Thursday, December 31, 2020

"Our Orthodox Faith"



Eucharistia and Prayer



Question: Is receiving God through Holy Communion greater than receiving God through prayer?

Answer: We receive God through grace and grace comes to us in many ways. It comes when we invoke His Name with reverence and humility; when we pray and live by the word of God; when we receive Holy Communion with the testimony of a good conscience. We accumulate grace in every instant of our life, if we meet our fellows with a good heart, respect and honour. There are many means of acquiring the grace of God in order to preserve our heart alive with the sensation of God, and this is essential: for as long as our heart is warmed up by the grace of God, no alien thought can approach us and we are unassailable by the enemy.

We are able to invoke His Name with reverence and humility thanks to God's grace. The following answer has a more exact elucidation of our total dependence on God.
Question: I have a philosophical proud mind. How can we acquire stillness if we are proud?

Answer: Pride seems to accompany every our attempt to present ourselves before God in prayer and come close to Him. The most practical way to acquire humility is continual thanksgiving. The Spirit of God always inspires gratitude (1 Cor. 2:12). Father Sophrony makes a distinction between spiritual humility and ascetical humility. Ascetical humility consists of always reproaching and considering ourselves as worse than all, as we are commanded in the Gospel: ‘When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do’ (Luke 17:10). As for spiritual humility, it is indescribable. It is granted to those who have already contemplated the beauty of the Risen Lord, the Light of His Face, which wounds them with the deep conviction that they are unworthy of such a loving God as Christ is.


I do note that he doesn't really answer the first question.

Robert Grosseteste's Integralism

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

The Shepherd. The Warrior. The King.

Faith and Trust

Metropolitan Hilarion Presents the MosPat Perspective

Lord Have Mercy

Having Gratitude to Whom?

Expressing gratitude for good things is a part of certain strains of environmentalism; is it New Age in its origins? Green religion. To whom is one expressing gratitude? To one's self? To the "universe"? Is this some sort of pantheism, or an implicit desire for God?





Nativity Message from the Orthodox Metropolitan of Cyprus

On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Iconography School at the Moscow Theological Academy. Part 2



OrthoChristian

Biological Classification Still Controversial

Polemical?









Related:

"Self-Described Conservative"

Such self-serving BS.











Meanwhile in Rome...

Deserving of a Popular Cult

And the modern Roman saint-making machine wasn't involved in his canonization so there's that for the credibility of the cult.

But this is a take that will be unpopular among the Latin integralists: St. Thomas Becket was a victim of a theology of ecclesial authority that hadn't been fully worked out and yet was nonetheless asserted and practiced as dogma. Was a conflict between a Christian secular authority (especially in the form of a over-grasping monarchy) and ecclesial authority inevitable? Probably. Could it have been resolved by other means? What if the Church had not assisted in the development of Christian monarchy in the first place, and had chosen a different path?

I found this post from The Josias which perfectly reflects how St. Thomas Becket wouuld be portrayed by Latin integralists:

German Catholics Continue Their March

Cowardice and Magnanimity

Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Creation

Medieval Dominican Chants for Christmas



NLM

Latin Icons Done by Byzantine-trained Iconographers?

Reverence, Not a Lack of Originality?

Monday, December 28, 2020

A Correct Ecclesiology

Sunday, December 27, 2020

Thomas Becket's Little Book?

Why Is He Getting Coverage in a Latin Periodical?

Only because he is saying something with which they agree and promote?

Anniversary of the Inauguration of Hagia Sophia





Sunday of St. Stephen






A Quote of St. Gregory Palamas

Saturday, December 26, 2020

Friday, December 25, 2020

Pondering St. Joseph

Another 13th ce Depiction of Old Joseph

Fr. Panayiotis on the Nativity of Our Lord

Old Joseph





Franciscan devotion to the Christ-child.. . is that what the Church Universal needs?

Psaltikon: A Byzantine Christmas

Thursday, December 24, 2020

The Byzantine Royal Hours



NLM

Fr. Panayiotis on Salvation and Redemption

But Note the Differences



Baby Jesus in art and the long tradition of depicting Christ as a man-child

Thomas Joseph White, OP: Why did God become human?

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Catholic Project Podcast on the McCarrick Report

Taylor Patrick O'Neill: Maritain on Grace and Predestination

A New Science of PHYSIKE?

Jewish Ritual Bath

Sacred Art, Maybe, But Not Iconography

Time-bound historical realism over the Eternal Reality Who is Christ.

What Sort of Latin Theology of Grace Is This?

As if any aspect of the Saving Mystery Who is our Lord Jesus Christ could be separated from Him?

Fr. Panayiotis on the Date of Christmas

A Reflection by Fr. Alexander Schmemann on the Nativity of Our Lord

Eternal Memory

Aquinas, Original Sin, and the Challenge of Evolution by Daniel W. Houck



Cambridge University Press

Social Justice

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Latin Kabbalah Revisited





Related:

St. Nicholas "the Shot"

Leonardo Boff

Anniversary of Religiosam Vitam





Monday, December 21, 2020

A Crisis That Has Nothing to Do With Him, Obviously


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Sunday, December 20, 2020

William Byrd, "Rorate caeli"

Western Notion of Sacrifice

Last But Not Least?

