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When I was a student and attended an OCA parish, it was the custom to have people keep vigil in the church for some time during Holy Week. The Gospels were chanted continuously up to the point just short of the Resurrection account. Then the next Gospel was begun and chanted to the same point.

Anyone who could chant was welcome to stand in for a period and then someone would come up, touch the chanter's arm, and continue--to give each other a break.

Two questions to refresh my memory:

1. Does this custom still hold? (It was a beautiful thing to take part in.)

2. Does it start after the Matins of Holy Saturday (Friday evening) or after the Passion Gospels (Thursday evening)? I seem to remember that it stopped at the Vespers Liturgy of St. Basil the Great on Holy Saturday.

Thanks,

BOB

Dear Bob, it is a Slavic custom to read the Gospels through the Little Hours on Holy Monday through Holy Wednesday.

The way I am most familiar with to do this is to divide the Gospel of St. Matthew into two parts which are read at the Third and Sixth Hours on Monday. The Gospel of St. Mark is then divided into two parts which are read on Monday at Ninth Hour and Tuesday at Third Hour.

The Gospel of St. Luke is divided into three parts read on Tuesday at Sixth Hour, Ninth Hour and Wednesday Third Hour. The Gospel of St. John is divided into two parts, but is stopped at 32:13, and these two parts are read at Sixth and Ninth Hours, respectively, on Holy Wednesday.

I have also seen where two or three Gospels were read during the sixth Week of the Great Fast, and the Gospel of St. John ( and sometimes Luke) read during the first three days of Holy Week.

There is also a tradition of reading the Acts of the Apostles non-stop between the Vesperal Liturgy of St. Basil on Holy and Great Saturday until the beginning of the Midnight Office for Pascha. Typically the vigil before the tomb of Christ after Vespers of Great and Holy Friday is kept in complete silence ("let all mortal flesh keep silent").

I have encountered the custom of keeping Vigil at the Tomb of Christ (the Epitaphios) during the night of Good Friday, with the continuous chanting of the Gospels - I suspect that it's modeled on the reading of the Psalter traditional before a funeral.
Incognitus

Dear Incognitus,

Yes, you are right!

The Psalter is chanted over the laity and the Gospels over priests and bishops . . .

But you know that already . . .

Alex

Dear Diak,

Thank you for your comments on my Akathist by the way!

Also, you remind me of the monastic tradition of reading through the Gospels each week, as St Seraphim of Sarov did (I think he did the entire New Testament).

There is the story in the Way of the Pilgrim about the man who was a drunkard, but who undertook, with his spiritual Father's blessing, to read one entire Gospel in every 24-hour period.

That cured him and he continued to read a Gospel each day to avoid falling back into that sinful habit.

As I understand it, monastics of old had to memorize one Gospel and the Psalter as part of their training.

God bless,

Alex

Alex, yes in most cases the Psalter is read over the dead from the time of their passing to the Parastas the next morning.

But after Holy Wednesday Evening at Vespers after the reading of the 18th Kathisma the reading of the Kathismata from the Psalter is properly put aside with the exceptions of the 17th Kathisma at Jerusalem Matins interspersed with the lamentations (and also the proper psalms for the Hours).

One old instruction I found once in Slavonic said "And the faithful watch in silence" at the conclusion of the Vespers of Great and Holy Friday. It's just my humble opinion, but I think at that one time out of the year at the vigil before the Plashchanitsya after the Vespers with Entombment until after the Jerusalem Matins should be in awe-filled silence at the Tomb of Christ, watching and waiting, heeding the words of "Let all mortal flesh keep silent".

I think there is something truly great about a "silent Vigil" at the Plascanica. There is a tendency in Byzantine liturgy to always be doing, singing or chanting something. Any moment of silence throws some into shock. Silence is a very powerful medium, as we see from the Great Entrance at the Liturgy of the Presanctified. Having a church open and encouraging people to just stand, sit still or kneel and be silent is beneficial, especially in our hectic and very noisy age.

