Best of both worlds?

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wa3zrm

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Since my dad was Italian, I was baptized and confirmed RC; however, my mother’s side of the family (Slavic) practiced Byzantine Catholic. While I was growing up, I had the opportunity to attend both churches.

Today, depending on the mood I’m in, I flip back and forth between the two services. Living in the Pittsburgh, PA area, I am fortunate to have access to plenty of both RC and EC churches. My home parish is RC; however, I attend EC Byzantine services just as much as I do RC ones.

Is there anyone else out there doing what I am doing?
 
Sure do! I’m married to a Latin Catholic, but we attend Divine Liturgy or Mass, depending on what where we are, who we are with, and how much time we have. Aren’t we lucky to b e living in areas that give us that opportunity?

Xpuctoc Bockpec!
 
mariyka said:
Aren’t we lucky to be living in areas that give us that opportunity?
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Yep! It is an opportunity I thank God to have. 🙂

It’s ashamed that more people don’t take the opportunity to experience both liturgies.

I wish there was a Society of Saint John Chrysostom in the area. The Society of Saint John Chrysostom is an ecumenical group of clergy and lay people which promotes Eastern Christianity and Ecumenical Dialogue between the Eastern and Western Churches.

Their website is ssjc.org/index.htm
 
wa3zrm said:
Since my dad was Italian, I was baptized and confirmed RC; however, my mother’s side of the family (Slavic) practiced Byzantine Catholic. While I was growing up, I had the opportunity to attend both churches.

Today, depending on the mood I’m in, I flip back and forth between the two services. Living in the Pittsburgh, PA area, I am fortunate to have access to plenty of both RC and EC churches. My home parish is RC; however, I attend EC Byzantine services just as much as I do RC ones.

Is there anyone else out there doing what I am doing?
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I will be when I move to Pittsburgh in a few months 🙂 I plan on checking out the Ukrainian, Latin, and Byzantine Catholic Churches regularly!
 
Christ is risen!

Welcome to the Forums.
wa3zrm said:
Since my dad was Italian, I was baptized and confirmed RC; however, my mother’s side of the family (Slavic) practiced Byzantine Catholic. While I was growing up, I had the opportunity to attend both churches.

Today, depending on the mood I’m in, I flip back and forth between the two services. Living in the Pittsburgh, PA area, I am fortunate to have access to plenty of both RC and EC churches. My home parish is RC; however, I attend EC Byzantine services just as much as I do RC ones.

Is there anyone else out there doing what I am doing?
Click to expand...
It’s great your family upheld both traditions.

Like you I am canonically Latin, but I think of myself as Catholic with a very definite affinity for the Byzantine liturgical/sacramental world view. I commute to a Byzantine parish on Sundays, and whenever we have any other services, which isn’t that often because we are tiny and all commuters. I go to daily Mass at a Latin parish, sometimes a Priory, and am a catechist in a Latin parish. I really miss it if I don’t have daily communal prayer which where I am isn’t an option anyplace other than Latin Church. I rarely am at a Sunday Roman Rite Mass any more except when scheduled to be a EMHC or when a special Rite is happening for a catechumen. Otherwise Sundays I’m at Divine Liturgy at the Byz parish.

I’ll add that since my Byzantine church is so small and isn’t able to have various other festal services, recently that would be Bridegroom Matins for example, on those occasions I typically go to a Russian Orthodox church, occasionally to a very close by Greek Orthodox church. I’m very indebted to the Russian Orthodox parish which has always been very gracious in welcoming me and whose worship has so greatly enriched the liturgical sacramental year for me. It seems like most of the parishioners at my Byzantine Catholic parish are more likely to go to another service, Matins or Vespers etc., at an Orthodox parish rather than at a Latin Church.

You are lucky to have so many Catholic churches East and West near you. I have to allow at least an hour, and an ever increasing bridge toll, to get to either the Byzantine Catholic or the Russian Orthodox parishes. But I feel greatly blest to have access to them! And I cannot get to either of them via public transit so I cherish these days while I’m still able to drive and am happy I can often give rides to others.
 
I grew up Roman, and I go to the RC Mass on rare occasions, such as when I am visiting family. While my Dad was in a nursing home, I would go there for holiday’s and occasional Sunday’s. It was pleasant and simple there.

I did a canonical change of rites in 2006, and my preference is Byzantine. When I move to Pittsburgh in the fall. I will split my time between my old parish (Byzantine) in WV and one in Pittsburgh. I may also take advantage of the TLM once in a while. I have a friend who attends there. I am not, usually, a NO person. The less of a production it is, the more it feeds me spiritually.

On a related note, the mother of a former roommate of mine was a convert to the Catholic faith, although at some point in past generations her family was Catholic. She became RC, but later had exposure to the Byzantine liturgy and she began to attend it as well. As she became active in a Byzantine parish while remaining active in the Roman one she was in, she found out that some of her ancestors were actually Byzantine. She, the last I knew, choose to remain canonically Roman, but has a great love for both liturgies.

God Bless,
Rosemary
 
I don’t do it that much but I sometimes do go to a western rite Orthodox parish if I can’t go to my own eastern rite one.
 
wa3zrm said:
Since my dad was Italian, I was baptized and confirmed RC; however, my mother’s side of the family (Slavic) practiced Byzantine Catholic. While I was growing up, I had the opportunity to attend both churches.

Today, depending on the mood I’m in, I flip back and forth between the two services. Living in the Pittsburgh, PA area, I am fortunate to have access to plenty of both RC and EC churches. My home parish is RC; however, I attend EC Byzantine services just as much as I do RC ones.

Is there anyone else out there doing what I am doing?
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Yes, I am a convert from evangelical protestantism. When I converted to Catholicism about 2 years ago, I was hardly even aware of the Eastern Catholic Churches. One day a few months after my conversion to Catholicism, there was an add in the bulletin for a Ruthenian Catholic Divine Liturgy being offered in the area. The nearest EC church is over an hour and a half away, and they only come to my area about once a month to offer the Divine Liturgy. I have been attending this monthly Divine Liturgy once a month since then. I also attend the Latin Rite Church I was confirmed in, and also I occasionally attend a Tridentine Mass about 45 minutes away from me.
 
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