Question relating to Eastern Orthodox Church

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Margaret_Ann said:
Prior to 1950s Roman Catholics fasted from midnight before receiving Holy Communion. Now the Eucharistic Fast has been reduced in the West so much so that sadly many Orthodox are scandalized.
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We really don’t have a Eucharistic Fast anymore. The one-hour fast is, at best, a token one — by the time the faithful receive communion, at a Sunday Mass, it is probably 45 minutes, give or take, since Mass began. So unless you absent-mindedly took a sip of a soft drink on the way to Mass, it’s highly unlikely you would have eaten or drunk anything. I make it a practice to remove any soft-drink cans or cups in my car, and just take a bottle of water, before starting out to Mass (takes me a half-hour to get there).
 
I am not sure to what extent traditionally Orthodox countries differ from Catholic countries on this matter. My response was solely based on personal experience, i.e. anecdotal, and I cannot verify it as truth as such.

In Russia, from what I have been told, most people still do not go to Church on a weekly basis, and yet they still struggle to build enough churches and recruit enough priests. In Greece, the Priests still get their salary from the state, but I would not be surprised if they have a shortage of Priests there too. From my personal experience (I have been to Greece on more occasions than I can count), there are chapels in most neighborhoods, and even hotels etc. sometimes have them on their property. I have also learned that the Bishops sometimes ordain virtuous men from small villages to the Priesthood, granted that they sing well and knows the Liturgy, but without necessarily allowing them to hear confession or preach.
 
Lasse said:
In Russia, from what I have been told, most people still do not go to Church on a weekly basis, and yet they still struggle to build enough churches and recruit enough priests.
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the Orthodox even with their Orthodoxy are not able to catechize their youth probably.

met an Orthodox young adult who once said “there’s no real need in always going to church, God is always with us” (noticed he had members in his family that has converted to Pentecostalism)
 
Yes, these have been VERY relaxed in the Latin church post V2…I grew up Roman Catholic and it wasn’t until my 20s that I even knew that Friday was STILL a penitential day and that even though one could eat meat, one had to give up something that day…it is NEVER talked about anymore. The only time you hear about fasting is during Lent and even then it’s minimal…very minimal.
Alexandria2020 said:
the Orthodox even with their Orthodoxy are not able to catechize their youth probably.
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I think this depends on each Orthodox church…the Copts have a VERY big youth program and the Antiochians also have a good youth program.
 
Alexandria2020 said:
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HomeschoolDad:
We really don’t have a Eucharistic Fast anymore.
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what about Friday fasting? or 1 meal a day on Fridays?

are those kind of stuff relaxed now in the Latin Church?
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Oh, yes, they have been “relaxed”. That is putting it mildly.

As @Angel_Gabriel pointed out, there is virtually no awareness whatsoever, at least in the United States, that any Friday outside of Lent has any penitential character at all. All people heard, was “we can now eat meat on Fridays”, and that’s where it ended.

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Reminders from the pulpit, and in the parish bulletin, would be nice.

One plan might be, to encourage those who choose to eat meat on non-Lenten Fridays, to keep a little diary of the penitential and charitable acts they did on those Fridays, when they deliberately chose — and in the US, were within their rights so to do — to substitute something else for meat abstinence. (And in anticipation to the inevitable question, no, they wouldn’t have to show it to their confessor.)

Or the bishops could just revoke the indult and go back to the old practice.
 
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HomeschoolDad said:
Oh, yes, they have been “relaxed”. That is putting it mildly .
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In the SyroMalabar Church, this is still strictly enforced. So eating meat on Fridays would ultimately be a sin you would have to confess to your priest.
 
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England and Wales returned to universal Friday abstinence a few years ago.
 
