Any tips for attending Divine Liturgy?

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MassEffectDude

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Hello,

I am a fully confirmed Roman Catholic who is looking for a change of pace, I plan on a attending a local Ukrainian Catholic Church for Divine Liturgy this coming Sunday. This will be my first time in an Eastern Church, and I am wondering if you all have any tips for me? This church is really small they only have 100 full time parishioners, no website, a small church building and it’s in an ethnic Ukrainian neighborhood so I realize I will stand out 😃 so anything I can do to not look super silly would be good.

I am aware communion is done with a spoon, and I have heard the priest/deacon says your name as you take Communion…he has never met me so I am nervous about that. Would it be offensive to skip Communion? (I technically already will have had it this week anyways) I am also slightly confused about the kissing of icons, is this something I should partake in? Lastly, I am assuming most of the liturgy is conducted standing similar to Orthodox tradition, no?

Any advice/answers would be much appreciated! I am really looking forward to giving Eastern Catholicism a try.
 
When the Royal Doors are open all present stand; when they are closed all may sit.

It would not be offensive to not receive Communion.

When kissing icons cross yourself twice, kiss the icon an then cross yourself again.

You are encouraged but do not have to venerate the icons. Enjoy your experience at the local church of our Eastern brethren!

The Byzantine Liturgy is the same of our Orthodox separated brethren save for the mentioning of Heirarchs in the prayers and litanies.

e.g Francis the Pope of Rome, Sviataslov our Patriarch, Timothy our Metropolitan etc…

ocf.org/OrthodoxPage/liturgy/liturgy.html

www.saintelias.com/ca/servers/index.php
 
tbtcom1213 said:
When the Royal Doors are open all present stand; when they are closed all may sit.
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I’d say just follow everyone’s lead. I don’t know about the UGCC in particular, but IME parishes can radically differ whether they close the royal doors or even have them (at least among the Orthodox, I assume it’s applicable to EC’s too).
When kissing icons cross yourself twice, kiss the icon an then cross yourself again.
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Is this a common Ukrainian practice? I rarely see this amount of crossing among Antiochian/OCA/Greek Orthodox, and I wouldn’t have though EC’s would be much different…
 
Do what everyone else does.

Don’t receive Holy Communion.

Wear comfortable shoes (lots of standing).
 
tbtcom1213 said:
When the Royal Doors are open all present stand; when they are closed all may sit.
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Hi tbtcom, I’ve never attended an Eastern Rite Liturgy, so please forgive this question which probably has a very obvious answer: what are the Royal Doors? Are they the doors to the Tabernacle, or something else?

Thanks in advance for enlightening me! :o
 
RyanBlack said:
Why should the OP not receive Holy Communion?
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Oops! Misread, thought it was an Orthodox Divine Liturgy 😊

If it’s in Communion with Rome, go on and receive. Just pay attention to the way that the other receive it.
 
Morwenna said:
Hi tbtcom, I’ve never attended an Eastern Rite Liturgy, so please forgive this question which probably has a very obvious answer: what are the Royal Doors? Are they the doors to the Tabernacle, or something else?

Thanks in advance for enlightening me! :o
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The Royal Doors are the doors in the center of the iconostasis (icon screen).
 
Comfortable shoes and (unless it’s hot out) layers of garments.

Perhaps a bottle of water if it’s warm out or you have issues with singing for an hour+…

Most byzantine rite edifices will start cool, and be a bit on the warm side by the end of liturgy.
 
So which way do they cross themselves. The Orthodox way or the Catholic way ?
 
bitznbitez said:
So which way do they cross themselves. The Orthodox way or the Catholic way ?
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The index and middle finger to the thumb, representing the holy trinity and the two remaining fingers to the palm which represents the nature of Christ I believe. I also believe there is a bow between making the sign, but I could be way off. 😃

BTW…thank you all for the tips so far, I am also curious about where people stand. Is it true Women stand on one side and men on the other? Sorry for all my naggy questions, I am just very very curious 🙂
 
bitznbitez said:
So which way do they cross themselves. The Orthodox way or the Catholic way ?
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Forehead → chest → right shoulder → left shoulder.

