www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology By way of an introduction & Questions

A long long time ago, I returned to the Church.

That was good.

Then I went to a Byzantine Liturgy and fell in love. I
have never found anything to compare. I read the Way
of the Pilgrim and the Pilgrim Continues His Way and
bought vol 1 of the Philokalia (which was way over my
head )

But we moved, just a few months later. Yes, really and
truly I was 3 hours away from a Divine Liturgy and
with little children, that wasn't going to work. So I
decided that God wanted me to be Latin and so I have
been all these years. A lot of ups and downs in
between what's going on there and my husband becoming
Traditionalist and parish stuff... but never that
sense of just being in a place which just so fits me
that tears can come to my eyes just thinking about it.

But really, what I want to be is Byzantine.

I can't attend the Divine Liturgy more than once or twice a year in a good year (that's just the way it works out, not that I'm not trying!). Are there others like me out there? Are there others whose husbands or wives who feel very strongly about another Catholic church? Can the two be joined in a presentation to children (esp if one knows very little about it and is hardly ever able to go? Altho the good thing is that as the children get older, they appreciate it more ) I've just come to the conclusion that even tho it sounds very odd, considering my circumstances, this is really where I want to be.

Thanks! and I'm happy to be here!

We have several couples in our parish which divide their time (in their own ways) between traditionalist services for one and eastern services for another. We also have several which choose to worship most to all of the time in one church for unity. Either way, it isn't a problem in theory. The problem is in practicality what God is calling you and your husband to. Where does your husband stand, knowing how much you are called to the east? Have you sought out some spiritual counseling?

Have you thought of incorporating the Byzantine spirituality and prayer life into your everyday lives? You can:

1) Have an icon corner
2) Pray the liturgical hours in your icon corner (hopefully as a family)
3) Have reader's services with like-minded folks
4) Learn and read more about the eastern and oriental saints
5) Bless your children and/or house with eastern prayers
6) Celebrate feast days such as your children's name days, saints you have a devotion to, etc
7) Learn traditional hymnology for feasts such as "O Who Loves Nicholas the Saintly?" for his feast on Dec 6
8) Pray with the hymns for the saints each day (the troparia and kontakia)
9) Continue your spiritual development with eastern writings
10) Start a mission church

Thank you, some of these I can do right away! I will have more questions, but I have to look in the books I have to see if I already have some of what you mentioned.

This is great! Thank you