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Prayer for Unity
by Fr. Sergius Bulgakov


O Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour
thou didst promise to abide with us always.
Thou dost call all Christians
to draw near and partake
of Thy Body and Blood,
But our sin has divided us
and we have no power to partake
of Thy Holy Eucharist together.
We confess this our sin and we pray Thee,
forgive us and help us to serve the ways
of reconciliation, according to Thy Will.
Kindle our hearts with the fire
of the Holy Spirit,
give us the spirit of Wisdom and faith,
of daring and of patience,
of humility and firmness,
of love and of repentance,
through the prayers of the
most blessed Mother of God
and of all the saints.
Amen.

I love this prayer ... does it not inspire?

Well said. Not that I'm in any position to say to the pope "Wait, aren't you trying to have your cake and eat it too?" but I share your concerns.

Whoa. I'm sorry, but I think this is taking "Orthodox in communion with Rome" too far.

It works for the Melkites.

You're entitled to your opinion, of course, but I don't believe that Melkites are everything the Orthodox are.

I've been to a lot of Orthodox liturgies, I've listened to a lot of Orthodox homilies, I have listened to many Orthodox theologians. I've gotta say my parish and its teachings are more authentically Orthodox than ninety percent of those.

More like 99.9%

This is true. A lot really what makes a parish great rests upon a good Father as pastor. It is true regardless of Rite or which Church the parish is in communion with. The RC parish I left had a great teacher before, but he was reassigned and that parish was never the same, at least theologically. The priest who was a good teacher unfortunately was not a great people person, so attendance struggled a bit during his time. But people can't deny what great things they learn from him. The new pastor attracts people because of his personality, but I would bet he would give our RC traddies a heart attack if they attend his Mass.

You are lucky if you have a great parish. Most won't have a parish like that close to them.

Constantine-

From the tone of your post, have you now decided to remain Eastern Catholic? For a while it seemed you had leanings of leaving and joining the Orthodox Church.

Constantine has sought radical conclusions from radical questions, which radically taken would have in no way allowed pope Benedict in the following. Pastor Aeternus would have stopped him.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/trevino/sets/72157594400203677/

I have not decided either way. But I do not agree with Pastor Aeternus, maybe I have already anathemized myself from the Catholic Church.



Why is it radical? Is it not what the text says? It is normative if you ask me. And given how Pope Benedict has been handling the SSPX, it seems that the Papacy has been willing to overlook many important things for the sake of unity. I don't know if that is a good thing, unity for the sake of unity but not for the sake of the truth. I mean, the Catholic Church teaches the Pope to be infallible and Pastor Aeternus is infallible. Just because I jaywalked in front of a cop and didn't get arrested, doesn't mean jaywalking is now legal. We know what Pastor Aeternus says, who's fooling who here?

Whether it's "radical" depends on how one defines "radical". It's definitely thinking that's ... well, not the status quo.

True. But the fact remains that you didn't get arrested. Somebody can't say "Well, you were automatically arrested. The cop didn't need to tell you that you were arrested."

Bla bla bla...on the rocks (greek, peter)!

Yes, Constantine, it is radical when truth is being brought forth to afirm disunity.
Think about how the Nicea-Constantinople creed does not state explicitely the consubstantiality of the Holy Spirit and the Father for the sake of winning arians back to unity.