And you put your thumb, index, and middle fingers all together as if you are holding a piece of paper or something with them, and tuck your ring finger and little finger into your palm. Often a bow is included with this as well, as you will see people crossing themselves whenever the Trinity is invoked, and they usually bow a little as they do.
 
MassEffectDude said:
The index and middle finger to the thumb, representing the holy trinity and the two remaining fingers to the palm which represents the nature of Christ I believe. I also believe there is a bow between making the sign, but I could be way off. 😃

BTW…thank you all for the tips so far, I am also curious about where people stand. Is it true Women stand on one side and men on the other? Sorry for all my naggy questions, I am just very very curious 🙂
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In my experience there haven’t really been any bows during most signs of the cross. However, you did describe the hand positioning correctly!

Apparently most Eastern Catholic churches don’t divide based on the sexes. All of the ones I’ve gone to (2 Melkite and 2 UGCC) have had a mixed group in the pews.
 
MassEffectDude said:
This church is really small they only have 100 full time parishioners, no website, a small church building and it’s in an ethnic Ukrainian neighborhood so I realize I will stand out 😃 so anything I can do to not look super silly would be good.
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Welcome to the EC Section.
I have to say this made me laugh. It made me think of a conversation I had last year with someone at the Latin Chancery here. In the course of things she asked if our xyz committee could maybe work on that, whatever it was we were then discussing. I said "We have a very small parish, we don’t have enough people to have that committee. It wasn’t until weeks later it occurred to me that by very small she was probably imagining 150-200 families. I was talking about a parish of about 30 in our case, and “full time parishioners” would be slightly lower.

In the East, 100 full time parishioners could be a really good sized parish, depending on the location and jurisdiction. I was in an OCA parish a few weeks ago with 30 including their choir, and 4 kids. We average about 25, including visitors which we always have.

Parishes vary in terms of reaching out to visitors from what I’ve heard. I’ve only been to a couple of dozen, counting both Eastern Catholic, and Orthodox, and all were friendly, or at least neutral. I’ve never experienced hostility, unless you consider being told “You want take picture, you go Hollywood!” I was told one time at the ROCOR Cathedral when I used my phone to take a picture during a big liturgy with clergy from Moscow. If I hadn’t already been there many times it might have freaked me out enough to leave and maybe be afraid to go back. Actually, I felt complete sympathy for his point of view. I had no intention of taking a bunch of pictures, however there were people all over the cathedral who took pictures throughout the liturgy.
 
Domnall said:
In my experience there haven’t really been any bows during most signs of the cross. However, you did describe the hand positioning correctly!

Apparently most Eastern Catholic churches don’t divide based on the sexes. All of the ones I’ve gone to (2 Melkite and 2 UGCC) have had a mixed group in the pews.
Click to expand...
I’m in Russian Churches mostly and we don’t have pews. When you get people in pews the whole physical part of reverencing/bowing is constrained. The two Melkite parishes I’ve been in had chairs so forget bowing. The Greek Orthodox around here have pews or chairs, too. During services that have prostrations there are typically few people at the Greek Cathedral and many of the ones there go out into the aisles in order to be able to move enough to bow and to get down and prostrate.
 
On Holy Communion, should I state my full christian name? For instance if my confirmation name was Paul, should I state my name as First Middle Paul Last. Or should I just say Paul?

It’s funny how little I use my confirmation name in practice, that I actually have no idea how to use it. 😛
 
MassEffectDude said:
On Holy Communion, should I state my full christian name? For instance if my confirmation name was Paul, should I state my name as First Middle Paul Last. Or should I just say Paul?

It’s funny how little I use my confirmation name in practice, that I actually have no idea how to use it. 😛
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Don’t use the family name nor patronymic. Just the personal name of baptism.
 
Well I just attended the liturgy, it was very spiritual and something I would definitely do again.
 
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