Eastern Catholic Spiritual Renewal

Becoming What God Is

2012-03-01T21:09:00.001-05:00

     From a young age our society tries to teach us that we have to have a good job or make great accomplishments in order to have purpose. Like many, in my youth I realized that I could not live up to the social models and found myself in a life of rebellion. Thankfully, in His goodness God made Himself known to me at an early age and because of this my rebellion did have its limits. With this knowledge of God I developed a hope that one day I would be good enough to be one his followers. However, my understanding of what it meant to be a follower was shaped by the social values that I mentioned. Eventually, I came to realize that these social values were vain and had nothing to do with God.
     In my days of rebellion I remember a police officer told me that I should clean up my act and start going to church. He believed in the social constructs that I mentioned and tried to help me establish the good person status. Even though I wanted a relationship with God I felt that the path the officer put before me was totally out of reach. In my heart I knew that I could never truly be that kind of person society wanted. Not being able to understand what God really wants apart from society I put off going to church hoping that maybe when I'm older I can be good enough to be that kind of person.
     Maybe the officer didn't realize but a social understanding of church amounts to a false gospel. What would have happened if the apostles went around telling people to clean up their acts and start going to their church? There obviously wouldn't be a Church. In contrast, the apostles went around and introduced people to God and gave them the power to encounter him. For them the local church was not a mark of social goodness in their time but a place to become what God is. Today it seems in the greater part of our Christian culture this understanding is lost.
     Many people give up on life because they can never be that special person in society or have that good job. In fact, even those who achieve the fabled status often realize that the hope promised by society was in vain. It truly is naive to think that doing something great or becoming something in the eyes of others will give us the meaning that we are looking for. Recently, I was reminded of that truth when watching some teaching on our tradition of Theosis by Archimandrite Damon. He reminded me that we are the image of God and called to be like him in every respect. There is nothing greater that you can offer someone then to tell them that they can only find their purpose in becoming what God is.
     We were called to share in what God is but we have all lost our way. Our Lord came to lead us back to this calling and gave us all his power to accomplish this. The sharing of our faith with others needs to demonstrate this power in showing that we are not defined by social constructs. The man in jail for life without any hope from society is looking for this power. The single mother who works two jobs and who has little time for anything else is looking for this power. As are many others. They need to hear that God is willing to share everything that He is with them in the here and now with no restrictions.
     You cannot find anything greater in this life than to become what God is by grace. He alone is the standard for how we should develop a sense of purpose in this life. This understanding is radical because we live in a society that's built on social affirmation. It's a hard thing to realize that nothing else matters and takes courageous faith. However, once someone takes that risk they will experience God in a way that will make the world seem like dust. In the end we will not take our achieved social status with us but we will take our ever growing experience of God.

Vatican II and the Byzantine Catholic (50 years of Renewal)

2012-02-28T11:31:00.010-05:00

The following is part of a talk that I will be giving at my parish. We really have come a long way but there is so much work ahead of us. Keep up the renewal!:

     For those that don't know we are approaching 50 years since the Vatican II council. The council marked some historic changes in the Catholic Church especially for Byzantine Catholics. For starters we were not even considered a church but more or less a branch of the Roman Catholic Church, which amounts to Roman Catholics with a different liturgy. However, today the understanding of what it means to be Catholic has been changed for there are over twenty kinds of churches including the Roman that make up the whole Catholic Church. Based on this understanding the Catholic Church is best understood as many churches existing together in communion with the symbolic head of the pope(the first amongst equals). This understanding is all thanks to the renewal movements that had their origin in the second Vatican council.
     Back when I first started college I took a class on church history. At first I was very excited and then I got discouraged as I read more about our history because it was marked by many divisions and sin. Eventually, I came to realize that this is who we are. I think one saint said the church is like Noah's ark filled with the clean and unclean, with sinners but at its center the saints. So we have a ruff history but through it shines the witness of God's goodness and faithfulness to us. Our Eastern Catholic churches are a part of this history and we have had a real ruff history, which I will address.
     Each church has its own history and my own church, the Ruthenian Greek Catholic church, which in America is most commonly known as the Byzantine Catholics, has had a very rocky history but we have never been without hope. My church came into union with Rome in the 1600's and mostly for political purposes. Before that we found ourselves as part of the historic division of the Church known as the Great Schism . As we were before our union with the Roman church and even before the Great Schism we had our own theological history and spiritual expression. Even though we had a different way of expressing the same faith shared with the Roman church it could be said that it was natural for us to achieve our union since our division was not theological.
     Unfortunately this modern view of being in union and being diverse did not work. Entering into communion with the Roman church created a spiritual struggle. Sometimes this was with the fact of dealing with accpetance.You see we had to forsake our spiritual center which was the church of Constantinople. The Ruthenian church was founded by the great missionaries Sts. Cyril and Methodius from Constantinople and we continued to remain under that mantle.Many of the Orthodox churches considered us traitors when we joined Rome. As a result, our churches had to rely on heavely on Rome and opend our doors to they way they were passing on their theological tradtions. In addition, there were many forces and a pressure from the Roman church to change the way that we did things. We were told that because we broke communion in the Great Schism we fell into error and this only fueled our struggle.
      Slowly we began to lose our identity. We were not considered a church and our theology and catechesis took on much of what was in the Roman tradition. We were called the Roman Catholics with a different mass by our Orthodox counterparts and rightly so.We had one the greatest struggles here in America when the Ruthenians migrated over in the beginning of 1900's. At this time we had one of the biggest church splits in our history. This all because one of the Roman Catholic archbishops John Ireland who was adamant against our tradition of married priesthood. Consequently, he is now known as the father of American Orthodoxy because Rome forced celibacy on our tradition causing many of our churches to become Eastern Orthodox. As a result, today there now exists the Carpathian Orthodox church.
     From the origin of our union with Rome we struggled but we were never with out hope. There has always been a gentle push back, especially form the Melkites who continue to lead the way for many of the Eastern churches. This push demonstrates that we desire communion with Rome but we also desire to be true to our identity as Eastern Christians. Eventually there was a climax of this push which happened at the second Vatican Council. It's from there that we came to see changes in the Eastern Catholic churches. Changes that we are still going through.
     One of the Vatican II documents, the Decree on the Catholic Churches of the Eastern Rite, called for a renewal in the Eastern Churches. It says: "they should take steps to return to their ancestral traditions."This would include our liturgies, theology, and spirituality. The document stresses that these "should not be alerted" unless for organic improvement. In essence, we find in this document the admittance that the Eastern churches have been given something unique by God and are called to preserve it. In addition, this vision from the document is very important because we are called to demonstrate to the rest of the Eastern churches, those Eastern churches not in communion with Rome, that union with Rome will not destroy their identity.
     As of today our churches have been very successful in the renewal. This is best seen in how our churches look physically and even how we celebrate the liturgy, which before did not faithfully reflect our traditions. Where we have been struggling is in the spirituality and theological areas. From generation to generation the catechesis and spirituality that was taught was not Byzantine but Roman catholic in nature. For example, there was an older Byzantine catholic who asked once "why don't we do the stations of the cross anymore" and once someone asked "why we don't we have the Eucharistic adoration". My response that has always been rooted in the Vatican II renewal has been that we have devotions that reflect our own spiritual traditions. This understanding is something that we have yet to achieve in the hearts of our own people.
     From the origin of the Church the Roman and Byzantine traditions developed differently in how they approach the mysteries. A prime example is in the reason why we baptize. We both baptize for salvation however the theological reasons of how we approached sin have historically been very different. So we baptism for different reasons. In the Byzantine tradition we tend to look at the original sin from its effects. Man is born outside of paradise which resulted from sin and because of this we die. At birth we are not separated from God but have inherited the sickness of death, which results in sin. Baptism is given to give the power to overcome death and to return to paradise to return to Father. However, in the Roman tradition they look at sin from more juridical mindset. The first sin results in a punishment of losing grace and death is seen as a punishment rather than a effect. Therefore baptism is given to wash away guilt to make one upright in the sight of God. So we have the same mystery in common but two distinct spiritualities, which are very complimentary.
     As demonstrated we both have unique theological traditions when it comes to the mysteries and this is where we still see a great struggle. The struggle is mostly out of fear or even ignorance. We don't want to lose our catholic identity or we don't know what catholic identity is. Many in our churches still approach the mysteries from a Roman perspective and have the spirituality that tends to correspond to the Roman tradition e.g. "where are the station of the cross?" It's a very difficult thing to try implement the renewal that Vatican II is calling us to because spirituality is a touchy thing. People who have believed a certain way all their life don t see the need to change it. However, maintaining this attitude amounts to a false witness of our tradition. Ultimately our diversity is a gift of God and we need to remember that we are stewards of it. We of the Byzantine Catholic tradition need to know that we are called to be Byzantine in all aspects of our life.

She was Empty

2012-02-25T20:28:00.003-05:00

     In my younger days I used to enjoy going to coffee houses with other Christians to talk about our common faith. One time a girl that I knew by association approached me outside of one of these coffee houses and took out a small knife and began to slash her arm repeatedly. Without hesitation and by the grace of God I said, "In the name of Jesus Christ stop it!".She then yielded her knife to me and I did my best to try to convince her to seek spiritual help. One of things that troubled me about this situation was the fact that she was surrounded by Christian spirituality since childhood and ended up filled with demonic power. What she told me left me even more troubled she said that she liked the presence of evil within her because before the presence she had felt empty.
     I may not have been aware but at the time I was pretty much in same situation that this girl found herself in. Sure, I may not have enjoyed the consolation of a demonic presence but I was no less dependent upon the spirit of this age to escape the pain of ancestral sin. There is no need to go into detail concerning my dependence upon the fallen world to find fulfillment. In fact, we need only to take a look at our own churches and see that many of us are no different in how live in comparison to our non believing neighbors. In fact, many people are leaving our churches seeing that its pointless to worship since they feel we can be" good" and believe in a Jesus apart from any rituals. This is pretty much the way of modern Christianity even if one finds themselves Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox.
     The severity of the girls experience and the way of modern spirituality today demonstrates a great truth that I learned from the teachings of Metropolitan Hierotheos. He said its naive to think that salvation is achieved by simple rational acceptance. For him the teachings of various Christian groups and philosophies held by those in our churches today do not provide the proper treatment for the soul. Its obvious that the girl never found fulfillment in her Christian group. She heard about Jesus her whole life but never learned how from her church to deal with the pain within. Unfortunately, she turned to the occult and the only teaching that provided some consolation from the pain.
     The fathers of our Byzantine tradition have left us valuable gifts to deal with this pain that will all experience. They teach us that we are born outside of paradise and born with the condition of death. When this face of death makes itself known to us we do all in our power to run only to find no place to hide. Every source we turn to provides a moment of escape but never gives us the satisfaction we long for. The more we realize this the worse we become even to the point of being willing to sell our own soul. It is only when we heroically face our condition in the power of Christ that we find the path back to paradise, which is our path to overcome death.
     If I could turn back the clock I would hope to give that girl more than a belief in Jesus. I would hope to give her the power to overcome her emptiness. To show her that the enemy cannot cure her pain and that only by facing it in the power of Christ will she find the peace she was longing for. Her pain is common to us all but it does not determine our destiny. When Christ came he did not promise to make us rich, make us happy, and fix all our social problems but offered us a kingdom that is not of this world . We must all face death in all its forms but we will overcome it. If it's the feeling of death that we experience within or the experience of physical death that will come it will have no power over us. As the scripture teaches in Romans 8:37 :"But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us."(NAB)

A Byzantine Christian understanding of Charity

2012-02-07T10:53:00.001-05:00

     Too often the churches of the Byzantine tradition have been accused of not being concerned with social issues. This accusation of course is not true but often stems from a failure to understand our tradition. The local church as understood by our tradition is not a social institution with a Christian theme, like the salvation army. It's more like a local hospital which specializes in healing . This healing that we receive from our local church enables to be concerned with the needs of others. Anyone can do goodwill to others but only a truly healed person can love them the way that God intends.
     There is a tendency in the world to base the merit of religion based on how much it tends to the physical needs of others. Our Church however is a kingdom not of this world. Our fathers understood that meeting the temporal needs of a person could never fulfill their deepest need. When we express charity it is in hope that they see the source of our love and desire it for themselves. By this way we seek to fulfill their deepest need. In doing this we do not give like some of the well known rock stars or billionaires to be seen as "good people". The Lord had instructed us many times in scripture to give unseen. It's in our transparency that we make room for God to be seen. Showing others the way to their deepest need
     Many us remember the passing of Mother Teresa one of greatest saints of our time. She was known to the world for some great acts of charity. There was no distinction to those in the world that this love that she shared came from Christ. What was ironic in her falling asleep was that another person known for charity died at the same time the princess Diana. Even though both experienced death at the same time the worldly media virtually ignored Mother Teresa. It is obvious to the world that the source of the charity from the princess was not the same as the Mother. However, for the many that found God through the Mother the world will never be the same.
     The lives of the those touched by secular charity never have the same potential of those touched by the Church. In the secular we see the people of good nature and of those of the Church we see God. There is always an obligation in those that receive any charity to express gratitude. However, in those touched by the Church there is an obligation to see the work of God. Not everyone is grateful but for those that chose to respond we find that the Church is the only thing to meet the deepest need. This is where we understand in the Byzantine tradition that only by becoming what God is by grace will enable our giving to have the greatest merit. A divinized man is the only kind of man that can authentically meet the needs of mankind.
     The Church must never become a social institution. It would be a great tragedy if we replaced our Vespers services for time in the soup kitchen. This of course is something those in the world could never understand. For them the doctrines and services that we have should be subordinate to the poor. However, those of the world fail to understand what real poverty is, which is broken relationship with God. Without the holy traditions that we have received from our fathers we can never truly give to others. From our fathers we learn our deepest need and how to heal it. As St. Athanasius said," God became man so that man could become God." The Church caries on this message in her doctrines and services. In essence, the Church many not be a soup kitchen but the healing she provides makes her members living soup kitchens. Not only do we have bread to offer but also the food that gives eternal life.
     A Church whose members fail to show charity has itself failed to heal. In the scripture the parable of the man helping his neighbor tells us that the man didn't just stop bind up the man's wounds and send him on his way. Rather, he brought him to an Inn and told the innkeeper, " ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have". The scripture teaches us to completely meet the needs of our neighbors.. Not to just give them bread but to bring them to the Inn keeper in order for them to have the complete healing. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Inn keeper. When we give charity we at the same time offer them the chance to know his love.

