Catholics and Orthodox, what do you appreciate and/or admire about each other?

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I love the Orthodox for their strict lenten fast.

I love their sense of community and the desire to have their children marry someone of their own faith.

🙂
 
lax16 said:
I love their sense of community and the desire to have their children marry someone of their own faith.

🙂
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My family’s generations have been Catholics (communion with Rome) since the 1600’s. Im an Asian of Indian descent and we always insist on married partners to be Catholic. Perhaps it’s an “Eastern” thing. 😃

MJ
 
I’ll add one not mentioned yet: great church picnics!

Hard to beat a Greek Church picnic. Wonderful food and music and dancing.

Only one better is an Italian church picnic. 😃
 
Robyn_p said:
There’s a lot of threads on this forum dealing with the differences and disagreements we have with each other, which I believe is necessary. But that’s not what this thread is about.

This is about what good we each see in the other’s Church. Things we admire and are grateful for from the other. Things we think our own churches could benefit from having more of. 👍

Please, no backhanded compliments. (From either side) If you have “changed sides” (either from Catholic to Orthodox, or Orthodox to Catholic) no need to point out the flaws you found in your previous church. As a wise rabbit once said, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all.” 😉 Lets keep this friendly.

I’ll start. I appreciate the sense of the sacred and ancient in Orthodoxy. I really believe Catholics could benefit from having more of that. And of course, icons! Gotta love those icons.

Is there anything my Orthodox friends appreciate or admire from us Catholics? Feel free to share!
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Thread of the year. Thank you.
 
The music, Jesus Prayer, Icons, Incense, divine liturgy, the saints. 🙂
 
Oh, and RC’s shorter services. Don’t get me wrong - I do love our Divine Liturgies, but at the same time I’m a typical Westerner that can’t pay attention to anything for too long. 😉
 
neokarny said:
Oh, and RC’s shorter services. Don’t get me wrong - I do love our Divine Liturgies, but at the same time I’m a typical Westerner that can’t pay attention to anything for too long. 😉
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I know someone, who used to be a southern baptist, and said when he was a kid, he would sit through sometimes two hour services and be thinking, “I want to be a Catholic sooo bad!” 😉

Of course, that’s not why he converted…at least I hope not. 😛
 
  • The Tridentine Mass.
  • The Benedictine Office.
  • Every stitch of doctrinal agreement.
  • Every saint recognized by both RCC & EOC.
 
neokarny said:
Oh, and RC’s shorter services. Don’t get me wrong - I do love our Divine Liturgies, but at the same time I’m a typical Westerner that can’t pay attention to anything for too long. 😉
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It was a pain at the beginning, but now 2.5 hours on a Sunday morning just breeze through for me. Of course having kids, we do get a lot of breaks when the kids themselves need breaks. So I often find myself in the dining area or even outside. My wife and I take turns every week on who misses the homily and gives the kids their snacks. My priest is an excellent homilist, so you wouldn’t want to miss it. So we agreed that to be fair, we take turns each week.
 
ConstantineTG said:
It was a pain at the beginning, but now 2.5 hours on a Sunday morning just breeze through for me. Of course having kids, we do get a lot of breaks when the kids themselves need breaks. So I often find myself in the dining area or even outside. My wife and I take turns every week on who misses the homily and gives the kids their snacks. My priest is an excellent homilist, so you wouldn’t want to miss it. So we agreed that to be fair, we take turns each week.
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I’m can’t remember where in BC you are, but the three OCA priests ministering in BC who I have had the opportunity to hear are all excellent orators. You guys are lucky to have them out there.
 
The mysticism, tradition and reverence of Orthodox worship, something the mainstream Catholic Church needs to rediscover! And the predominantly sung liturgy. 🙂

I actually appreciate the one liturgy per altar per Sunday rule. It emphasises the dominance as well as community of the liturgy. 😛
 
As others here have said, I really like the Jesus prayer - I have used it myself personally. 👍

I am also fond of many Orthodox icons. 🙂
 
Nine_Two said:
Some day we might just close the gap that last tiny bit.
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If you mean me becoming an Orthodox … don’t think so.

(If you mean you becoming a Catholic, then that’s a whole different ball of wax.)

😃
 
Peter_J said:
If you mean me becoming an Orthodox … don’t think so.

(If you mean you becoming a Catholic, then that’s a whole different ball of wax.)

😃
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I mean some day we all come to an agreement on what unity means and strive for it.
 
1 the luminous, optimistic theology;
2 the intense poetry of the prayers and hymns. I’d advise anyone to use an Orthodox prayer or to attend an Orthodox Easter Vigil and listen to the words of the hymns - it’s really hypnotic;
3 the extraordinary pastoral wisdom. I rarely left empty-handed or discouraged after reading an Orthodox text.
 
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