www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology The Passion Week Services and Current Reforms

Dave:

Thanks for the links. That's rather than the hand held ratchet was what I was looking for.

And gentlemen: What is this "fashion show"; That I don't recall.

At Passion Matins it is a Greek Catholic fad to put on a different complete set of vestments for every Passion account, starting with white and ending up in purple/black.

So in the middle there is a progression from white to gold to green to blue to red, with infinite local variations. The intermediate colors are whatever order the priest wishes as long as it starts with white or gold on the first Gospel and ends up with purple/black on the last one.

So while the stikhera are being sung between the Passion accounts, the priest is flailing about the sanctuary trying to rush on the next set of vestments.

I was describing this to an Orthodox priest friend once and he sincerely thought I was kidding. :rolleyes:

Wow. That's a lot of vestments; I would think that for the most part we were too poor for that.

Do you recall when the Orthodox change from red to gold?

They usually don't change. Red is worn at Holy Thursday Vesperal Liturgy (sometimes purple) and purple/black is worn for all of Good Friday, Strasti, Royal Hours, and Vespers.

The change from purple to gold or white occurs at the Prokimenon of the Holy Saturday Vesperal Liturgy or Vespers (beginning the vigil of Pascha).

At Church of the Resurrection parish (Ruthenian Metropolia), Fr. Joseph has replaced the Latin "kalatala" with the Greek "semantron". It is struck just as the monks would when calling fellow monks to prayer. I think this is a good substitution, seeing that most Ruthenian parishes aren't used to bell ringing on Great Friday.

I must admit, the "kalatala" adds a very powerful
sound effect to the Great Friday "Plaschanica" procession, especially if the particular church has good acoustics. I remember being erroneously
told that it represented the sound of Christ being nailed to the Cross!

"Bla-ho-o-braz-nyj I-o-sif....(clack-clack, clack-clack)"

Ung-Certez

I've been through the kalatala and bells, and I must say for me nothing is as powerful while making the procession on Great and Holy Friday as a well-rung and synchronized perezvon.

Hearing the bells, lowest to highest, slowly rung, thinking of the self-emptying of our Lord and the profundity of Passion, is an experience that words cannot convey. And then all of them rung together once after the plashchanitsya is placed.

The boards to me during the procession only reinforce what we have lost through latinizations. Were they used to invite to prayer at the beginning of a service, like the semandron, that is much different and I love them when used for that purpose.

My impressions exactly. And UC, you can imagine the resonace of the clack-clack in St. Mary's Johnstown. Very Powerful.

Djs,
It also can be dangerous. Growing up as an altar boy, the honor of "ringing" the "kalatala" was always given to one of the older (high school Senior) altar boys. I even remember one Great Friday procession where the bolt that held the hammer to the wooden base broke and sent the hammer flying through the air and then ricocheted
off the marble baldochino. A hazardous duty indeed!

Ung-Certez

That was tough duty. Eighth-graders for us.

The wooden pivot would swell and make the swing action stiff. You really had to swing; if you didn't, the action would get stuck and the rhythm of the clacking would be broken with the dead silence of a clack missed. And everyone recognized that silence, the unmistakable sound of a wimpy swing.

The pressure was enormous.

Vestments - the Greek and Middle East tradition has the priest wearing bright vestments at the Holy Saturday Orthros (held in practice on Good Friday evening).

Incognitus

I am grateful to all who contributed to making this thread so substantive.

Among the many fascinating points made along the way is the observation that what takes place in a given parish is often quite different from what is presented in liturgical books.

In that context, I would propose that this Forum could make a modest contribution to the "careful research" necessary to make informed decisions. A careful description of the range of liturgical practices for Lazarus Saturday, Palm Sunday, and Holy Week coiuld provide useful information on a variety of fronts.

Should that read, highest to lowest?

I am esp. interested in how Passion Week is observed in different parishes, how it was observed in the past, and the possibilities of renewal. Was the moment when the priest comes out chanting "Come receive the light... ", a moment which now comes at midnight and in the middle of Matins, ever part of the Liturgy of St. Basil, and got transposed as the services shifted over time? Because, it seems to me that the lack of such a dramatic moment in the Liturgy of St. Basil is what keeps it from being the Paschal Vigil in popular function, even if that is what it was historically. "Christ is risen" is sung after that moment; it does not appear in the Liturgy of St. Basil.

"Was the moment when the priest comes out chanting "Come receive the light... ", a moment which now comes at midnight and in the middle of Matins, ever part of the Liturgy of St. Basil,..."

No. First of all, it's not in the middle of Matins; it's between the Midnight Office and Matins. That aside, that verse is only a few centuries old ... far newer than the usual mispractice of having vespers in the morning ... and is only used in certain places.

To renew the Passion Week services, I suggest reverting to the written Typicon (of St. Sabbas') which reflects Byzantine usage fully developed but before things commenced decaying into the mess we now have in parishes and, even, most monasteries.

I made several lengthy posts a few weeks ago on this forum describing the Pascal Vigil and why the Liturgy of St. Basil on the Great Sabbath is not part of Pascha.

Photius, Reader

According to strict usage, the changing of the vestments from dark to light is done during the chanting of "Arise, O God, and judge the earth", which replaces the Alleluia after the Epistle at the Holy Saturday Vespers and Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil. If done well, the changing of the vestments is very effective.

On the issue of the banging during the last day or so of Holy Week, I'm with our brother Diak - let's stick to a nice, peaceful bell toll instead of having something that sounds like a machine gun going off in our ears!

Incognitus