Fifth Sunday after Pascha - Sunday of the Samaritan Woman

We've been doing lots of gardening these days!

 Hello everyone! I'm running a little behind this week, sorry about that! I meant to get this post up last Friday, and only today realized that I never finished and published it. 

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So I have a bit of catching up to do! But here we are, together again with our quick weekly update. Spring is really blossoming around here in WNY, and we're enjoying the sunshine and fresh air that it brings. Including Barney! 😁

Springtime in our Byzantine rite parish is dawning with lots of talk of bringing back more in person events to continue to try and recover from the financial damage the pandemic wrought. The parish is so small at this point in terms of active families that the future is a bit unknown, but we're all praying for the best. 🙏 So that's really the big focus right now. 

For our part, we're continuing to enjoy the Divine Liturgy and our weekly ritual of attending there. The kids and I go out for coffee afterwards each week, and they also enjoy that quite a bit. This week, the parish hosted a coffee hour after liturgy, so we attended that. We had our baked goods donation in tow, and were warmly embraceed and welcomed. I'm hoping for many, many more of these to come in the future! 

Fourth Sunday after Pascha - Sunday of the Paralytic

Hello everyone, and isn't it lovely that spring has finally sprung? 😀 At least around here, it's been Second Winter and then Mud Season for quite some time, spring has been hiding, to be sure. 😂 But finally, things are budding, the sun is out more, and Paschaltide feels absolutely sublime! As we continue our path towards the feast of the Ascension, we are enjoying these themed Sundays following Pascha. Next year I really need to consider the icon set commemorating these to add to my collection! I really enjoy displaying icons of the current and upcoming feasts. 

This past Sunday we arrived at Divine Liturgy right on time, and guess who forgot her little book for the inevitable situation when the sheets with the Propers were already all claimed?

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Alas. :-0 So I did my best, but I simply MUST remember to look through that book and set the ribbons up accordingly *before* Divine Liturgy this weekend! We'll get there. But last Sunday, we learned about Jesus' healing powers, both in the Gospel and in the homily. After liturgy, we gathered to chat about the coffee klutch slated for the following week, and Anne and I plotted our baked good possibilities. I'm not much of a baker, so I ended up picking up a few pastries at the grocery store when we went yesterday, but Anne baked cupcakes this morning to bring! I'm really looking forward to it.

A quiet weekend, but things are going to be getting crazy with end-of-school-year ceremonies and milestones, and this mom is feeling pretty emotional about it. But I'm hanging in there! I'm truly looking forward to summer this year, and all of the lovliness, both spiritual and secular, that that season brings. 

*heart*

Third Sunday after Pascha - The Myrrh-bearing Women

Hello all and happy weekend! It's still the lovely Easter season, and we're all navigating along quite well and enjoying it all. My kids have lots going on as they get older and settle in to their hobbies and interests, and so family life has been very happily busy. Today alone we have Henry at a track invitational, and Anne earning her black belt in TaeKwon Do! 

But back to our churchy stuff. 😊 Last weekend, for the first time we had a chance to check out what is called the Typica in the Byzantine rite, which is the prescribed prayers and readings you can follow along with at home when you are unable to attend Divine Liturgy. Henry was a bit under the weather last Sunday morning, Anne was away at the camp for black belt candidates, and I woke up with a stiff neck and upper back that made it hard for me to physically get out of bed, let alone walk about with any level of comfort. 😬 So it was a staying in kind of Sunday for us last weekend!

I have a beautiful prayer book that includes the Typica, and I also have the book with the readings for every day of the year for those using the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. These are both must have for Catholic Nerds, you see. ;-) And so we did our best to navigate along with this beautiful at home liturgy for the first time:

I did pretty well, but I was unsure about some of the terminology (anybody know what a metany is? Also, I've been needing to understand what Kontakion refers to for some time now 😁). I *really* enjoyed having access to the readings:

And it was all quite lovely, and I'm really enjoying the Paschaltide themes. I love some of the traditions I've taken to in my Byzantine rite journey, such as candles and incense, that make home prayer time seem even more special and set aside. This weekend though, we're all healthy, and we'll be back at Divine Liturgy tomorrow!

How is your Easter season going, friends? *heart*

Pascha - The Resurrection of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ

He is risen! Hello everyone, and happy Easter! We had such a joyful Easter weekend, and I hope that you did as well. This year I wasn't able to get to my usual Triduum liturgies in the Latin rite, though I did pray Stations of the Cross on Good Friday with my friend Irena who was visiting us for the holiday weekend. And rather than the Easter vigil this year, we attended Divine Liturgy on Pascha Sunday in our Byzantine rite parish for the very first time!

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And it was LOVELY. We walked in to prayers ongoing with incense. The sheets with the Propers for the day were already gone and in use when we arrived, so we were a bit like fish out of water with regards to the special verses and other liturgical notes for this solemnity. But I'm used to that in my Byzantine rite journey. 😂 There were LOTS of additional and substituted prayers in the Propers for Pascha, and I also noticed that we stood in a few places that we ordinarily kneel. It was all quite beautiful, but your resident Catholic Librarian likes to follow along in the book where she can. :-)

After communion, Father blessed some Easter bread, and we all were welcomed to take a cube after liturgy, and he also came around and blessed our foreheads with oil. It was sublime. We chatted with everyone out in the gathering space following liturgy, and the sense of community there is so strong. I'm looking forward to seeing what Paschaltide holds for us there as we journey to Pentecost!

For the remainder of the day, we enjoyed much Easter chocolate and ham. 😃 How was your Easter weekend, dear friends?