A Byzantine Catholic meets New Age philosophy

2012-02-05T18:03:00.001-05:00

     A friend of mine recently asked me to comment on some information that he received from someone in his Byzantine Catholic church. The information had to do with the identity of God and had for its source teachings from Raimon Panikkar. According to the information our personal perspectives obscure God's identity. The information tried to demonstrate that the ways that we approach God are all relative since all that matters is the journey toward the experience. Panikkar as used in the information gave the analogy that we see God through the window of ourselves. For him the window shouldn't be a determining factor in how we understand God. For example, he said we look through a window and not at the window. The information claimed that whatever religion you might be in, we are all looking at the same god, but from our own window. My response to my friend was that God created the window so the window must matter.
     Some of us would be surprised at just how bad the New Age false teachings have invaded some of our churches. I remember when I was doing my undergraduate studies at a Roman Catholic university the New Age Philosophy was normative. During my studies there I was taught that names like Raimon Panikkar, Bede Griffith, and Thomas Merton were the face of mainstream Catholic teaching. It's my understanding that the head of the theology department there wanted to demonstrate the openness of Catholicism to the world. However, instead of showing what it meant to be a Catholic he had indoctrinated many into the false teachings of the New Age.
     In my situation I was fortunate to have a good foundation that prevented me from accepting the false teachings of the university. Two sources that contributed to my foundation were the teachings of Cardinal Ratzinger(now Pope Benedict XVI) and Vladimir Lossky. From the Cardinal I learned what Catholics actually believe about other Religions and from Lossky I learned the purpose of theology. According to Ratizinger Catholics are required to believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father. For a Catholic to have any other position is unacceptable and not Catholic. In the teachings of Lossky your personal spirituality matters because theology and spirituality are one and the same. You cannot have spirituality that's separate from what you believe about God. Both Positions of Ratizinger and Lossky are unacceptable to the New Age.
     In my opinion the Latin theological tradition gives a very sharp approach in demonstrating the errors of the New Age, which is represented in Cardinal Ratzinger's DOMINUS IESUS. However, I believe the Byzantine theological tradition gives a more practical explanation to why the New Age teachings are false. First of all, in the Byzantine theological tradition even though God might be incomprehensible to human nature (the window) we can still know him by grace. Understanding that we can know him in the byzantine tradition is a major factor that demonstrates that the New Age teaching is false. It is also a determining factor that gives a definition to Christian morality.
     The fact that the Byzantine tradition says that we can know God implies something that New Age spirituality could never produce, which is a right way of life and belief. One of the lures of New Age spirituality has always been that it doesn't matter how you live or believe since the personal perspective is relative. In contrast, for Byzantine spirituality how you believe and how live determines just how you will experience God. To contradict what Panikkar said about the window the Byzantine tradition would say that the window matters because the window is all we have. We have to keep the window clean and focused. If your window is not clean with a right way of life you will not see God. In addition, if the window is not positioned with right teachings it cannot focus upon God.
     In summary, the major difference that Christians have with the New Age is that we believe that God has to reveal himself in order for us to know him. For the New Age there is no revelation but learning to connect with something that's natural to our state. For us the incarnation of Christ is way to restore humanity into a natural relationship with God. For them such an event is a way among many that helps us to realize what's within. What I have always found strange about the New Age teachers is that they claim that there is no right way but at the same time claim that theirs is right. Also,they say that personal perspectives are relative but at the same time say that theirs are not. In their approach these so called enlightened leaders come often with a message of peace and are perceived as spiritual people. The apostle Paul long ago warned us about such people when he said , "And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light".(2cor.11:14).It's unfortunate that even among our holy churches the masquerade is all too often seen.

Spiritualities of Lent (East/West)

2012-02-01T06:02:00.001-05:00

     Someone had asked me why we don't have the stations of the cross in our parishes any more. From this person's perspective this doesn't make any sense because all prayers help us to get closer to God and in his mind were all Catholics so there shouldn't be a problem. Like this person many approach tradition from the perspective of: "all catholic spirituality is the same". In fact, most consider our Byzantine tradition just another way of having additional prayers or an extra liturgy. So its understandable for this person to ask this question but it also demonstrates their lack of understanding that not all spirituality is the same. Being that Great Lent is around the corner I thought I might demonstrate in a few ways just how much we are different.
     Those who read my blog know that I approach spirituality from a nontraditional perspective. Generally, the concept of spirituality has come to be understood as a relative term. For example, most Christians understand the term to mean how a person relates to God. Taken this understanding at face value any way we pray doesn't matter because the result is the same. From a personal perspective this seems to make sense. However, even though our relationship with God is personal what we know of him comes from Revelation- from our local church Tradition.
     When we begin to define our spirituality on how we received Revelation the term spirituality no longer is exclusively personal. We can no longer say that any way to pray will work. By accepting Revelation in the way it has been mediated by the local Tradition we also accept a unique way to approach God, which is a way proper to that church Tradition. Even though prayer is always personal we are now praying within the context of the church's tradition. There are many factors that are involved in just how the tradition transforms our personal spirituality, which I won't go into now. However, the point I wish to demonstrate is that the Byzantine and Latin traditions have developed very different "spiritualities", which we can see in just how we both "pray" during lent.
     There was a TV program on a few years back that showed some of the extreme practices of religious groups. Included in the program were certain Catholics in the Philippines who during Lent would have public displays of extreme self mortification and even a parade of people that were physically crucified. These groups are not an official representation of Roman Catholic teaching, but they do represent the Latin spirituality in its extreme form.
      Throughout Roman Catholic history self mortification has been part of their spiritual heritage. Even today there are groups in the Latin tradition that beat themselves with whips, such as opus dei. There was even a testimony of a nun and others who claimed the last pope whipped himself. When understood properly self mortification for Roman Catholics is a way to identify with Jesus Christ. This identification leads one to share in Christ's suffering and to express a remorse for ones sins or a contribution in paying one debt for sin (penance). During lent we see the amplification of this spirituality, especially in the prayers of the stations of the cross.
     In the Byzantine tradition we have similar practices of self mortification, which are highly practiced during lent. We fast, do prostrations, and have all night vigils to name a few. However, our understanding of self mortification is not the same as it is in the Latin tradition. As I pointed out, in the Latin tradition self mortification leads a person to identify with the redemptive suffering of Christ, which at times leads to some to extreme practices. It could be said for the Byzantine tradition instead of "identifying" with Christ through mortification we seek his "identity" or indwelling presence. For the most part, mortification in the byzantine rite is a way of purification rather than a penance. Through our mortification we seek to participate in the divine nature rather than to imitate the sufferings of Christ or show penitential remorse for sin.
     Obviously the spiritualities behind our different Lenten practices comes from how our two traditions have come to understand sin. Properly understood the byzantine tradition takes a therapeutic approach to sin in its spirituality where as in the Latin tradition we find a forensic approach. Based on this the answer to the person to why we don't have the stations of the cross is simple: we don't have the same spirituality. Each tradition reflects how it has come to understand the mysteries of divine revelation. It's important for us that we learn to pray with our local church traditions. There is something very unique and special about the way each tradition reflects the same mystery that we share. If we do not overcome the tendency to see spirituality as something wholly personal we will miss out on just what God is trying to say to the world in our traditions. We must learn to receive from tradition and hand on tradition, this is the essence of our unique churches spirituality.

You are Worthy!

2012-01-29T14:07:00.005-05:00

I believe its important to be open to opportunities to share our tradition with other Catholics. Recently, I took advantage of this when a Charismatic Roman Catholic group invited me to speak at one of their meetings. The following is part of the talk I had for them:

     For those that dont know I am a Catholic of the Byzantine tradition. My church is one among many that are in communion with Rome. Overall the whole Church has its foundation in diversity and I believe its essential to recognize the gifts that different traditions have. In fact, If you don't know this by now there are many different spiritual schools in our Church, being charismatic Catholics you know that have a you have a unique tradition in the Western Church in your emphasis on the gifts of the Spirit and how each member is called personally by Christ to serve, which sometimes is forgotten by the Churches members.
     Some emphasis I believe your movement has in common with the Byzantine tradition is the understanding of the radical action of God in each of us no matter what state we might find ourselves in. One of our Byzantine Fathers, St. Symeon the new theologian, whom you might know of, was very outspoken in this regard. He often spoke about how its normal to have a direct experience of God and to utilize the spiritual gifts. He even once said "we encourage you too to strive that you may have part in His gifts and enjoy them, the gifts of which we, though unworthy, have been partakers through His unutterable goodness." In addition to what he mentions here about God, he brings up something that many Christians sometimes get out of balance, which is our sense of worth before God.
     Historically in the Western spiritual traditions there has been seen a great imbalance in understanding ones worth. Given the fact that the understanding punishment for ones sin and guilt in western tradition has been difficult to grasp by some. In the past you see in the Western tradition people beating themselves bloody just to make things right with God. For example, I remember when I was doing mission work in Latin America I visited the home of St Rose of Lima, which in some way reminded me of a holy torture chamber. She used to sand paper her face and even bound herself to a giant boat anchor as her way of dealing with guilt. Even today you find people walking around in constant guilt and bombarded by an unrealistic sense of unworthiness. You see this sometimes in your churches when at the point in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass they interpret the prayer that says "we are not worthy to receive you", as a sanction for the practice to not receive the Eucharist. Failing to understand the second part of the prayer "only say the word and I will be healed", which amounts to meaning that you are worthy-because he has made you worthy!
     In the Byzantine tradition we can say that we have not had this same general fascination with being guilty. For the most part our tradition came to see the problem of sin not in a judicial sense but more like a medical condition. Instead of being guilty we are more or less ill. Our spirituality in some ways takes the optic of the Church being a hospital for healing rather than a courtroom where we are pronounced not guilty. In fact, one of our scholars pointed out that in the first four volumes of our well known spiritual classic the philokalia, which is the embodiment of byzantine spirituality, there is no reference to guilt. Furthermore, in our liturgical worship we do not have symbolic acts of guilt like kneeling because our traditions emphasis is exercising the joy of the resurrection, standing worthily before our God.
     Understanding how valuable you are to God I believe is essential for any spiritual joy. Without knowing that you are worthy, because he made you worthy, leaves you in the realm of trying to earn God's love when it's a gift. One time I was really struggling with things in my life and not really understanding that I'm worthy, when I turned to the scriptures and read," For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (1 Peter 1:18-19 NIV). I started to think about this and I realized there was no need to beat myself up or remain in guilt but to recognize that our Lord made a powerful investment into my life. He gave everything he could to secure my worthiness before him.
     Any guilt that I have now must be a sign that I need his healing rather than a means to hide my face. He did not hide from us when we were in the depths of sin. He became a man in every respect and gave us a way to escape - he mad us worthy. When we stand before the face of Christ in the eternal realm -no one will say we earned it. We will be grateful, as we are now, that he has mad us worthy. There we will get to embrace Christ's Father as our Father. Just as we do now in our symbolic worship. Every time you go to worship you are worthy to receive everything that God is. In my tradition we emphasize this. We are instructed that when go to our Eucharistic encounter we go to become what God is by grace. He has made us worthy to become partakers of the divine nature as it says in 2 peter 1:4. Everything that he is becomes our own and it always is a gift.
     The world needs to see God in us. Today there are many who are afraid of Christians because they are afraid of the guilt. They do not understand the gift of God because all they see are rules they cannot abide by. It is essential that we know our worth and lead others out of the burden of guilt and shame so they too can stand and worship with us before the Father. We are worthy only because he has made us worthy!
     In closing, I would like to say that there is much we can learn from each other. Our traditions have produced some great saints. One saint in particular we both know John Paul the Great who once said the Catholic Church needs to breathe with both of her lungs that of the east and west. The Holy Father knew that by looking into another tradition ones own tradition could develop better in some ways, which he demonstrated on more than one occasion. In fact, today by looking East you will find in the modern Catechism a different understanding about the original guilt that was passed on from Adam then what was published in the Baltimore catechism, not to mention your tradition no longer teaches limbo. I hoped that today that I have helped you to breathe with the other lung in recognizing the joy that God is calling you to have. The joy of knowing that you are worthy.

