Christos Anesti!

[The Liturgist]

What made me think of that is that I've been trying unsuccessfully for years to talk my lot into doing the vigil in the morning, but I get a flat no.

That’s deeply unfortunate, because the morning was actually the traditional time for serving the Paschal Vigil Mass (or as the Orthodox and other Byzantine Rite Christians call it, the Vesperal Divine Liturgy of St. Basil*) before the 1955 changes to the Paschal Triduum by Pope Piux XII.

* Normally vesperal divine liturgies and vigil masses happen in the evening, but the Paschal Vigil, and in the East usually Holy Thursday liturgy as well, are done in the morning, in the latter case to make way for the EO version of the Tenebrae service, known as the 12 Gospels Service (which is in fact Matins for Good Friday, served at night the previous day). Likewise the Eastern Orthodox do the Presanctified Liturgy on Holy Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in the morning, when during the previous weekdays of Lent they are done in the evening, usually starting between 5 and 6 PM (although sometimes as early as 3:30 PM directly following the Ninth Hour). The Presanctified Liturgy is also a vesperal liturgy, which is closely related to the pre-1955 version of the Roman Rite Mass of the Presanctified celebrated in their liturgy on Good Friday, which in the Byzantine Rite is an aliturgical day. But due to the solemnity of weekdays in Lent, the EO, OO and Assyrian (Church of the East) churches historically all used Pre-sanctified liturgies (except possibly the Ethiopians; I don’t know in their case) but these died out in most places, although they are being revived in the Assyrian Church of the East, the Ancient Church of the East and to a lesser extent, the three Syriac Orthodox jurisdictions (mainly the Malankara Independent Syrian Church, which as I have mentioned previously is interestingly enough in full communion with the Mar Thoma Syrian Church, a member of the Anglican Communion).

The rationale for the Pre-sanctified as I mentioned previously is the extreme solemnity of weekdays in Lent; we see a similar but more extreme custom in the Ambrosian Rite, in which the mass is simply not celebrated on weekdays in Lent, but like in the Byzantine Rite, black vestments are worn on weekdays of the great fast, and as I mentioned in another thread in Traditional Theology, the beautiful and subtle color of Morello, a sort of reddish purple, is used on Saturday and Sunday in the Ambrosian Rite instead of violet.

 

[The Liturgist]

We don't need many for a quorum. "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”

Indeed, I agree with this sentiment. Alas Jewish synagogues have a higher number (ten adults, or in those synagogues commonly called orthodox, ten males who have completed the Bar Mitzvah) cease having regular services when they cannot reliably attract a minyan.