Light of the East

The Fourth Sunday, and the Fifth week of Lent in the Byzantine liturgical calendar features a powerhouse of spirituality and culminates in a special service to the Mother of God.

We have come to the Mid-Point of Lent. As the Cross with Christ upon it was planted in the middle of the world, it is planted again in the middle of the Church.

The Eastern Catholic Churches are known for the richness, depth and sometimes length of their liturgical prayers. However, two favorite Lenten prayers are actually short but poignant.

Anathema be upon you! Anathema I say! These words were pronounced for centuries on the First Sunday of Lent in many Eastern Christian Churches for those who ascribed to the heresy of iconoclasm - the prohibition and destruction of Holy Images.

“Hide not your face from your servant; for I am in distress.” The words of Adam and Eve as Lent, the season of the Great fast, now begins in the Eastern Catholic Churches.

A loving God would not really send someone to hell forever, would he? Why do Catholics pray do dead people? Learn what the Eastern Catholic Churches say about these and other related questions.

This is a week of Encounter in Many Eastern Catholic churches. We encounter another pre-Lenten Sunday. Our Lord encounters Simeon. And we, encounter liturgically our deceased family members.

This Sunday is the first of the official four preparatory Sundays leading up to Lent in the Byzantine Catholic calendar. It is the story of the Publican and the Pharisee.

Runners in a baton race must run together until the baton is successfully passed to the next runner. Many Eastern Catholic Churches at this time are in a, Liturgical baton race.

As though being born and laid in a manger in Bethlehem was not humbling enough, Our Lord chose to lower himself in the lowest spot in the Earth’s surface, the river Jordan. There he would be baptized for our sake and God as Trinity would be revealed.