Eucharistia and Prayer

Is receiving God through Holy Communion greater than receiving God through prayer? https://t.co/TwA1jepeoX

— OCN (@MyOCN) December 17, 2020

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.

Taylor Patrick O'Neill: Maritain on Grace and Predestination

I so enjoy joining @jderosa1990
on the Classical Theism Podcast and have been honored to have been on again, this time discussing Jacques Maritain on grace and predestination. https://t.co/YM1sYTHJCr

— Taylor Patrick O'Neill (@thomaesplendor) December 23, 2020

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?

Christmas, and the other Feast Days of the Church, participate in the power of the keys.
That is to say, the Church’s calendar binds on earth and in heaven in such a way that the grace of the event designated arrives by God’s will, and renews those who wait upon it.

— Amigo de Frodo (@bpdflores) December 23, 2020

Another Quote That Needs to Be Interpreted in an Orthodox Manner

"He who compels himself and holds on to repentance until the end, even if he sins is saved because he compelled himself, for the Lord promised this in the Gospel."

- St. Mark the Ascetic pic.twitter.com/rozhp9LtiH

— Gravantus (@The_Tabellion) December 16, 2020

But Very Western in Its Theology?

And "derivative" or scholastic, rather than being scriptural in language? Our armour of light is Christ, given to us through the Holy Spirit.

I contend that there is no finer piece of religious prose in the English language. pic.twitter.com/Dx4SYpJZST

— Marcus Walker (@WalkerMarcus) November 29, 2020

A possible contrast...

🇬🇧 "We are the sons of light and love, the sons of God, His children."
- Elder Thaddeus

📷 https://t.co/HLn1NnGJae / Raluca Ene#light #love #God pic.twitter.com/GBMeZKVbeh

— Basilica.ro Photos (@BasilicaPhotos) November 28, 2020

A Recent Example of "Offering"

Today, the Pope beatified Carlo Acutis, an Italian teenager (and amateur programmer) who died from leukemia in 2006, having offered up his suffering for the Church. pic.twitter.com/YkKALpaTKc

— Tradical (@NoTrueScotist) October 11, 2020

CNA Article

Aquinas 101: Grace

A primer on grace, justification, and merit from the @ThomisticInst https://t.co/0uqUJtZJQm

— Patrick Madrid ✌🏼 (@patrickmadrid) May 22, 2020

Eduardo Echeverria on Latin Moral Teaching

CWR: No, @JamesMartinSJ, the analogy between slavery and homosexuality does not hold by Eduardo Echeverria
The moral laws, whose core is the Ten Commandments, retain their direct and unchanging validity, on the grounds of the objective moral law.

Edward Krasevac, OP on Nature and Grace

To Stir a Restless Heart

Equivocation on "Evil"?

Curious.

Return to the First Grace

Return to the First Grace by Protosingel Arsenie (Muscalu)

Protsingel Arsenie (Muscalu) is one of the most respected Romanian spiritual fathers of our days. In this interview we offer to our readers, an experienced father confessor talks about temptations, warnings to young people on the path to Christ, and about how Christians can lose God’s grace.

An Orthodox Presentation on Grace

St. Thérèse Wasn't a Pelagian!

St. Thérèse’s “Little Way” to Sainthood through Divine Mercy

CDF Letter on Gifts to the Church

Natural and Supernatural

"The Son reveals and glorifies the Name of His Heavenly Father and the Father glorifies the Son and bears witness...

Posted by Orthodox Christian Network on Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Jeff Mirus on Henri de Lubac's Vatican Council Notebooks, Vol. 1

Henri de Lubac's fascinating notes on Vatican II By Dr. Jeff Mirus

How good is this generalization?

A more immediate historical influence might be attributed to the two world wars of the twentieth century. Throughout the West, people came to have a profound respect for military precision and obedience, and all the habits of thought associated with soldiering. Those who can remember the 1950s will remember a society still interested in precise dress, short military hair cuts, and punctilious manners when it came to rank, not to mention the need to concern oneself primarily with one’s own duties, while accepting unquestionably the larger decisions of authority. This lent the entire culture a quality of systemic formalism.

(Ignatius Press)

Thomistica.net: Otto Hermann Pesch (1931–2014)

Fr. David gave a presentation on St. Maximus the Confessor - I definitely will need to read more, especially his use of "nature." For now it would have to be his writings in English translation. I should improve my Greek! Is there a study of his appropriation (and rejection) of Aristotle's teachings?

Collecting some thoughts on indulgences and whether popular strains of Latin spirituality have become too focused on them, replacing communion with God with a form of works righteousness that may be orthodox with respect to God's initiative and our complete dependence upon His grace, and yet nonetheless promotes a tit-for-tat or transactional relationship with God.