The Death of a Spirituality

2012-01-26T00:09:00.009-05:00

     To no surprise there have been many in Eastern Orthodox church history who have had no problem with some Latin spiritual traditions. A quick search of the internet will demonstrate some well noted saints of the East, such as St. Tikon or St. Nicodemous, who found spiritual life from the Latin traditions. In fact, there is some controversy about just how deep they were involved in some of the Latin dogmatic traditions of original sin and indulgences. Never the less, even modern Eastern Orthodox leaders, like Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware), have pointed out that it's not heretical for Orthodox Christians to accept Latin traditions. On the other hand, from a Roman Catholic perspective the spiritual traditions that were proclaimed dogmas after the great schism are non- negotiable.
     Many Eastern Catholics have had to struggle with the non-negotiables of the Latin tradition. Sometimes it seems we are getting different messages from Rome. In the beginning we were told to maintain our traditions when we entered into communion with Rome only to later upgrade to avoid heresy. Even today since Vatican II we are told to return to our roots only latter to have corrections from the Latin hierarchy for being too Eastern. With oppositions such as these most of us are stuck with two options: be faithful to our spiritual tradition or accept the weight of the Latin dogmas and what they impose, which ultimately is the death of some of our spiritual traditions.
     Recently, I listened to a Byzantine Catholic program on the internet about the Immaculate Conception. In the program the Byzantine Catholic priest had no problem affirming that he accepts the Latin dogma and why the Immaculate Conception works for him. In his mind since none of his byzantine liturgical prayers have had to change it all works out. He pointed out how some Orthodox Christians believe in the Latin dogma, even quoting Metropolitan Kallistos the same way I did. However, what he failed to do was to demonstrate that the freedom for the Orthodox to have diverse spiritual views on original sin and the Theotokos will not be optional if they join his church. Even though they can keep the prayers the spirituality behind it will no longer exist- it dies once the tradition is altered.
     It should be an obvious error that you cannot separate how you believe  from the way you pray. However, this is where we find ourselves today. Sure some of our churches have the same icons and liturgies that the local Orthodox churches use but in some cases we sure don't have the same spirituality. For example, just by adopting the Immaculate Conception you automatically accept the Latin understating of sin. It doesn't stop there by accepting that you accept the Latin understanding of grace and it continues to spiral down to where the spiritual practices come to represent a spirituality that was carried out similar to St. Tikon. However, in his case it was not under dogmatic obligation that his spirituality was birthed causing traditional byzantine beliefs to cease. For him the Byzantine world continued on where his personal practice did not dwarf the historical byzantine spirituality that shined forth in the past in great saints such as St. Gregory Palamas or St. Symeon the New Theologian to name a few.
     A friend of mine recently told me that he feels spiritualy isolated as he strives to live fully the spirituality of the Byzantine tradition. He says the only people that he sees trying to live the authentic spiritual traditions of our Eastern Fathers are only on the internet. For him the spirituality of the East has died in what he knows of his local church. Like some Byzantine Catholic churches the prayers might be the same as the Orthodox but the spirituality is Roman Catholic. Consequently, he wants to go to a church were the spirituality matches the prayers, which is in the Eastern Orthodox church. Who could blame him for this. For the most part people like him are told they are wrong. If people like him claim to just be practicing another tradition they do so at times with facing the dogmatic force of Roman Catholic apologists with all their paper work. Of course I encouraged him to stay and fight. We might be few but the "Orthodox in Communion with Rome" movement is a prophetic movement. If it's anything other than prophetic we must be a bunch traditionally high-minded heretics soon to be forgotten.

To see a general difference in Roman and Byzantine spiritualities click (here)

To understand the general differences in our spiritual tradition concerning the Immaculate conception click (here)

Rosary vs. Jesus prayer

2012-01-23T12:43:00.015-05:00

There is a really good series on how the Byzantine Catholic church is different from the Roman Catholic church on YouTube. It's given by Archimandrite Damon (Geiger) and in my opinion is the best one on the internet. During the talk the rosary was brought up and the archimandrite in passing mentioned that it's not wrong to use prayer forms from other catholic traditions. However, he briefly mentioned that from a Byzantine perspective there is difficulty in integrating the rosary into our spiritual tradition. This fact I believe often leaves people bewildered because the rosary in some sense is very similar to our tradition of the Jesus prayer.
Prayer in general is the means in which we reach out to God. Even though the goal is God the results or spirituality is not always the same. For example, someone who offers God a sacrifice of self by fasting and someone who offers God a sacrifice of praise through song will both encounter God in different ways. Both forms of prayer lead one to God but both equate to different ways of approaching God. In this case, these two forms can be integrated but there are whole spiritual systems that have developed in the Church

that find difficulty in integration, as the archimandrite mentioned.

     Its essential that we first realize that Byzantine Catholic spiritually and Roman Catholic spirituality are not the same. For starters as Vladimir Lossky once pointed out our two traditions represent two different ways of sanctification. In the Latin tradition we find a spirituality that is geared toward the experience of Christ's stigmata. A spirituality that has its roots in the imitation of Christ that leads one on a journey of entering the holy darkness of the cross. In the Byzantine tradition we find a spirituality that takes a different path, which is geared toward the experience of Christ's Transfiguration. For the Byzantine Christian there is no moral imitation of Christ per se or an emphasis on Christ's suffering. The spirituality of the Byzantine tradition is one of living a resurrected life, of ongoing purification in order to participate in the divine nature, the divine light of Christ-to be transfigured .
     Some of these differences that we have are clearly seen in our traditions. For example, in our liturgies. In the Roman Catholic Mass we find people kneeling, doing penitential acts, most of the Mass focuses on participation in Christ's sacrifice. In fact, all the Roman Catholic sacrificial spirituality undertaken up until the Mass is considered as adding to the sacrifice. In contrast, in the Divine Liturgy we have no kneeling rather standing joyfully before the presence of our God, since the liturgy for us focuses on participation in the resurrection. Here, we see the ongoing purification and participation in the divine light finding its climax in the Liturgy. In addition, even in general the reception of Holy communion itself has a different emphasis for both traditions. In the Latin tradition reception takes the form of being made right with God where as in the Byzantine tradition we find reception focusing on becoming what God is. These are just a few differences that we have but different spiritualities are clearly seen.
     This now brings me to my point of how our unique prayer traditions, which are the Jesus prayer and Rosary, find some difficulty in spiritual compatibility. Both prayer traditions are in essence the spiritual extensions of our liturgical worship. In both we find a reflection of our different spiritual systems and their goals. For example, the rosary is often said sacrificially to intercede for others needs and the Jesus prayer is said as a means of purification to ready one for the grace(light) of God. Historically and even today we see these differences demonstrated in the absence of liturgical participation. For example, Roman Catholics used to pray the rosary during the mass when it was in Latin, which some still do today. Likewise in the Byzantine tradition, for those who can't make it to liturgical functions the Jesus prayer is used a number times based upon the type of service that was missed. Hence, both tradtions seek the same effects of the liturgy in their prayers.All ready, we find the fundamental use of the prayer traditions very different in nature.

As the archimandrite pointed out in his talk we also find problems in praying the rosary while practicing byzantine spirituality. The Rosary is normally (in most cases) said in conjunction with exercising the religious imagination . The exercise of the religious imagination is something we seek to overcome in the Byzantine tradition, which we do by using the Jesus prayer. Some of the Fathers of the byzantine traditions have made it clear that fantasy is an aspect of the fall. The religious imagination cannot comprehend God or is God. Even in our veneration of Icons we are taught to not to use the imagination but to venerate the reality of the person. This is not to say that Roman Catholics are doing a bad thing in what they do, but it does show different spiritual goals. The use of imagination in their spiritually stirs up pious feelings for them to carry out their mission of carrying Christ's cross. For us Byzantines by purifying the mind of fantasy, in all its forms, we make a place for the reality of God.
In these things I believe it beneficial for Byzantine Catholics, who often feel the spiritual pressure of Roman Catholicism, to recognize the treasures we have. Each of our traditions have beautiful gifts that we have received from the same Spirit, gifts we are called to be good stewards of. Like the Archimandrite said, it's not wrong for Roman Catholics to say the Jesus prayer or for us to pray a Rosary. The tensions between traditions you could say falls mostly in the byzantine camp. For us the struggle to preserve our traditions in the wake of a few hundred years of Latinization is overwhelming. Despite obstacles we need to be ever the more courageous in finding spiritual sustenance in our own roots. We were bold to take down the stations of the cross in our parishes for this reason will we find the same strength to let the rosary go and return to our own traditional prayer?

Click here to watch the Archimadrites talk (click)

Formed by Tradition

2012-01-21T18:54:00.005-05:00

     Sometimes some of us Byzantine Catholics have had to struggle with how we understand the Church. We find ourselves in the midst of historical consequences that we really have no valid answers for. In trying to make sense of what we are to believe we find ourselves looking East or West in extreme ways in order to find our identity. When we learn to recognize this struggle its important to ask ourselves what makes us Byzantine Catholics. Is our spiritual identity based upon who's in charge in Rome or from how the Byzantine tradition has brought us closer to Jesus Christ?
     Its understandable that some cannot conceive of having any spiritual identity outside of being in "union with the pope of Rome". Some would say it's the principle of authority that the pope exercises that demonstrates a fundamental need for Christian discipleship. However, there were times when there were was no pope and even a time when there was more than one. In the end having ones spiritual identity based upon who is in charge in Rome seems to be a dead end. On the other hand, the door to discovering intimacy with Jesus Christ is always wide open, which is found in our Traditions.
     For the most part intimacy with Christ demands communion with the local church and the universal church. On the other hand, when the demand is missing or unattainable the door for union with Jesus Christ is not diminished. The Church is a body and like the human body when a part is lost or unusable the power within, which in the case of the body is the soul and in the case of the Church is Tradition, is not diminished. Ultimately, our identity as Byzantine Catholics rests not upon our communion with the Roman Catholic church but how we live the spiritual Traditions that we received from our Fathers.
     A great teacher of our Byzantine tradition Vladimir Lossky once said, "The catholicity of the Church, far from the privilege of any one see or specific centre, is realized in the richness and multiplicity of the local traditions which bear witness unanimously to a single Truth: to that which is preserved always, everywhere and by all". From this perspective upholding the traditions that we received from our Byzantine Fathers is a matter of what it means to be a Catholic. Rather, then being Catholic based upon our communion with the church of Rome. In his own way Lossky further stressed the obligation to uphold our traditions no matter what the cost. To that end it is critical for us to be formed by the traditions of our Fathers rather than becoming preoccupied with the papal throne.
     In discovering what we have in our traditions we will discover a deeper value of our local church. In my own case, as the Ruthenian Greek Catholic, I have discovered that my own church did not come about by various cultural or political circumstances, but rather by the very work of the Apostolic Traditions in the life of a people. The roots of my Church might be ethnic but the reality is an action of the Holy Spirit in a culture in a particular time. Roots in this case are not to be understood in a secular sense as a mere foundation, but rather life giving since these roots nourish the very spiritual life I and other Byzantine Ruthenians have today.
     With these things in mind I think its appropriate to bring up the comments of His Beatitude Sviatoslav Patriarch of the Ukrainian Catholic church when he was questioned about the spiritual identity his church. He said the identity of his church should be the same as Kyivan Christianity during Volodymyr's baptism. He obviously saw the essential truth that his church's identity rests upon how the fathers of his church received Tradition. Likewise, no matter what kind of Eastern Catholic we might be our identity must take its life from the same tradition, the same root, and the same teachings the fathers of our churches had received.

Scandal in the Mother Land

2012-01-17T09:54:00.001-05:00

     Recently, a young man from the ancestral lands of my church contacted me. He shared with me that he is a Greek catholic and in the past year he became aware of the presence of Jesus Christ. His spiritual experience came to him while attending an Eastern Orthodox liturgy and caused him to seek more of Christ in the Byzantine tradition. Unfortunately, he told me that in his family and local Greek church most of what is Byzantine has been lost to Latinization. He feels isolated because even among his family and friends there are no traditional byzantine roots that can nourish his spirituality. He shared that even his parents ,not really seeing a difference in spirituality, have pretty much abandoned the byzantine church because the Roman Catholic church is more convenient for them. In the situation he finds himself in he asks for advice. He wants to do the right thing by trying to bring his experience to his ancestral church. On the other hand, he feels spiritually malnourished and has considered joining the Orthodox church.
     This struggle the young man shared with me demonstrates the real damage of a Latinized spirituality. We would be surprised to hear just how bad things have gotten in the ancestral lands of our churches. A Byzantine monk I know from Slovakia told when he entered his monastic community he was the only one with the Jesus prayer or Philokalia. So it's of no surprise to me to hear the story of this young man. In some circumstances a person like this will convert to Orthodoxy and forever hold a bitterness to the Catholic church. Fortunately, he is not alone in his struggle and I have friends in the motherland that are going through the same things and are contributing to the renewal of our tradition, which I helped him get into contact with.
     The spiritual path we take at times is an isolating experience but we are never alone. As I told the young man Jesus Christ is always with us and nothing can separate us from his love. Ultimately, when the world falls apart around us or our spiritual traditions become distorted by others what we have in Christ will go unchallenged. If our Byzantine tradition all together disappears from the face of the world it will continue in our hearts. No one can rob us of the traditions of our fathers. We have seen in the past the erosion of the traditions of our fathers but we have also seen the gentle push of those who remain faithful to the gift of the Spirit. There will always be a Byzantine Christ for this is God's gift to the world.
     One final thing the young man shared with me is that he is involved in iconography. He felt it important to be in the proper spiritual atmosphere to write his icons, something he believes he does not have now. I do not write icons but my advice to him is that the best things we do for God come from our struggles we share with Him. In his isolation I believe he will discover something beautiful to translate in this gift he shares with his church.
     In essence, I think we all seek a Golden age of our traditions. However, even if we achieved complete independence from what we believe holds us back we will never be without struggle. Following Christ and being faithful to the path does not guarantee us a comfortable spiritual atmosphere. Some of our spiritual Fathers that have gone before us demonstrated this when they lived in caves. For them there was no icons, incense, or philokalia but only the name of Christ. We need to keep this in mind and remember that the real enemy of our traditions is not Rome but our own lack of faithfulness to discover intimacy with Jesus Christ.

