Advice: Can't decide between Catholic or Orthodox

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I see what you are saying, believe me, i do. but what am i supposed to do in situations like the one I’m in right now? Just not go to church at all? Not receive? It doesn’t seem right. I need an active Faith life and I love going to church every week, at the very least. I would go every day if possible.
 
Maxim1982 said:
So, I was born/baptised Catholic, but was out of the Church for many years. I finally had a very deep and very meaningful reconversion experience. And now, I try to do my best to live for Christ and I fully accept Him as my Lord and Saviour and want to dedicate my life to Him. I consider myself a traditionalist and, like many young traditionalists, I felt dissatisfied with the current crisis in the Church and with some of Holy Father’s decisions. Now, I know this still isnt really good reason for leaving. But because of that, I felt drawn to Orthodoxy for a while and after about a year I decided to convert. I felt that since the RC Church considers Orthodox sacraments valid that it wasnt as if I was straying all THAT far from home. I loved the beauty of the high liturgy, the staunch traditionalism, etc. I was pretty confident when I did, at the time. But now, not so much. I really miss certain devotions and saints I grew up venerating and loving, which, according to the Orthodox church, I am no longer permitted to venerate. Also, as an American, I do not care one bit at all for these jurisdictional disputes between the Moscow Patriarchate and the EP of Constantinople. But being in a ROCOR church, I am not allowed to commune in churches under the EP and that is a big problem because almost all the churches near me are under that jurisdiction. My regular church is not so close and currently I am without a car. I don’t know what I am hoping to achieve here other than complaining, so please forgive me but I thought maybe some advice and encouraging words would help. Maybe even some helpful and constructive criticism. Currently, I am not communing at church because I feel that it would be best to first solve this personal theological crisis before communing in either church. Any thoughts would be most appreciative. Thank you and God bless!!
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There is a podcast called Light of the East that might help you…I find it very enlightening and answers a lot of questions about both churches.

http://byzantinecatholic.com/podcast/

Today’s is quite apt to your query…
 
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Maxim1982 said:
I see what you are saying, believe me, i do. but what am i supposed to do in situations like the one I’m in right now? Just not go to church at all? Not receive? It doesn’t seem right. I need an active Faith life and I love going to church every week, at the very least. I would go every day if possible.
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I agree, the situation you discussed is very difficult - especially because we don’t live in an Orthodox country where there are 7 parishes in one town, and 7 in the next town over. One option would be to attend the Greek Church and just not receive, and when your car is fixed, you could resume going to the Russian Church. I really don’t think anyone would fault you for that, especially when you’re not taking the Gifts. And as you know there are many Orthodox who don’t receive every Sunday, so it’s not uncommon. 👍
 
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You are right. I am going to think on it more. I know I definitely left the Catholic church for a reason, and I came to Orthodoxy because the traditions of the early church were being better preserved. All the creeping modernism and liberalism, I was so fed up with seeing it in parish after parish, and I had met quite a few priests who seemed to have a hatred of young traditionalists, these older fellas who were ordained at a time when the “on eagles wings” and guitars in the mass were at its peak. Like i said, if i went back, i would go with a very traditional parish. Its not like the church hasnt had bad popes in its history. But still. I don’t know, I need to really get this together within myself. I just wish it weren’t so bloody complicated.
 
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Oh absolutely - the liberalism is a huge problem. Luckily that’s not something we have to deal with 😁 - well God bless your discernment!!
 
ReaderT said:
if you are a Roman Catholic then you would have to at least affirm the validity of Novus Ordo, liturgical dance (approved by Vatican Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship in 1975), a validly-offered LifeTeen rock band Mass, etc
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Are you excommunicated if you do not like dancing in the Mass and rock band Masses. I don’t think that SSPX accepts them.
 
Perfect solution, @Maxim1982 ! Become an Eastern Catholic! They have married priests, Byzantine liturgy, and like the Orthodox Church are not required to embrace the filioque or the specific doctrine of purgatory us Latin Catholics affirm. They are in full communion with Rome and are very traditional.
 
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That’s exactly what the Orthodox claim their church is. How are we supposed to ask Orthodox to come back home when it was largely the western church who propagated the schism? If you read the history of it in an unbiased way you realize that is unfortunately the truth of the matter. Why on earth did the pope see it necessary to force Greek speaking churches to stop using leavened bread?
 
If you have a Byzantine rite Catholic church near you, I would advise you to visit.
 
I’m talking about historical things which occurred which led to the schism.
 
Christ did not found a national state church; He founded a Universal (Catholic) Church with a visible head. Thus when Jesus chose Simon to be Peter, it was to tend all the sheep, not just some:

Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”
 
Can you share how old you are and how long you have been Orthodox? There are many things you can do for these problems you are having. Lay members of ROCOR can still attend GOA parishes, but just can’t receive Communion. My wife was a Godmother to little girl in the Greek Church on Tuesday, and we had Bishop Peter’s permission to do so, obviously being in a service at the Greek Church, and a Sacrament at that. You can also ask for someone at your parish for a ride or for the Priest to visit you and bring you Holy Communion while you can’t attend. I have to drive about 2 hours to go to an OCA Church and about 4 hours to go to a ROCOR Church and we do it. We do reader services the Sundays we don’t travel. Why you would ever think of breaking Communion with the Holy Orthodox Church over transportation problems is alarming. I have feelings of missing the large amount of people in the RCC, but to think of breaking Communion with the Orthodox people that are continuing the Faith of the Early Church, just seems like I would be selling out for my own comfort, clearly not something Christ would want. No one said it was supposed to be easy being Christian, quite the contrary.
 
Indeed they do! I sometimes go to a Melkite church, and they’ve never used anything else.
 
AlNg said:
Are exceptions allowed in some cases?
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Of course. The prohibition isn’t hard-and-fast.
AlNg said:
Are you excommunicated if you do not like dancing in the Mass and rock band Masses. I don’t think that SSPX accepts them.
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You wouldn’t be excommunicated, but at the same time, the Roman church has declared liturgical dance valid, so you wouldn’t be able to say “we can’t do that” (in the same way that you can’t say “Ordinary-Form is not an option”)
 
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AlNg said:
Are you excommunicated if you do not like dancing in the Mass and rock band Masses.
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No.

I have never heard of nor seen “rock band” Masses.

Liturgical dancing is a concession to cultures where dancing is seen as reverant and sacred, and is used as a show of respect or veneration. Keep in mind that the European conception of dance as a frivolous activity is not so in many other cultures, such as the cultures of Africa or Samoa.
 
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