A Precious English Psalter

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Metropolitan Tikhon's Nativity Message

The Source of the Tweet May be Probelmatic

But the thesis on"Western Church history" is interesting. Is St. Augustine the primary Latin source for its "ontology of Holy Orders"? And is Latin "theology of the priesthood" based upon St. Augustine solely, or are there other Latin fathers who are sources for it?




Related:

The Fundamentals of [Roman] Catholicism

or Latin Christianity...

Michael Matt Interviews Bishop Schneider

Nativity Letter from the Ukrainian Major Archbishop

Martyr Boniface of Tarsus and Righteous Aglaia

Friday, December 18, 2020

Cyril Hovorun on Ukrainian Autocephaly

The Science of Moral Theology

The Wrath of God

Thursday, December 17, 2020

Stephen Schmalhofer

Not Apatheia

A Sculpted Icon of Christ

Stealing a Page from Feminist Care Ethics?

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Another Quote That Needs to Be Interpreted in an Orthodox Manner

Monday, December 14, 2020

Theology of Suffering

Feast of St. Herman of Alaska

Sunday, December 13, 2020

Photo of a Sunspot

New Work in Catholic Dogmatic Theology with Dr. James Merrick

Eternal Memory

An Apologia for John Paul II



"No Roman saint-making machine at work here."

Acquiring the Mind of... the Church?

Who is the Church? The hierarchy? What if they deviate from the mind of Christ? The Church as a whole then?

The Apostle Paul urges, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). But since the Church is not a human organization, but the holy and blessed Body of Christ, therefore we too are commanded to think with the catholic mind of the Church and be animated by the life of the Church, not to do anything apart from its life and teaching.
Later:
When we speak of having an Orthodox mind, we mean chiefly that our nous is the nous of Christ, as the Apostle Paul says, or at least that we accept the experience of the saints and have communion with them. This is the way of the life of the Orthodox Tradition and the way of life of Christ’s life. The Orthodox mind is expressed by the dogmas of the Church, because, on the one hand, the dogmas express the life which the Church has and the revelation which the saints have received, and on the other hand, they lead the passionate people and the babes in Christ to unity and communion with God.


Saturday, December 12, 2020

Christmas with Cappella Romana



A Sacrifice of Praise Interview with Alexander Lingas and John Michael Boyer, Part 1



AFR

Friday, December 11, 2020

A Latin Icon, Obviously

St. Gregory Palmas on the Incarnation

Remnants of Constantinople

Striving for Apatheia

The Cook of Mount Athos

Thursday, December 10, 2020

The Ancient City by Fustel de Coulanges

Book of Leo

When Was Our Lord Jesus Christ Born?



NCReg

Carter Snead Interview

New Norms of Ecclesiastical Institutions of Higher Education

A New Book by Pickstock



Cambridge University Press

Wednesday, December 09, 2020

The Book of Revelation and Advent

But Could the Fathers Have Addressed Some Form of Theistic Evolution?



Should the Fathers be consulted on issues pertaining to natural philosophy? Or even metaphysics?

Walter Hooper

Church of the Resurrection

Monasticism for the Laity?

Counsels of Imperfection



CUA Press

Tuesday, December 08, 2020

Latins...



A Protestant on Natural Law

There Are Still Admirers of Thomism of Strict Observance

A Cappella Romana Christmas Special



Monday, December 07, 2020

50 Years Ago




Dr. Matthew Levering



Crux Sola

More Roman Centralization

Sunday, December 06, 2020

Holy Nicholas, Pray for Us!
















James MacMillan on Thomas Tallis

Thought and Action



This may be more questionable...

Saturday, December 05, 2020

A Saint Said It

Does that mean he is right? This could be used as a prooftext for Christian meekness or even pacificism. How does gentleness relate to mercy and benevolence? And is it always warranted? There is Jeremiah 11:19, but Christ had already decided to surrender Himself. Is this surrender always warranted?

Wooten and Kuhn

A Review of Runciman's The Eastern Schism by Fr. Georges Florovsky

Hierarchical Ordination of Bishop-Elect Timothy of Hexamilion



Intercommunion?

How can the schism be healed? One Ukrainian-Catholic pov:

Marco Tosatti on an Article by Eugenio Scalfari

Nativity Retreat with Fr. Charbel Bousamra



For a Lesser Evil to Come

Ingratitude



The Diocese of Chur

There Is a Place for Hope in the Christian Life

And considering the Last Things frequently. But is the eschaton our primary motivation or God in the present? Focusing too much on our subjective beatitude instead of objective beatitude (God) can lead to that sort of piety which focuses on the accumulation of good works and merit, rather than God. Purification of one's self so that one can focus on God is what is important; everything else will be taken care of accordingly.

The Midnight Office of the Byzantine Rite



NLM

Eucharistia and Gratitude