Help getting to know the East from inside

[Nils]

Dear friends in Christ,

I am a Roman Catholic, but some of my strongest spiritual experiences has been in Orthodox churches; both in Greece, Latvia and Russia. I go to Riga on a regular basis (my Russian, Catholic godchild lives there) and I always visit the Russian Orthodox Church to pray when I am in town. It is however not my faith, and I enjoy the universality of Catholicism so much, as well as I love the all the orders and the Pope etc!

So why am I writing? I am obviously not considering converting, but I would like to live closer to the Eastern Tradition in my daily life, enjoy all the beauties it has to offer etc. Apart from the Chaldean one, we do not have any Eastern liturgies in my home town, but I am sure there are good spiritual writing and prayers out there that I could use! I am also looking for special saints to get to know, music to listen to etc.

Anyway, maybe you get this question a lot, but I thought I could ask anyway.

PS.
Are the Eastern liturgies where you live normally ethnic ones? Here, the Chaldean homily would be in Chaldean, the Greek Catholic one would be in Ukrainian etc. Is it the same where you guys live? Do you not find it weird changing to that Rite, if you do not have this ethnic background? /DS

 

[Zekariya]

Dear friends in Christ,

I am a Roman Catholic, but some of my strongest spiritual experiences has been in Orthodox churches; both in Greece, Latvia and Russia. I go to Riga on a regular basis (my Russian, Catholic godchild lives there) and I always visit the Russian Orthodox Church to pray when I am in town. It is however not my faith, and I enjoy the universality of Catholicism so much, as well as I love the all the orders and the Pope etc!

So why am I writing? I am obviously not considering converting, but I would like to live closer to the Eastern Tradition in my daily life, enjoy all the beauties it has to offer etc. Apart from the Chaldean one, we do not have any Eastern liturgies in my home town, but I am sure there are good spiritual writing and prayers out there that I could use! I am also looking for special saints to get to know, music to listen to etc.

Anyway, maybe you get this question a lot, but I thought I could ask anyway.

PS.
Are the Eastern liturgies where you live normally ethnic ones? Here, the Chaldean homily would be in Chaldean, the Greek Catholic one would be in Ukrainian etc. Is it the same where you guys live? Do you not find it weird changing to that Rite, if you do not have this ethnic background? /DS

The local ones where I live have mostly/all English (especially the homily) services whether they be Eastern Catholic or Orthodox.

Here is an online Eastern Orthodox prayer book: myriobiblos.gr/texts/english/prayerbook/main.htm

You can read Eastern and Western Church Fathers here: ccel.org/fathers.html

 

[Zekariya]

Here is the story of one of my favorite saints (who is Coptic), St Cyril of Alexandria: holytrinityorthodox.com/iconoftheday/los/June/09-01.htm
He is considered by the Catholic Church to be the Doctor of the Incarnation. Here are two of his writings:

Scholia on the incarnation of the Only-Begotten: tertullian.org/fathers/cyril_scholia_incarnation_01_text.htm

That Christ is One (St Cyril is A and Hermias is B): tertullian.org/fathers/cyril_christ_is_one_01_text.htm

 

[suissemissed]

Annunciation Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic Church in Homer Glenn, IL, released an amazing CD that features their choir (a cappella, of course, per Byzantine tradition). You can listen to all the hymns for free on their website, or you can buy the CD from them for $15. It’s mostly in English, and is to date my favorite collection of Eastern hymns - simply beautiful!

 

[Vico]

Dear friends in Christ,

I am a Roman Catholic, but some of my strongest spiritual experiences has been in Orthodox churches; both in Greece, Latvia and Russia. I go to Riga on a regular basis (my Russian, Catholic godchild lives there) and I always visit the Russian Orthodox Church to pray when I am in town. It is however not my faith, and I enjoy the universality of Catholicism so much, as well as I love the all the orders and the Pope etc!

So why am I writing? I am obviously not considering converting, but I would like to live closer to the Eastern Tradition in my daily life, enjoy all the beauties it has to offer etc. Apart from the Chaldean one, we do not have any Eastern liturgies in my home town, but I am sure there are good spiritual writing and prayers out there that I could use! I am also looking for special saints to get to know, music to listen to etc.

Anyway, maybe you get this question a lot, but I thought I could ask anyway.

PS.
Are the Eastern liturgies where you live normally ethnic ones? Here, the Chaldean homily would be in Chaldean, the Greek Catholic one would be in Ukrainian etc. Is it the same where you guys live? Do you not find it weird changing to that Rite, if you do not have this ethnic background? /DS

Some music from the Byzantine liturgy is here: metropolitancantorinstitute.org/RecordedMusic.html

Where I live there are several eastern Catholic parishes of different ritual churches within about 50 miles:

Byzantine
Ukrainian
Melkite
Maronite
Syro-Malabar

The Byzantine uses English.
The others have various languages in their liturgies.

 

[ByzCathCantor]

The Byzantine uses English.

with occasional use of Church Slavonic, depending on the parish and more generally on certain solemn and great feasts (e.g. Pascha / Easter)

 

[lssanjose]

with occasional use of Church Slavonic, depending on the parish and more generally on certain solemn and great feasts (e.g. Pascha / Easter)

Why pass up a free Rosetta Stone style language learning experience? . Now, if only I can get a Slavonic dictionary, somewhere… I could figure out the inflectional distinctions. In the words of my linguistic partner in crime, slavic languages are fun.

 

[ByzCathCantor]

Now, if only I can get a Slavonic dictionary, somewhere…

You can, but you need to learn to read the early Cyrillic alphabet, first

Here’s a rough online vocabulary list (far cry from a full dictionary), using Latinica (transliterated): Cisarik’s Old Slavonic-English Dictionary

I could figure out the inflectional distinctions. In the words of my linguistic partner in crime, slavic languages are fun.

Take a look at the second page of the MCI’s Byzantine Catholic Hymnal - it has a reprint of an old but popular pronunciation guide for transliterated Church Slavonic.

 

[Vico]

with occasional use of Church Slavonic, depending on the parish and more generally on certain solemn and great feasts (e.g. Pascha / Easter)

We have been using some in certain hymns!

 

[ByzCathCantor]

We have been using some in certain hymns!

It’s making a comeback!

Sometimes. OCS can be like German - long / compound words. In a full OCS DL, I still have trouble getting through the Creed (Viruju) without getting my tongue tied in spots, but one of these days …

 

[lssanjose]

You can, but you need to learn to read the early Cyrillic alphabet, first

Here’s a rough online vocabulary list (far cry from a full dictionary), using Latinica (transliterated): Cisarik’s Old Slavonic-English Dictionary

Take a look at the second page of the MCI’s Byzantine Catholic Hymnal - it has a reprint of an old but popular pronunciation guide for transliterated Church Slavonic.

Thanks, for these, brother