www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Going to both churches the Catholic way

I said I'd do it again someday and this past Saturday I did. Went to an Orthodox service, Saturday Vespers, for the first time since 2011, since returning to the Catholic Church, and it was great. I know the parish and some there know me; the neighborhood's Byzantine Catholic priest and I used to man the kliros for this service. Partly circumstances kept me away as I'm usually out of town Saturdays. Anyway, been going to the Ukrainian Catholic Church one Sunday a month for the past year and a half, and have a Russian Byzantine prayer life at home (except I don't really fast: Friday abstinence), and now there's this.

In this tradition, people are expected to go to Vespers before Communion so it makes sense for me to do this before communing with the Ukrainians in a given month. I don't receive often, like old-country Orthodox; I'm a very medieval Catholic that way.

The point: when you live someplace ethnic enough so there are both Byzantine Catholic and Orthodox churches, and there's a friendly Orthodox parish, you can live an entirely Orthodox life as a Catholic. While it's unfortunate that most Byzantine Catholic parishes don't have Saturday Vespers anymore, it can be an opportunity. Be ecumenical. Make some new friends. Why duplicate services other than the Liturgy? Double up and go to the Orthodox for Vespers, and besides, they're the ones from whom to learn how to do the services.

Of course, receive sacraments only from the Catholic Church. That obeys both sides' rules. Breaking that would tell the Orthodox not to trust us.

That's perfectly reasonable. My Greek Catholic parish has Saturday Vespers and Sunday Matins followed by Divine Liturgy.

I often attend the Saturday Evening Vigil (Vespers and Matins together) at the local ROCOR Cathedral and then Matins and Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning at my own parish (though occasionally I like the ROCOR or OCA Cathedrals for a dose of the Slavonic Divine Liturgy). [It was nice to hear the Christmas Canon last Sunday.]

Plus, I sometimes attend the ROCOR cathedral for Old Calendar Feasts. I attend there less now than in previous years, but that's mostly due to the fact that over the past 30 years the growth of the area where I live has turned a 30 minute drive each way into an 60+ minute drive.

LOL - I'll even admit to attending via YouTube one evening while I was painting the inside of the house.