I don’t think we should straitjacket anyone’s spirituality.
This is the 4th (at least) time that you’ve used that terminology in this thread.
It’s not my wont to jump into discussions about theology or spirituality, but I cannot ignore this thread any longer.
No one, no one, cares what pious praxis or devotion any individual adopts as their private expression of spirituality. It is, however, implicitly contrary to both the explicit instructions of the Pope and the primatial hierarchs, holy snyods, and hierarchical councils of our respective Churches
sui iuris that our parishes continue to promote, undertake, and support Western or Latin devotional praxis as a substitute for or to the detriment of our religious liturgical and spiritual heritage. (And, yes, it is detrimental when those babas no longer can separate in their own minds which religious tradition is their own versus acquired in passing or by having been thrust on them.)
That Latin Catholics, however well-intended, should effectively urge that we and our presbyters ignore those mandates is to encourage disobedience to our spiritual fathers. Furthermore, whether they can see this or not, it is reflective of the triumphalism that pervaded relations between West and East for so long and brought the Eastern and Oriental Catholic Churches to the point of estrangement from their religious roots - which mounted stations on the walls of our temples, installed altar railings in lieu of iconostases, placed rosaries in the hands of the babas and old aunties, vested our priests in fiddleback chasubles, and denied the Holy Mystery of the Eucharist to our infants. Get over yourselves.
Let’s see - I just read this forum’s mission statement - a tad less broad than the former which invited dialogue, discussion, debate, and education, but
The new focus of this forum is to provide a community for Eastern Catholics and to help Latin Catholics better appreciate the Church’s Eastern heritage.
Nowhere there do I see an invitation to Latin Catholics to disparage our religious heritage - either directly or using the more subtle vehicle of urging that we supplement it by adoption of their praxis, as if what has historically nourished our peoples is less than adequate. I see no Eastern or Oriental Catholic pontificating in L&S that the Latin spiritual experience would be enhanced by placing icons on tetrapods before your altar rail or alongside your statuary.
The “us and them” dichotomy that someone raised is being fostered not by us, but by those among you.
It is laughable that there are those who presume to suggest that we take up a practice and, when told that we already have a different style of spirituality that expresses our devotion, are so uninformed that they must ask “what’s that?” You neither know what we do nor do you come to inquire. You present yourself, lecture to us on what we should or should not do, then ask us what it is that we actually do. It is presumptuousness at its height!
Yes, John Ireland is dead but he, at least, knew what we did and how we did it - just didn’t like it! That’s pitiful in its small-mindedness, but decidely more intellectually honest than being ignorant of what we do but urging that, instead, we do it your way!
Many years,
Neil
