Gratitude

Rabbi B: "The Hebrew word for gratitude is 'hakaras hatov' which, when roughly translated, means 'recognizing the good.' Recognizing the good that someone does for us requires humility, a trait which doesn't come easy to the Gamma. Humility and gratitude do not come easy when you're a secret king who is convinced that he is not only superior to everyone else and misunderstood, he is also someone who people underestimate to their peril."

Byzantine Divine Liturgy

via Russian Faith

Seraphima's Extraordinary Adventures

via Russian Faith

Written by a Latin

who decries the subordination of the Orthodox and Protestant churches to the secular authority, but at what cost did the Patriarchate of Rome gain its "freedom" from the secular power? By first approving of the idea of empire, and then trying to claim the supreme power over the empire. (Which was the same strategy it tried to use with respect to the state.) And the consequences? How is the Church able to limit the secular power except by being faithful to its mission and evangelizing and bringing the divine life to Christians?

CNA: Cardinal Parolin, Pope Francis, and the outcomes of the outward Church In the end, the Church is in the world, but not of the world. by Andrea Gagliarducci, Catholic News Agency
The Catholic Church cannot be considered one of many players on the field, nor can she be perceived as such.

previously

CWR: Polish Bishops’ Amoris Laetitia guidelines stress discernment and compassion, in continuity with Church doctrine by Filip Mazurczak

How Our World Stopped Being Christian: Anatomy Of A Collapse by Guillaume Cuchet.

French Catholicism: An Autopsy by Rod Dreher

We must consider the message and the messenger, who is the means of transmitting the message. Even if the message arguably didn't change, did the messenger? Or is the patriarchate of Rome best by institutional inertia that prevents it from capitalizing on this impulse to renewal?

The last book by Archbishop John R. Quinn. But even if he is correct about the need for decentralize, does he get the proper relationship between the Patriarch of Rome and the Church Universal? Or does Quinn identify the Patriarchate of Rome with the Church Universal?

CWR: The long shadows of the First Vatican Council by Dr. Adam A. J. DeVille
Revered and Reviled squarely faces the problem that Vatican I presents, and has always presented about papal primacy.

Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople canonizes St. Iakovos (James) of Evia

Elder Cleopa on Prayer

Orthodox Benedictine Monks?

The Jesus Prayer

CNA: German bishops express “surprise” over Vatican decision on communion for Protestants

Cardinal Kasper admits that in German dioceses “there already is a widespread practice of non-catholic spouses, who consider themselves serious Christians, stepping up to [receive] Communion, without any bishops, who after all know of this practice, thus far voicing concerns.”

From Shadows to Reality: Studies in the Biblical Typology of the Fathers

Rorate Caeli: New Release: Reprint of Danielou on Biblical Typology

CNA: Pan-Amazonian synod doc leave door open to married priests proposal

Eastern Christian Books: Maximos the Confessor on Scripture's Difficulties

Eastern Christian Books: Maximos the Confessor on Scripture's Difficulties

Eastern Christian Books: Deification, Then and Now

Eastern Christian Books: Deification, Then and Now

Cappella Romana in Hungary

Eastern Christian Books: Georgian Church Music

Eastern Christian Books: Georgian Church Music

Msgr. Nicola Bux Book on Sacraments in English

Angelico Press: No Triffling Matter: Taking the Sacraments Seriously Again

Eh?

If anything, the Anglican Ordinariate liturgy is closer to the Byzantine-rite Divine Liturgy than the Extraordinary Form of the Roman rite.

Rorate Caeli: Pope blocks German Guidelines allowing Holy Communion for Protestant spouses by New Catholic

The important document by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was made public by several German websites today (we are unsure of the exact order of those who broke the news, so we credit all of them). The translation of the document itself was provided by Settimo Cielo, Sandro Magister's blog. We post it below for the record of ongoing events. We just wish to add the following

CWR: Why talk of Catholic-Lutheran intercommunion damages Catholic-Orthodox relations by Ines Angeli Murzaku

If the Catholic Church can and will think of intercommunion, then intercommunion with the Orthodox Churches is the most reasonable, probable, and feasible.

