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Greetings to all,

Today at Divine Litury, Father mentioned that Friday is the Feast of Peter and Paul AND a Holy Day of Obligation. Coming from the Latin Rite, I'm wondering what are the Byzantine Rite Holy Days of Obligations.

Peace,
Loretta

Dear Loretta,

Our Synod decides on these days, even though the "Visnyk" of the parish of Sts. Volodymyr and Olha in Chicago once wrote that it celebrates 26 Feast days as "obligatory holy-days."

The standard rule includes Nativity (all 12 days ideally , Epiphany, the Meeting of the Lord (Purification), Easter/Pascha, Ascension, Pentecost, Transfiguration, Dormition, Beheading of John the Baptist, the Precious and Life-Giving Cross.

Pascha and the 12 Major Feasts would be an ideal Eastern observance, together with a number of the more minor observances.

One problem with setting a list of such holydays is that laity tend to think of it as a "maximum" list rather than what it really is, a "minimal" list. When our Bishops shorted our liturgy for "times of emergency," the shortened liturgy became the regular use liturgy in no time.

The Eastern Christian lives the Church Year as it represents Christ and His salvation to us.

He or she sees in the Church's liturgical celebrations a most intimate way of entering into the mysteries of Christ's salvation and participating fully in them, whether they celebrate major or minor feasts.

Alex

The observance of the "Holy Days of Obligation" called in canon law, "Days of Precept" was standardized by the American Ruthenian Bishops in the 1960s and again confirmed by the "Particular Law" of October 1, 1999, with the following days being ones on which the faithful are required to attend the Divine Liturgy and otherwise observe the feasts with appropriate solemnity:

Easter Sunday and all Sundays of the year
Ascension of Our Lord - 40th. day after Easter
SS. Peter & Paul - June 29
The Dormition of the Mother of God - Aug. 15
Christmas Day - Dec. 25
The Theophany (Baptism of Our Lord) Jan 6

Certainly, these days are intended to be the bare "minimal" way in which everyone should observe the church calendar. The feasts of the liturgical year are meant to help us to "live out" the events of salvation as they are portrayed in the Gospels and through observance of the typikon (church calendar).

Our bishops in the 1960s also made the distinction between "solemn" and "simple" holydays, with an aim at encouraging the faithful to keep these days holy, as is traditional among our people. They basically include the "Twelve major feasts of Our Lord and the Mother of God" and other observances of saints' days that have long been kept in our tradition.

The "Solemn "Holydays" are:

Jan 1 - Circumcision of Our Lord/St. Basil the Great
Jan 6 - Baptism of Our Lord (Theophany)*
Feb. 2 - Encounter of Our Lord with the Just Simeon (Presentation in the Temple)
March 25 - The Annunciation of the Mother of God
June 24 - The Nativity of St. John the Baptist
June 29 - SS. Peter & Paul, Prime-Apostles*
August 6 - The Transfiguration of Our Lord
August 15 - The Dormition of the Mother of God* (Assumption)
Sept. 8 - The Nativity of the Mother of God
Sept. 14 - The Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Oct. 1 - The Protection of the Mother of God (Patronage)
Nov. 8 - St. Michael the Archangel and all the Heavenly Hosts
Nov. 21 - Entrance of the Mother of God into the Temple (Presentation BVM)
Dec. 6 - St. Nicholas of Myra (Patron of the Greek Catholic Church)
Dec. 8/9 - The Conception of the Mother of God (Conception of St. Anne)
Dec. 25 - The Nativity of Our Lord* (Christmas Day)
Dec. 26 - The Synaxis of the Mother of God

Pascha (Easter Day)
Bright Monday
The Ascension of Our Lord*
Holy Thursday
Good Friday
Holy Saturday

*Indicates "Days of Obligation"

The "Simple Holydays" are:

Jan 30 - Feast of the Three Holy Hierarchs: St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian, St. John Chrysostom
April 23 - St. George the Great-Martyr
July 20 - St. Elias the Prophet
Aug. 29 - The Beheading of St. John the Baptist
Dec. 27 - St. Stephan, First-Martyr

Bright Tuesday
Pentecost Monday

In addition, the 1999 particular law indicates the four seasons of fasting and penitence, to be observed by everyone in the Ruthenian Metropolia:

Canon 880 �2

�1. The special penitential seasons are:

1o. The Great Fast

2o. The Peter and Paul Fast

3o. The Dormition Fast [August 1-14]

4o. The Philip Fast [November 15-December 24]

�2. Strict abstinence is to be observed on the first day of the Great Fast and on Great Friday. Simple abstinence is to be observed on Wednesdays and Fridays of the Great Fast.

�3. Simple abstinence or an equivalent penance is to be observed on all Fridays throughout the year.

I hope this answers your questions as to days of obligation and other holydays in our church.

Fr. Joe

Bless me a sinner, Father Joe!

I try to get to church whenever I can .

I love the Russian/Carpathian practice of wishing someone well on whatever calendar feast or saint's day it happens to be.

Happy Feast of Pentecost (Old Calendar)!

Alex

Thank you all for responding ... I sure have a lot to learn.

