Hi All,

I'm new here. I joined this forum because I am curious about become a Byzantine Catholic. I reverted to Catholicism about 5 years ago. But I feel my connection to ancient and reverent Christianity severely lacking by our modern mass in the western rite. I have also attended a few Tridentine masses but felt that there was more emphasis put on the superiority of Tradtuonal Latin Mass instead of the Eucharist itself. I just want authentic Christianity. I'm having a hard time finding it. Advice?

Thank you.

Hello,

My first piece of advice would be to start attending the Byzantine Divine Liturgy whenever possible at your local parish and introduce yourself to the other parishioners and the pastor. There are many from the Roman Rite that find their way to Eastern Churches, believe me. My pastor once told me that close to 90% of those who attend Liturgy at my parish were born Roman Catholics.

Also, check out some of the catechetical materials from the Eastern Churches. I found the "Light for Life" series from God With Us books (godwithusbooks.org) to be a really good introduction.

Lastly, I'd suggest getting a good Eastern prayer book so that you can start learning to pray according to the Eastern traditions. My personal favorite is the "Publican's Prayer Book" available from the Melkite Eparchy of Newton, NJ (melkite.org). Also, Eastern Christian Publications (ecpubs.com) has a series of prayer books called "Let Us Pray to the Lord" that I've heard is quite good as well.

This is what I'd suggest to someone "getting started" in Eastern Catholicism. The forum here is full of great people that can provide better advice.

God Bless You.

Thank you. So if I understand correctly, become Byzantine is more or less just immersing myself in Eastern Catholic liturgy and theology?

MariaMaterMea:

Christ is in our midst!!

I think you have misunderstood. The label "Byzantine" or "Latin" is just that: a label. The whole point of being a member of Christ's Body is to be part of a community working its way to the Kingdom.

You will get there by being part of a community, not be " immersing (your)self in Eastern Catholic liturgy and theology." If the Byzantine community speaks to you and touches you deeply in the innermost part of your being, then that is the path that the Holy Spirit is leading you to use to grow in holiness. But it is never about "me" in any of this. It is about growing in Christ; growing in His Body, the Church; gaining in holiness and contributing your gifts to building up others in that same community.

So take the advice given to you by the other member. Begin by attending the Divine Liturgy at a local parish, introduce yourself, meet the pastor, take some instructions, get involved with the parish and its activities, and grow spiritually.

On the Last Day--and even sooner if He puts it off and you meet Him face-to-face for your own one-on-one--He will not ask you if you were Latin, Byzantine, Armenian, or other label. He will want to know "I was hungry and you gave me to eat, I was thirsty and . . ." Pray about how you find the way to grow in your relationship with Him in and through a parish community.

Bob

In Finland it is not so easy to be a catholic interested in byzantine catholism. The is not a byzantine parish in The country. Nearest one is an Ukrainian greek-catholic
In Tallin, Estonia.
But there is an Ukrainan community in Capital Helsinki. An Ukrainian greek-catholic liturgy is celebtated once a month in RC cathedral of St Henry. The priest comes fromTallin...

Hyvä Iltää! I presume the priest from Tallinn only serves in Ukrainian? Do they follow the Julian calendar? If they are using the facilities of a Latin Rite church, it might may things easier.

Iltaa! The service is in Ukrainian. But sometimes The Cantor has Been a Finn, so he has used Finnish 😀So liturgy in two languages...
Calendar is the Julian one.

It seems ironic that they use the Julian calendar, when the Orthodox church in Finland uses the Gregorian calendar, even for Pascha( given how far North Finland is, they probably have a White Pascha more often than not).
But, most of the Ukrainian Catholic diaspora uses the Julian calendar. Since the mission uses the facilities of a Latin Rite church, I suppose it is more convenient.

Yes, The Finnish orthodox Church EP uses the Gregorian calendar. There are some small so called private orthodox parishes MP in the country and they ofcourse use the Julian one.😀