My first Divine Liturgy!

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Antonius_Lupus

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Brothers and sisters,

Tommorow and for the first time in my life I will be participating in the Divine Liturgy at a Melkite Byzantine Catholic Church. The Divine Liturgy is essentially a Sunday worship service for those who don’t know.

Please pray for me as I enter into the Holy Place of the Lord God. Pray for me that I might worship the Triune God in “spirit and in truth.” With love and reverence for the God who saved me.

I will update this thread tommorow btw.

Thank you.
 
Antonius,

Which church do you plan to attend? I’m not aware of any Melkite parishes in NC. Enjoy the liturgy, and be assured of my prayers!

God bless,

Chris
 
How blessed you are! I’d love to attend a Melkite liturgy some day. Please tell us everything when you get back tomorrow.

Alaha minokhoun
Andrew
 
o.k. i’m roman catholic, and I always wondered what goes on at a Divine Liturgy. can anyone explain?
 
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o.k. i’m roman catholic, and I always wondered what goes on at a Divine Liturgy. can anyone explain?>>

Divine Liturgy is the usual name in Eastern Churches for the Eucharistic Sacrifice.

In Byzantine Churches, it is usually the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, but during Lent and some other times we use the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil.

You can find their texts on line.
 
In a nutshell:
an introit
A liturgy of the word
the consecration
Communion
prayers after communion.

It will, if you are Roman Rite, be both eerily familiar and yet very different. It will have most, if not all, of the prayers sung. Lots of incense is normative.
 
I went to 2 so far and will be @ my 3rd tomorrow morning, a little confusing at first with the different liturgy and I do kind of wish the readings were not chanted as it can make it hard to understand, depending on who is the reader…but that aside, I love it and recommend at least attending a couple to every RC brother or sister to see how the other half breathes…but careful, because aside from the potiential irritants in copious amounts of incense, one may find one’s weeks beginning to crawl along as one waits like a child for his birthday for their next spiritually invigorating breath of fresh air, bringing a new (old) vibrance and beauty and sense of being in the house of God to the same old Sunday obligation… well…I am liking it. 🙂
 
Well I had a wonderful experience at the Melkite parish. As I walked into the Church I was awestruck with the colors and the iconography. Saints, Prophets, the Theotokos, and the Lord Jesus were all beautifully represented. What I thought was REALLY amazing was that this small Church houses a piece of bone from St. Ignatius of Antioch himself. Glory be to God!

I stayed for Orthros which were beginning prayers. The cantor sung the Psalms and we sometimes sung with him, bowing and making the sign of the Cross. When the Divine Liturgy began the Church was filled up with people and the Liturgy of the Word began. There was no reading from the prophets, but only from the Epistles and the Gospel. There was alot of chanting and processions. Everything was very beautiful.

It was VERY different from the Liturgy I was used to, but the structure was the same.

Still, in a difficult to expain way going to Divine Liturgy was a not what I expected.

I was hoping to be caught up in the beauty and splendor of the Heaven on Earth experience, but I wasn’t. Everything was alien to me. There were so many icons that I became somewhat distracted, and I didn’t know when to bow or anything like that. The chanting was also different.

In short, I simply wasn’t focusing on God. I was so busy trying to keep up with the Liturgy that I became distracted and I lost my focus. Also I was totally lost during the consecration of the Eucharistic gifts. They did the Words of Institution FIRST and THEN the Epiclesis. I wasn’t sure when the Body and the Blood became present!

However, upon reflection I know WHY this is. I was not accustomed to this particular form of worship. I was too embarassed to worship around strangers I didn’t know, in a Church that wasn’t “mine.”

Next time I will know what to expect and I will be able to worship God much easier as I won’t be distracted.

Still, I was surprised at how my experience made me proud about being a Roman Catholic. While I was happy and joyful to be worshipping God in the Melkite Church, I got the overwhelming feeling that this wasn’t MY style of worship. It was too extravagant for my tastes.

I am so stupid! I was so enthralled by the prospect of going to an Eastern Church, that I was missing the beauty of the ROMAN expression of the Faith.

NOBLE ROMAN SIMPLICITY!

When I am at the Roman Mass there are few distractions so it is easier for me to focus on Jesus, especially in His Presence in the Eucharist. I find it easier to worship Him here, than amidst all the chanting and such.

But again this is perhaps simply because I have not LEARNED how to worship in the Byzantine way. It will take time for me to learn how to worship in the Melkite fashion.

After all, it has taken me almost two years now to get accustommed to worshipping God in the Roman Mass.

It will also take time to learn how to worship in the Byzantine way.

Still, I look foward to worshipping in the Byzantine Church again!

My plan is, after my Initiation into the Faith, to go to the Byzantine Church on Sundays for the Divine Liturgy, and to go to Mass daily since it is near my house.

The greatest part of all this is that, no matter which Church I go to worship the LORD, I will be worshipping as God intended:

Offering up the Holy Eucharist in the One True Church that Jesus founded! Amen!!!
 
Dear brother Antonius,
Antonius_Lupus said:
Still, I look foward to worshipping in the Byzantine Church again!

My plan is, after my Initiation into the Faith, to go to the Byzantine Church on Sundays for the Divine Liturgy, and to go to Mass daily since it is near my house.

