"Split" vigil

[Rin]

Hello everyone,

I was lucky enough to be able to go to a Byzantine Rite (Ukrainian Catholic) Paschal vigil this year, in addition to the Good Friday service. They were both wonderful. However, I was under the impression that after Matins (on Saturday night), Divine Liturgy would follow. But at that point everyone went home. Since I don’t understand a word Ukrainian and hence have no idea what the priest said towards the end, I checked my parish (which is Latin - this is a small diaspora group who do not yet have the resources to build their own church) website, and it turns out they were to celebrate Divine Liturgy next morning, at which time I wouldn’t be able to attend.

So I ran across the street to the main church (we’re lucky enough to have two churches right next to each other, which is handy in times like these), wherein they were at the point of renewal of baptismal vows in the Latin Rite. So I ended up with a biritual vigil, sort of.

Now, my questions are:

1. Is this kind of “split” normal, or a result of having to be practical? I’m not aware of a parish-specific reason since the church was not to be used by other groups in between, but then there could be reasons I don’t know about. People do come from afar for these liturgies, and collective transportation would have ceased for the night before Divine Liturgy was over - would that be a valid reason?
2. Now if I weren’t lucky enough to stumble upon Eucharist in the neighboring church, would I have fulfilled my obligation as a Latin Rite Catholic that Sunday by participating in the first part?

 

[ByzKat]

Christ is risen!

I think there are a couple of questions here.

In the Slav version of the Byzantine Rite, at least, the liturgical books prescribe Vespers with Divine Liturgy on the afternoon of Holy Saturday (with the Gospel of the Resurrection). Then the Acts of the Apostles are (theoretically) read until 11:30 PM or so, when the Midnight Office is celebrated, immediate followed by Paschal Matins.

This would be followed by the First Hour (the Paschal Hours in this case) and the Divine Liturgy - but there is no rule that this is celebrated immediately after Paschal Matins.

So in some places, Paschal Matins moves earlier in the evening, to make it more “family friendy”, or moved to the mornng. The Divine Liturgy may follow Paschal Matins, or be celebrated later on EastermMorning. A lot may depend on whether (as in many Russian parishes) a party with lots of drinking and meat-eating follows the nighttime Easter service, in which case the Divine Liturgy would definitely be held right away, and afterwards everyone would go home to sleep.

But in the Greek tradition, and in many places influenced by it (such as Ukraine and Subcarpathia) it is still common to have Paschal Matins at Midnight, give or take, and the Paschal Divine Liturgy in the morning.

For Christmas in the Byzantine Rite, the midnight vigil consists of Great Compline and Matins, and the Divine Liturgy of the feast is DEFINITELY to be held in the morning. But here the Latin custom of “Midnight Mass” has probably been at work, and our parishes often hold a very short mini-compline followed by the Christmas Divine Liturgy during the night.

As a Latin, you are bound (I think) to attend the Eucharist for Sundays and holydays. But of course if that is physically or morally impossible (as in your case had there been no other parish) you would not be bound, right?

 

[Rin]

Truly He is risen!

Thank you for your explanation; it seems to me the explanation probably is Greek influence then, since this group is Ukrainian.

At Christmas, by the way, if I remember correctly, they celebrated the vigil rather early (around 8 or 9pm) last time I was there, but Divine Liturgy was held in the “morning”, effectively early afternoon since it fell on a Sunday that year and had to be coordinated with other liturgies for other groups. This is a parish with a lot of different immigrant groups, way more people than space, and in the case of the Ukrainians (and the other Eastern groups - we have Chaldeans and Ethiopians too), the priest is flown in from elsewhere. So there’s a lot to shuffle around for the parish administration.

As to obligation, yes, you are right, if there were no other liturgies and I had no way of satisfying the obligation the following day, I would not be at fault. Though given the amount of opportunities the next day, I probably would have felt obligated to change my plans and go back for Mass at some point. I was mainly wondering if this was scrupulosity on my part, but I guess that would depend on who I ask