C
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Guest
Why would this be being true to it’s Eastern patrimony? Isn’t there already a Patriarch of Kiev?This is fascinating! It also shows how Rome itself has really no idea about Eastern monasticism.
As you know, Eastern monastics are simply such - monastics. But they can and do follow a particular Rule of a Holy Father. In the East, monastics may follow the Pachomian Rule or the Rules of St Basil the Great (which is the most widespread). There are some Antonians as well. When St Paissy Velichkovsky brought in his monastic reform based on the Prayer of Jesus, many monasteries throughout Eastern Europe adopted it. The Rule of St Benedict is recognized by the Orthodox Church as well. Orthodox monastics could follow it.
But traditionally no Eastern monastic would refer to himself or herself as belonging to a religious “Order” as such since Orders are an entirely Roman Catholic affair. They don’t put letters at the end of their names either. So one could not tell what rule or set of rules an Orthodox monastic would be following until he or she told us or if we found out from their website.
Apart from the fact that St Benedict outlines the Daily Office from within his own Western tradition, there is nothing about the Benedictine Rule that could not be adopted by an Eastern Catholic or Eastern Orthodox monastic. It does not have to be a kind of “Byzantine branch of a Western Order.”
As an EC Benedictine Oblate, I follow the spirituality of my Particular Church and read the Rule of St Benedict.
If Rome asked me to choose between St Benedict or the Byzantine tradition, I would tell Rome that I choose both and, thank you very much, please do not tell me how I am to understand my Eastern spiritual heritage.
If Rome was so adamant about the UGCC being entirely true to its Eastern patrimony, then**** ROME WOULD ACKNOWLEDGE THE UGCC PATRIARCHATE.****
