Palm Sunday in the Orthodox Church is one of those days where both the Eastern and Western traditions produced similar liturgical actions. In both traditions there is a distribution of palm branches (or olive, or some other climate-appropriate tree), and hymns and antiphons sung which employ the praises of the people in the biblical account of Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna! Continue reading “Palm Sunday According to the Whole Church”
The Propers of the Office and Mass for the majority of Sundays and Feast days in the West are remarkably conservative in that most of them are direct quotations from Scripture. Later monastic and ecclesiastical poetry is not foreign to the services, however, and is always sprinkled throughout them. Here, for instance, is a sampling of extra-biblical poetry and prayers in the Propers for the Feast of the Annunciation: Continue reading “Some Propers for the Feast of The Annunciation”
At the Vespers of Dominica Prima Passionis, or Passion Sunday (the 5th Sunday of Lent), all of the Icons, statues, crucifixes, and other images of Christ and the Saints are veiled from sight in Western Rite churches. This custom probably seems troubling to Eastern Rite Christians, but rest assured, it’s troubling to those in the Western Rite, too. Upon entering the church at Vespers or on the Sunday morning following and seeing purple veils draped over all of the familiar and beloved images, the faithful are significantly impacted spiritually and psychologically. It’s never pleasant to have that which you love hidden from you. Continue reading “The Sad and Happy Veiling”
The fourth Sunday in Lent in the Western tradition is known by several names: “The Sunday of the Five Loaves” from the Gospel passage for the day (John 6:1-14). “Rose Sunday” because the clerical and Altar vestments may change color from violet to rose. But why the change in color in the first place? Another name for this Sunday gives us a clue: “Laetare Sunday” (Laetare meaning: Rejoice).
The Introit chant for this Sunday begins in Latin: Laetare Jerusalem, et conventum facite omnes qui diligitis eam. (Rejoice, O Jerusalem: and come together all you that love her). This chant is taken from Isaiah 66:10. The call to rejoice here in the middle of this season of repentance is meant as an encouragement to us, a comforting reminder of the tenderness, the nurturing, even the motherliness of God. As an outward symbol of this, the liturgical vestments here in the West lighten on Laetare Sunday from a somber violet to a soft, maternal rose color. And that maternal-ness gives this Sunday yet another popular name: Mothering Sunday. The theme of mothering features prominently in the Propers of this day. Continue reading “Mothering Sunday”
In the first century, only a few years after the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ, a certain man who had been living in Palestine began traveling around the Mediterranean preaching about Jesus Christ to the pagan Gentiles. I’m not talking about St. Paul, although he did travel with St. Paul. He also traveled with and assisted St. Andrew on his journeys, and is even numbered among the 70 (72) disciples sent out by Jesus in Luke 10. He knew St. Paul probably through the apostle Barnabas, his brother. And it was while traveling with Paul and Barnabas that the apostle Paul ordained him as a bishop and sent him further West than Paul could then go. This man, a brown skinned, Jewish Cypriot, hailing from Palestine, traveled more than 2,000 miles Westward toward Spain, and then northward into Britannia. Continue reading “An Eastern Apostle to the West”
In the first decades of the Church, Christians (both in Jerusalem and the cities where the Apostles preached) would have used essentially the same liturgical form of worship. Over time, as the Church grew to include various people groups and their languages, the original Eucharistic service from Jerusalem was developed and adorned by those various peoples according to their unique musical and artistic expressions, poetic traditions, and senses of beauty, dignity, and piety. Continue reading “Comparing the Liturgies of East and West”
“Congregations and parishes, or larger administrative units, may be received…and be permitted to retain and use all such Western liturgical rites, devotional practices and customs that are not contrary to the Orthodox faith and are logically derived from a Western usage antedating the Papal schism of the eleventh century.” This is from the 1958 Western Rite edict of Metropolitan Antony of the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America. Continue reading “A Reasonable Philosophy for the Western Rite”
In both the Eastern and Western traditions, the Church year is centered around Jesus and the redemptive story of his life, death, and resurrection. The Scriptures read in the Liturgies, the various prayers, and also the hymns that are sung generally correspond to the seasons of the year, and the seasons themselves correspond to events or periods in the life of Jesus. The season of Lent takes the Church with Jesus both into the desert where he fasted for forty days and also on his last journey to Jerusalem (and ultimately to the cross and his glorious resurrection). Several themes and lessons of the Lenten season are emphasized in the Liturgies, but two of the most prominent are repentance and spiritual struggle.
These are the overarching themes in two songs that come to us from St. Andrew of Crete (8th century) through the translation and poetical rendering of Fr. John Mason Neale (19th century). Continue reading “Eastern Wisdom in Western Verse”
In accordance with my stated theme for this blog, I want to very briefly compare the beginnings of Lent in the Eastern and Western traditions, focusing especially on their similarities. There’s enough that superficially appears different about the way the two traditions begin the Lenten journey that to the casual observer, they may appear to have different spirits. But in comparing the Eastern Forgiveness Sunday and Clean Monday with the Western Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday, there’s actually much commonality to find. Continue reading “How the East and West Begin Lent”
My birthday is on February 14th. Any time I tell someone that, they immediately remark about how that’s Valentine’s Day. “Oooh, a Valentine baby!” “Do you get birthday presents and valentines?!” “Wow, is that weird having your birthday on Valentine’s Day?” It’s only weird when I have to field questions like those. Continue reading “St. Valentine, St. Patrick, and Joe Schmo”
