www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Suggestions? Learning the rite.

Hello,

As you might be able to gather from my name, I am of Ukrainian decent. I am also of Polish decent on my father's side, and was therfore raised (and bapitised and confirmed) as a Latin Roman Catholic. However, my mother's Ukrainian side of the family is Ukrainian Catholic. Anyway, I had always known that Baba and Dido had attended another church, and celebrated Christmas and Easter on another day (double the pedaha for me!) but never really questioned or explored their church. My mother has always gone to Roman Catholic mass with us, and we always visited baba and dido after they had attened mass on their Julian Christmas or Easter. So, my whole life I had never been to a Ukrainian Catholic mass.

I'm only 18, but in recent years i've come to really explore my faith. I think I may even have a calling, but to what extent I dont know. In either way, I feel I should be going to confession more regularly than once every two years, I already attend mass every Saturday and the odd Sunday, but also want to include prayer in my own private life. In additon to my prayer life, i've been exploring my family roots, dabbling in learning Polish and Ukrainian and researching family history.

Now to bring this altogether ...

Last Thursday, my Dido passed away, he had been suffering for some time and not to sound too cliche, but at least his suffering has ended. I loved him very much. But for the first time in my life I expereinced the Ukrainian Catholic Church. It's sad I had to expereince it in this matter, but none the less, for a lack of a better term I enjoyed the whole experience and found it extremley comforting. I, for the first time in my life felt like I was actually worshipping at a mass, and was excited by the beauty of the church, especially coming from an area where modern architecture and uninspired churches are everywhyere. I loved everything, from the chanting, to father's sermon, the art, the icons, the practices, the rituals. To honour my grandfather and his freinds, the mass was very traditional and done in Ukrainian (i speak very little!) but to help his grandchildren, especially me and my brothers as we speak no Ukrainian at home, he did parts of the mass in English. I loved how we were praying, I was really inspired. I can't help but think it was my grandfather sending me off in the right direction as we said good bye. Not only that, but that community! I have never ever seen such a community! All these people helping out for the banquet in the hall after, (imagine 15 babas in a kitchen making as much holopchi and pedaha as you can imagine ... *drools*) in such short notice too! Even the cantor that voluntered and the deacon that came down from another parish to help out. I was floored. All the friends from when my Mom was in her youth, i've never known what a community ment until i came to see this parish. And i've been to my fair share of Latin parishes.

So! I've read a little on this forum already, and have been doing as much reasearch as I can and I can't get enough. I asked my mom if she would attend the divine liturgy this Sunday, and to my surprise, she said there'll probably be one in English (although, I would like to learn Ukrainian). It's a different parish, but I hope I'll see the same community and beauty that I saw at the Niagara parish I had visited.

Now if you have read all of this, thanks for bearing with me. But what I want to know is, what next? I want to start attending these masses as I think it's the best way to determine if this rite is for me. But what can I read? Are there any books out there that will help me understand the liturgy and the rite, or any that contrast the rite to the latin one? I want to find out as much as I can. And any suggestions, for learning Ukrainian would be great. I've looked around town and haven't found any language courses, although I will be moving to montreal for the school year as I'm attending university there. So if anyone knows of any suggestions that would help me, please, post!

I'm not much of a writer, and that was a long story, but thank you for taking the time to read it.

Andriy,

Welcome to the forum! It's good to see more Ukrainians joining the ranks.

In regards to the Eastern Churches, what the Roman Catholics call the "Mass," we call it the Divine Liturgy.

A great resource for you to investigate the Eastern Churches, the various liturgical services, and general theology is the website of St. Elias Ukrainian Catholic Church of Brampton, Ont.

http://www.saintelias.com

If you get a chance, I, along with many others, would highly recommend you attending any of the services there. You cannot really get any more Eastern than them.

Again, welcome to the forum, and sorry about the loss of your grandfather.

-uc

Thanks for the post and the link, brat.