Dave

As others have observed before me, the Byzantine liturgical tradition, like nature, abhors a vacuum.
Incognitus

Thank you all. I believe that the vigil I remember must have been from Holy Friday until the Liturgy of St. Basil on Holy Saturday. There was also reading done from the end of that Liturgy until Paschal Matins, but I don't remember if it was the Acts that was chanted or back to the Gospels. By that point I was getting a little woozy from the standing, the chanting, and the fasting.

In the Latin Church we keep a vigil of complete silence from the end of the evening Liturgy of Holy Thursday until the next morning.

A silent vigil reminds me, too, of the phrase "let all mortal flesh keep silence." In fact there is a hymn we use that contains that phrase. The silence can remind us that most of what we fill our lives with is just that--filler. In the silence we can only look at our God and ourselves and be reminded of the time when we shall meet face-to-face and know what we are truly like before His Eyes. For me, more than a bit frightening at times.

May you each have a blessed preparation for the Feast of Holy Pascha.

BOB

P. S.: I've used a somewhat western version of this custom for what we call a Holy Hour. The lay readers get together and read the Gospels for an hour. We take turns and signal to each other when it is time to take turns so that the Gospel reading never ceases. The people who come sit in silence and just let the Word of God soak into their souls. After an hour, we go home.

For the six years I have been at SS C&M in Fort Pierce, we have had the all night vigil at the grave beginning after Good Friday Vespers at 8PM , lasting to Resurrection Matins at 8PM on Saturday evening both with a candlelight procession.

I have a sign up sheet on Palm Sunday for all the hours of the vigil, and get a tremendous response, not only from my parish members, but I even get groups of Roman Catholics who come regularly in the wee hours of the evening all of them on their knees approaching the grave to venerate the Shroud..it's quite a sight!

I myself take cat naps, only to go over to the church throughout the night, which is dimly lit and the grave of Our Lord just glows, and the scent of the flowers, and music of the passion is played continuously from various sources; simply mezmerizing. I also have reading materials on our Byzantine Church, and other books and pamphlets on meditations, etc. available to read.

Also, in the kitchen, we have coffee and donuts to sustain the vigil goers, some who spend two or three hours at the grave. .It is very edifying.

I also announce the vigil in the newspaper which does bring in the curious onlookers.
Not to mention having my parishioner who is a lieutenant in the police department, make sure an officer does his paperwork in our parking lot, though we've never had an incident.

Yes, having the continuous reading of gospels, etc, is wonderful, but people coming into a church with Rachmaninoff Vespers and other tapes of the Passion softly playing in the church that is aglow with candles is just as inspiring.
It�s funny, the hours from 12 midnight thru 6AM are always the fullest.
People love to come to just sit, meditate, cry even, and keep vigil.
If your church doesn�t do it, make them do it, and advertise is. People will come and be inspired by the beauty of our tradition. It�s also a great evangelization tool.

Our poster in Florida reports that "people coming into a church with Rachmaninoff Vespers and other tapes of the Passion softly playing in the church that is aglow with candles is just as inspiring". I confess to enjoying the Rachmaninoff Vigil, though I had not previously suspected that it had much to do with the Passion. However, the practice just described reminds me of a large Ukrainian church, somewhere in the great somewhere, which acquired a certain notoriety in a similar fashion. The church (this is about 25 years or so ago) had a priest getting on in years, and apparently no proper chanters, so it was impossible (so the priest claimed) to have a service on Good Friday evening. Nothing daunted, the priest would take his stereo set from his house, rig it up in the choir loft of the church (which had no choir either), light the candles on the icon screen and around the Tomb - and regale the worshippers by playing and re-playing the LP recording of the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom from Saint Barbara's Church in Vienna! So you could go there on Good Friday evening, be seated in relative comfort, and enjoy the recording in a rather lovely church (nice architecture and bearable iconography) while being mesmerized into a hypnotic trance. A few blocks away, the local Greek Orthodox parish was doing the Burial of Christ, chanting the Lamentations and holding a VERY well-attended procession. Take your choice. De gustibus non est disputandum.
Incognitus

Incognitus,
Give me a break. You�re not a priest in a parish, and you can pontificate all you want about Orthodox chanting vespers, and all that.
My point, which you obviously missed due to your obsession with what you think is right IS right, was missed.
I have people coming to the all night vigil.
How many people spend an all night vigil in your church, which is not really the point.
My point which you obviously choose to ignore, is that we should try to create the most spiritually uplifting atmosphere we can, especially when you have something that lasts all night.
Personally, I would r=prefer listening to a beautiful choir singing, that someone caterwauling to distraction.

