www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West An observation and a question

Dear Friends,

As someone who is somewhat new to this forum (I've been reading as many threads as possible to get the lay of the land)I must say I am quite impressed with the level of dialogue between the eastern catholics and the eastern orthodox. As someone who was raised Roman Catholic, I was half expecting the exchanges to be a bit more strained. Certainly some threads are quite 'lively' but I rarely sense bitterness or rancor.

This observation leads me to a question though. Do the eastern catholics on this particular forum, which by my understanding is by you and for you, feel closer in some ways (other than the use of the same if not similar Liturgy and other aesthtetic things) to our orthodox brothers and sisters than to those catholics in the west with whom you are in union? Just curious.

My maternal great-grandparents and grandmother were Orthodox and as I've said I was raised Roman Catholic but I feel quite drawn to the eastern form of worship. I've been doing quite a bit of studying and praying and trying to see if the byzantine catholic church or the orthodox church is the one for me and my children. I am glad to have found you and I look foreward to participating in this forum.

Warm regards.

Welcome to the forum, GregChant!

I love Gregorian chant too!

In Christ,
Alice

Me too, in fact I have gotten tickled at my daughter. She is a massage therapist and has decided to get a new Gregorian Chant CD to use when she is giving a massage. She feels so many of her clients are people of such strong faith, that she wants to bring Christ totally into their rest.

Now to the question. Well we have our disagreements. For the most part the East is in the middle. We are trying to restore ourselves, which means we have to clean out a lot of Latinisms. It doesn't mean that we love Rome less, it just means to be faithful to who we are, we have to become more Orthodox in our traditions.

Everyone here is on a common journey that of growing closer to God. He takes us in many different directions to all get to the Him. So we learn from each other.

Right now too, we are being on good behaviour It is Great and Holy Lent, so we decided to be nice for a while. Then we will get to fussing some, but we dont fuss for too long. WE find what we agree on and then go on. REALLY WE ARE PRETTY GOOD BROTHERS AND SISTERS.

This forum is blessed with great administrators and even more so with wonderful clergy that takes their time to teach, exhort, and correct. So don't be afraid to put questions out there, you will get answers galore.

Pani Rose

Dear Pani Rose, This Forum also has incredible participants! Wonderfully awesome people of faith, like: Pani Rose, Myles, Scott Arbuckle, LaFamiliaFelix, RomanRedneck, GregChant1545, vito, Dan Lauffer, alice, harmon3110, rgk7333, Irish Melkite, Diak, Deacon Doug, Professor J. Michael Thompson, Unity In Christ, theophan, and many guests (those are just the ones who are NOW signed on at 8:08 AM on Monday morning!). All of you are a source of constant support for my faith and for my living of my own vocation as priest and monastic...and DAILY by name, I remember each of you to the Lord...with MUCH praise on my lips.

THANKS BE TO THE LORD FOR THIS WONDERFUL PLACE OF CHALLENGE AND FAITH!

With love for you all,
+Fr. Gregory, who asks for your holy prayers!

Hey, hey! I got a mention Nice to see I'm appreciated in these parts Yup, I'm one of the resident barbarians GregChant: Latin through and through. My Greek is miserable, so much so that I'm only going to scrape through my 1st year Uni exams in Greek next week. But alas I love the Church. I share Fr Gregory's sentiments. For me the Church is Universal and its in its Catholicity that I feel at home. The Church as the mystical body of Christ draws all things into herself. She has a Latin history, a Coptic history, a Greek history, she has a Gothic history, a Slavic history, even an Indian history. She is truly universal and I feel at home amongst any part of her body because its my body. It truly fascinates me to see how in spite of our cultural differences we all cling to the same faith, expressing it in vastly different forms whilst the substance remains unchanged. That Universality, that Catholicity, thats what makes me feel at home whether I'm with Latins or Greeks. Because it reminds me that through our baptism we are no longer Jew or Greek, slave nor free, man nor woman for all are one in Christ (Gal 3:27-28).

Deo Gracias!
Myles

PS) Thank you for your humbling comments O son of St Basil. Fr Gregory I am truly flattered.

GregChant, for myself I would say yes to your question of closeness to the east, because it extends beyond liturgy and aesthetics to theology, church calendar, fasting practices, etc., most of which are eastern. Some eastern catholic churches are even on the Julian calendar. The persistent difference with orthodox outside Rome lies in the perception by many eastern catholics that the split in 1054 A.D. was a political one that didn't mean much to the common worshipper, but had more to do with leadership's desire for power or control. Later political moves prompted eastern catholics to prefer Rome as hierarch. In fact, if I may be so bold, I believe that we were never really cut off from communion with either side. That sort of exclusivity was imposed externally by hierarchs. We even have our own set of canons seperate from our western brethren.

Though the debate about who did what etc. goes on in some circles, I doubt that it impacts most worshippers nowadays.

Dear GregChant,

As for whom I feel closer to - it would depend on whether they: a) agree with me and b) appreciate St Louis de Montfort!

Seriously though, look at Fr. Gregory here.

He is Orthodox, but he encapsulates ALL that I consider to be precious to the East-West Christian tradition.

If I could be a little like he, I would be very happy.

Alex