Homily by Bishop Athanasius Schneider

First Things: Latimer and Ridley Are Forgotten A Protestant understanding of England’s martyrs by Peter Hitchens

Hidden in the northern suburbs of Oxford are the last traces of a path first trodden by multitudes of country folk hurrying to see the burning of the Protestant martyrs Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley on October 16, 1555, and trudging home afterward. For some years I lived very close to this track, . . . .

Rorate Caeli: For the record: Baronius Press' revised translation of Ott's Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma
Full text of Bishop Athanasius Schneider's Foreword

Rorate Caeli: BREAKING - Scandal: A Bishop "Married" with Children Will Be Created Cardinal by Francis (Exclusive in English)

Trinity Sunday

In the Byzantine Rite, Pentecost is also called Trinity Sunday, but is there any Sunday that is not Trinity Sunday? We remember the Resurrection on Sunday, but do we not acknowledge the giving of the Holy Spirit in the Eucharist as well?

CNA: In the footsteps of a saint – St Philip Neri's Rome

Crisis: Bishops of Kazakhstan Reaffirm Humanae Vitae BY ARCHBISHOP TOMASH PETA, BISHOP ADELIO DELL'ORO, BISHOP ATHANASIUS SCHNEIDER, ET. AL.

Editor’s note: The following document is a pastoral letter issued May 13 by the bishops of Kazakhstan on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the encyclical Humanae Vitae. Praised...

How Useful a Book?

Scott Hahn's latest is on marriage and family. Sounds rather blue-pilled, and he's unlikely to deal with feminism in any meaningful way.

Scott Hahn's Call to Save the Family By CASEY CHALK
Want to restore our culture? The Christian scholar says marriage the place to start.

Rorate Caeli: Pontifical High Mass video exceeds 26K views

C. Wolfe: "The provost from my University, Jonathan Sanford, brought ideas from Alasdair MacIntyre's "Dependent Rational Animals" to bear on our University motto, Veritatem, Justitiam Diligite": audio

Carl Olson Interviews George Weigel About His Latest Book

Moral Order: The Current Mess and a Theological Reading of History

CWR: Homosexuality and Authentic Freedom by Dr Mark Lowery
The tragic impasse that exists in our culture on the issue of homosexuality stems from two errors.

Cappella Romana

The Sign of the Cross as Done by Old Believers

The sign of the cross

OrthodoxWiki



How to use the Lestovka and say the Sign of the Cross

Who are the Old Believers?

Related:
Discovering Russian Orthodoxy: The Old Believers
Old Believers
synaxis.info
Old Believers vs. New-Style Orthodoxy

Sandro Magister: Three Gone. The "C9" Keeps Falling To Pieces

Anaxios!

The straw that broke the camel's back? There have been so many so far in this pontificate.

Blesseds Oscar Romero and Paul VI Will Be Canonized Oct. 14 by Hannah Brockhaus/CNA/EWTN News
The canonizations will take place during the 2018 Synod of Bishops.

The Next Consistory

Pope Francis to Create 14 Cardinals at June 29 Consistory by Edward Pentin

Francis’ New Cardinals by Matthew E. Bunson
The Pope empowers his trusted aides and further globalizes the College

Organic Development?

CWR: Mary, Mother of the Church, and two popes by Ines Angeli Murzaku
Pope Francis’ decision to create the new memorial of Mary, Mater Ecclesiae on Pentecost Monday is a fulfillment of Blessed Paul VI’s devotion to Mary under this title.

Pope Francis: A Man of His Word

Apparently this movie is not a documentary about the man or the person of the pope but about Christianity or Christian teachings, as transmitted by the writings and speeches of Pope Francis. So why the misleading title? Can the message be separated from the messenger? Of course it can. Imagine if a documentary had been made about the teachings of Jesus Christ instead.

Does the movie do anything to lessen the personality cult built around Francis by Catholics and liberals? It would seem not. Or to diminish Roman claims about the papacy? No.

