Sunday before the Nativity (Sunday of the Ancestors)

Hello all! I can hardly believe it's just a few days before Christmas, wow! And this week we did make it back to Divine Liturgy after a few weeks back at Mass in our home parish. 

And I was so thrilled that this particular weekend was the one that we were able to attend, because it is one of two special themed Sundays leading up to the Nativity after mostly counting up the weeks since Pentecost for quite some months now. This last Sunday prior to Christmas is called Sunday of the Ancestors (I see it on our specific church bulletin as Sunday of the Holy Fathers) and I could immediately see why once the liturgy began: the Gospel reading was the genaeology narrative from Matthew. It was lovely, so perfect for the Sunday before the Nativity!

We hadn't been back for a few weeks, and thus had not yet seen the church decorated for the upcoming feast with a big, beautiful nativity scene and a lit Christmas tree. It felt very festive, and it was so special to be there and a part of it all. Everyone in that small 9 am Divine Liturgy congregation welcomed us back with open arms, expressing how happy they were that we were back. And we were, too!

Meanwhile, I've been duitifully following along in both Nativity fast/Advent traditions (aside from the dietary recommendations, not brave enough for that yet 😂) and have been enjoying the heck out of it:

I have to say, center stage this Advent has been my time with the Liturgy of the Hours Morning and Evening Prayer. Although I do own a gorgeous 4 volume set of the breviaries, I have subscribed to the Word on Fire monthly booklets, and they make it so easy that I've gotten quite addicted to them. The booklet is so easy to toss in my work bag, and with no flipping around to figure out what Propers I need for the day, it makes it ideal for never missing an installment of Morning Prayer:

But I love blending both traditions into my life. Liturgy of the Hours, plus some candlelight and Advent incense. Life is good for this Catholic Nerd!

Next week I'll be back to talk about the Nativity! 😍 We were planning on attending Mass at our Latin rite parish (the Divine Liturgy times didn't fit well with our hosting of Christmas eve dinner/our Christmas morning traditions with the kids) but the bummer news is that we are currently experiencing a blizzard of quite epic proportions, and are currently under a travel advisory. 😬 The bishop has given us permission to say in this weekend and is encouraging parishes to live stream their liturgies. So I'm thinking that we might not be able to make it to Christmas Mass in person, which makes me incredibly sad! But it is what it is, I'll be reporting in regardless, because life will still be quite Catholicy in the house of the Catholic Librarian, even during blizzard conditions. :-)

Second Sunday before the Nativity (Sunday of the Forefathers)

Hello everyone, and hope that your Advent continues to go swimmingly. :) I'm having a lovely Advent, to be sure, but our Byzantine journey has been thwarted a bit these past few weekends in that we haven't been able to get to Divine Liturgy. This past weekend, both children were feeling under the weather. It's been a rough winter for illnesses, to be sure! I was bummed, because these two Sundays leading up to Christmas have special themes in the Byzantine rite, and we weren't able to explore this Sunday of the Forefathers. I do think we'll be able to attend this coming weekend, so I'll definitely be reporting in! Our beautiful Eastern style Advent wreath has been getting quite a workout since November 15th, nearly all the candles are now lit. I believe I mentioned last week how much I've been enjoying having the wreath right in the middle of our family dinner table, it really brings the season to the forefront. I'll definitely be keeping this tradition going int he years to come.

*heart*

However, I was able to attend Mass on my own for Gaudete Sunday, and I have to say it was a DELIGHT. It's so lovely to see our parish full of people and life again, and I adored seeing the three Advent candles, including the rose one, lit at the start of Mass.

I was sad the kids weren't with me, but it was nice to get to Mass again. Gaudete Sunday always feels so fresh and new, that the Christmas season is soon to be upon us amidst the cold winter air. I even wore pink to Mass to commemorate the occasion.

💟

I will return next week with hopefully an actual Byzantine rite update! But so long as this journey involves growing in my faith, I see it all as a very good thing. :)

Twenty Sixth Sunday after Pentecost (and the 2nd Sunday of Advent!)

Hello all, and happy 2nd week of Advent in the Latin rite! I hope everyone is enjoying this lovely season of expectation. 😊

We're still going strong with our Eastern style Advent wreath (and also our Latin rite one, see below). So in the Byzantine rite, we now have four candles lit, with two to go, plus the large white candle for Christmas day. We've made great progress! I definitely like having a longer time to enjoy the wreath and candles in our family dinnertime space. I'm not as connected to the colors as I am with the purple and rose of my childhood (though I do love the blue one in honor of Our Lady, and the Eastern reference to her as the Theotokos is SO SWOON!), but this wreath has a fond place in my heart as a reminder of how much I'm enjoying exploring this part of our faith with my kids. 