In July my Church is going to have evening adult instructions in the Byzantine Rite. I'm really looking forward to it and have already started making a list of questions. Our reader (a school teacher) will be leading our class.

Peace,
Loretta

Here in East Tennessee, we have at most, 2 Divine Liturgies a month. It is always interesting to attend a Latin Rite parish to observe Holy Days that fall between those Liturgies. For example, Ascension was moved from Thursday to the following Sunday. Attending a Latin Rite parish on Ascension Thursday meant celebrating something totally unrelated. Unfortunately, calendar differences mean we are often unable to properly celebrate Holy Days.

What is required/suggested for
The Peter & Paul Fast
Dormition Fast and
Philip Fast?

Have you ever considered going to the local Orthodox parish on Sundays and feasts which are not celebrated at your mission? This is entirely permissible under our Code of Canons, and though the Orthodox priest is not likely to extend the Eucharist to you (but it couldn't hurt to ask (privately)-you might be surprised, there is a lot more to liturgy than just the Divine Liturgy, and the experience would be spiritually enriching. Moreover, the Byzantine Tradition is a distinct spiritual, liturgical and theological patrimony, which is only confused when people divide their time between the Latin and Byzantine Churches. The notion that "Catholic is Catholic", and that one can be indifferent about rite and Tradition, is killing the Eastern Catholic Churches in this country. Were I in your shoes, I would not be going to the local Latin parish, but to the nearest Orthodox parish, were one of my own not available.

Stuart,
I understand what you are saying but I think you have it wrong.

It is my understanding that the only time it is permissible to attend the Divine Liturgy at an Orthodox Church is when no Catholic Church is present. Not just a Byzantine Catholic Church.

For it, it is always better to receive the Eucharist than to attend an Orthodox Liturgy and just watch.

David

I think you are right that we are supposed to give preference to the Catholic Church, with attendance at the Orthodox Church only when a Catholic parish is not available. We have a Greek Orthodox church in Knoxville, with an OCA church approximately 25 miles away. We are welcome to visit the OCA, but not receive communion. The Greeks have been quite nice to us and even provided some vestments when our Byzantine mission was formed. They were enthusiastic about having another Divine Liturgy in this area. I was impressed, because I thought that was the way Christians should act. Besides, I can't get away from Latin Rite parishes. I am a musician and am organist at a good-sized (900 family) Latin Rite Catholic parish in Knoxville. I am working when I play for the 4 Sunday morning Masses at the Latin parish, and I worship when I attend the Byzantine Divine Liturgy twice a month. I have no problem at all keeping career and worship separate. But the calendar differences can be a headache.

Dear Friends,

You are right, of course.

But Met. Andrew Sheptytsky did give permission to Eastern Catholics to attend Orthodox Churches rather than Latin Catholic Churches to avoid the problem of Eastern CAtholics being "pulled over" to the Latin Church, a problem that was rampant in his time.

An Orthodox bishop once told me I was welcome to approach the sacraments any time in his jurisdiction.

I would have no problem doing that.

I think Stuart may not either (it's just so "Koehl" to have you back, Stu!).

To worship at an Orthodox parish is to maintain the continuity of one's Eastern spirituality.

But I would definitely have a problem being at a parish that would have not appreciate my presence.

The OCA parish I attend in Florida is very welcoming, they invite me to join with them without trying to "convert" me or tell me nasty things about Eastern Catholics, the Unia and other things I have heard about before . . .

And they make a heck of a good cup of coffee after the Liturgy!

Alex

Alex,
I must say this, please don't take it personally. What Met. Andrew Sheptytsky may have said would only be binding upon Ukrainian Catholics and I think one's own bishop could over rule this.

As for attending Divine Liturgies to avoid being "pulled over" and to maintain the continuity of one's Eastern spirituality, while a commendable idea, what does it say about the unity of the Universal Catholic Church? And what about one's Catholic spirituality?

I am comming to believe that we are not Roman Catholics of the Byzantine Rite (as has been put forward elsewhere on the 'net), nor do I think of ourselves as Orthodox in communion with Rome, I think we are Byzantine (or Orthodox if you wish) Catholics, a third thing.

For myself, if I was in an area where there were no Byzantine Catholic Churches I would attend the Saturday Vigil Mass at a Roman Church, so that I should share in Catholic Worship and receive the Eucharist, then I would attend the Divine Liturgy at an Orthodox Church on Sunday morning.


David

[ 06-28-2002: Message edited by: StuartK ]

This is a common interpretation, but a misunderstanding. The canon is written very broadly, and the matter is left entirely up to the discretion of the individual person (who, it is hoped, has a spiritual father to advise him).

As for it ALWAYS being better to receive the Eucharist, that is another common misperception, the kind that has led to the almost total demise of the Liturgy of the Hours in Byzantine Catholic parishes. I call it "Crackerjack Sacramentology"--no liturgy is worth attending unless you get a prize. While frequent, indeed, REGULAR reception of the Eucharist is good, it is not necessary ALWAYS to receive (I know--I just expressed a heresy in the Ruthenian Church), but if you want more on this, I suggest that you consult the Liturgical Instruction (1996).