www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship Vespers, Matins & the Divine Liturgy Resurrection Matins and Divine Liturgy

Greetings all,

As Holy Week approaches, I was curious to see how many parishes celebrate the truncated version of Matins combined with Divine Liturgy for Pascha done on Saturday evening. (The format is something similar to the Vigil Divine Liturgy, with Matins taken up to "You O King and Lord" then going to the Liturgy with "All You..." The Praises were not sung, and the Paschal Stichera were done as a Communion Hymn.) I do not know when this practice began, but it was used for years in the two parishes where I chant; then we went to full Resurrection Matins in the evening with the full Divine Liturgy for Pascha on Sunday morning in 2005. There are still quite a few parishioners who seem to have the "let's get it all done at once" attitude, and I wanted to see if this was a common practice, something particular to the Passaic Eparchy, or something just very local.

We haven't received this year's Great Week and Pascha schedule yet so I don't know what 2011 will hold. However, until about 3 years ago, we had Matins combined with Divine Liturgy for Pascha done on Saturday evening as you described. Our new pastor about 3 years ago continued to celebrate both Matins and a Divine Liturgy on Saturday evening usually Matins starting around 9PM. The difference being that all of Matins was served, the Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom read, and following a short (seated) break a complete Paschal Divine Liturgy.