Fr. Z: BACK IN PRINT! The Heresy of Formlessness

MoJ: What's Missing in the New CDF Document: Critique of corrupting, inequality-increasing monopolies

Psalm 141

A New Book by Anthony Clark

CWR Dispatch: Can Catholics be Buddhist? New book compares Jesus and Buddha
Saying that Buddhism and Christianity lead to the same place,” says Dr. Anthony E. Clark, author of Catholicism and Buddhism: The Contrasting Lives and Teachings of Jesus and Buddha, “is like saying that two maps leading to different cities lead to the exact same city; this is nonsense.”

Sandro Magister: Surprise. Among the Francis Men Is One Who Is Defending "Humanae Vitae"

A Different Sort of Triumphalism

The triumph of Christ over death. And so Christians must be courageous in all areas of life.

Bishop Schneider: Christians Are Spiritual Soldiers Who Belong to an Army of Victors by Bishop Athanasius Schneider
COMMENTARY: Every Christian has a duty to fight against sin, error and temptation, including errors within the Church such as heresy and ambiguity in doctrine.

Fr. Z links to the text and video at LifeSite.

An Oldie, But a Good One

The Truth About Men & Church
Robbie Low on the Importance of Fathers to Churchgoing

Cappella Romana Coming to SF Next Season

Archbishop Lefebvre Meets with Pope Paul VI

Ecco il verbale segreto dell’incontro fra Paolo VI e Lefebvre - Andrea Tornielli
Pubblicata nel libro di padre Sapienza la trascrizione del colloquio dell’11 settembre 1976 tra il vescovo tradizionalista e Montini. Documento utile per leggere certe dinamiche interne alla Chiesa di oggi (via Fr. Z)

The Year of Faith conference from the Nativity of Our Savior church with David Fagerberg 2013

Asia News:

Pope Francis thanks the Neocathecumenal Way for its 50 anniversary, and sends them out on mission Pope Francis meets with 100,000 members of the Neocathecumenal Way, together with 16 cardinals and 90 bishops. Representatives of dozens of Asian countries were present in the rally. The pontiff comments on Jesus words: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28, 19). Benediction of crosses, handed in to 34 members sent on mission ad gentes. Some of Rome parishes’ communities are sent on mission to Italian capital peripheral areas.

Eastern Christian Books: Byzantine Concepts of Personhood and Individuality

Eastern Christian Books: Byzantine Concepts of Personhood and Individuality

Eastern Christian Books: Robert Murray's Eternally Memorable Syriac Scholarship

Eastern Christian Books: Robert Murray's Eternally Memorable Syriac Scholarship

Exceeding Limits of Authority?

CNA: Contemplative nuns must join federations, Vatican instruction says

The Eijk Rebuke

Cardinal Eijk, Pope Francis, and problems of governance by Christopher R. Altieri
The basic dynamic of this pontificate is quite clear, and it leaves far too much unclear.

A Common Heritage of Holiness

Benedict XVI on Human Rights

Sandro Magister: Glory To God, That There May Be Peace on Earth. A Never-Before-Published Text From Pope Benedict

Interview with David Fagerberg

O Clarim

From 2009: The Cost of Understanding Schmemann in the West

Beauty and Asceticism

On the Met Exhibit

We have Met the problem—and it is ancient, secular, and us by Carl E. Olson
The Gala at the Met was a sad attempt to pretend, to think (or feel, more likely) that colorful celebration and rampant symbolism can capture or reveal the essence of Catholicism.

Related:

Faces Among Icons

https://www.facebook.com/ancientfaithradio/posts/1792187447470826

But what sort of Christianity?

One that has been infected with liberalism?

Alasdair MacIntyre, the liberal anti-liberal? Or the anti-liberal liberal?

Intercommunion?

Cardinal Eijk: Pope Francis Needed to Give Clarity on Intercommunion by Cardinal Willem Jacobus Eijk
COMMENTARY: Failure to give German bishops proper directives, based on the clear doctrine and practice of the Church, points to a drift towards ... http://www.ncregister.com/blog/edward-pentin/cardinal-eijk-pope-needed-to-give-clarity-to-german-bishops-on-intercommuni

Cardinal Müller on Intercommunion Meeting: ‘More Clarity and Courage’ Needed by Edward Pentin
The former CDF prefect views the statement on the meeting about Holy Communion for some Protestant spouses as ‘very poor,’ ...

