Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Praying for the dead

We Byzantine Catholics celebrate All Souls' during the Lent before Easter. Every Saturday during the fast, we remember our beloved dead with a parastas, a memorial service with sweet bread and wine. So- celebrating All Souls' with Western-rite Catholics today could be considered a Latinization, rejecting our Byzantine, Eastern culture for the culture that is in the majority. Many Eastern churches celebrate the day, however as a bonus to our traditions. After both Saturday and Sunday Liturgies, we celebrated and remembered our dead with a parastas. And yes, we will do it again during the Great Lent as well as for any special, specific anniversary that a parishioner has.  It is good to pray for our dead.                                                                                                                                    


3 comments:

  1. I loved when they had the special day for all deceased mothers. It seemed so organic as does this the All Soul's Day remembrance.

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  2. I wish we prayed for them more! Where is the picture from?

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  3. The picture is from a book for my ESL students. Most of them don't celebrate the holiday- which is a pity- I think this version of All Souls' is my favorite part of Mexican culture (well, that and tamales)

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