What should our ECCs be doing in this Year of Faith?

  • Thread starter Thread starter 5Loaves
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
5

5Loaves

Guest
ByzCathCantor said:
Just got home from Encounter 2012 - East…

…Also, while the Year of Faith was discussed as a topic, there was not much substance offered in terms of how the Eastern Catholic Churches in the U.S. intend to embrace it.
5Loaves;9900163:
Maybe we should start a new thread for ideas for what our ECCs should be doing in this Year of Faith. 🙂
Click to expand...
ByzCathCantor said:
Great idea! Please get us going with an OP, and I’ll be happy to contribute (along with all the usual suspects :D).
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
The Year of Faith is coinciding with the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. On our parish Facebook we linked to Orientalium Ecclesiarum, the Council’s Decree on the Eastern Catholic Churches., encouraging folks to read this decree again (or read it for the first time). It exhorted Eastern Catholics to “take steps to return to their ancestral traditions.”

Also we linked to something Trinity-St. Nicholas Russian Catholic Church, our sister Russian parish in Victoria, Australia, posted yesterday on their Facebook “Eastern Christians in Australia since Vatican II”, another excellent document to read as we embark on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, and this Year of Faith. It begins with the high points of the very substantial influence the few Eastern Catholic bishops had on important choices of the Council. These included use of the vernacular in the Mass, Eucharistic con-celebration, communion under both species, restoration of the permanent order of the diaconate, creation of Synods of Bishops… and more. Check it out. 🙂

Can we please not make this a thread for again airing complaints about your parish/Chruch failing to “return to their ancestral traditions”? Thank you in advance for sticking to positive ways we as Eastern and Oriental Catholics can, as ByzCathCantor put it, embrace the Year of Faith. 🙂
 
Hopefully our Latin counterparts can oblige us and have some program to get RCs more informed about us.
 
My parish had a DL to begin the Year of Faith. Our priest has asked us to become more informed on our faith AND increase our evangelization efforts with our neighbors.

There will be inserts in our bulletins focusing on teaching certain aspects of our faith.

We will be sending a group out into the community on around our church and do some door to door evangelization with flyers inviting people to an open house.

We are also trying to get a group to work on a service project in our town, and to have t-shirts made just to let others know we exist.

We will have more and I will post again as soon as it becomes available…
 
I do think that more people in the Latin rite should be educated about the ECCs. One suggestion that I have is to make and spread EC memes. 🙂
 
Well, there is a novena for this. Eastern Catholics that have the Akathistos Hymn or the Office of the Paraclisis in their tradition could use it for the same purpose. (Or a suitable portion of it.)
 
Perhaps begin with reading the Apostolic Letter Porta Fidei for the Indiction of the Year of Faith from HH Benedict XVI
The “door of faith” (Acts 14:27) is always open for us, ushering us into the life of communion with God and offering entry into his Church…
Click to expand...
…We want this Year to arouse in every believer the aspiration to profess the faith in fullness and with renewed conviction, with confidence and hope. It will also be a good opportunity to intensify the celebration of the faith in the liturgy, especially in the Eucharist, which is “the summit towards which the activity of the Church is directed; … and also the source from which all its power flows.”At the same time, we make it our prayer that believers’ witness of life may grow in credibility. To rediscover the content of the faith that is professed, celebrated, lived and prayed, and to reflect on the act of faith, is a task that every believer must make his own, especially in the course of this Year.…
Click to expand...
And listen again to the words of the His Holiness BARTHOLOMEW I, Archbishop of Constantinople, Ecumenical Patriarch at the opening day Mass. Read the full text
It is fitting that this occasion also marks for your Church the formal inauguration of the “Year of Faith”, as it is faith that provides a visible sign of the journey we have traveled together along the path of reconciliation and visible unity.
Click to expand...
 
5Loaves said:
The Year of Faith is coinciding with the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council. On our parish Facebook we linked to Orientalium Ecclesiarum, the Council’s Decree on the Eastern Catholic Churches., encouraging folks to read this decree again (or read it for the first time). It exhorted Eastern Catholics to “take steps to return to their ancestral traditions.”
Click to expand...
I like this idea. It is an invitation to rediscover ourselves as encouraged by Rome since Vatican II and, in the words of Melkite +Archbishop Joseph Tawil, regain “the courage to be ourselves”.

As for promoting Eastern Catholicism, we’ve often spoken here of “Latinization” and other trends that diminish the richness of our traditions. Each of the Eastern Catholic Churches, and the Latin Church as well, possess unique expressions of the Gospel that need be preserved, but also leveraged to increase the Faith by drawing us and others closer to the Church.

Once again, if we can rekindle the courage to be ourselves in this Year of Faith, perhaps we as Eastern Catholics can continue to contribute to the life of the Church in a more meaningful way, evangelizing in renewed ways that may speak to those who seek the Truth through our ancient traditions and beautiful Liturgy.
 
