My Trip Back Home - 04/24/02 03:13 PM
Yesterday I took a ride back upstate to my home parish in the coal regions of Pennsylvania. Purpose of the trip was twofold - To visit my parents graves and place the traditional Pysanky and an Icon on the their grave for Pascha. Also to pick up twelve loaves of the most delicious Pascha breads I have ever tasted. Each year I give them to my so called God Children (the people that I have sponsored when they converted to Orthodoxy). Those wonderful ladies of the parish baked a total of 820 Pascha breads this year for both Easters. And they are all in the eighties! Wonderful people but as stubborn as ever (and I say that with love).
They invited us (my neighor and myself) to have lunch with them. I asked how they liked the new priest who has been there a year now. WHAT A MISTAKE!
Because then I got the old "Father is trying to change everything sermon." This is another good topic for discussion between Orthodox and Byzantine Catholics since you will face the same issues as you try and get rid of the latinizations. Now this comes AFTER NINETY YEARS OF THE PARISHS EXISTENCE!
"Fathers trying to change everything. We always had the midnight Easter Ressurection Matins which ended with the homily of St John Chrysostom. Then we went outside (if it wasn't raining and Blessed the baskets and went home. Liturgy was in the morning on Pascha, not in the night. Now Father wants to change it and go right through. I never heard of such a thing."
With a 'why did I ever ask' thought I very patiently tried to explain that Father was right. It was not an Orthodox custom to split the services. Because of the split services, most people in the parish go home with their Blessed baskets after Matins and break the fast by eating the Blessed food. Many do not come back for Liturgy the next morning. And many of those that do, do not go to Communion on the Holiest Day in Christiandom because they had already broke the fast. This is wrong and is why Father is trying to change it to the way it's supposed to be. The reply I got was -"Well, we've been doing it this way for over ninety years. And if it was wrong someone would have changed it by now! AND NOTHING IS TO BE CHANGED" Ya gotta love em by Yoy Boshe!
I think this practice of a split service was brought back from the Unia but I'm not sure. It took the priest in my present parish FIFTEEN YEARS to prepare the people to go right through. When he annouced it about five years ago there were people who complained. The first year some people left after Matins and went to another parish for the Liturgy the next day. The next year some of them stayed. And after five years no one leaves and no one left the parish because of it. But that will not happen in my home parish upstate! There are still OCA parishes that have a split service and the priests are having a hard time correcting this.
So, what is the practice in the Byzantine Catholic Church and what are your opinions on changing if need be?
OrthoMan
They invited us (my neighor and myself) to have lunch with them. I asked how they liked the new priest who has been there a year now. WHAT A MISTAKE!
Because then I got the old "Father is trying to change everything sermon." This is another good topic for discussion between Orthodox and Byzantine Catholics since you will face the same issues as you try and get rid of the latinizations. Now this comes AFTER NINETY YEARS OF THE PARISHS EXISTENCE!
"Fathers trying to change everything. We always had the midnight Easter Ressurection Matins which ended with the homily of St John Chrysostom. Then we went outside (if it wasn't raining and Blessed the baskets and went home. Liturgy was in the morning on Pascha, not in the night. Now Father wants to change it and go right through. I never heard of such a thing."
With a 'why did I ever ask' thought I very patiently tried to explain that Father was right. It was not an Orthodox custom to split the services. Because of the split services, most people in the parish go home with their Blessed baskets after Matins and break the fast by eating the Blessed food. Many do not come back for Liturgy the next morning. And many of those that do, do not go to Communion on the Holiest Day in Christiandom because they had already broke the fast. This is wrong and is why Father is trying to change it to the way it's supposed to be. The reply I got was -"Well, we've been doing it this way for over ninety years. And if it was wrong someone would have changed it by now! AND NOTHING IS TO BE CHANGED" Ya gotta love em by Yoy Boshe!
I think this practice of a split service was brought back from the Unia but I'm not sure. It took the priest in my present parish FIFTEEN YEARS to prepare the people to go right through. When he annouced it about five years ago there were people who complained. The first year some people left after Matins and went to another parish for the Liturgy the next day. The next year some of them stayed. And after five years no one leaves and no one left the parish because of it. But that will not happen in my home parish upstate! There are still OCA parishes that have a split service and the priests are having a hard time correcting this.
So, what is the practice in the Byzantine Catholic Church and what are your opinions on changing if need be?
OrthoMan