To learn more about the Byzantien Catholic Church in Slovakia click (here)

Heretical Claims

2012-01-16T10:06:00.001-05:00

     When I joined the Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church I really did not know what I was getting myself into. The whole notion of joining another church, as opposed to the Roman Catholic church, was not in my understanding. However, I slowly came to the realization that the parish that I had got involved in had its own history and unique identity. Never would I have thought that now by accepting this identity and history as my own that I would fall in the ranks of a heresy as some have claimed. On the other hand, an honest look at their claims demonstrates what the Patriarch of the Melkite church once said "," Rome is not ready to accept the genuine rights of the Eastern Catholic Churches as proclaimed by Vatican II.”
     There were two things that brought me into my church, which are the spirituality and a calling. First of all, the spirituality of the Byzantine church had a significant impact on me in the beginning of my journey. In a past post I shared how an experience at a Greek Orthodox shrine brought me into a state of deep repentance. Based on this the obvious question people might ask is why not join the Greek Orthodox church. My answer to this may not satisfy some but growing up as a heathen and then being introduced to Christianity I was filled with many ideas. One idea that I had ,that I recognize now as an error, was that all churches are the same. Not knowing the differences I sought to be as close as I can to this experience that received. Eventually, I found myself in a Ruthenian Greek Catholic church while going through RCIA in the Roman rite, only to one day move closer to that church and get fully involved. The desire to move closer I believe demonstrates the second thing that brought me there, which was the calling.
     In addition to being called a heretic some Roman Catholics have been so upset by what I say that they have told me to join the Orthodox church. Can't say I haven't thought about it and it sure would be easier since I share the same beliefs. However, as I briefly mentioned above I believe God has called me to my church and now I have been grafted into a spiritual family. These are my people and my family and to leave them would be a selfish act. Consequently, being a part of this family obligates me to take up their traditions, beliefs, and even struggles. These three things are what I mainly write about and its understandable why Roman Catholics would get upset. In essence, you could say that I did join an Orthodox church. One that's in communion with Rome.
     In evaluating the heretical claims in their terms I believe them to be justified. Having received a theological education at one the best Roman Catholic schools I know that some of my professors there would not accept some of things that I write about. No matter what I or others call it we find ourselves at different levels of acceptance of the authority of the pope. This is unacceptable to faithful Roman Catholics who are obligated to be true to their understanding of papal authority. Based on this I can relate to why they would see someone like myself as heretical. On the other hand, I don't accept this accusation on their terms or their understanding of what it means to be Catholic. When it comes to such things I believe we must help the Roman church mature in its understanding of what the Church is, which the Patriarch of the Melkites also said once.
     If I am a heretic I hope all I write about becomes dust and has no root in any Catholics mind. Being a heretic means you are ultimately against the revelation of God. Because of the way things have been stated in the Roman church there will continue to be opposition for those who wish to be faithful to Byzantine tradition. However, we are a CHURCH in communion with Rome and not inferior to it. We receive are status as a CHURCH from God and not the pope of Rome. Its unfortunate that certain Latin definitions do not allow us to be treated as such. For them a church is defined upon being in "union with the pope". This is unaccepted to how we have received our Byzantine tradition. To say anything else besides how they define things will continue to qualify us as heretics. However, on our part we must never forget Christian charity and have hope that they are listening to us.

The Ethnic Enclave vs.The Convert

2012-01-12T20:11:00.000-05:00

     It's a known fact that converts into our Byzantine tradition often demonstrate an impressive zeal. In fact, the same could be said for the phenomenon of converting all together. Many studies have been done like the one from the Pew Research Center that show that converts often demonstrate a loyalty that is not often seen in those who have been lifelong in a faith tradition. However, the research pointed out that in some instances the loyalty of the convert demonstrated as opposed to a lifelong member is "relatively modest"
     Usually, what the convert demonstrates is something that is missing in the general community. When this is noticed it is at times welcomed but at others times it becomes a threat. For those that welcome such people the margin of the" relatively modest" is demonstrated. Converts for these people bring enlightenment and joy for what they have in common with the convert. On the hand, for those who find the convert a threat we see the margin from the research data that shows why the convert stands out. Most often the convert reveals to these people that they are lukewarm or have very little commitment to their faith at all.
     Recently, I read a statement that said the "Orthodox in communion with Rome crowd" or" ultra-traditionalist Byzantines" are made up mostly of converts. This obviously is an erroneous statement because the forerunners for the so called movements have been made up of mostly lifelong ethnic Byzantines. The current Patriarch of the Melkite Catholic church comes to mind who has made statements like "treat us like an Orthodox church". Not to mention a list of many others. In another place the person that made these statement described how ethnic lifelong Byzantines that he associates with are at odds with these converts. It is obvious in this instance that the margin for the converts faithfulness as opposed to the lifelong member is demonstrated as it is in the research given above.
     If statements above are true that there is animosity being developed by the ethnic enclaves in our churches against these converts then this demonstrates a true problem in our communities. Overall it demonstrates a failed catechesis in those ethnic Byzantines as opposed to the converts coming into the byzantine rite. I can't speak for other churches but in my Ruthenian Greek Catholic church we have a two year catechesis period before one can switch ritual churches. During the period we are called to have an ongoing catechesis into the new tradition. In my own experience of the two year period (but was 8years in my case) I was taught it is natural to have the same identity as an Eastern Orthodox since we share the same byzantine tradition. For example, when it came to traditional Roman catholic spiritually and theology my priest would say things like "leave Rome in Rome" or "its either one or the other" and even "that's not for us it's for the Roman Catholics". Maybe my priest would qualify as a convert since he's a apparently a part of the ethnic opposition.
     According to the general meaning a convert it means someone who changes or adopts a new belief or way of life. For the most part this is what Christianity implies which is an ongoing conversion. Just because one is raised in a tradition does not qualify them to instantaneous access to the reality. This takes conversion! In our Byzantine tradition to practice a spirituality that doesn't reflect its spiritual roots is nothing but a false witness. To have a dichotomous grouping in the church such as the Orthodox in communion crowd vs. ethnic Byzantines clearly shows that one group is in serious error. If you find yourself in a crowd that's not striving to live the roots our Byzantine tradition I invite you to get converted.

link to Pew Reserach data (click)

Religious Truth

2012-01-09T11:19:00.002-05:00

     My 11 year old brought a very challenging question to our daily faith discussions that we have as a family. In explaining to her that our Byzantine tradition on original sin is different then what she is being taught in her roman catholic school she asked, "which one is right?". What she asked was very serious and I had to be careful in how I responded because religious truth is essential in how we respond to God and others. I told her that the need for salvation through baptism is what's most important but how we understand the process is a great mystery. I then repeated the words of Blessed John Paul the great when he said that one tradition can come closer to appreciating the mystery better then the other at times and as Byzantines we are called to uphold our understanding of the mystery.
     Questions like the one above are what we all ask ourselves when we find what is sacred to us being challenged by another truth. Historically, when our byzantine traditions have been challenged in the past by the Latin tradition, at least in my own church, we threw them out in order not appear as heretics. This cycle of replacement has been very hard to break because we don't wish our unity with Rome to be threatened. In addition to compromising ,in the effort of trying to return to our roots some have gone as far to say there are no differences in traditions rather it's a matter of wording. In my opinion this is worse then compromising because it leads to confusion. For example, try telling an 11year old that all babies are born pure and not separated from God's grace(as we are taught in the Byzantine tradition) means the same thing as babies are separated from grace and need to be cleansed from original sin(as it is in the Latin tradition).
     The bottom line is that we don't have the same religious truth when approaching the mysteries. In the example above it clearly demonstrates this by showing the we both baptize for different reasons. The reasons clearly emphasize the unique spiritualities that are proper to each tradition but are often misinterpreted as conflicting truths. Essentially instead of looking for how much truth one tradition has over the other, as we are sometimes inclined to do, we need to ask what part of the mystery is that particular tradition trying to address.
     By looking at the mysteries of our faith from the perspective of another tradition we can become open to enriching our very own. In the previous century the Latin tradition has been known for doing this very thing. By looking East the Latin tradition has fine tuned its doctrine of original sin. For example, the recent catechism as opposed to the Baltimore catechism gives a toned down understanding of inherited guilt, not to mention the divergence in the doctrine of limbo. Its obvious that we have allot to offer each other when we become confident in the uniqueness of our tradition. Unfortunately, in those Eastern churches that lost their identity because of Latinization we are not able to have the same confidence as of yet.
     It is imperative that we recover our theological traditions without fear. Being afraid of being different then Rome continues to leave some of us crippled. As demonstrated being different in religious truth does not make us at odds. The divinely inspired diversity is for the good of the whole church for it leads to a better understand of the mysteries of our salvation. In the first 1000 years of Christianity our churches learned to benefit from this diversity. Even though divisions had occurred in the historical churches the theological diversity never diminished. We have inherited this diversity and need to be faithful to the gift that God has given us.

The Byzantine Eucharistic Adoration

2012-01-04T10:59:00.003-05:00

     A few weeks back I wrote a follow up to some comments about how the Eucharistic adoration of the Latin rite has been a negative thing for our Byzantine tradition. I demonstrated how the Latin Eucharistic piety that was cultivated in the time of the historical Latinization continues to replace our own forms of devotion. To my surprise the comments from some of my readers only further demonstrated just how bad of state our byzantine catholic traditions have become. For example, some comments mentioned: " (latin)Adoration and Communion are better" and " the 5 minutes we have during the Divine Liturgy simply isn't enough." As you can read many have not been properly grafted into the Byzantine liturgical tradition.
     It is difficult sometimes going into a new culture and in this instance a spiritual culture. I shared in my own journey it took me about 8years or so to begin to see the Byzantine tradition for what it was. Like some of my readers I too was guilty of "Latinizing" or "westernizing" my tradition. There of course are many factors why we do this but in essence to do so means we have not been properly "converted" or grafted into the tradition. In addition, just because you were born and raised in a Byzantine church does not qualify as being exempt from Latinizing. If generationally you inherited in your family a strong piety that has its origins in the Latin rite, which in the past was forced upon your ancestors or passively received you are also guilty. In this regard, I believe Its important to know our history and it's also important to know what we have lost or never had.
     Despite the negative elements that I have mentioned the spiritual renewal of our Eastern traditions continues to make ground. Also, even in all the negative aspects in the history you find that the spark of our unique traditions was never put out, which has its origin in God. One of my readers demonstrates this when offering a comment to show others that we have our way of Eucharistic adoration. He says," Do you know what is way, WAY more profound than looking at Jesus? Becoming a holy vessel yourself. YOU, becoming a temple for Christ's body and blood.".In these few sentences he shows what in essence is the meaning of our liturgical practices. For in every liturgy we seek to become divinized, which has its climax in the partaking of the Eucharist.
     One of our Byzantine spiritual Fathers St. Symeon I believe further reveals what we have to offer in our tradition. In one of his well known poems he writes, " We awaken in Christ's body as Christ awakens our bodies, and my poor hand is Christ, He enters my foot, and is infinitely me. I move my hand, and wonderfully my hand becomes Christ, becomes all of Him(for God is indivisibly whole, seamless in His Godhood)." Here we see some significant differences in how we have developed our Byzantine Eucharistic adoration. Instead of focusing on the gifts (Christ in the bread and wine) as they do in the Latin rite we focus on the gift of becoming what Christ is.
     Understanding we our different in Eucharistic devotion is key to understanding how we worship liturgically. All of the byzantine liturgical services are designed to bring us deeper into the mystery of becoming what God is. Vespers or Orthos and other services facilitate an ascent into the great mystery that has its climax in the Divine Liturgy. In essence, for us byzantines all our liturgies are "Eucharistic adoration" because we participate in the mystery of Christ within. Consequently, to alter or replace our liturgical life, as we presently see in our churches, is to lose our tradition all together and fail to have any sense of a true Byzantine Eucharistic devotion.
     In many ways we have taken a different path when it comes to Eucharistic devotion in compared to the Latin tradition. There of course are some things that might be considered akin to the Latin practice. For instance, our devotion to Icons. When a byzantine Christian stands before an icon of Christ we are taught that we are standing before Christ himself. There is a fundamental difference in the Latin practice of Eucharistic exposition, but principally we both believe we are standing before the same mystery . For the most part we share a common goal in our unique traditions even though they are different.
     The differences should complement each other. The saints of our different traditions give witness to this truth when they have benefited their own respected traditions by gazing into another. However, as I have pointed out in previous posts this is not what were dealing with here. We may look like Byzantines but our spiritual lives do not reflect the teachings of our Fathers like St. Symeon. Some of us have lost that connection and it should be our goal to return to the spirituality of our Fathers, especially when it comes to Eucharistic adoration.

