Two Easters!

[Aloysius]

so I went to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite's Easter Vigil this year. (the one and only thing I'll ever thank Cardinal Bugnini for is the restoration of that liturgy as a true nighttime vigil in 1955, though I wish I could see the pre-1955 one done, but at night, I hear it takes 6 hours or so and it'd be great to make an all-night-vigil mass as was done in the early Church, but i digress).

but I was just thinking about Eastern Orthodox Easter and looking things up and what not... and I noticed that the next two years in a row we'll share an Easter... and I was thinking I'd love to go to an Eastern Pascha Liturgy... so I looked it up and this coming Sunday there is a vigil Pascha liturgy at a nearby Orthodox Church.

ordinarily, I'm always disoriented by inconsistent liturgical schedules... sometimes going to the Ordinary Form Roman Rite, I've ended up with two Feasts of Christ the King before and other peculiarities which bother me a bit, and sometimes going to Byzantine Catholic Liturgies, I've ended up with Alleluias in lent, somewhat disrupting my experience of the Roman Church's liturgical death symbolism (but ; but I would rather like to experience this Easter AND this coming Sunday is the Eighth Day of our octave of Easter meaning it's just as much Easter in my own home liturgical cycle as it is in theirs... so it will kind of give me a sense of personally and individually joining with the intentions of the Council of Nicaea that there should be a common Easter for all Christians, joining my own 8th day of Easter into their Pascha Feast of Feasts.)

and since Eastern Orthodox Easter, when it's a different date, is always later than Roman Easter, and I think it'd always fall within the forty days of the Roman Easter Season, I think I might make a tradition out of this, ie every year in which the Easters are different, I'll attend both the Roman vigil and the Eastern Orthodox vigil. it is a near perfect annual Eastern tradition for me, because I've always wanted a couple annual Eastern liturgies that I'd regularly go to but I don't ever want to disrupt my Roman liturgical cycle. since this is a vigil, I can still make the 11am Latin Mass I usually go to on Sunday during the day on that same day.

what do you think? is this a good idea? should I do this regularly as I am thinking I might want to?

[Resurrexi]

I think that some Eastern Catholics celebrate Easter according to the Julian calendar. Perhaps it would be better to go to one of those liturgies

(though as to passively attending Greek Orthodox services, I have to admit that I myself have been guilty of this, though in my case it was vespers.)

[Apotheoun]

Wiki is not the best source for things, but this text is easy to read:

[url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Vigil"][u]Easter Vigil[/u][/url]

[Aloysius]

I would not receive communion, of course, and I would still be going to a Roman Mass later that Sunday. canonically, it's very similar to attending an SSPX mass, right down to bishops/patriarchs who have been un-excommunicated by the Pope of Rome.

I do not believe there are many Eastern Catholics, especially in the United States, who follow the Julian calendar for Easter. I'm actually not sure there are any in the United States. The Melkites decided to start following the Julian Calendar for Easter, but I believe Rome intervened saying they could only do so in countries in which the majority of the population is Eastern Orthodox.

[Aloysius]

this wikipedia article has a chart for Easters East/West from 1982-2022:
[url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter[/url]

[Resurrexi]

Those Melkites do seem to be a little...

Edited April 14, 2009 by Resurrexi

[Aloysius]

[quote name='Apotheoun' post='1834670' date='Apr 14 2009, 12:22 AM']Wiki is not the best source for things, but this text is easy to read:

[url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Vigil"][u]Easter Vigil[/u][/url][/quote]
[quote]The Midnight Office is served on Holy Saturday shortly before midnight. At its conclusion, all the lights in the church are extinguished except for the unsleeping flame on the Holy Table (altar), and all wait in silence and darkness. In Orthodox churches, when possible, the Holy Light arrives from the Holy Sepulchre during Holy Saturday afternoon and it is used to light anew the unsleeping flame.[/quote]