This week, though, we did not attend Divine Liturgy. Due to all of us having events Saturday evening, we decided to sleep in (Divine Liturgy requires us to get up at 8 am Sunday mornings) and instead go to Mass at our home parish at 11 am. It's been a while since we've been there, many months at this point, because, with very few exceptions, we've been exclusively going to the Ukrainian parish since the summer. I have to say, it was lovely to be back!

There were FAR more people there than I have seen in a long time (resulting from the pandemic, I'm thinking) and it was nice to feel a part of a larger community again. The English liturgy congregation at the Byzantine rite parish, while incredibly kind and welcoming, is extremely small. I also enjoyed seeing the Advent wreath flikering up on the altar, and all of the purple accoutrements that accompany Advent in the Latin rite. I happily picked up a bulletin and a church calendar for next year.

To my surprise, Anne perked up with interest when they announced that Children's Liturgy of the Word was back (had not resumed since before the pandemic last time we attended Mass there) and she went into the sacristy with the other kids for that. At 11, she's a bit "old" for that, lol, but I figure if she's interested in something faith related, I'm not going to complain! Even if she ends up just helping out the Religious Ed. coordinator, that was totally fine with me.

We got to see the new (granted, temporary) pastor for the first time, and he was quite nice and an excellent homilist. We all had a wonderful time, although (of course!) the children both commented on how Mass was longer than Divine Liturgy. 😂 And I think that this is something that is unique to the specific Byzantine rite parish that we are attending in that the English liturgy there is not chanted. Everything is traditionally chanted in the Byzantine rite, but the English language congregation is so tiny there that there isn't a choir/anyone to lead the chanting. If it were chanted, I think that it would be much longer, as we encountered the one time we attended when the two liturgies (English and Ukrainian) were combined, as they have someone who leads the chanting in Ukrainian. The Mass last Sunday was not particularly long, but the kids have gotten used to the (quite short) spoken Divine Liturgy. 

Where do we go from here? I have absolutely no idea. I have to be honest and admit that if it were up to me, although I do love the Divine Liturgy and the Eastern traditions we've encountered such as iconography and those divine beeswax candles, I would go back to regularly attending Mass in the Latin rite. But I want to continue to encourage the more open conversations the kids and I have about our Sunday worship now, so I'm going to continue to pray and discern and we'll see where this journey takes us. :)

How is your Advent going so far, dear reader?

Twenty Fifth Sunday after Pentecost and a little Advent talk...

Hello everyone, and happy Advent to all Roman Catholics (including me! 😁). I always look forward to this season of preparation and the traditions surrounding it. This year, I'm very much enjoying our new Eastern version of the Advent wreath, and as of last Sunday, we're to three of the six candles. Because we only have five Sundays between November 15th and Christmas this year, I lit one the day that the Nativity Fast began, and then one each Sunday (including the blue one for the feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple). Three weeks to go until we light the center Christmas candle! 

This weekend we were back at Divine Liturgy after the snowstorm amidst talk of the rescheduled Christmas Bazaar. So it turns out that we didn't miss it after all! We'll be headed there tomorrow to support the parish and eat some delicious Ukrainian food for lunch. 

Interestingly, our Byzantine rite parish is not decorated any differently for Advent. I'm not certain if this varies parish by parish, or if this is true throughout the East, though I'm guessing the latter. The Nativity Fast is emphasized as a time of penitential preparation, hence the traditional abstaining from dairy and meat throughout the season. Whereas in the West, Advent, while a time of spiritual preparation, has more of a joyful hope and expectation focus, both in decor with the wreath, candles, and nativity sets minus baby Jesus, but also in the responses and antiphons throughout the liturgy. I find this all so super interesting!

But in that vein, although I'm VERY MUCH enjoying everything that I'm learning about the full Catholic experience, both East and West, I'm still quite attached to my Latin rite experience of Advent, so in my house we have two wreaths:

Last weekend was the First Sunday of Advent in the Latin rite, and I am here for it! How has your Advent been going so far, friends? 🤗

Twenty Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Nativity Fast Week 1

Well, it was a bit of an anti-climactic first week of the Nativity Fast for our household, in that a snowstorm hit our area, and the bishop dispensed us all from our Sunday obligation as a result. 😬 In my immediate area, we didn't get as much snow as others, but we had high winds with blowing and drifting snow, making driving a touch hazardous. We were still under a travel advisory Sunday morning (and actually, our Latin rite parish cancelled all of the weekend masses, because the priest couldn't get out of his driveway to make his way over) and thus no liturgy for our household this past weekend. This also meant that we missed the parish Christmas Bazaar, which was a great disappointment. 