DOGMA in the "strict sense"

2012-01-01T19:56:00.001-05:00

     Demonstrating the unique spiritual identity of our Byzantine tradition has been no simple task. However, being grafted into a spiritual tradition I feel it's my obligation to be faithful to the roots that give me spiritual life. In being faithful many times I have met opposition, especially in the things I have written on this blog. In essence much of the opposition is based upon how we have come to receive our respected theological truths or dogmas in our traditions. As a Byzantine Catholic I believe it's essential to demonstrate that our theological inheritance ,that's different from the Latin tradition, are not at odds. This is often difficult to grasp in the culture of relativism vs. absolute truth. On the other hand, I don't believe such precision in understanding the mysteries is essential in demonstrating the unique catholic diversity that we find in our traditions.
     Its very threatening at times to a Roman catholic or spiritually Latinized byzantine to hear statements that some of us conservative Byzantines have made such as," we don't have a purgatory or view Mary as Immaculately conceived or even worse the Pope is First amongst equals. For them to hear such things goes against every principle of how they are "obligated" to uphold what they receive from Tradition. As a Byzantine Catholic I feel we are equally obligated to uphold our own Tradition, which obviously developed differently than the Latin one. The key here is to understand that the Latin tradition is not the only tradition that has been birthed by the apostles. As Byzantines we too have a theological history and have arrived at our own conclusion to a shared mystery.
     In saying such things I often here the phrase, "dogma is dogma". Dogmas in fact are a the formulation of revealed truth. They also express the (living faith) of the Church. So on the one hand they are finite expressions of a mystery and on the other they demonstrate the spirituality of the faithful. Universally dogmas are the decisions made at Ecumenical councils. For the Roman Catholic church these ecumenical councils continued after the schism. Consequently, the dogmas aforementioned are universally binding on all Christians. For the Eastern Catholic such a position by Rome has been challenging because it means that we have to reformulate of forsake our own (living faith) in order for it not to contradict Rome's.
     To neglect or reformulate ones tradition is at best scandalous. Countless Byzantine Catholic Christians have left their respected churches for the Orthodox because of being forced into these positions. We have been told we are in error because we broke communion with Rome, as if the Latin tradition is the dogmatic center. Historically at the Ecumenical councils the Latin tradition did not have near the central influence that some boast of today. In fact, in the Ravenna document it says," the break between East and West which rendered impossible the holding of Ecumenical Councils in the strict sense of the term". Even though the Latin tradition went on as if it was the only true church and held councils with that point of view we find a fuller understanding of Ecumenical as stated in the document. Consequently, dogmas of Rome for the East must be received in a different sense rather than the strict sense.
     The tension that is derived from the conclusions that I have stated are obvious. However, being faithful to the Byzantine Tradition does not mean we are in opposition to what the faithful have arrived at in another tradition. We are a Catholic communion and one Tradition is not in subornation to the other but rather each expresses the same mystery and at times as John Paul the Great once said in ORIENTALE LUMEN one tradition sometimes arrives a little closer at the meaning of the mysteries then the other. So when we say things like we don't have a purgatory (ext). it isn't to the extent that we hold Rome in error but rather we have our spiritual tradition regarding the mysteries that we share.

Eucharistic Adoration Revisited

2011-12-23T13:27:00.002-05:00

A response to recent comment from the post Eucharistic Adoration( has no place in the East)

     I know a Byzantine Catholic priest who was very concerned when some of his parishioners started going to a Roman Catholic church for a spiritual formation class. Not that learning is a bad thing but he did not believe that they were fully looking into their own tradition for spiritual formation. He said he would have to tell them to stop if he found out they were going to Eucharist Adoration. Why would he say such a thing?
     First of all, when it comes to spiritual formation the Byzantine tradition is very different from the Latin tradition. So much so that it says in the Vatican II document Lumen Gentium (23) "By divine providence it has come about that various churches, established in various places by the apostles and their successors, have in the course of time coalesced into several groups, organically united, which, preserving the unity of faith and the unique divine constitution of the universal Church, enjoy their own discipline, their own liturgical usage, and their own theological and spiritual heritage." Our spiritual heritage that we receive in our churches does not come about simply by geographical origin but by the fact of divine providence. Consequently, we are under divine obligation to preserve and perpetuate what God gave us, even when it might be very different from our sister churches.
     Based on this I would respond first to your comment that Christians of the Byzantine tradition are called to perpetuate the spiritual tradition and theological vision of their Eastern Fathers. Eucharistic Adoration as it is done in the Roman Catholic church is a reflection of the theological vision of the Latin tradition. This does not mean that we are without our own version of the practice. For example the liturgy of the presanctified. Also, just because we have our version does not mean that they are the same. What we do as "adoration" is a theological manifestation of how we received our tradition.
     You mentioned in your comment that the practice of adoration is neither east or west. This statement is only partially accurate. Eucharistic Adoration is a universal concept in the church but by "divine providence" has been given the diverse expression that accords to each tradition. On the other hand, there really is no such things as spiritual property rights. Many saints of the East were fond of Latin practices but I might point out they practiced them in a way that nourished their traditions theological vision. This primarily is what I try to address in the post you commented on and in my blog. The fact is as Byzantine Catholic Christians we are called to renew the traditions of our Fathers and not replace them with the popular Latinizations of our day.
     For all practical purposes, it's not an issue of what's East or West but rather the need to be true to who we are. Someone like St. John Chrysostom or St. Symeon should be able to recognize our churches as ones that shared the same traditions. In some cases the "Byzantine" tradition which they received and passed down is non-existent in some of our churches. In fact, this is one of the greatest stumbling blocks for church unity because many Eastern Orthodox look at our churches and can't recognize anything Byzantine. The call to be true to our tradition is really a struggle that Eastern Catholics must face or else continue to be as what we are called "roman Catholics with byzantine clothes on".
     As far as your comment concerning "theology being important but ignoring the devotional life of the people" this understanding is far from an Byzantine understanding of theology. Theology and devotional life in the byzantine tradition are one and the same. How we live and practice reflects our vision and understanding of God and there is no way to separate them. I know there is a saying that in the west they learn first and then believe and in the east we believe first then learn. In some respects you will find in a study of the theological traditions of the Latin west and Byzantine east that this saying is right on. For us Byzantine Christians there can be no real knowledge of God unless we repent because knowledge is experience. Consequently, our tradition is sometimes referred to as "mystical". This title comes from the idea that our spirituality is highly monastic. From this point we see that any theology or theologians proper called are tied to an experience of God rather then something or someone associated with a university.
     This brings me to my last point. You said the Divine Liturgy has no quite time. Such a statement could only come from a failed catechesis. Every practice in the byzantine tradition, especially the liturgy, is to lead us into hesychia "stillness". Based on this the Divine Liturgy is not noise but in fact what we will be doing for all eternity. Our tradition of Hesychasm which is the very essence of our spiritual tradition is not a part where there is a quite time and then there other times for noise. I know in the Latin tradition such compartmentalization is used to categorize such things but not in our tradition. Through the Divine Liturgy we learn hesychia and become vessels of the Divine nature. In addition, every part of our life we learn to discover the stillness of Jesus Christ through ongoing repentance.
      What we need to realize is just how harmful Eucharistic adoration of the Latin tradition has been to our Byzantine churches that have adopted it. Its unfortunate, that many of our liturgies have become nonexistent. So much so that Byzantine Catholics in order to fully celebrate the tradition of their fathers must go outside of their parishes to Orthodox churches just to celebrate vespers. One byzantine Catholic priest pointed out that the reason why many won't come to our traditional byzantine liturgical celebrations is because there is no communion or Eucharistic adoration. I mention this because the Latin traditions, such as Latin Eucharist adoration, have not in any way have been beneficial to our tradition. We have lost what the liturgy means and need to return to our roots. So I say again with full confidence that the Eucharistic Adoration of the Roman Catholic church has no place in our Byzantine church.

The comment i address can be found with other (here)

A Question of Identity

2011-11-06T09:09:00.001-05:00

     My church that's in communion with Rome, as well as others, is really in a sad state. For the most part we have become divided amongst ourselves. The source of this division begins with spiritual identity. Some feel that to be an Eastern Catholic one has to conform to the Latin tradition or replace some areas of the Eastern tradition in order for communion with Rome exist. While others profess in order to be fully eastern they must embrace everything that the other Eastern Orthodox churches teach. Its unfortunate that these divisions have caused people to leave our churches and rightfully so for a church that has no spiritual identity offers a person very little in discovering the traditions of Christ.
     When I first started my blog I ran into some conflict in using my subtitle. It used to say "a voice for the Eastern Catholic Churches" instead of what it says now "Byzantine Catholic Churches". I realized I could not faithful speak for all the Eastern churches since not all have the same theological or ecclesiological traditions. I also find this same problem when people quote Blessed John Paul the Great's statement about the Church learning to breathe with both lungs. At the time I believe he was speaking to the Byzantine tradition but the statement has become a generalization for all Eastern Churches. Unlike the Western church our Eastern Churches do not share a uniform identity or development. Taking into consideration all the Eastern churches and Rome there are no "two lungs" but a fully functional "body" in all its diversity.
     With this in mind a Coptic Christian surprised me when he said that his tradition has no Jesus Prayer. He pointed out how this tradition was something that developed mainly through the byzantine tradition. In fact many people might be surprised that the Coptic's ecclesiological tradition is very close to the way Rome developed theirs. Unlike the byzantine tradition they have a strong centralized church governance the centers around their patriarch whom they call pope. In addition, even theologically for centuries their understanding of the dual natures of Christ had been understood as heretical until their pope and Rome's met to sign a common confession about Christ. These examples only demonstrate that there is no universal understanding of a Eastern tradition other then the fact of they are those churches east of ancient Rome.
     When it comes to "Eastern" identity we have to take into account organic development. What's unfortunate among my fellow conservative byzantine friends is that traditions that sometimes come close to the Roman tradition are perceived automatically as a Latinization. Some Eastern churches have always been close to Rome and if there was no historical divisions the question should be asked, "would they have developed any differently". The Maronites come to mind who are sometimes believed to be the most Latinized Eastern Church. The Maronites have a very unique history unlike other eastern churches they remained in communion with Rome. I think it's entirely possible to have certain traditions that are uniquely our own even though they are found in Rome. The understanding of the role of the pope is the prime example for we share that with Rome and for many of us Byzantines we have given it our own expression(FIRST amongst EQUALLS).
     Where I see many people go wrong in this is where people believe that to be catholic I must put Rome first before my tradition. When the Vatican II council instructed Eastern Catholics to renew their Eastern traditions it wasn't to the opposition of Rome or even submission of Rome. Communion with Rome wasn't to mean put Rome's dogmatic tradition first but rather be true to who we are and be in communion with Rome at the same time. For example, the Byzantine theological tradition has no room for the Latin dogmas of the Immaculate conception or Purgatory to name only a few. To say that we have to because they come from Rome undermines the spirit of the Vatican II council. It's entirely possible to have a different theological expression of a mystery and be in communion at the same time. Saint John Chrysostom had no trouble being fully Eastern and in communion with Rome when St. Augustine was laying the foundation for a different theological tradition and neither should we.The pope of Rome is a symbol of our communion with other catholic churches. He must not be the measuring stick of what it means to be a catholic.

On Carpatho-Russian Divisions

2011-10-24T19:37:00.003-04:00

     There is a Carpathian Orthodox church in my area. Once I visited the church just to see how much my Ruthenian Greek Catholic church had in common or has diverged. For those that don't know this church should not even exist but because Rome forced the Ruthenians to conform to the Latin model of celibate clergy there was a church split. During the spilt a good portion of our Ruthenian church in America renounced Rome and returned to being under the mantel of the Patriarch of Constantinople.
     To say the least my experience in the church that I visited was very positive. The priest was very welcoming and in his own way let me know that I will always be welcome. I expressed that I hope that one day our churches will overcome the divisions that we have in common. What was unfortunate about my experience of this church was the fact that the things that created it are still in place. Even today there are still Ruthenian Catholics who after struggling with their call to serve as a priest go the way of their ancestors and leave.
     The American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox church was founded in 1936 (fromWikipedia: At the end of the nineteenth century, many Ruthenians (Rusyns) immigrated to North America, and established Greek Catholic Church parishes. However, the predominant Catholic hierarchy were of the Latin Church and did not readily make the Ruthenians welcome. Differences between the Eastern Rite Catholics and the bishops of the predominant Latin Rite Catholics, especially regarding a married priesthood and the form of the Divine Liturgy or Mass, led some of them to withdraw from the Catholic Church and become Eastern Orthodox. A particular opponent of Eastern Rite practices was John Ireland the Archbishop of St. Paul, Minnesota from 1888-1918, who refused to permit Ruthenian clergy to function in his archdiocese.)
     Even after Vatican II and all the changes we have seen to restore our Eastern spiritual heritage the foundation for Carpatho-Russian Orthodox church remains justified. Although the current practice for married clergy has changed for the letter of law it remains in force in spirit. For example, it is now possible to ordain married men but permission must be asked by Rome in the Ruthenian Greek Catholic church in America. The law changed but where are all these priests? It is my understanding that to some degree the Ruthenian Bishops are hesitant even to ask Rome because they shouldn't have to and why would they? If this practice becomes the norm then a Latinization of the church will persist.
     Many faithful Ruthenian Catholics as of now are in a state of expectation. Eventually something must happen in order for the Ruthenian church to recover its roots and possibly heal the divisions of the past. For now many of us are exercising hope in the new Metropolitan that we don't have as of yet. There are rumors circulating about who this man will be and of the possibility that he will be the one to end the legacies that have caused division. Whoever he might be we can only hope for the best in his leadership. Even if he fails to act it will not end the growing concern that we see in the church.
     In the end God will have the last word. At the day of judgment all those that contributed to the division of his church will answer to him. As for us now we have a great responsibility to do our part to make things right. This responsibility goes beyond mere praying because it must be one of action. A person who left the Ruthenian church once said he hears allot about praying for the problems but sees no actions. To some degree he is right. We must become personally responsible for the state of our church and do our part to bring the healing we desperately need.