The greatest part of all this is that, no matter which Church I go to worship the LORD, I will be worshipping as God intended:

Offering up the Holy Eucharist in the One True Church that Jesus founded! Amen!!!
Click to expand...
God has truly blessed you to be able to focus on the real intent of the Mass or Divine Liturgy - the Presence of the Lord. I have found that many who go to Orthodoxy primarily BECAUSE OF the Divine Liturgy rarely ever mention the Eucharist, but rather indeed get caught up in the “smells and bells.” I feel blessed to hear from you such holy love for the Lord in the Eucharist. Truly, your heart, mind and soul are in the proper place.

I am also interested in something else you mentioned - that the Melkite Church you attended had a relic of St. Ignatius of Antioch! WOW!!! Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe EVERY Church is required to have a holy relic deposited in the altarstone. I wonder whose holy relics are in your current Latin Church.

Has anyone else ever bothered to discover whose relics are in your Church?👍

Blessings,
Marduk

P.S. I almost felt a twinge of jealousy when you stated you are going to daily Mass. I have not had time to do that because of current obligations. That is certainly something ALL Latins should take advantage of!!!
 
SacredHeartFan said:
o.k. i’m roman catholic, and I always wondered what goes on at a Divine Liturgy. can anyone explain?
Click to expand...
I’m Roman too and I’ll just say that, on less of a practical note, a very VERY beautiful offering to God is made in a beautiful way. Their prayers are some of the most heartfelt and profound you will ever hear. I recommend that if you go to a Divine Liturgy, don’t worry too much the first time about “participating” in it so much as just taking it all in. Just sit back and observe. God knows your heart and as long as you just sing along to what you might know, pray some of the basic responses (when in doubt the response is probably “LORD have mercy” 👍 ) you’ll be fine. Communion is also very interesting too.
 
yep it was my 3rd D.L., Antonius, this morning and still a little confused, but was able to ask the priest a couple ?s after…I do wish they had the little missilettes that had the readings in them and which psalm they were going to be singing, but I still feel good about it, I also wish there was more sitting down time, but do feel excited and am feeling the D.L. experiance of worship is for me, a fulfilling one that makes me feel a closer feeling to the Lord than sometimes I had been over the past couple years…
Good luck, and God bless!
I will be attending some weekday masses at my usual RC parish as well so I think that will be a good way of testing the waters and more God can’t hurt! 🙂
 
I might suggest that you fellas who are now becoming familiar with the Divine liturgy of St John Chrysostom/Saint Basil pick up this: Commentary on the Divine Liturgy by Nicholas Cabasilas. I found it extraordinarily interesting when I first started attending the Byzantine Catholic Divine Liturgy.

You can find it here, at the Byzantine Seminary Press, or of course at many libraries.

I also think this website is informative.

If you develop a yearning for the spirituality of Eastern Christianity, I suggest two authors:

Archbishop Joseph Raya of blessed memory.

The Face of God

And Tomas Cardinal Spidlik

covers.allbookstores.net/c/1191285771/book/big/9780879073480 and…

*The Spirituality of the Christian East *

Likewise here are the ancient Canons, and the modern CCEO (the latter applies to Catholics).

Michael
 
thanks for the links and suggested reading Micheal, I will be checking it out! 👍
 
Glory to Jesus Christ!

I am glad to see Roman rite Catholics worshipping in the Eastern Catholic churches. I have been a regular in the Divine Liturgy for several months now, and really love it. I wish I had been born Byzantine! I find it difficult to figure out where we are in the DL sometimes, especially which tone we are singing, but I suppose I will figure it out someday.

I tell all my fellow Roman rite friends to attend the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, but most of them are not even aware of the Eastern Catholics or the different liturgies. I feel very blessed to be able to attend the DL, and my family and I drive 3 hours one way to do it!:byzsoc:
 
ThereseMarie said:
Glory to Jesus Christ!

I am glad to see Roman rite Catholics worshipping in the Eastern Catholic churches. I have been a regular in the Divine Liturgy for several months now, and really love it. I wish I had been born Byzantine! I find it difficult to figure out where we are in the DL sometimes, especially which tone we are singing, but I suppose I will figure it out someday.

I tell all my fellow Roman rite friends to attend the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, but most of them are not even aware of the Eastern Catholics or the different liturgies. I feel very blessed to be able to attend the DL, and my family and I drive 3 hours one way to do it!:byzsoc:
Click to expand...
Slava Na Viki

If you attend a Ruthenian parish you can learn much by following the links Aramis has posted in his signature. The links will take you to a lot of resources of the Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Church.
 
mardukm said:
Dear brother Antonius,

God has truly blessed you to be able to focus on the real intent of the Mass or Divine Liturgy - the Presence of the Lord. I have found that many who go to Orthodoxy primarily BECAUSE OF the Divine Liturgy rarely ever mention the Eucharist, but rather indeed get caught up in the “smells and bells.” I feel blessed to hear from you such holy love for the Lord in the Eucharist. Truly, your heart, mind and soul are in the proper place.

I am also interested in something else you mentioned - that the Melkite Church you attended had a relic of St. Ignatius of Antioch! WOW!!! Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe EVERY Church is required to have a holy relic deposited in the altarstone. I wonder whose holy relics are in your current Latin Church.

Has anyone else ever bothered to discover whose relics are in your Church?👍

Blessings,
Marduk

P.S. I almost felt a twinge of jealousy when you stated you are going to daily Mass. I have not had time to do that because of current obligations. That is certainly something ALL Latins should take advantage of!!!
Click to expand...
But wouldn’t it be great to get the liturgy back to its original form without all the changes…😉
 
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