Apo, is this true? do the Orthodox generally have a flame which was lit at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre? I mean, it does say "when possible" so I imagine a lot of places it might not be possible... but if the Olympic flame can get around the world... wow. that would be really amazing if I'm reading correctly (the wiki link goes to the article on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre)

[Apotheoun]

[quote name='Resurrexi' post='1834664' date='Apr 13 2009, 09:20 PM']I think that some Eastern Catholics celebrate Easter according to the Julian calendar. Perhaps it would be better to go to one of those liturgies

(though as to passively attending Greek Orthodox services, I have to admit that I myself have been guilty of this, though in my case it was vespers.)[/quote]
Eastern Catholics in most European countries continue to use the Julian calendar, but -- as far as I know -- those in America use the Gregorian calendar.

I would support a return to the Julian calendar by Eastern Catholics in America.

[Apotheoun]

[quote name='Aloysius' post='1834710' date='Apr 13 2009, 09:34 PM']Apo, is this true? do the Orthodox generally have a flame which was lit at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre? I mean, it does say "when possible" so I imagine a lot of places it might not be possible... but if the Olympic flame can get around the world... wow. that would be really amazing if I'm reading correctly (the wiki link goes to the article on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre)[/quote]
Yes, it is true.

[Aloysius]

so originally I thought I'd found one that was from midnight to 2am... but it turned out I accidentally went to the website of a church by the same name in Florida. anyway, the one I'm looking at now (Antiochian Orthodox) says this on Great and Holy Saturday:

10:30 PM
Paschal Rush, Matins, Divine Liturgy followed by Agape Meal

so... what about this Agape Meal?... is this the blessed bread that is from the same loaves as that which was consecrated but it is not consecrated? may a Roman partake in such a thing? (from Eastern perspective or Roman perspective?)

also on Great and Holy Saturday:
9:00 AM
Divine Liturgy with open Prothesis and 15 OT Readings

what would be expected at this? would it be worth going to? would I catch a glimpse of the flame from the Holy Sepulchre coming to this church if I went to this? or if after going to this I waited around there through the afternoon?

[Apotheoun]

I have never attended an Agape Meal, but I would assume it is a full meal, and not merely bread. It may also be at that time that the priest blesses the Easter baskets.

[Apotheoun]

[quote name='Aloysius' post='1834727' date='Apr 13 2009, 09:43 PM']. . . may a Roman partake in such a thing? (from Eastern perspective or Roman perspective?)[/quote]
This varies from Orthodox Church to Orthodox Church. When I have attended services at the Russian Orthodox cathedral it is made clear that only Orthodox should take any of the antidoron.

[Sojourner]

Re: attending the Paschal liturgy, I think it's a beautiful idea. I have entertained fleeting thoughts over the years of attending a Divine Liturgy myself but have never done it. I have a great deal of respect for Eastern Christianity, though, and have been considering exploring Eastern theology more seriously after I am graduated and done with school.

[Apotheoun]

[url="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7369960.stm"][u]BBC Orthodox Easter: In Pictures[/u][/url]

[Aloysius]

there are 6 Eastern Orthodox Churches within a 25 mile radius of me that I could find. 2 of them have 10:30 pm anticipation liturgies listed online, one of them with an agape meal said to follow afterward. all the others I just jotted down the phone numbers so I could check, but one or the other of them actually had their schedule listed and only had one liturgy on the Sunday of their Pascha and no anticipation mass.

I wonder if under Roman rules one would be permitted to partake of the antidoron (which you have said is not necessarily what this agape feast is) if it were offered by an Eastern Orthodox Church to them.

reading up on agape meals (though I have found nothing "official" as it were from the Orthodox Church) it would seem it is a full meal with prayers and such being sung while the food is eaten. it would seem to me that such an event could be participated in by a Roman Catholic (so long as the Easterners themselves had no objection); I mean, I don't mind saying grace over my food with non-Catholics, why not joining them for many prayers while eating?