Edited by St. Elias Today

My People

2011-10-17T16:30:00.002-04:00

     During our annual Byzantine Catholic Pilgrimage one of the priests(Father Michael) gave a homily about the meaning of pilgrimage. He contrast how it meant in a secular sense and how we have come to know it in the church. Eventually, he led us to the conclusion that the meaning of pilgrimage is the quest for identity. Based on his teaching the pilgrimages that me make with our parishes or on our own should always lead do a deeper experience of Jesus Christ. In doing such events I believe we really need to be sensitive to the Spirit of God for he is always trying to accomplish something very significant in our lives.
     In my recent experience of my pilgrimage I believe God shared something very significant with me. In all my years of following Christ I had been involved in many communities of faith. However, never did I have the experience that God gave me during my pilgrimage. As we sat to feast after a long weekend of worship I began to notice something that was not there before. It felt like I was part of a family and that these were my people. This feeling really hit home the next day in my own parish when I began to recall the words of the bishop who spoke of how even though far apart we are a family.
     In a practical sense we are taught that the church is a family so this understanding is nothing new. However, for many this understanding for some reason has not sunk down into the realm of experience. I know in my own case probably from sociological reasons I remained somewhat isolated in my experience of the church as a family. I always retained a sense of faithfulness when it came to church functions but never for the reason of wanting to be with the "family". In my case it was always because it was my job and a matter of personal salvation. Despite my reasons God it seems felt the need to bring me the love that I was missing by healing me in this act of pilgrimage.
     For some a sense of obligation is never enough to keep them active in the parish community. This is probably why we see in many parishes(at least in my own) a lack of commitment to the activates that bring life to the parish. The parish should be more than a place where we get what we need to be saved. Rather, it should be a place where we celebrate the eternal life we all ready have. During our pilgrimage feast our bishop and the rest of clergy were set up in a table similar to a last supper scene and we were scattered around them. For me this is an image of the eternal feast we will have in the life to come that we in fact were sharing in the now.
     When it comes to capturing the vision of a community of love(a family) in our parishes I'm afraid in many cases we have given into the spirit of this age. Our churches for the most part have become industrialized machines of salvation giving people what they need to be saved but never giving them the personal experience of salvation. Some practices that come to mind is how we have Eucharistic only focused experiences in our church. (I'm not speaking of the struggles of the Latin church but our own in this regard.) For instance, our vespers liturgy hybrid that we have created to get people to go to vespers. As many priests have pointed out if we had a traditional vespers service no one would come because people won't get communion. Maybe the reason they don't come is the fact they don't know of God they way they should. If we continue to cater to the problem it will continue to grow,our liturgical life will become almost nonexistent, and any sort of family love will be out of reach
     With these things in mind I recall once a priest who spoke out in front of his brother priests. He said he chooses only to celebrate the Divine Liturgy in the traditional way on Sunday instead of the hybrid. His reason was very simple and it wasn't because of any Latinizations but as he stated "were a family". Being able to see my Ruthenian Catholic church now as family has brought about a new dynamic for my own salvation. Were not in this alone and God has no lone rangers we are a people and God has called us to find him in each other by acts of love.

Jesus Only!

2011-10-06T10:47:00.001-04:00

     Every year around this time I make a trip up to St. Augustine, FL. For me this is a special place because its where my wife and I spent our honeymoon, also its where I had my first true experience with Eastern Christianity, and not mention its where our annual Byzantine Catholic pilgrimage for our southern Byzantine Catholic churches takes place. Among these wonderful things there is something important I think I should share from my experience of Eastern spirituality there.
     As I have shared many times in the past it was the shrine of St. Photios in downtown St. Augustine where God revealed something special to me about himself. At that time I did not know the differences between East and West because in my mind it was all the same. One thing for certain was that through this Eastern tradition God had made known something to me that I did not discover in the other Christian traditions that I was exposed to.
     My thinking at the time of my experience was based on the fact that we live in a culture, at least us in America, that is highly protestant or non-Catholic. One of the greatest experiences I believe that comes out of this cultural foundation, at least out of some of the authentic Christian communities, is the focus on having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This emphasis has been good for giving birth to some powerful movements which continue to bear fruit for both catholic and non-Catholic alike. Even though these movements have sometimes been under great criticism the fact remains that if Jesus is not the most important thing in your life your missing what it means to be a Christian.
     What I came to realize in my later years is that the Jesus Only emphasis is not a sufficient proclamation of the gospel. Christians as they grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ continue to reveal something about God to the world, which as many saints have pointed out when they have said that the Church is a continuation of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. In fact, throughout history as the Church has grown we have been better able to express our understanding of who God is, which has been seen in the Ecumenical councils, church Father, ext,.
     Since I have been writing about my experiences in the Eastern Tradition many people have been often critical believing I don't focus on the fact that it's all about Jesus. Some have even expressed that I have fallen into traditionalism and perhaps lost my way in proclaiming the gospel. For example , I have heard things like, "its not about East and West but Jesus" or "it does not matter if your East or West its all the same". From this perspective, which is based in the Jesus Only expression, its understandable that to read my blog one would come to that conclusion. However, as I have expressed this thinking is not a full expression of the gospel.
     In my opinion a full expression of the gospel is a catholic, sacramental, and incarnational one. First of all, a catholic ,not Roman Catholic, expression implies that we have a universal proclamation of faith that is the same for all but expressed in different ways. In the first 1000 years of the Church to some degree this was cherished and still to this day is witnessed in the different spiritual traditions of the Church. Next, a sacramental, not specifically the sacraments, expression demonstrates that God comes down to our level through culture, people, and events to make himself known. Without this way of God making himself known God would always be beyond our reach or understanding. Finally, being both catholic and sacramental the proclamation of the gospel becomes incarnational for in coming down to our level in a sacramental way God makes himself know in a catholic way through our various cultural and personal expressions.
     Based on my understating of how God makes himself known to us I have made it a mission to defend and promote the Byzantine Tradition. In my personal experience God reached out to me through the Byzantine tradition. Even though I had known many other traditions it was only through this one that he showed me something very special. I believe that each tradition(Eastern and Western) has something very special to say about God and maybe in the way it is expressed, as in my case, will be the only full source of revelation for that person. There is a reason for the diversity that we see in our churches a reason that has its source in the mind of God. It is essential that we seek to preserve and promote the diversity that God has given us.
     I am writing most of this in response to someone who recently read some of my posts on Latinization and made the claim that I hold that byzantine tradition is better than the roman tradition. My honest response is yes it is for me. God has made himself known to me in this tradition unlike any other therefore its my expression of the Faith. As I stressed I don't hold to a Jesus Only belief system anymore so therefore its not all the same to me but different. In general each tradition is special and unique but one's own tradition should be cherished if they experience God in it. For its is in ones tradition that God is saying something unique about himself and it might be this uniqueness that speaks to some ones heart.

To read more of about my first experince that I spoke of click (here)

The real "Priest" shortage

2011-09-30T11:25:00.001-04:00

     Someone asked one of my sons once what he wanted to be when he grows up and to their surprise his response was a deacon. Of course, at his age he cant comprehend what the degrees of priesthood are but one thing is good is that he sees them as the same. The feeling of surprise expressed by the person who asked the question I believe reflects a weakness in understanding the priestly ministry of Jesus Christ as it is exercised in Church. It seems the calling to priestly ministry for men has narrowly been focused only on the role of the priest in the Catholic Church. Consequently, the roles of the deacon and the bishop have to some degree lost their true expressions.
     The fathers of our Eastern Christian tradition have always understood that the priesthood is exercised in three degrees (Bishop, Priest, Deacon).Starting with the Bishop we find the fullest degree of expression of the priestly ministry of Jesus Christ. This ministry is distributed to the Church through the bishop's priests and deacons. The priest receives the greater portion of this ministry and the deacon the lesser. However, this distribution is sacred and for all matter of purposes each role is considered priesthood.
     As I have expressed I believe that many faithful Catholics have lost their understanding of priesthood. For example, I have heard descriptions of deacons as being glorified altar boys and bishops as no more than administrators. In fact it's rare that vocations directors when trying to recruit young men for the church include the deaconate. One time I was at a vocations talk given by a Latin rite priest and he reluctantly noticed a deacon in the crowd and mentioned that "deacons are a vocation too". Previously, I heard the same speech before from him without the deacon present and he made no reference to the deaconate at all. Maybe in his mind its only an option for married men who can't be priests.
     In speaking with a good friend of mine who is a vocations director he wondered why he has to go to his vocations conventions to learn new techniques and gimmicks to recruit young men. He expressed he always felt called to serve and that this is not something you can convince some one to believe. Some might say the emphasis on vocations directors and their hyper promotion of "priesthood" stems from the priest shortage. There of course should be no excuses to distort what it means to be called to the priesthood in favor of only one degree of the ministry. Perhaps, when the vocations directors get it right they might see the numbers there looking for. A calling is a calling and no matter what state a man is in its the vocations directors job to nourish this calling in order for that person to best serve the Church.
     As I pointed out not only does the office of deacon suffer from what I have been speaking about but most of all the bishops role. I read once of a man visiting a village in eastern Europe which of course was made up of Christian of the Eastern spiritual tradition. At that time a bishop was visiting the village and the people were amazed at the bishops presence. The man asked one of villagers how they understood the role of the bishop and the villager said that the bishop was an icon that came off the wood that it was written on to be with the people. It seems that these Eastern Christian people fully understood the otherworldliness of the bishop in relation to the people. As the villager pointed out he is the icon of Christ with the people of God.
     In my experience I have yet to meet a catholic that would think of a bishop in the manner I described. For many he is more or less a CEO of the priests, which gives him no more than a secular identity. In addition, the same could be said of Catholics understanding of the role of the deacon. Listing to a recent talk on priestly ministry given at an Eastern Orthodox seminary a priest welcomed a deacon and referred to him as "Father John" a title impossible to the Roman Catholic mind but one I have found even Byzantine Catholics struggle to say to their own deacons. We have no problem understanding the sacred priestly ministry of Jesus Christ in a parish priest but we have lost it in the bishop and the deacon.
     Byzantine Catholics and even Roman Catholics I believe need to look to the eastern roots of the Church if we want to see a dynamic priestly ministry active in the church today. The vocations proclaimed by some vocations directors of today have to some degree failed to have a true expression of Catholic tradition. The hyper emphasis on "priests" has caused the other degrees of priestly ministry to suffer. The numbers say we need more priests but I think in reality that its more deacons that we truly need. By removing the distortion that has taken root in the church we will again venerate the priestly ministry as the early church did. In fact, there was a time in the catholic church when bishops were chosen from the ranks of deacons.
     In conclusion, I asked our parish deacon once if he would ever advance to become a priest and his response was that he was open to serve more. He seemed content that he was a "priest" already and was open to participate deeper in this ministry of Jesus Christ. Many men in the catholic church both east and west have struggled with many issues regarding doors being closed to them to serve in ministry, especially married men. It is my hope that in looking east they might discover that in becoming a deacons they too will have all the spiritual dignity of a parish priest. As I pointed out there needs to be renewal among the majority but in the eyes of Tradition they too will share in the priesthood of our Lord.

Grace, Sin and the Theotokos ( A brief sketch on the diversity)

2011-09-09T11:41:00.006-04:00

     In the theological instruction that I am involved in I often deal with the differences between East and West. I thought it would be beneficial to share some basic concepts that are employed by the Byzantine and Latin traditions. Concepts that are in many ways different but also give us a vision of God's gift of diversity in the Church. I will attempt to provide a brief sketch at some of the concepts beginning with the Roman Catholic tradition then contrasting it with the Byzantine tradition. This is just a brief sketch for many of the theological concepts set forward go into many levels. My goal is just to provide a simple synopsis of understanding.
     Beginning with the traditional Roman Catholic doctrine of Grace we find Grace to be something that is created and added to our nature to enable us to participate in eternal life. The best description that I have heard is the analogy of person getting ready for scuba diving. In order to go into the deep the scuba diver must have the right equipment or they will drown. This description is similar to the Roman teaching because in order to experience the heavenly life to come one must be equipped with the grace that we receive from God.
     From this understanding we find the Original sin of Adam and Eve depriving man of the Original grace that humanity once had. Consequently, every person born into this world is deprived of grace. Being in a state of judgment by God humanity is under the disciplinary hand of God in order to bring them to the place of repentance. It could be said that Death, sickness, and disasters all have their roots in the original judgment of God no matter what their origin. It is the work of Christ and his Church according to Latin tradition to provide humanity the means to acquire grace by the merits shared with us from Christ and his saints in order to escape judgment. However, according to the Latin tradition there was one born without being deprived of grace because of the future merits that her son would receive, which of course is the Virgin Mary. She unlike other people received a special dispensation in order for her to be a fitting vessel for her son.
     Based on how the Latin tradition understands Grace we discover a whole spiritual system that is in essence is forensic. Roman Catholics are taught how to acquire and to avoid the loss of grace. Their understanding of the work of Christ focuses on how he fulfilled the requirements of the divine law and how he saves us from the judgment of God to come. From this emphasis we witness a heavy emphasis on the suffering of Christ and of how our sufferings make grace available for the salvation of all humanity.
     In the Byzantine tradition we find the definition Grace to be completely different then what developed in the Latin tradition.. Grace in the traditional Eastern Christian understanding is the very uncreated energies of God. The best description of this that I have heard is in the physical description of the sun. We can't go near the sun but its energy (light, heat) comes down to us. In a similar way God communicates himself to us in his uncreated energy(grace) that descends to us. The energy of God is not created but it is God's communication of his very self to us according to our condition.
     From this understanding the Eastern tradition takes a different approach to the fall of man. Unlike, what we find in the Latin tradition God does not deprive man of grace but rather the communication is obscured on our end from sin. In fact, every person born into this world is not deprived of it but it becomes obscured as the person gives into sin. Instead of understanding death and other consequences of the fall as judgments for all the East tends to understand these as consequences of not being in proper communion with God. It is the work of Christ and his Church to remove the obscurities caused by sin so that man can participate in the ongoing presence of God within. The greatest member of the Church to fulfill this mission was the Theotokos. Because the East does not believe that we are deprived of Grace we don't have an Immaculate Conception dogma all though we hold her to have lived a pure life. Mary is the Icon of the Church for she represents the fullness of what we are called to become.
     Based on how the Eastern tradition understands Grace we discover a whole spiritual system that in essence is therapeutic. Eastern Christians are taught how to heal their condition in relation to God. Their understanding of salvation focuses on how Christ deprived sin and death of its power over man. From this emphasis there is a heavy focus on the divinity of Christ and how we can participate in it brining the kingdom of God into world.
     Diversity is a gift of God. We discover in these two traditions unique approaches to the great mysteries of our salvation. At times in the history of the church the theological language used has been a means to cause division. However, these differences can be complimentary if we learn to see diversity as a gift. Employing similar concepts we discover that each tradition goes on in great detail to show how we are made right with God. The bottom line is that these things are great mysteries that we can use to love God and each other.