Brampton isn't the far for me, I live in Burlington, perhaps me and my Mom (i need an interpreter) will make the trip someday, but for now I think i'll explore this local parish. That parish, and my Baba's which I came to love so much, St. Cyril and Methodius in St. Cathrines.

Judging from the picture, I must say, what a beautiful Church. I've always admired the wooden architecture of the Ukrainian Catholic churches.

Again, thank you for such a quick reply.

Welcome to the discussion. CIUS (Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta) has tapes you can buy for learning Ukrainian.
You can take a look at an example of a university class at:
http://lab.chass.utoronto.ca/slavic/Ukrainian/SLA208/two.html

Also if you will be attending McGill University in Montreal, you can join the Ukrainian Students' Club there and also take a religion course on Eastern Christianity. I think Fr. Ihor Kutash is the prof.
For info on the Ukrainian community in Montreal check:
http://www.ukrainiantime.com/links.html

The web site for St. Elias in Brampton is:
http://www.saintelias.com/ca/index.php

I will be attending McGill! That's awesome!
I hope first year students can take the course.

I was thinking about taking Polish, as I know it's similar enough to Ukrainian. The rational being My Ukrainian and Polish Grandparents can speak to each other with relative ease. But I now think that taking Polish would be a bad move, because when I do learn Ukrainian, perhaps I will mix the langauges up? Too bad McGill doesn't have Ukrainian. Hopefully, I'll be able to find a class in the city.

See if your university offers Russian.

They do, but I'm more interested in Ukrainian.
As I understand it, Polish would be a better choice, as it is closer to Ukrainian.
But "ya ni szniyu". (I'm too slow with the cyrilic letters on my keyboard.)

St. Vladimir's Institute in Toronto is offering a Ukrainian course for beginners over the summer in the evenings.
Phone 416-923-3318 for info.

There are also camps you can go to Out West for an intensive 2 week course. Check www.infoukes.com [infoukes.com]

There will also be places that offer conversational Ukrainian in Montreal.
Unforunately, there is not a Ukrainian Student's residence in Montreal as there is in Toronto, Saskatoon, Winnipeg and Edmonton.

There are more Ukrainian classes offered in Canada than Russian. There is no point in taking Russian.

Well, you could always ask the professor which one is closer. The professor at the university.

One more thing, the best way to learn is to keep going to the liturgical services.

That's exactly what I had in mind. I will be attending with my Mother(she speaks Ukrainian and attended Divine liturgy all throughout her youth), I just haven't been able to stay in contact with her this week because she's keeping my Baba company in this tough time. But she said she'll be back Sunday, and we'll be attending my first, well I guess regular Divine Liturgy, as I assume the funeral version is different.

Anyways, thanks for the replies.

And as for Polish being closer... I think it has a lot to do with the dialect of Ukrainian you speak. In Western Ukraine the language has little Russian influence and more of a Polish influence, hence the similarity. Elsewhere, and this is coming from my family who visited Ukraine in the 80s, they said it was more influenced by Russian and in Kyiv it was Russian that was mostly spoken. I'm more interested in the Ukrainian spoken by my ancestors.

Andriy:

IF you keep in mind that the Apostolic Churches have a common sequence in their liturgical worship you won't be overwhelmed by the difference in how they ritually experience God moving among His People.

There is always an entrance or introductory portion, a portion where the people listen to the word of God in Scripture, and the offering of the gifts of bread and wine that, by the action of the Holy Spirit, become the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Whether Latin, Byzantine, or Oriental Orthodox, the Liturgy follows this same skeletal form, fleshed out by the Holy Spirit working through the genius of each culture, language, and theological insight.

As for learning the ritual--just go and absorb it: like a sponge take it in a little at a time and just revel in it. When I first experienced the Byzantine Liturgy it took me quite a while just to focus on anything else. It was, for me, like a drug--I couldn't get enough. I memorized the hymns as I heard them week to week and would sing them to myself when I was alone. Let the Spirit work and don't rush Him. Let him "marinate" you in the Liturgy and the genius of the Slavic experience.

In Christ,

BOB