However, I'm eagerly learning as much as I can about this preparation time for the feast of the Nativity in the East. We lit our beautiful new Eastern style Advent wreath for the first time, and since I'm flying blind over here, what you see in the photo is what I came up with. 😂 The number of Sundays between November 15th and Christmas varies from year to year at either five or six, and this year we have five. I figure when that happens, we can light the first candle at the start of the Fast on the 15th, and then light the other five on the Sundays, so that's what did this year. Thus, why we already have two candles aglow. And Monday was the feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple, so I lit her blue candle since it was the vigil of that Great Feast! And speaking of the feast day, here is the icon:

I now have this full set of icons of the Twelve Great Feasts, so we'll be breaking these out together throughout the year as the feast days come round. The next one is the Nativity!

This coming Sunday is the First Sunday of Advent in the Latin Rite, and I have to admit I'm feeling a little nostalgic for that tradition I've loved my entire life. But this has all been such a beautiful time of reawakening and learning in my faith, and I'm savoring every minute. Treasuring things from both traditions is so, so rich. We'll continue on this journey and see where it takes us at the end of the Eastern liturgical year!

How are your Advent preparation plans going? 😎

Twenty Third Sunday after Pentecost, and the start of the Nativity Fast

Hello all! Happy...Advent? It's super interesting living between two different traditions with regards to liturgical seasons, let me tell you. 😂 Advent is a Western Church tradition (both Roman Catholic and Western rite Orthodox) but the East has the Nativity Fast, which begins 40 days prior to Christmas, meaning that it lands on November 15th every single year. So in our Western perspective on things, we refer to this as the Eastern Advent, as it were. 

We attended Divine Liturgy this past weekend like usual, and there was no mention of the upcoming change in liturgical season, although it is noted on the monthly bulletin. I'll be looking forward to seeing what changes, if any, are present in the sanctury this coming weekend, the first Sunday of the Fast. I'm going to be honest and admit that I'm not yet brave enough to research and implement the recommended dietary restrictions. Baby steps for this Latin rite gal. 😂

Although the Byzantine rite does not have Advent in the way that we are used to, there is an acknowledgement of the popularity of the Western style devotions in this regard. I purchased the wreath you see above from Legacy Icons, an Orthodox company that I love. It came with this adorable daily devotional:

...and it describes an Eastern take on the Advent wreath thusly (I'm summarizing):

The Orthodox/Byzantine rite has no liturgical season exactly corresponding to Advent in the West. That does not mean that there is no preparation in the Eastern tradition for Christ's Nativity. In the East, the Nativity Fast begins on November 15th, forty days before December 25th. While there is no weekly "theme" on pre-Nativity Sundays, the season is marked for the penitential singing of "Alleluia" at Matins (Morning Prayer) and other features. As time goes on, more and more Nativity-related hymnody is added to the services. The second Sunday before the Nativity is dedicated to the Ancestors of Christ, and the Sunday before the Nativity is dedicated to the Forefeast, which begins in earnest on December 20th. The Advent season was originally tied to the Epiphany (in the East, the feast of Theophany, on January 6th), with the Birth of Christ being a lesser feast. In the Orthodox West, Advent was first established in 380 as a three-week preparation for Epiphany. Inspired by the development of Lent, by 581 Christians in Western Europe began the Advent fast on Matinmas (November 11th). In other places a period of five or six Sundays was established. After the schism, this was reduced and standardized throughout the West to four Sundays.

The Advent wreath originated among German Lutherans in the sixteenth century. Over time, it became a staple of Advent devotion throughout Western Christiantity, both Protestant and Roman Catholic. While the Advent wreath devotion has no connection to Orthodox/Byzantine rite Christianity, it is deeply ingrained in Western culture. The Eastern forty day Advent season can fall over the course of five or six Sundays, so the focus is on daily rather than weekly devotions (scripture readings, prayers and feast days). It's a private devotion devised to count down to the Nativity. The candles are colored according to the traditional colors of the liturgical season: red for the Nativity Fast, and one blue candle for the Entry of the Theotokos (one of the 12 Great Feasts, and that actually is coming up quite soon!). 

I'm quite excited for this coming Sunday! The Christmas Bazaar is also scheduled for this weekend, but we're getting a bit of a snowstorm in this area over the course of the entire weekend, so I'm not entirely sure what will happen with events such as this. I'll keep you posted!