In 1985 I'd been Catholic a year. Dearly missed the more traditional Episcopal services. Knew of the traditional Latin Mass and of Eastern Christianity, and liked what little I knew of them. Then the only Catholics in America still allowed to be traditional after Vatican II were in the Eastern rites. That and a high-school friend whose parents came from the western Ukraine after World War II meant that my first traditional Catholic service in person was Byzantine! Divine Liturgy at the Ukrainian Catholic Church much like I go to now. I'm understandably attached. I came back when I heard the pictured church had opened a year earlier. It's close to home, has a fine Liturgy and a struggling little older Christian community, and I feel like they need me. I need them. That and it's a good rite. My dispute isn't with any of the good liturgical stuff I learned from Russian Orthodoxy. I do it here and at Vigil with the Russians a few times a year to prepare for Communion in my own church. I'm home.
What encouraged you to return to being Byzantine, John?
ReplyDeleteIn 1985 I'd been Catholic a year. Dearly missed the more traditional Episcopal services. Knew of the traditional Latin Mass and of Eastern Christianity, and liked what little I knew of them. Then the only Catholics in America still allowed to be traditional after Vatican II were in the Eastern rites. That and a high-school friend whose parents came from the western Ukraine after World War II meant that my first traditional Catholic service in person was Byzantine! Divine Liturgy at the Ukrainian Catholic Church much like I go to now. I'm understandably attached. I came back when I heard the pictured church had opened a year earlier. It's close to home, has a fine Liturgy and a struggling little older Christian community, and I feel like they need me. I need them. That and it's a good rite. My dispute isn't with any of the good liturgical stuff I learned from Russian Orthodoxy. I do it here and at Vigil with the Russians a few times a year to prepare for Communion in my own church. I'm home.
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