:confused:I don’t really understand why the Eastern Catholics wouldn’t participate in the Year of Faith. They are Catholic, thus they follow the Pope. So, if he calls for a Year of Faith, wouldn’t they just simply obey like the rest of the Catholics throughout the world? I must be way out of the loop if it isn’t that simple.
 
OneinFaith said:
:confused:I don’t really understand why the Eastern Catholics wouldn’t participate in the Year of Faith. They are Catholic, thus they follow the Pope. So, if he calls for a Year of Faith, wouldn’t they just simply obey like the rest of the Catholics throughout the world? I must be way out of the loop if it isn’t that simple.
Click to expand...
It is not as simple as that.
 
OneinFaith said:
:confused:I don’t really understand why the Eastern Catholics wouldn’t participate in the Year of Faith. They are Catholic, thus they follow the Pope. So, if he calls for a Year of Faith, wouldn’t they just simply obey like the rest of the Catholics throughout the world? I must be way out of the loop if it isn’t that simple.
Click to expand...
Who said ECs are not participating?
 
I have gone to Google Play and bought one of Thomas Merton’s books. I can read it online and I think it would be suitable for Eastern Catholics. I purchased “The Living Bread”

l
 
The second largest Eastern Catholic Church of SyroMalabar is activly participating,
in the Year of Faith , upholding her Patrimony of being with Peter !

One important aspect of same , of deepening our faith lives, through prayer, reading of scriptures and other activitties that are recommneded or appeal to each could be , prayers on behalf of the deceased too , even repenting on their behalf , with an attitude of oneness with them !

The Scriptures mysteriously do so, to an extent - often moving our hearts , while reading of all those wars and deaths , to groan - ‘Lord, have mercy !’

Being familiar with prayers for the deceased , mostly only at the SyroMalabar Church , which include some heart felt prayers on their behalf in the first person format even , have come to recognise what a powerful way of praying this can be , since repentance, standing in oneness , for the other, is a privilege of our baptismal role of priestly service, in The Lord !

Most of those who belong to the Eastern Churches come from locales where there are many , who themselves or their ancestors could possibly benefit from such repentance of oneness and bringing them to the Lord’s mercy .

The Divine Mercy devotions, including the Novena, have been an appealing and explict way of doing so ; many of the Liturgical prayers , when paid attention to, from this aspect , aslo take on a deeper richeness .

Reading the scriptures gives us a glimpse of all that have come into all our lives too, including that of our ancestors , thus helping to take us deeper into this aspect of repentance ; the presence of The Lord’s Mother, esp. meditating on her sorrows might make it easier to do the repenting in oneness and thus the power promised through same, even for recalcitrant personality disorders and such ( would it be the enemy claims from unrepentnace , even among ancstors , that feeds same, to an extent ! )
and such devotions too are very much part of The East .

All these , to help us , for joyful , grateful praise and gratitude , for what we have in The Lord …

and worth celebrating same, as part of the Family of God, in The Church !
 
OneinFaith said:
:confused:I don’t really understand why the Eastern Catholics wouldn’t participate in the Year of Faith. They are Catholic, thus they follow the Pope. So, if he calls for a Year of Faith, wouldn’t they just simply obey like the rest of the Catholics throughout the world? I must be way out of the loop if it isn’t that simple.
Click to expand...
For us, it started last sunday.
 
Today after Divine Liturgy, members of our parish received personal copies of the three part series Light for Life. In addition, we also received individual copies of a three part Catechesis series from God with Us publications.

In addition, our parish is showing “How to run the Way” which is a twelve talks that introduce central aspects of the Eastern Christian faith, which is held on Monday nights after our community prays Small Compline.
 
Celticnovice said:
Today after Divine Liturgy, members of our parish received personal copies of the three part series Light for Life. In addition, we also received individual copies of a three part Catechesis series from God with Us publications.

In addition, our parish is showing “How to run the Way” which is a twelve talks that introduce central aspects of the Eastern Christian faith, which is held on Monday nights after our community prays Small Compline.
Click to expand...
Please tell me these will be recorded or streamed!
 
Celticnovice said:
Today after Divine Liturgy, members of our parish received personal copies of the three part series Light for Life. In addition, we also received individual copies of a three part Catechesis series from God with Us publications.

In addition, our parish is showing “How to run the Way” which is a twelve talks that introduce central aspects of the Eastern Christian faith, which is held on Monday nights after our community prays Small Compline.
Click to expand...
That is the same one we use:
Light For Life, Part I: The Mystery Believed
Light For Life, Part II: The Mystery Celebrated
Light For Life, Part III: The Mystery Lived
 
Celticnovice said:
Today after Divine Liturgy, members of our parish received personal copies of the three part series Light for Life. In addition, we also received individual copies of a three part Catechesis series from God with Us publications.

In addition, our parish is showing “How to run the Way” which is a twelve talks that introduce central aspects of the Eastern Christian faith, which is held on Monday nights after our community prays Small Compline.
Click to expand...
Thanks for this update. Good to hear of an ECC parish having something related to the year of Faith. What is your parish? How large is it and how many turn up for the Monday night sessions.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top