Eastern Orthodox Ritual

[Calamity Kris]

@Subdeacon Joe  This looks fascinating to me.  Can you please explain this to me.

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIoBY7Vs3oI/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

[Eyesa Horg]

And who's going to clean up the mess? 

[Texas Lizard]

Most likely the priest at the bottom of the group...Trying work his way to the top...

 

Texas Lizard

[J-BAR #18287]

I bet the church smells wonderful for a while!

 

😁

[Subdeacon Joe]

2 hours ago, Calamity Kris said:

@Subdeacon Joe  This looks fascinating to me.  Can you please explain this to me.

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIoBY7Vs3oI/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

 

He's a bit over the top, isn't he?  And not every parish scatters the laurel and basil like that.  

At the Vesperal Liturgy on Great and Holy Saturday the dark (usually purple) covers on icon stands, purple candle glass,  and dark vestments are removed and changed to white, symbolizing Christ's victory over Death and tearing down the gates of Hades.  

A look at it from Birmingham, AL:  

 

The parish I attend, entire service:  
 

 

 

 

[Chickasaw Bill SASS #70001]

I was thinking of callin' Bishop Tiger , down in LA 

but I figure he is pretty busy , it bein' Holy Week 

 

  CB 

[Subdeacon Joe]

2 hours ago, Eyesa Horg said:

And who's going to clean up the mess? 

 

1 hour ago, Texas Lizard said:

Most likely the priest at the bottom of the group...Trying work his way to the top..

 

Usually there are a dozen or so people who have signed up to help clean up and get ready for the Paschal services that start at about 23:30.  By the time this has ended the clergy (priests and deacons) has done about 50 hours of emotionally draining services during Holy Week, as well as their pastoral duties, and family life, so they are encouraged to rest because they have another, call it 6 hours later that night.  An hour or so of preparation for the Paschal services, about 4 hours of services (about 2330 to 0330), and then blessing of the food in the hall and finishing up in the church.  

 

31 minutes ago, J-BAR #18287 said:

I bet the church smells wonderful for a while!

 

With the amount of incense used, and the beeswax candles, the herbal smells aren't noticeable for long.  Most Orthodox churches always have a faint smell of incense and wax.  Even the chapel at Fort Ross in California that only has services a few times a year has it.  

[watab kid]

never did understand these russoian rituals , but then i had trouble with my roman catholic rituals as well , both before and after vatican 2 

 

guess the whole mystery and smoke and mirror pomp and circumstance escaped my practical , straight forward , common sense line of thinking - but then that might have been my methodist fathers side influencing it too , my grandparents always spent sunday morning on the golf course as good scots do 

[Subdeacon Joe]

20 minutes ago, watab kid said:

never did understand these russoian rituals , but then i had trouble with my roman catholic rituals as well , both before and after vatican 2 

 

guess the whole mystery and smoke and mirror pomp and circumstance escaped my practical , straight forward , common sense line of thinking - but then that might have been my methodist fathers side influencing it too , my grandparents always spent sunday morning on the golf course as good scots do 

 

 

I was raised Roman Catholic, so moving to Orthodoxy was easy.  I vaguely remember the Mass in Latin - not the language, but the structure of it - and strong memories of what I call the "half and half" Mass, a sort of transitional from all Latin to English.  

 

You can trace the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom to both Old and New Testaments.  The incense comes from both Old Testament ritual, and to the Revelation of St. John.  And it's broken into two parts, the Liturgy of the Word or Liturgy of the Catechumens, which is a teaching part, with Scripture readings, instructional hymns, and prayers, preparing the congregation for the Liturgy of the Faithful, that is the Eucharist.  In the Orthodox Church the catechumens are dismissed before the start of this portion, as they used to be in the RCC.  It seems harsh, but since they are not yet fully in the Church they are unable to receive the Eucharist.  So they leave for further instruction.  and the Liturgy of the Faithful continues.  After Communion, depending on the customs of the parish, the catechumens might be brought back for the final blessing.

There really is a logic to the structure of the Liturgy.  

[Subdeacon Joe]

St. Athanasius Orthodox Church,  Nicholasville KY.

 

Live, Nocturnes, Pascal Matins, and Pascal Liturgy 

 

 

[watab kid]

1 hour ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

 

I was raised Roman Catholic, so moving to Orthodoxy was easy.  I vaguely remember the Mass in Latin - not the language, but the structure of it - and strong memories of what I call the "half and half" Mass, a sort of transitional from all Latin to English.  

