www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Prayer For all of us here

Come, Holy Spirt, fill the hearts of your faithful, and kindle within them the fire of Your love.
Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created.
And You shall renew the face of the earth.

O God,who has taught the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant that by the gift of the same Spirit we may be always truly wise and ever rejoice in His consolation.

If I may, brothers and sisters...

I echo Serge's remarks about the pre-crash Forum being one of his favourite places to be netwise. It has been and still is for me.

Perhaps I'm not old enough or learned enough to understand a lot of what lies beneath the surface of the antagonisms of the past days. All I know is what I see--lurkers and frequent (and favourite) posters taking their leave from our e-community (and I say "our" not because I presume to be a Byzantine, but because since I came here last year, I've felt embraced as a member of this family), for a time or permanently, due to the kind of stuff that's been going on.

I don't have much to offer in the way of advice on how to deal with this stuff because I just don't know. All I do know is that the tensions are high and probably will get higher until more people get fed up and leave, and then they'll of necessity quiet down. I think that the tensions could've been a good thing, had it not led to the tragedy of lurkers and well known friends leaving because of those tensions and our mishandling of those tensions. I think this is atrocious and a scandal.

Perhaps one side has the right. Perhaps the other one does. At this point, I don't really think it matters so much. We can continue the dialogues after we reconcile with one another. I think a prayerful reconciliation is needed more than anything at this point.

Most of you will not observe this because it's not your custom, but this coming Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I observe along with the rest of the Syrian Church the Fast of Nineveh. In the spirit of that fast, I ask your forgiveness if I've offended any of you in any way, and I pray for you all.

Since you all probably will not be observing the Fast, perhaps we could all take those three days and think about what's been going on here, and how we've all behaved, et cetera, and maybe we could work towards forgiveness, peace, and a renewed sense of brotherhood, in the spirit of the pre-crash Forum.

"O God, who heard the prayer of the son of Mathai in the sea and commanded the mighty fish and in three days it cast him up; hear our prayer and be reconciled with us and respond in your mercy to our requests; and if we have angered you, there are those who will reconcile you with us, the just who died for your love." (Wednesday Morning Prayer for the Fast of Nineveh)

+Lord have mercy!

...Amen!

God bless us all,
Liz

Amen!

Amen!

Brother Mor, in talking with the Administrator who both set up and funds this "unofficial" Byantine website BEFORE he set it up, I know that his intention was to provide a place for Byzantine Catholics to get information and come together in the forum. But it seemed to me then (and now) that the Forum was also intended as a place where other Byzantine Christians and our fellow Eastern "odd-balls" could come together to talk, share ideas, give news and information -- and most importantly -- to share prayers. We have been blessed with not only Byzantine Catholics, but also our Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Roman Catholic brethren. Your presence here is a most wonderful gift to all of us. Never, ever feel that you are not a part of (what I call) our Internet parish. (And everybody else too.)

Where else can I ask prayers for my Mom after her stroke, and find Byzantines, Romans, Orthodox, Indian, Syrian, Greek, Ukrainian, and etc. Christians all offering prayers for her well-being.

I hope that we all realize the incredible and stupendous reality that we participate in. The 'official' ecumenists must be green with envy. Us poor layfolks are doing something wonderful, and I am convinced that the Lord smiles when He sees this group of His children just coming together in love, kindness, debate and prayer.

May the Lord give His choicest blessings to the Administrator who has set up and finances this website. And may the Lord give His special blessings to all (of whatever community) who come here to share, educate, debate and pray with like minded people.

When the server crash kept us apart for several weeks, many (most?) of us kept checking back daily to see if we were back up. When that finally happened, there was a real exultation: the family was back.

May the Lord, in His mercy, show abundant blessings to all who, in their good-will, make the effort to come here to read or to participate. And if our hearts are truly inclined to share the love of God and the love of our neighbors, then may the Lord shower a whole abundance of blessings upon all who come here.

Blessings!

I haven't been posting here very long, and I don't post often, but it feels good to have this place online to correspond with other Eastern Christians, and some Westerners as well! I don't really know anyone here, but I know that you, like me, are struggling on this road of life to acheive the final goal of union with God. Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and Oriental Orthodox, though we disagree, are all on this road together. May God save us all.

Dear Friends,

I ask forgiveness from all of you for my shortcomings as I ask this of Serge whom I provoked into being angry with me.

May God forgive me a sinner, bless all the posters on the Forum and especially our Administrator who has given so much of himself and his resources to provide us all with this valuable ecumenical and spiritual resource that is the Byzantine Catholic Forum.

In repentance,

Alex

I am sure that as I do forgive you , so the Father does also.

May Our Blessed Lady, Mother of us all, keep all of us here in Her most tender care.