Sunday of the Pharisee and the Publican

As I had to attend a meeting in Hobart at lunchtime, I decided to drive down earlier, and attend the 10 am Divine Liturgy at the Ukrainian Catholic Chapel of the Transfiguration, where friends of mine customarily worship on Sundays. 

I haven't attended a Ukrainian Liturgy in Hobart since the construction and consecration of the chapel in August 2010; it was good to join the small but devoted congregation to sing the praises of the Trinity, and receive the Sacred Mysteries.

It proved a little hard to find the chapel – it is located within the Ukrainian Club, tucked anonymously among the commercial buildings and fast food restaurants of Moonah; luckily, as I knocked at the locked front door (not knowing of the open door leading in from the back car park), their priest, Fr Tony Warwarek, heard me and let me in.

As I drove down, I recalled that it was "Octogesima", the Sunday before Septuagesima – and, as Eastern and Western Easter coincide this year, that applied to the Byzantine Rite also: and in that Rite, as I realised when the Liturgy began, that means it is the Sunday of the Pharisee and the Publican.

This Sunday, which is of the 8th Tone, first signals the approach of Great Lent: the Gospel pericope's call to true compunction and humble self-awareness rather than delusive pride and contempt toward others accords with this; and of course this week in the Eastern Church calendar is wholly fast-free, the last before Easter Week.

In the Byzantine Rite, next Sunday (equivalent to Septuagesima) is that of the Prodigal Son; the Sunday after that is Meatfare Sunday, equivalent to Western Carnevale, being the last day for eating flesh meat till Easter, with the week after that being Cheesefare Week, culminating in Cheesefare Sunday, last chance for dairy products and eggs till after the fast; for Great Lent begins on Monday 3rd March (Monday after Quinquagesima), rather than on the Western Ash Wednesday, 5th March 2014.

Having, especially in Melbourne, attended the Divine Liturgy off and on, I feel familiar with this form of the Eucharistic Sacrifice; I just have to remember not to sing "Gospodi" as with the Russians, but "Hospodi" with the Ukrainians. Most of the service was in English, except for the continual "Hospodi pomilui", other suchlike responses, and certain important chants, such as the Trisagion (which I managed to sing: "Svyaty Bozhe, Svyaty Kripky, Svyaty Bezsmertny, pomilui nas"), the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer.

Having received Our Saviour's Body and Blood, I recalled the advice of a prayerbook: "And after the divine Communion of the life-giving and mystic Gifts, at once give praise and great thanksgiving, and fervently and heartily sing to God: Glory to Thee, O God; Glory to Thee, O God; Glory to Thee, O God."

The noble and immemorial worship of the Byzantine Rite lifts up the heart and mind and soul to God. Would that I could attend it more often!

Christmas in Florence

Not only have I kept Epiphany twice (in Oxford and Edinburgh), but yesterday I celebrated Christmas again, courtesy of the Ukrainian Catholic community here in Florence!

I was simply looking for Vivoli Gelateria, and on a whim turned up a side alley, ending up at a church which I decided to investigate (I missed and walked right past the gelateria, which I later found to be closed at this season anyway) - when I came in to SS Simon and Jude, I found myself in a packed congregation, all standing, and the priest facing east at the altar, about to start the Insistent Litany after the Gospel (which I recognized by the threefold Gospodi pomilui - "Lord, have mercy").

Thanks be to God, I have sufficient familiarity with the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, albeit not with Ukrainian, that I was able to pray the Mass.  I must admit, the Byzantine Rite leaves the West for dead (and I'd been at a lovely Missa Cantata for the Epiphany the night before!): the beautiful singing, the sweeping sacred Action, carries one along into the heavenly places.

(As a friend once put it, the Roman Mass, solemn and sober, is precisely ordered and structured, able to be analysed into successive parts, expressive of the Western discursive mind; the Byzantine Divine Liturgy rather is all one great unfolding irruption of the Sacred, a form of contemplation rather than of meditation if you will.)

BTW, it was evident this was a Catholic not an Orthodox service, since the congregants nearly all knelt for the Sanctus and Consecration (not for the Epiclesis), and again at the Sancta Sanctis and response - "One is Holy, One is Lord: Jesus Christ, in the glory of God the Father".

Only a minority (the more fervent one assumes, standing up the front) communicated, and late that I was and not quite certain in myself, I refrained.  But to-day at 2.30 pm there will be Divine Liturgy for the Synaxis of the Soprasanta Theotokos, so I've been to confession at the Duomo and will keep a third feast, of Mary the Mother of God (whose memory the West keeps on the Octave Day of Christmas as its liturgy old and new indicates, whatever of the Circumcision), for the second time!