What I admire about the Orthodox

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Onthisrock84

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There is a Greek Orthodox Church in my town and I have a friend who is Orthodox. She tells me her church has classes every week to learn Greek.
It saddens me, as I feel they hold onto tradition. I never hear of Catholic Churches offering Latin.
 
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Well part of this stems from the fact that the majority of parishioners are of Greek decent. Depending on the type of parish (OCA or Antiochain) you may or may not find people wishing to hold on to Church Slavonic or Arabic…it just depends on the culture and the people.
 
Did Jesus tell us to go forth and teach all nations the traditional language of our own rite, or to go forth and make disciples of all nations?
 
Of course.
But it is our Faith’s common language. It should be promoted. Even though the only place in the world that still uses Latin officially is the Vatican, it would still be good for Catholics to have a general idea of it. I mean how many Catholics even know the general prayers in Latin anymore or the Sanctus, Agnus Dei etc. I don’t know just my opinion.
 
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Sure, but it’s pretty low on the priority list, ya know? Effort would be better placed towards abolishing abortion, or feeding the hungry, or even classes on practical apologetics.
 
I think there are a lot of things to admire about the Orthodox communities. As for teaching Latin, there was a Church in Indianapolis that I went to a few times that taught Latin for free. I’m sure it’s not the only one.
 
I really wish churches taught Latin. The only church I’ve heard of that offers classes in Latin is St. John Cantius in Chicago.
 
Onthisrock84 said:
Of course.
But it is our Faith’s common language. It should be promoted. Even though the only place in the world that still uses Latin officially is the Vatican, it would still be good for Catholics to have a general idea of it. I mean how many Catholics even know the general prayers in Latin anymore or the Sanctus, Agnus Dei etc. I don’t know just my opinion.
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I know Latin for the Mass from my days as an altar server in the 50s and 60s when very few other Catholics knew Latin .
 
Onthisrock84 said:
But it is our Faith’s common language.
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For the Latin Church, yes…for all the Eastern Catholic Churches, no.
Wesrock said:
As for teaching Latin, there was a Church in Indianapolis that I went to a few times that taught Latin for free. I’m sure it’s not the only one.
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My kids’ Catholic school teaches Latin to them as part of their Classical curriculum. They go to an OF parish though and as far as I know it uses minimal Latin (if any) in their Masses.
Onthisrock84 said:
Yah true I suppose. Good point. I just admired it.
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Also, we need to remember that although they be offering “Greek school” their Liturgy is often held in Koine Greek which is pretty different than the Modern Greek spoken today. Similar to how the Russians use Church Slavonic as opposed to Russian. I personally prefer the vernacular as the main language with some things held in the original language so as to pay homage to the history of the particular Church.
 
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If you know one of the romantic languages Latin should be easier to learn. Especially Spanish and Italian.
 
Fr Rippenger says that prayers are more efficacious in Latin in one of his talks. Maybe that is just in exorcisms and deliverance prayers. My priest says they are just as effective in English, so I gave up on the question.
 
Well of course. The Latin used in liturgy of the Latin rite is ecclesiastical Latin and is different from other forms of Latin as it evolved.
I respect that they use Church Slavonic and Koine Greek.
 
See a need, fill a need! Maybe get a group together at your parish to study latin? That would be amazing!
 
A quick point here regarding the Greek that is typically taught at Greek Orthodox parishes. They usually teach modern/spoken Greek and not the Greek that is used in the Divine Liturgy (Koine Greek). I’ve heard from some Greeks that the two are not necessarily mutually intelligible, and there have been plenty of young Greek-speaking people who grew up not understanding their Liturgy because it was in a completely different dialect.

I remember a local parish priest offering Latin classes when I was a little boy… and my own Maronite priest would like to offer Syriac classes at some point. But as others have mentioned, when parishes are struggling just to keep people and engage them with the Gospel, Latin (or Greek, Syriac, Church Slavonic, etc.) is not very high up on the priority list.
 
Phillip_Rolfes said:
and there have been plenty of young Greek-speaking people who grew up not understanding their Liturgy because it was in a completely different dialect.
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I knew someone once who grew up in the Greek Church but since left and is now a Baptist I believe. And yes, she spent the majority of the time I was with her talking about how she didn’t understand the liturgy, the priest had his back to everyone, oh and Halloween is satanic don’t you know! (She said that the Greeks think that…not sure how true that is or if that was the Baptist part influencing her)
 
2towers said:
Fr Rippenger says that prayers are more efficacious in Latin in one of his talks.
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I don’t see this. Jesus spoke Aramaic. You mean to tell me that if He had said His prayers in latin instead of Aramaic they would have been more efficacious?
 
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Yes, this whole mindset is ridiculous. Latin was first and foremost the language of the pagan Roman Empire. How in the world is it any better than Greek, the language of the New Testament? God understands everything.
 
I hear prayers are even more effective if you use 17th century English - the language of the KJB.
 
I have no idea. I am not a religious scholar. I just mentioned what Fr. Rippenger said, and what my priest said in response as part of the thread. Part of the conversation.

Here is what I said, since you must have forgotten:

“Fr Rippenger says that prayers are more efficacious in Latin in one of his talks. Maybe that is just in exorcisms and deliverance prayers. My priest says they are just as effective in English, so I gave up on the question.”

How is that, me telling you anything??
 
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