When you get your own parish, let me know what you think is pastorally correct, although I think you already have all the answers to pastoral problems and in a few languages to boot.
It�s a pity that more priests don�t engage in these sometimes pejorative posts by many who just sit on the sidelines and are never on the playing field.


And I am Fr. Michael Sopoliga, not just some �poster� from Florida thank you very much!

Your speech and demeanor in your post betrays you!

Dear Father Michael,

Bless, Father!

I enjoy your posts and the opinions and experiences you offer from your pastoral position.

I am sure that you have a dynamic parish. I hope that you will share more with us on this forum. I love learning from our holy priests, whether they are Roman Catholic, Byzantine Catholic or Orthodox.

Wishing you every blessing of our Lord for the remainder of Great Lent, and a most joyous Pascha!

Kissing your right hand,
Humbly in Christ our Lord,
Alice

Dear Alice,
Thank you for your �respectful� response to my post. I do not deserve it, for I am a sinner like everyone.
It�s just that I am a priest, and when posters think that they can just respond to �someone� who posts, knowing they are a priest without the respect deserving OF THE PRIESTHOOD, not the person, is very telling of where the person is coming from.

Too bad you can�t listen to my weekly LIVE radio show on Sunday mornings on WPSL1590AM radio in Fort Pierce at 7Am to 7:30Am called Byzantine Catholic Chat.
Since I�ve had this program for about two years, I have had people come to church just because I told them to get out of bed, and come to our church for an experience of a lifetime, and many have fallen in love with our church. As a matter of fact, today I said, people will see your God����.as they see you! Think about that one!

Sure having readers for all night vigils is wonderful. But when someone belittles priests, and even churches as did Incognitus did, he is being, well incongruous!
We create the atmosphere of meditation the best way we can.
I also have a recording of some Liturgy or Vespers service while people come into church on Sundays or Holy Days. It keeps them from talking, and sets the mood for worship.
I cannot understand people who post as if they hold all knowledge and truth about what we priests should do, must do, or that they would do if they were priests. It�s always easier to criticize the coach from the cheap seats at a ball game�.

As a pastor, unlike those who post their Monday morning quarterbacking, without ever knowing what it is to be a priest in this day and age in a parish, they do not know what they are doing.
Heck, if I though I could get kids to come to the vigil, I would have religious video games for them to play on laptops in the pews!

God bless you, and catch me on EWTN�s Light of the East. Again, I do practice what I preach��meaning, I am trying to grow the church not tear it down, or say it would grow if we became what we are not��read into that as you wish!
I just get fed up with everyone who thinks that we are sick and the cure is to become more Orthodox than the Orthodox. People could care less. They seek God��we have Him in our Byzantine Catholic Church.
Have a very blessed Easter!

Fr. Michael

Dear Father Michael,

I think that the office of the priesthood is deserving of respect if we are to call ourselves members of a hierarchal church. I think that respect is what is sadly lacking in all parts of society.

As for those who "who think that we are sick and the cure is to become more Orthodox than the Orthodox. ", this Orthodox will tell you that we have all the same problems and worries about keeping our children in the church! You should hear the debates that go on in my jurisdiction! Greek vs. English, English vs. Greek, liberal vs. conservative, traditional vs. modern, etc., etc.!!!

There are no magic answers for anybody, other than our good priests like you, showing by example and zeal their dedication to our Lord. I know how full a parish priest's hands are, and in some aspects I know that it is an unthankful and unenviable job.

Rest assured that there are many who respect and love all our priests for their work in our Lord's vineyard. Where would we all, Catholic and Orthodox, be without you???

Respectfully in Christ our Lord,
Asking for your blessing,
Alice