Calcutta, United States

“Find your own Calcutta”: On Betsy DeVos’ address at Ave Maria University by James V. Schall, S.J.

Service has the connotation of some event or deed happening mainly from a spirit of generosity, not from pay or coercion. At the heart of the world we find gift, not only necessity.

The Making of a New Icon

Sandro Magister: One Cardinal, Seven Bishops, and Four New "Dubia." This Time on Intercommunion

Wolfram Schrems on the Roman Liturgical Reform

Rorate Caeli: Guest article — The Council’s Constitution on the Liturgy: Reform or revolution?

St. Nicephoros the Hesychast

Metropolitan Hilarion on the Prospects of Reunion

Metropolitan Hilarion does not share Patriarch Bartholomew's opinion about inevitable unification of Churches (via Byz TX)

Archbishop Sample on Tradition

The Paschal Canon in Arabic

Revelation and Obedience

Eastern Christian Books: Theodore the Studite on Icons

Eastern Christian Books: Theodore the Studite on Icons

Eastern Christian Books: Ecclesiology

Eastern Christian Books: Ecclesiology

More on Worship

This past Sunday the Gospel was the story of Christ's encounter with the Samiritan woman at Jacob's well, which features the word "worship." In Greek: προσκυνεῖν (proskynein). The Latin word used in the neo-Vulgate is adorare.

For Aquinas, he discusses the virtue of religio, under which he talks about latria (and adoratio) in (II II ae) Question 84.

There is no Latin for Gaudete et Exsultate yet, so I am not sure what the English word "worship" is translating. In the CCC, worship translates adorare/adoratio. But in the CCC, worship is also used to translate the word cultus. (Similar to how the English word was used to refer to any form of reverence and also to that which is due to God alone?)

Edit. I remembered to check the Italian text for Gaudete et Exsultate: "worship" corresponds to both culto and adorazione in the Italian text.

Hyperdulia

Old Catholic Encyclopedia: Christian Worship

Building Your Church Music System, Part 1

The Complete Psalter

Is Liturgy More than Worship?

I have been considering this question for the past few days, in connection with Bouyer and Schmemann. Worship is part of St. Thomas's catalog of the virtues, but I suspect that the Latin equivalent can be found in the texts of the Roman rite going back to the earliest days, when Latin was first introduced. (If this is the case, was it a translation of a Greek word introduced by the first Roman Christians, or was it adopted later?)

Youth, liturgy, and the need for true worship by Peter M.J. Stravinskas

Liturgy – like the Faith it celebrates – never admits of an “erector-set” approach; good liturgy, true liturgy is received, not fabricated, and it takes seriously the human person in all his complexity of body and soul.

The Myrrh-Bearing Women

How to Be a Sinner

That Very Body

NCReg: Father Jacques Philippe Outlines ‘Blessed’ Path to Happiness by Andrea Picciotti-Bayer
BOOK PICK: The Eight Doors of the Kingdom: Meditations on the Beatitudes

A Proper Use of Ricoeur?

Liturgical Theology after Schmemann: An Orthodox Reading of Paul Ricoeur by Geoffrey Ready

The Origin of Two Byzantine Paschal Customs

CWR: Female ordination advocates ignore theological truth, focus on power by Nicholas Senz

Those who insist that women ought to be ordained as Catholic priests do not simply want to serve the Church—they want to change the Church. […]

Unirea Canton

(via Byx TX)

But Islam Will Never Embrace Historical Criticism

What If Muhammad Didn’t Write the Qur’an? by Will Jones

In Trust Feature on SVS Press

here

Greek Chauvinism

Does it exist today within Chalcedonian Orthodox circles? Do non-Greek clerics who can speak ecclesiastical Greek feel welcome among Greeks as equals? (And what if they don't speak Greek?)

