A Gem from the East

I have always been attracted to the Byzantine or Greek strain of Christianity. As a boy I was intrigued by the Byzantine emperors and their iteration of Christianity that eventually was part of the schism in 1054. I felt like there was a compatibility that those medieval Christians were looking past. I think St. John Paul II truly emphasized a cultural facet universality of the Catholic Church when he said the Church has two lungs (an Eastern one and a Western one). Like the vast majority of Catholics, I was baptized and raised in the Latin (Western) Rite of the Church. Though, when I was in college my then girlfriend and now wife introduced me to the Byzantine Catholic Church. The Byzantine Catholic Church, for those who do not know, is a church in full communion with Rome and has its own liturgy and prayers. They are the same ones offered by the Eastern Orthodox Church.

I immediately fell in love with this strain of Christian spirituality and wanted to dive into everything the Byzantines had to offer. I was a devotee of the Western Liturgy of the Hours and I could not wait to switch to the Byzantine version. Down the rabbit hole I went...

To my disappointment there was not a Byzantine equivalent (at least an apples to apples equivalent) of the Liturgy of the Hours. I searched high and low, far and wide for a book that would take me through the rhythm of the day. I could not find one let alone in the translation that the Byzantine Catholic Church uses. All I could find were books without complete liturgies or ones that were so simple and so abbreviated that they left me wanting more. The Byzantine liturgical cycle is much different and much more complicated than the Western one. The various tones, troparian, kontakion, akathists, menalogies, canons, and stichera (cliff notes version: propers of the liturgy) and all of them in separate volumes (about 12 depending on how you count them) was impossible to practice as a lay person.

There was no single volume that had Matins (morning prayer), Vespers (evening prayer), and Compline (night prayer) designed for lay use in the translation of the Byzantine Catholic Church. I was so disheartened. That was until a few years ago!

The Book of Hours (Casoslov)by Eastern Christian Publications is almost perfect for my needs! It was designed for a lay person to follow along with the liturgies as they are conducted by a priest and deacon in their parish (this would NOT include their mass known as the Divine Liturgy). One could easily abbreviate the services or use the ones recommended for lay use in this book.

For more details, you can check out my review of the book here.

As I mention in the video, I do an abbreviated version of their morning prayer for lay people with the Epistle and Gospel of the day tacked on as well as Vespers and some amount of Compline. The part of Compline I focus on is the Canon of the day. Each day of the week is prayed in anticipation as in a vigil service. For example, on Thursday night, one would pray the service of the Crucifixion (Fridays are dedicated to Christ’s passion). It is a good way of maintaining the cycle of prayer throughout the day with enough variety to feel seasonal/cyclical.

I have found it to be a great benefit to my prayer life and I hope you can find joy in it also.

Glory to Jesus Christ!