www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Parish Life & Evangelization ByzanTEEN post-pascha?

I just figured, I'm a teen and I've got perhaps a less-than-intelligent question that some may ignore all together...but here goes...

As some may know or remember, I am an RC with very little knowledge of my own little religion, so here I am trying to figure it out.

I just wanted to ask what exactly the significance was of the eight days following Easter (Pascha, as I've been told by some to call it :rolleyes: )? I could ask you know who but he's not around right now :p

Christos Anesti! Alithos Anesti!
(for some, for the rest, almost there )

Kim

Dear Keem the Teen,

When I was going out with my bride-to-be, who was a teenager at the time, my friends ribbed me as a "cradle-snatcher . . ."

The Feast of Pascha has always been celebrated by the Church, East and West, as one full week. The "Day of Pascha" is actually seven days from Sunday to Saturday inclusive, also known as "Bright Week."

The Paschal Season is the forty days from the Sunday of Pascha until Ascension Day.

All of Bright Week is marked by special liturgical celebrations that do not occur elsewhere in the liturgical year.

The Psalms are not sung throughout this week - they have a pentitential tone, a number of them, and so they are not used.

The Hours are severely shortened, and the Matins and Vespers of the Resurrection are repeated with Canons from the Sunday Octoechos.

The Canons of the Church recommend that people come to Church daily and partake of the Eucharist and pray.

The "8th day" refers to the Sunday of Pascha.

Just as God rested on the Seventh Day after completing His creation of the world, so too did Christ rest on the Sabbath after "recreating" it through His Passion and Death on the Cross.

But His Work did not end there, but with His Resurrection. And so the Christian Week sees every Sunday as the Lord's Day of His Resurrection, the 8th Day.

"Easter" refers to a Germanic pagan deity that was honoured around this time of the year and it has no real connection with the Pascha or Passover of the Lord from death to Life.

So too we prefer to use "Lord's Day" or "Resurrection Day" for "Sunday."

I love the Slavonic "Voskresennya" for "Sunday!"

A happy Pascha to you and you-know-who!

Alex - who else?

I am no expert and I am sure someone will give you a more intelectual answer, but the week after Pascha, is called in the east Bright Week or Renewal Week. It is called bright week because it follows the feast of the Bright Resurrection of our Lord and the newly baptized would wear their white baptismal garment for the whole week. It is called Renewal Week because all creation has been made new by Christ's Resurrection. On each day the service books prescribe that you take all the services just as on Easter morning (minus the procession). All the sanctuary doors remain wide open all week meaning that the Kigdom of Heaven is here-open to all.
There is also a tradition that if and orthodox Chistian passes into eternal life during this week his soul is spared the usual "40 days" treatment and is borne straight into the Kingdom of God. Funeral rites during this week are completely different than usual and extremely beautiful. At the risk of sounding morbid, I hope I die during Bright week.
Generally, all major feasts are followed by a post-festive week, since this is the Feast of Feasts, you basically stay on that sunday mornig high the whole week.
Bright week concludes on Thomas Sunday (Antipascha).
Hope this was of some help,
For pictures of Pascha and Bright Week at my chuch see http://www.saintelias.com/Pascha/Pascha2002.html

Cheers,

Ilya

Ilya,

you are extremely blessed by God to be able to be at St Elias which is truly the model for Byzantine Catholic Churches!!!

You are so right. Bright Week is an incredible week, so full of joy and light!

Dear Brian,

Yes, it is a beautiful Church, but it isn't everyone's Byzantine cup of tea . . .

And that is a shame . . .

When are you going to be received into Orthodoxy?

Alex

Thanks Alex and Ilya

If I could find a Byzantine church up here in the city desert of Albany I'd love to go and see what the liturgy is like, seeing as I had to go Roman for saturday night vigil, which was more interesting in my Italian church than I thought it would be...(priest spontaneously breaking into Latin song, Italian prayer, chanting the Gospel, greeting me personally with Christos Anesti! though neither of us are Greek)

Thanks again, nice to come back to the byzcath theologians who teach me so much

Kim

Brian,
Thank you so much.
Can you believe that alex lives within 40 minutes of my church yet has never been?

get on his case about it.

May 25th-the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman (now, no jokes please

Ilya,

I have put my foot in it with Alex too many times to dare give him advice but i think every Byzantine Cath should think of St Elias as their Mother Church frankly God willing, I will visit soon!

Alex,

is that supposed to be some sort of jab?
whats the matter not folksy enough for you?

I'm just joking around.

d.j. illy scratchtastic

Brian,

Looking foreward to it, at least some people know how important our place is.

Dear Alex:

Ilya received into what?

You should be ashamed .

And I though you had already made up your mind.

Ah manys the posts that have been launched on that very subject by some known individuals .


defreitas

Dear Ilya Romanovich(u),

I'll make it a point to attend your Church soon.

When is your Sunday Liturgy and how long is it? ( ).

Some of our people are allergic to too many Easternisms.

One such Easternism is a long Liturgy, another is the three-bar Cross etc.

I'm just stating a fact. It's a sad fact, but true.

Alex

ALEX,

CHURCH WORSHIP IS NOT A CUP OF TEA, IT IS A REAL, LIVING THING ESPECIALLY HERE.

MAYBE THE REASON WHY WE ARE DOING SO WELL IS BECAUSE PEOPLE WHO HAVE PROBLEMS WITH US STAY AWAY. IF THIS IS THE CASE WITH YOU, I ASK THAT YOU TRUST YOU INSTINCTS.

ilya

Dear Ilya,

Now, now - temper, temper!

Don't tell me I'm the first person to raise these issues with you or about your parish.

All I'm suggesting is the total, real picture here.

Your parish and others who follow in its footsteps, which are the footsteps that we should all be following ideally, are part of a wider Church, namely the UGCC, where many other parishes follow a not-so-Eastern liturgical model.

They would find St Elias "different" and many might not consider it to be "our tradition."

Even though it is.

Why can't you consider this without the "If you don't like it, you don't have to come" attitude?

That doesn't serve the cause of those dedicated to Eastern renewal. I said the same thing to Cantor Joseph and got a similar response.

We seem to refuse to think about these things dispassionately.

alex