Greek is no longer a universal language or lingua franca of the Church Universal, but of a minority of Christians. Is the language used as a barrier to entry to certain ecclesial networks?

I was thinking that it should be an ideal quality, if not a qualification, for the bishop of Rome to be be fluent in ecclesiastical Greek. But would this just reinforce Greek chauvinism, if it exists? Perhaps it is not meant to be for the Church to have a universal language (despite the historic pretensions of Greeks and Latins alike).

Liturgical Scholar, Not Theologian or Bishop

Byz Tx: Sr. Vassa: There's no ontological impediment to priestesses

Is the rationale for the prohibition against women receiving Holy Orders (setting aside the claim by Byzantine Christians that deaconesses are a major order) merely that it has been prohibited by God or the Church? Or is there something more? Is Christ a male for a reason? Could the Second Person of the Trinity have become Incarnate as a woman? Could the Second Person of the Trinity exercise authority over men as a woman?

Fotx XI International Liturgical Conference

Eastern Christian Books: Tradition and Transformation in Christian Iconography

Eastern Christian Books: Tradition and Transformation in Christian Iconography 

Eastern Christian Books: Christos Yannaras

Eastern Christian Books: Christos Yannaras

Leonardo Polo

Learning Polo: An introduction to the Spanish “metaphysician of freedom” by Alvino-Mario Fantini

The late Spanish philosopher’s works encourage us to remain faithful to the constant, rigorous questioning required by the philosophia perennis.

On the Conversion of the Western Roman Empire

It would not be surprising if Latins think first of all of the persecution of Christians in Rome in connection with its eventual conversion. But in considering the historic relations between Christians and their pagan neighbors, and to what degree they co-existed, does Rome give us a representative picture of what was happening elsewhere in the Roman Empire? And was it truly the case that Rome converted because the blood of martyrs is the seed of faith? Or because of the rise of the "Constantinian Church" and the subsequent declaration of Christianity as the official religion of the empire, along with the outlawing of other religions? Is this pattern of apparent conversion replicated elsewhere, with the conversion of tribes and kingdoms? And should we really consider that a viable model of evangelization? After all the persecutions (and martyrdom) of Christians in China, Korea, and Japan, for example, has not had similar results yet; and Christians not having the reins of state in these polities is not an insignificant difference. Even if we think of Mexico converting not because of the prestige and power of the Church under the Spanish but because of the intervention of Our Lady of Guadalupe, what about the rest of Ibero-America?

A Church of the Many or a Church of the Few? Louis Bouyer's question remains relevant today, especially with the latest Apostolic Exhortation repeating the calls of previous pontificates for a new evangelization.

Not Mutually Exclusive

Hell: punishment or self-inflicted? What if it is both, especially if we keep more than the sense of poena in mind -- that it is a privation. Secondly, God's judgment is not a distinct act from His being or His love.

The Heresy of Hell as Self-Inflicted by Charles Robertson

I also note that while the title calls it a heresy, there is no evidence that it is so, other than that the position that Hell is self-inflicted seems to go against Scripture. And this only if we hold that Hell being self-inflicted contradicts it being a punishment. But more likely than not supporters of Hell being self-inflicted can offer an explanation of how it is still a punishment, or harmonize it with the words of Christ.

English Translation of the Psalter

For Latins --- what is available?

Magnificat, Give Us This Day: do they use the same English translation of the Psalms?

I don't think Word Among Us provides a version of the Divine Office for laity. I don't think Living With Christ does, either.

Then there is the Customary of Our Lady of Walsingham, which uses a version of the Coverdale translation.

How good is the Grail translation for private devotion and singing? (I should ask, is it a faithful translation of Scripture? And how about the Revised Grail Psalms?)


Revised Grail Psalms

I need to do some research on Psalm tones too...

Interviews with Ulrich Lerner

Rod Dreher

‘God Is Not Nice’: Speaking with Ulrich L. Lehner about his new book

No God But Santa

Meeting of a Working Group for the Dialogue between Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches (via Byx TX)