Alexandria2020 said:
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HomeschoolDad:
Oh, yes, they have been “relaxed”. That is putting it mildly .
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In the SyroMalabar Church, this is still strictly enforced. So eating meat on Fridays would ultimately be a sin you would have to confess to your priest.
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In the Byzantine Tradition, every Wednesday & Friday is abstinence from meat except the Privileged Weeks which are:
  1. From Dec. 25 - Jan. 4 inclusive,
  2. Bright Week (the week after Pascha),
  3. Green Week (the week after Pentecost), and
  4. From the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee to the Sunday of the Prodigal Son
These are the fast-free weeks when one can eat meat even on Wednesday & Friday.
 
HomeschoolDad said:
I’d like to visit one day.
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Do check out Syro Vision Network YouTube channel for our Divine Liturgy (Holy Qurbana) in English - US based Chicago Eparchy. There’s 4 American born priests in the Chicago Eparchy so far. And we have a dozen seminarians. So through them we hope our eparchy would open up to the general American public. As communication would be easier for these American priests. Compared to the missionary priests from India, who mainly serve the immigrant Syro-Malabarian community in the US.
 
Alexandria2020 said:
Officially since the Synod of Diamper of 1599.
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No this is incorrect Mar Joseph Sulaqa (either drowned by the Portuguese or died in Rome) was the brother of Mar Yohanan Sulaqa, the first Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church. Mar Abraham was originally part of the Independent faction but joined the Catholic faction and received the pallium…the Synod of Diamper just tried to make use Latin Catholics
 
Elvis_George said:
the Synod of Diamper just tried to make use Latin Catholics
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Pretty much everywhere it lists Synod of Diamper (1599), including Catholic sites. Although prior to the Diamper synod, we were governed by Mar Joseph Sulaqa & Mar Abraham of Angamaly (Chaldean Catholic metropolitans), many sources forget that history of the SyroMalabar Church.

Anyway the Chaldean Catholic (&Church of the East) churches were in a chaotic situation during the 17th and 18th centuries. One of the reasons why it lost touch with the Malabar Syrians.
 
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I don’t think that is correct, we recognise the validity of their sacraments but they do not with us. I think there are 15 different Orthodox churches and each one accepts some or all of our sacraments as valid, some have an issue with how we baptise for example.
 
Xarto said:
I think there are 15 different Orthodox churches and each one accepts some or all of our sacraments as valid,
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A friend of mine, who converted from Catholicism to Orthodoxy (Orthodox Church in America), had to only go through the ritual for chrismation for conversion. So meaning they accepted the Catholic baptism as valid.

But I suppose at another priest, or jurisdiction, or different Orthodox church, they could do baptism again
 
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All the Eastern Churches to my knowledge have fairly strict fasting rules, but also Latin Catholics are free to fast whenever they want. Plenty of Latin Catholics abstain every Friday, quite a few traditional Catholics fast from midnight till morning Mass, and I know quite a few Latin Catholics who engage in some type of regular fasting for various devotions. Most of them do not tell people they are fasting because then it’s like praying on the street corner - you’re supposed to fast in private.

I can understand why the Latin Catholic church relaxed the fasting rule because of the number of threads we get on here, especially in Lent, about can I eat this or that and how much can I eat and I ate a sandwich so am I in mortal sin, etc. People don’t understand “how to fast”, they are only concerned with whether taking an extra bite of food put them into mortal sin. The Eastern fast as I understand it has some rules, but a lot is left up to the individual and the sin part is de-emphasized in keeping with their general non-legalistic approach. They are also encouraged to discuss with their priest, and seem to have enough priests that it is realistic for a person to approach them (whereas getting a priest on the line for anything other than an emergency in the Latin Church can be challenging). The Latin Church likely doesn’t have enough priests, nor a good tradition of educating people about fasting, to try to do that. Those of us called to fast are able to seek out and discern our own resources - certain online priests are sponsoring fasting days and fasting periods all the time if one wants to join.

So if you want to fast, have at it. Nothing’s stopping you just because the Latin Church doesn’t order you to do it.
 
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