Alexei II

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Alexij praises a return to tradition in the Liturgy. He doesn’t speak on whether or not the Sacraments are even real or not in the Catholic Church. Many Orthodox Christians do not believe that they are.
 
I was talking to a candidate for the Institute of Christ the King about a month ago. He told me there was alot of positive statements from most of the Orthodox about the return of the Tridentine mass. He believed the Motu Proprio from last summer was a step in the right direction in uniting them back to the Church.
 
Alexij praises a return to tradition in the Liturgy. He doesn’t speak on whether or not the Sacraments are even real or not in the Catholic Church. Many Orthodox Christians do not believe that they are.
This has been a subject of conversation on and off in the blog. As a former Orthodox Christian, I was exposed to both currents myself.

I’ve reached the following conclusion: Orthodox Christians who deny that Roman Sacraments are grace-giving engage in solipsism, a kind of hyperfundamentalism that denies the existence of that holiness in the Catholic Church that can only derive from actual sacramental grace.

Sadly, many Orthodox Christians embrace this solipsism as intrinsic, even definitional, of Orthodox Christianity. Pop that balloon and there goes the Church. The attitude is both mind and soul constraining and in the end, asphyxiating.

Nevertheless, it is a real attitude pervading ample sectors of the Orthodox Church and I have asked consistently if this praise of the Extraordinary Form is merely faint, diplomatic praise to a surface act or not. I discussed this at length on this blogpost:

The prospects of the Tridentine Mass in the light of the impending new indult

Thank you for taking the time to discuss one of my blogposts in this worthy forum.

In Christ,
-Theo
 
Theo,

That was a good post.

Your blog is also very good.👍

Volodka;)
 
This has been a subject of conversation on and off in the blog. As a former Orthodox Christian, I was exposed to both currents myself.

I’ve reached the following conclusion: Orthodox Christians who deny that Roman Sacraments are grace-giving engage in solipsism, a kind of hyperfundamentalism that denies the existence of that holiness in the Catholic Church that can only derive from actual sacramental grace.

Sadly, many Orthodox Christians embrace this solipsism as intrinsic, even definitional, of Orthodox Christianity. Pop that balloon and there goes the Church. The attitude is both mind and soul constraining and in the end, asphyxiating.

Nevertheless, it is a real attitude pervading ample sectors of the Orthodox Church and I have asked consistently if this praise of the Extraordinary Form is merely faint, diplomatic praise to a surface act or not. I discussed this at length on this blogpost:

The prospects of the Tridentine Mass in the light of the impending new indult

Thank you for taking the time to discuss one of my blogposts in this worthy forum.

In Christ,
-Theo
I feel sad that you feel this way and actually have the time to think about it. Most people I know in the real world, aka not on the internet, do not discuss Catholicism too much, and when most have people in Greek Catholic churches and Orthodox around here, well, no one speaks ill of each other.
 
I feel sad that you feel this way and actually have the time to think about it. Most people I know in the real world, aka not on the internet, do not discuss Catholicism too much, and when most have people in Greek Catholic churches and Orthodox around here, well, no one speaks ill of each other.
Don’t apologize about how I “feel.” It’s not your fault.

And it’s not how I “feel” that matters, but what I know, and what I experienced first hand. Heck, I even entertained the thought of exclusion for a while until its taste turned bitter.

Rank-and-file Orthodox, except for those knowledgeable in the faith, don’t think or talk about the subject a lot. Among converts and seminary students, however, it is a recurrent topic of conversation.

You’re just moving among a different crowd. Perhaps the crowd that really matters.

-Theo
 
Don’t apologize about how I “feel.” It’s not your fault.

And it’s not how I “feel” that matters, but what I know, and what I experienced first hand. Heck, I even entertained the thought of exclusion for a while until its taste turned bitter.

Rank-and-file Orthodox, except for those knowledgeable in the faith, don’t think or talk about the subject a lot. Among converts and seminary students, however, it is a recurrent topic of conversation.

You’re just moving among a different crowd. Perhaps the crowd that really matters.

-Theo
I live in perhaps one of the most Orthodox and Greek/Byzantine Catholic areas of the USA. This is how things are here, people are friendly, the Catholics come to Orthodox Mission Vespers during Lent, we’ll go to each other’s dinners, funerals, weddings, events. Most of us come from families that have some members in the Greek Catholic Church/Byzcath and some in the Orthodox.
It is from the less Orthodox/Catholic areas of the country I find the extremism on both sides. Then they visit up here and get a culture shock and all of the sudden they realize (at some level, it’s hard for some people to admit they’re wrong) they’ve been misconceiving life. I’ve set my share of protestant coverts straight about their misconceptions. Real life doesn’t work like a book says it does or the internet conceives it to be. If you run into a person with a little bit of an extreme view, send them up to my part of the world and we’ll straighten them out. We’re still Orthodox and the Catholics are still Catholics, but we get along and are friends. I’m not saying any of us compromise our church’s teachings. What we do is have a friendship, of commonality, family,etc… and work together these days.
I’m not going to pretend relations were always happy and nice.
There is a myriad of history among churches and families that isn’t spoken of anymore. My generation wasn’t privy to those issues and honestly I don’t want to know about them. I’m glad we’re past of those old spats and we can now work together to be friends, share pierogies, feed the poor, etc… help each other, pray for each other, etc…
 
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