Living the "Two Lungs" theology of Blessed John Paul the Great

2011-09-08T22:43:00.005-04:00

     A friend of mine shared with me once a significant moment of her spiritual journey. She had been a cradle catholic but really did not understand the love of Christ until later in her life. At that time she was looking for the best spiritual teachings about Christ and turned to a local Greek Orthodox Church. To her surprise the priest there pointed the way for her to be nourished upon her own Roman Catholic tradition. She went on to become a very devout Roman Catholic from that point.
     In my opinion the story above is one greatest examples of Blessed John Paul the Great's teaching on breathing with two lungs of the Church. It witnesses to what he said in Ut unum sint ,"goes back to a time when the Church in the East and the Church in the West were not divided, we understand clearly that the vision of the full communion to be sought is that of unity in legitimate diversity."The Greek Orthodox priest was not afraid of the Latin Church and he saw that it was necessary for this woman to develop spiritually by returning to her roots rather then to become a convert to Orthodoxy.
     In my own testimony I sometimes come across to some as being too rigid when I defend the Byzantine Catholic tradition against latinizations. I'm afraid this understanding about me is highly inaccurate. In fact, I am living the "Two Lungs" theology on daily basis. Many of you don't know this but I am married to a Roman Catholic and if I were to fall asleep in the Lord she would probably return to her ritual church, which is canonically legit. In addition, my children go to a Roman Catholic school where my wife happens to be very much active in the school parish. As a result, the Latin tradition is something I am happily exposed to on a regular basis.
     There is no question that the Byzantine tradition has primacy in our home life. For example, my wife and kids don't genuflect or cross themselves Latin style when attending the Roman Catholic mass. We never miss the Divine Liturgy in our home parish and from a glance our spiritual life at home would be no different then what you would find in an a traditional Eastern Christian family. It is my hope that our children will perpetuate the Eastern Traditions that I teach them. However, I have no fear that my wife feels more at home in the Latin spiritual tradition.
     When it comes to the religious instruction of my children on a regular basis I instruct them in our Eastern theological traditions. At the same time going to a Roman Catholic school they receive instructions in the Latin tradition. For a young person this can be theological confusing and in my experience most Roman Catholic school teachers have no idea what Byzantine is. However, I am not afraid for them to learn from the Latin church.I teach them they have their own traditions and we have ours, they have something special and so do we that Christ has given us.
     Like the Greek Orthodox priest we should not fear the Latin Church. I have no trouble telling Roman Catholics that they should pray the Rosary and frequent Eucharist adoration to nourish their relationship with Jesus Christ. However, if they see something in my spirituality that speaks of Christ in a special way to them I might tell them that maybe their called to celebrate Christ in the Eastern Tradition.

A Killing Spree

2011-09-01T10:08:00.002-04:00

In the beginning of my faith journey I ran with a mixed crowd. In fact, when I began to tell some of them about my experience of Jesus Christ many did not know how to react. Some though I was crazy, others thought I was joking, but a few were accepting. Some of these friends even went as far as to lock me in a room with them while they engaged in immoral behavior hoping I would join in because they just couldn't accept that I was a new man. To the surprise of my friends at the time something was radically different in the Jesus that I spoke of then perhaps what many of them were used to from a cultural Christianity.

You never know whose life you might impact by your testimony in Jesus Christ. Some of my friends that saw the light in me in the beginning of my journey went on to become followers of Christ but others had a hard time associating with me. I had this one friend in particular that did not embrace my message but she came to me with an urgent request. She had found herself in a dire situation and looked to me for help. As it turned out she and another girl were making plans to go on a killing spree around the country with some others. She obviously did not want to do this but there was no doubt the other girl who was leading this event was about to embark on this path of destruction. My friend wanted me to speak to this girl about Christ in hope to stop her madness.

Our Fathers in the Eastern Christian tradition have in many ways demonstrated how the "heart" which is our most inner spiritual center malfunctions because of sin. They teach us that because our relationship with God is obscured from sin the heart seeks to find fulfillment in all the wrong places. Places that never truly fulfill us, that never give us meaning, and for some leads to insanity. The girl that planed this killing spree is a classical example. She came from a wealthy family but the materialism was not the answer. Eventually, she tried everything the world said would make her happy sex, drugs, ext.. and found no peace. She even became heavily involved in witchcraft hoping to find some sense of spiritual fulfillment only to end up at loss. Finally, she had a enough of the world and was on the verge of losing her mind. Unfortunately, her parents Catholicism was superficial and as a result she never thought to look there for meaning. Without any hope or faith she decided it was time to go out with a bang by going out on a killing spree.

In faith I went to her home not knowing what to expect. She invited me in and you could sense in her home all the powers of hell at work. I thought perhaps I might be in danger because I am now in the midst of some one who could probably kill me. Then I began to experience what the apostle Paul spoke of in scripture" came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.1 Cor. 2:3-5". Like the apostle I made known to her the power and love of God and she finally discovered what she was looking for. She immediately came to repentance and began her journey of faith.

There are only certain people that only you can reach. Sometimes people make excuses that God will send someone else to reach others. In certain circumstances this can be true but often it is not. You see the mission that God gives to us as individuals can only be accomplished by our actions and no one else's. This is the very principle behind the Eastern Christian theological concept of synergy, which is for those that don't know God and man working together for salvation. If you're not faithful no else will do it for you and if you don't proclaim Christ some one for sure will be lost.

Oh NO a Married Priest!

2011-08-29T10:44:00.002-04:00

There was a priest of the Roman Catholic church I once had a conversation with in which he brought up the subject of married priests. He seemed very unsure about this practice in the "Greek church" as he called it. You could tell by his reasoning that he felt it was unfair for him to be celibate and not others. This insecurity of course has been historically witnessed in the Catholic Church by the suppression of the Eastern Catholics tradition. Unfortunately, this suppression has been dogmatized by many in the Latin church using certain papal statements, theological sayings, ext. No matter what reasons they come up with the facts remain they are either insecure or are historically uniformed.

When it comes to this dogmatization of celibate priesthood you will hear all kinds of reasons why the Eastern Church is wrong. For instance, a priest with a family can't fully take care of the needs of his parish because of his household obligations. I guess with this reasoning the Apostle Peter could not be a good first Pope since he had these obligations as well. Another instance that's becoming popular is that the Eastern Churches have deviated from Apostolic Tradition by allowing married clergy. Even though Holy Scripture in 1 Timothy 3:2 gives instructions on the married state of Bishops this seems to be invalid in their minds.

The fact is that in the Roman and Byzantine Traditions both could be considered to deviate from Tradition if we begin to think and rationalize as these insecure people do. If Tradition is the "faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. Jude 1:3" and has been fully given through the apostles and cannot change not only is Roman Catholic celibacy an innovation but our celibate only bishops could be considered innovations as well. With this kind of faulty thinking our spiritual traditions that have uniquely developed have both deviated from the norm found in the Churches origins. In addition, apart from insecure reasoning there is no foundation in the church of the first apostles where any church can say that celibacy is the only way.

     Unlike what we see as a movement against married clergy in the West the Eastern churches have been more open minded. In fact, in the beginning of the 1900's many of the Eastern Orthodox Churches, including the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople recognized the validity of Anglican Orders. Obviously, the Anglican church is not what it used to be but still the facts remain that in this church Holy Tradition could be found. I'm not going to go into the Papal judgments that called these orders invalid. This teaching in fact cant defiantly speak for all Anglican orders because there were Eastern Orthodox bishops participating in the ordination of Anglican clergy. However, the point in sharing this is that in this recognition by the ancient apostolic churches of the East they in turn recognized the married Bishops of the Anglican church, which was very different form their own practice.
     Some could even speculate with narrow thinking based on the above evidence that at the time only the Anglican church remained true to the original practice of married clergy started by the Lord himself by election of married apostles. At the time the Eastern churches in their recognition had no problem with the fact they had a different practice in their spiritually when it came to bishops and refrained from any insecurity on the matter. Even though things have changed since that time I believe we can learn allot from the Eastern fathers of that time. There has always been diversity in our spiritual traditions and the fathers of that time clearly understood this.
     I think it's important to be honest about this situation that we find ourselves in today in the Byzantine Catholic churches. We are dealing with insecurity at its highest form and we need to be proactive against this. It's time we stop making excuses for why the things are the way they are today and call a spade a spade. When we see this change that many of us are looking for our Byzantine Catholic seminary here in the united states will be in the same state that we find in those in our motherland, which is as one priest told me, "too many priests".

Latinizations of Today

2011-08-14T19:12:00.000-04:00

Recently, a conversation came about on the topic of Latinizations. Normally when this term is used it usually is in the context of the church. For example, a Byzantine Catholic church that has pews would be considered by some to be a Latinization. Another example, a liturgy that is celebrate twice on Sunday for some is a Latinization. The list goes on and on when it comes to how a church is to reflect authentic Eastern Tradition. These potential problems however are not universal for there are some Byzantine Catholic churches, such as St. Elias, where you would not be able to tell the difference between them and an Eastern Orthodox church.

Some of the practices that we see as traditional Latinizations are slowly fading away. With the influx of many young people devoted to the ancient traditions of the East, such as His Beatitude Sviatoslav Patriarch of the Ukrainian Catholic church, we have allot of hope for the future stability of our Eastern Churches. However, one of the greatest obstacles that we see continuing even among some of the enthusiastic is the Latinization of the heart. We are very successful at getting our churches to the appearance of Eastern but we still are lacking on a grand scale to get our inner life Eastern.

I remember meeting once at a talk I gave a traditional Byzantine catholic. He could not figure out why we don't have the stations of the cross anymore in some of our parishes or even Eucharistic adoration. Like him, many think these things should not matter because its all about Jesus. Even when you explain to them that these things reflect the spirituality of the Roman Catholic church you will hear, "are we not all Catholic?".True we are all Catholic but being Catholic does not mean Roman Catholic. Based on this It seems that we have lost what it means to pass on Sacred Tradition.

Sacred Tradition is something that we receive, contribute to and become. First of all, we receive the traditions from our spiritual Fathers. Next, after we receive the gift from our spiritual fathers we contribute only that which helps it to grow. Finally, we actually become "living" tradition by the reception of Tradition,practice, and our contributions to it. Sacred Tradition from this perspective is a very personal thing and to modify it at my delight or by persuasion is destructive. Consequently, when I replace or modify the spirituality of my father's it no longer is what it is.

     This is what we have seen historically when it comes to the Latinizations of today. For the past few hundred years we have seen whole churches dismantled in favor of another. These effects were so severe that even amongst restorations that we see today people have long lost the personal connection to the Sacred Tradition of their fathers. It could be said that what they have now is the tradition of their Latin spiritual step father. Unfortunately, the next generation( converts or traditional) that receives the traditions by this means perpetuates a spiritual tradition that has no true foundation.
     As a convert myself I was fortunate at the start to have a good priest to tell me to leave my Latin spirituality in Rome. However, this took a long time because many practices of the western tradition were giving me spiritual nourishment. In addition, I had no idea there was a difference in spirituality and of the responsibility that goes with getting involved in another tradition. Eventually, as I discovered further the meaning of Sacred Tradition I learned to take with me only that which contributes to my new spiritual family.
     In my own journey to the East I did not burn the bridges that I crossed over to get where I am. Likewise when two spiritual traditions meet they should not go away empty handed. Both should be able to benefit from each other. I know my past spiritual nourishment from western traditions has only lead to a better appreciation for the traditions that I now have. This should be the natural way of things (cross-pollination) when different traditions meet unlike what we see in Latinization.
     The Latinizations of today in many ways show our failure to understand spirituality. Instead of benefiting from what we could see in the Latin Tradition we have in many ways all together replaced our own. Most of the time this happens in my experience has only been out of ignorance. When people look for spirituality they turn to their family and those closest to them and then the cycle continues. We who are in places of spiritual authority and education have a great task ahead of us if we want to see our Eastern Christian Traditions flourish.

