grew up in PA as an Orthodox married a Byzantine Catholic, over 50, cannot read music and cannot carry a turn but I attended Liturgy last night and was able to follow in the book (easier than the old, it tells you what page to go to) and also attempted to sing with the 2 cantors and 20 people that were in church. We did make mistakes but I came away feeling good inside because I was in my church. We should go to church because of the Love of God and prayer. Do the words and melody changes really mean that much that you must be so cruel in your hearts? Many of the songs before the changes are not the same as I grew up with but that did not stop me from being an active member of my current church. Life goes on, stop the negative feelings and put joy in you life. If you are truly a Byzantine Catholic you love the Church, the Body and Blood of Christ, the Liturgy, the icons, the smell of incense and you will stay and you should participate. I cannot understand how a NJ priest can say the music is bad so he just made his own pamphlet with the new words(shame on him and the Bishop should be aware of his attitude.)
Do I think we should have used the time, resources and money for something more important, in my opinion yes, maybe the 6th, 7th, 8th and High School God With Us series for ECF completed, but that will come. How many versions of the Stars Spangle Banner have you heard but that did that stop you from going to the Pirates or Steelers games or worse leaving the US. Speaking of changes, I wish all the churches would clean up their websites and teach the parishioners why we do not have "First Communion". Children learn from the parents and all the negative adults are sending the wrong message to the young children and teens. Hope the Pittsburgh ByzanTEEN rally this week has a positive attitude toward the Liturgy. A church friend and I went to a Melkite church for a Holy Day, we participated in the Liturgy, sang the different melodies and came away feeling like we were at home there. In the whole scheme of life
the changes are minor as compared to the world, let’s not have an internal war over this.

Peace Begins With You

I am shocked and sadden by all the negative talk about the Liturgy. I grew up in PA as an Orthodox married a Byzantine Catholic, over 50, cannot read music and cannot carry a turn but I attended Liturgy last night and was able to follow in the book (easier than the old, it tells you what page to go to) and also attempted to sing with the 2 cantors and 20 people that were in church. We did make mistakes but I came away feeling good inside because I was in my church. We should go to church because of the Love of God and prayer. Do the words and melody changes really mean that much that you must be so cruel in your hearts? Many of the songs before the changes are not the same as I grew up with but that did not stop me from being an active member of my current church. Life goes on, stop the negative feelings and put joy in you life. If you are truly a Byzantine Catholic you love the Church, the Body and Blood of Christ, the Liturgy, the icons, the smell of incense and you will stay and you should participate....

Do the words and melody changes really mean that much that you must be so cruel in your hearts?

No one likes to see negativity at any level. With the RDL I've seen it. But what is even more sad is the level of APATHY that I've seen. Many have given up or just moved on to another rite or Orthodoxy, etc. Apathy is what should concern us all. At least negativity shows there is some concern and emotion left out there. But time after time I see those who simply don't care and are moving on and not looking back, and the way they see it, they aren't leaving their church, their church left them. There is no plan of evangelization anywhere that I've seen (I'd love to have someone point it out). We have been a church in contraction, that contraction is continuing and now is even being accelerated by the RDL. How are we back filling these departures?

Another subject that hasn't been discussed on this board is that now that Pope Benedict has given permission for the Latin Mass, our best 'evangelization' tool is gone. The people who couldn't stand the Novus Ordo now have a place to go and those who were going to leave will now stay. So there's less people that will be coming over and a few Latins will probably return.

The bottom line is that this cannot be sustained. Pittsburgh and Parma Eparchies will face major closing of their churches unfortunately sooner than most think. Go to the parishes in these eparchies, look at the congregations, add 20 years, what do you see? I don't know how this all ends but it doesn't end well.

How sad, an evangelization effort really needed and needs to occur, instead we are spinning our wheels with 1960s whims in our Liturgy.

Monomakh

Do the words and melody changes really mean that much that you must be so cruel in your hearts?

This is a very deep spiritual insight.

Nevertheless, even seemingly difficult people who rant need our unconditional love. To paraphrase St. Therese of Lisieux - there are many flowers in God's garden and some of us are prickly pears.

Most of us in the real world are judged not by how hard we have worked but by the quality of our work.

Do the words and melody changes really mean that much that you must be so cruel in your hearts?

and that Theotokos has been restored.