 

You can trace the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom to both Old and New Testaments.  The incense comes from both Old Testament ritual, and to the Revelation of St. John.  And it's broken into two parts, the Liturgy of the Word or Liturgy of the Catechumens, which is a teaching part, with Scripture readings, instructional hymns, and prayers, preparing the congregation for the Liturgy of the Faithful, that is the Eucharist.  In the Orthodox Church the catechumens are dismissed before the start of this portion, as they used to be in the RCC.  It seems harsh, but since they are not yet fully in the Church they are unable to receive the Eucharist.  So they leave for further instruction.  and the Liturgy of the Faithful continues.  After Communion, depending on the customs of the parish, the catechumens might be brought back for the final blessing.

There really is a logic to the structure of the Liturgy.  

my memories of the latin  mass are strong as that was when my mother was pushing me that way , alter boy , 40 hrs devotion , and all of it , also some priests getting real cozy with certain alter boys  - me not understanding why they were preferred , but having no issue as i didnt want to be there , 

 

my thoughts on the orthodox church was it was a step farth, er into where i didnt think i wanted to go , 

 

i had dealt with the lain and the black mass just fine [my mother smiled when i was an alter boy] but it was not my "beleif " i knew god loved me and i knew and know god acsepts me as ive lived well , , i didnt need the acceptance of an earthly person that had risen to a position in the church , 

 

in the 70s i was an apprentice architect in a firm that did a lot of church work all over the mid west - my Midwest was iowa , illinois, kansas and nebraska a bit of Missouri , i know a lot of folks consider mid west as east of the Mississippi , mine was just west of the river , i knpow its more great plains but all that aside 

 

i worked late hours at that office , late evening/early morning the neighbor [a gay professor of interior design ] and the monsignor would come by to spend an hour or two partaking of adult beverages and discussing the state of the world , i was younger then and accepted into the group , i learned a lot of Catholicism , azithiram and found myself reflecting on my young years  , the architect [my senior advisor] was a Notre dame grad and very much a mentor , 

 

sometimes i felt i was a chauffer , other times a partner as he would hand me projects and just turn me lose , but i was always included in these drinking and discussing sessions , a lot got discussed , there was a wide basis of opinions and points of view , i was open minded in my late 20s enough to absorb all of this and balance it all against my upbringing - my parents were unbiased [in my opinion ]  in the 60s and in spite of the war in the 50s as well , when the ratial tensions were high and when there was a lot of bias towed the japanese and german people , i never learned or felt any of that growing up - just the opposite as ive mentioned before , 

 

but religion in my young years was far from unbiased - i was raised catholic till my late high school years , i knew my mothers side were catholic and i knew my father had agreed to raise the kids catholic and i knew i was going to caytholic school - even tho all of our neighbors were other protectant regions - Episcopalian , Lutherans ,  , and yes a family that was atheist's , these were the part=ents of my best friends growing up , [we were the minority in the area]-sometimes frowned on] my fathers side were Methodist of the scots origins , so i ended up in the methodist boy scout troop [not the catholic one] 

 

we were the only catholics in our neighborhood , so i got a lot of input outside of school and home , in college i was the only catholic in my dorm , but at the office i was in the majority - yet because of the discussions it never seemed like it , 

later life when i moved here i found myself in an area that is predominately catholic , church on every corner thing , the other denomination is lutheran , just a step from catholic , my first two wives were lutheran , i did catch on to that early , my current wife [a very long marriage 34 years ] is catholic 

 

long way around the barn i see , i do understand the logic of the liturgy and i see the similarities - ive lived them short of the orthodox , ive only experienced that once and i understand your comparison 

bottom line in my mind is we need to believe in something , no matter what we choose to call it , or what we decide to prescribe to in name ,  

ive often told folks that i worship in my boat on a lonly lake on sunday morning - i was alone with my understanding of God , something that gave me peace and i would never pretend to be able to explain , but i know the peace of it , 

 

somtimes i get that at a shoot on sunday morning as well , yjhere is something aout SASS folks that offers that as well , sunday morning in camp , 

 

i know ive rambled on but i felt comfortable saying it all 

 

 

[Subdeacon Joe]

Live at midnight 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/live/89YzhFd4MS4?si=T5hc8Z1h1bxW2eTn

[Subdeacon Joe]

Putting the stamp of Appalachia on the Paschal Troparion
 

 

This even made its way back to Eastern Europe

 

 

And Japan
 

 

[Calamity Kris]

Thank you for all the info, SDJ.  Thank you all for the different perspectives.  Truly enriching.