Its Either One or the Other!

2011-08-09T13:35:00.003-04:00

Not too far from where I live there was a bi-ritual Roman rite priest who began celebrating a Divine Liturgy on occasion for some of the local residents. Even though there was a Ruthenian and even a Ukrainian Catholic church not far away he wanted to convert his Roman Catholic parish to the appearance of a Byzantine one. Consequently, being not affiliated with a church of the byzantine rite led to some of the local byzantine churches to petition Rome and the priest was latter forbidden to have a Divine Liturgy.

By chance I happened to attend a wedding of some Roman Catholic friends at the parish of the priest. We got to talking and he told me of his Ukrainian heritage on his grandmothers side and showed me some traditional iconography that had been done in his parish. He also told me about his struggle regarding the Divine Liturgy and how he felt it was a good thing since there were some people in the community that were Ukrainian. Later, I went and spoke to one of the local Byzantine clergy that were involved in the dispute against the priest and was told a startling truth, "its either one or the other".

At the time, which was about ten years ago, I had no idea what "its either one or the other" meant. I thought perhaps maybe he was concerned about the parish stealing his sheep since his parish was the closest to serve the needs of those of the Byzantine tradition. However, as I progressed in embracing the Byzantine Catholic tradition I came to know exactly what "its either one or the other" meant. It was speaking directly to a crisis of identity found in the Eastern Catholic churches today. Also, it was speaking to the failure of many Roman Catholics to recognize the Eastern Catholic churches as churches.

Looking back on my discussion with the Roman Catholic priest it seems he did not understand the difference between a rite and a church. He of course is not alone in this for in my experience I have met many Catholics that share his confusion. A church celebrates a rite but it itself is not the rite. To be an Eastern Catholic means you belong to a church that celebrates a particular rite and not a church that just happens to have a different liturgy. For example, a Melkite church and a Ruthenian church use the same rite but are historically and culturally distinct. Both have common roots but both have specific distinctions that allow them to be unique churches.

There is nothing wrong when one church becomes influenced by another causing them to develop their own tradition better. However, in the case of the Roman Catholic priest he was creating a hybrid church one that was neither Roman or Byzantine. You can't just paint an icon on the wall, have a Divine Liturgy and call it Eastern. This would be like someone taking family photos from my home and putting them on the wall of my neighbors house and telling him he is my family member now. This misunderstanding of the Roman Catholic priest in fact is also what we see often in the practice among some Eastern Catholics today.

There is no doubt that there is a crisis of identity among some of the Eastern Catholic churches today. What the priest had done in his church is also witnessed in the life of many Eastern Catholics. Instead of being influenced by one's own spiritual patrimony we have Eastern Catholics with a spirituality that subsidized by the Latin tradition. It's not Byzantine nor is it Latin but more or less has become a hybrid tradition. Unfortunately, in this practice we find many in our Eastern Orthodox family not able to recognize us as an Eastern church.

Recently, His Beatitude Sviatoslav Patriarch of the Ukrainian Catholic church spoke on the crisis of identity that I have metioned. He states,"First, our identity is the identity of Kyivan Christianity during Volodymyr's baptism, when the newly established church on the lands of Kyivan Rus’ was a subsidiary of the Church of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and, on the other hand, in communion with the Apostolic See. Our identity is a testimony of the church when Christianity was not divided. Though after all the dramatic events, this identity of our church faced various dangers throughout history and sometimes was not even recognized as a church." . The Patriarch clearly understands where his church is to have its identity. He also speaks of the struggles that have tried to diminish this identity, which are clearly struggles that exist today. In addition, the Patriarch sets the stage for the future of his church by saying, "Today, in the third millennium, we also strive to live this identity."

One key piece of wisdom that I believes speaks to the crisis of identity that also came from the Patriarch is, "we strive to further discover and learn about the roots of the church". What this means to us that are struggling with identity is to learn to have an ongoing conversion to a living tradition. We are not Eastern Catholics because we happen to have a grandmother that was one nor are we because we transferred into another ritual church. We are only Eastern because of a living tradition that was handed down to us in our ritual church.

Like the Byzantine Catholic priest had told me "its either one or the other". You are either an Eastern Catholic because of the tradition that was handed down to you in your ritual church or you're a Latin catholic for the same reason. When the Blessed JPII the Great spoke of breathing with both lungs he didn't mean mix it up. Rather, he spoke of accepting the gift God has given us in this diversity.

For more information of the Patriarchs statements "click here"

Leaving New Egypt

2011-08-05T10:07:00.005-04:00

Why did the people in the Old Testament struggle with the worship of false gods? Even after leaving Egypt by the great miracles of Moses we find the Israelites worshiping a golden calf. There must have been something to this worship of the false gods that had these people hooked. Why else would they forsake a real God for something that is more or less a fantasy. I believe the answer is in fact found in understanding fantasy.

Fantasy as we understand it in the Eastern Tradition is a product of the fall. As Metropolitan Hierotheos points out in his book The Illness and Cure of the Soul he says, "Phantasy is a post-Fall phenomenon. It is, that is, a result of man's fall. Angels also do not have phantasy. Therefore, only men and the demons have phantasy, and this is why the demons activate many images and pursue to arouse the imagination." Here he points out how man is influenced by the use of fantasy which is through the "images and false ideas" introduced by the demonic powers and fallen nature.

At this point I think its important to point out a distinction between imagination and fantasy. Many times Christians unfamiliar with the tradition of Hesychasm have been critical of our positions against the use of imagination in prayer. First of all, the imagination is a necessary component of the human condition. We use it formulate concepts or outcomes for many necessary activities in life. Even in our tradition our iconographers use it as a mirror to write their icons. On the other hand, fantasy is a form of escape into a false reality, which can be said to be a malfunction or an abuse of the imagination. Here we discover an epidemic in the human nature one in which whole cultures are shaped, which we find not only in ancient Egypt but even our own.
In my own life I have often pondering the similarities of the Israelites addiction to false gods and of my own to modern entertainment. They may have had idols of silver and gold in their living rooms that stimulated a false reality but I have the Xbox or TV to provide constant escape. It's a struggle for many of us when it comes to these things but one thing is for certain if we seek to get closer to God we must forsake Egypt. The only other option is to remain in the wilderness and pretend that we can manage fantasy by calling it balance.

Understanding how much we have in common with our ancestors of faith that fell in the wilderness is a difficult but necessary step in healing our fallen nature. When we see this we also must understand in great humility the need for the Lord's help because we are indeed slaves like they were in Egypt. It also is important to note that what we are called to leave behind is only for us to receive something greater. God would not call us to make the difficult exodus if he did not have a promised land in store.

In undertaking this task of escaping the bondage of false gods we must not be discouraged in our failure to live up to our calling. We find that even in the failure of our ancestors of faith that God continued to encourage them. We read in Deuteronomy 25:9 "During the forty years that I led you through the desert, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet.". We read here that God continued to provide for them the means to escape their condition. At no point does God's love diminish for us. On the other hand, to experience such love we must give up our love of false gods.

Fantasy will always offer something appealing but it does not last. In this failure to fully satisfy we see the development of addiction to the false realties, false gods taking root in human weakness. I think the appeal is that it offers instant gratification for desires that we perceive will bring happiness. In contrast what we receive from God does not gratify these desires but offers man something at his deepest level of need. God offers us what is lasting and unlike what we get in the worship of the false gods does not come instantly because we must work toward it. Only God can truly give us what we are looking for anything else is a false god.

Defining Eastern (Byzantine Catholic) Spirituality

2011-07-28T22:01:00.009-04:00

Here is mostly the text I will be teaching from for a parish talk next month that I wanted to make available for my internet friends. The talk will also be up on our YouTube page for those who can't make it. The group will be mixed since we have invited some of the Roman Catholics in the area. I tried to make it as simple as possible so that the common man could easily be introduced to our spirituality. I welcome your thoughts and prayers.

There is a saying that we all know too well, we have heard it been said to others, and we might have even had it said to us: "do you think the world revolves around you". There is a certain arrogance intended of course when this is shared. Consequently, there is also some truth to it. For in God's eyes it is as if you are the only one. We see this fact first in our forefather Adam as the scripture teaches us that through the one man sin came into the world(Rom. 5:12) and that it would be through one man( a new Adam) that it would be overcome. The actions of one man effected the whole world negatively and also the actions of another man made the world right.

We are not outside this equation we influence the world everyday and we don't even known it. In fact, God loves you as if you were the only person and treats you this way by giving you great responsibility in the world and has as the scriptures teaches "foreordained" (Eph. 2:10) actions for you to walk in. You see you are personally special to God and this is a great mystery. I mean I have 5 children( maybe one day that number will be 10) and it is a struggle to plan their individual future and also to show them each as individuals the love that each one needs. However, this is no struggle for the Father in heaven. He has no trouble loving you as if the world revolves around you and has made a special plan as if the world revolves around you. So you can say with confidence the next time you here the saying "yes it does".

This ideal we can see is in the essence of Eastern Christian spirituality. We have with great emphasis in our tradition a belief of what we call "synergy". Synergy is our cooperation with God(2 cor. 6:1). God indeed has a special personal plan for us but it takes personal effort to discover it. We find in our spirituality God offering a gift- that of participation in his divine nature( 2Peter 1:4)- but we must accept this gift. We must be willing to turn away from sin and accept that he has a better offer. He has in fact what we have always been longing for within. A longing that we sometimes try to fill with empty and vain things. The longing that we seek to fulfill in our practice of spirituality.

With this in mind we might come now to be more precise on what we mean when we say Eastern spirituality. In some degree all Christian spirituality has a common theme given in our description of synergy. However, when we say Eastern, more specifically in this context Byzantine, since there are many Christian spiritual traditions found in the east. In the Byzantine tradition we are speaking about a tradition that developed primarily in Constantinople which today is modern day Turkey. This rite as it is called (byzantine rite) became the ritual tradition of many churches in the east. In particular my own church that celebrates this rite has its roots in modern day Slovakia. We received our traditions from the great missionaries "St. Cyril and Methodius" who were sent by the patriarch of Constantinople and gave to us their traditions.

We discover in this long history of transference something very special and unique for its a way in which God had been working with individuals and people to achieve a very special relationship with himself. This synergy this working with God never leaves the person devoid of their humanity or expression. A person never gets absorbed in God, they always retain all that is good in their effort to love god. Like an artist who paints a picture for God- God does not take the painting over-it always remains the artist work. But, through synergy it is a divine work because the person does what they do in God. What the person has in God is their gift but it is also Gods. This we see also in the incarnation of Jesus Christ who is fully god and fully man and this is what his church is a continuation of this incarnation. We see this incarnation principle first in the scripture: we have four gospels /not one/ some of which are very different in their description of the same Lord. This diversity did not vanish in the various churches of apostolic origin. The incarnation principle is seen today in the different but complimentary spiritualities of both East and West as blessed John Paul the great said the two lungs of the Church.

Back to the definition of Eastern "Byzantine" spirituality we find a spirituality that is in many ways is different from what you find in western traditions more specifically the Roman Catholic church. We are in communion with the church of Rome and at the same time we have our own spiritual tradition. In these traditions we find a different approach to the same mysteries we celebrate and hence we have a different spirituality. One could even say that it has been God's plan to foster this diversity. As I said we see this in the scriptures, we see it in the history of the church. Unfortunately, we also see human weakness. We do see many divisions in the Church today which we are working to heal.

When it comes to healing these divisions Eastern Catholics have been called by God to be a be a bridge in the division. Despite what are enemies say or even what we have failed to see ourselves we are still called to be a prophetic voice. We of course have to live up to this call- that says we are different and we are one. I think when we began to see the church of the west accept us for who we, even when our members began to live more fully the Eastern Tradition and those others eastern churches not in full communion witnessing this it will be a great triumph for the church and the world. For now it seems that we must recognize that we need healing as individuals and as a church.

Healing in fact is the goal of Eastern spirituality and this reminds of a story from the gospel (JOHN 5:1-15) where our lord was walking by a place of healing and sees a man lying there for about 30 yrs. never going up for a healing of his condition. You can see in the gospel almost a sarcasm in our Lords voice for he says to the man "do you want to be healed?"? Speaking about our personal destinies about this synergy that I have been speaking about I can hear the Lord saying to us today-"do you want to be healed" - do "you want to be close to God"- "do you want eternal life"? I think if we were honest with ourselves we would respond like the man did in the gospel he made up some excuses to why he could not get his healing.

This is how I think when it comes to spirituality we often deceive ourselves. You see we want God but many times in our actions we deny him. Just like the man in scripture we find ourselves wanting something but not really wanting it. However, like the man Christ comes to us and wants to empower us and bring us to the place of healing. He is always extending his hand even if we don't deserve it and no matter how bad we reject him in our sins he is always ready to make us new.

In the case of the man our Lord gave a command he told him "get up". He gave the power he did not lift the man up but told him to get up and this my friend is healing and reflects our eastern spirituality. I would like to point out that when the lord found him latter he told him to stop sinning or things will get worse. The healing that we receive is ongoing we have to like in the case of that man keep walking in Christ's teachings. With this in mind we discover in our tradition that everything focuses on this healing from sin. To demonstrate one of our fathers St. john Chrysostom taught that the church is a hospital. In fact even the word spirituality is itself equated to healing. By definition a spiritual person in the Eastern tradition is a person who is going through healing.

Unlike what one would find outside of our religion. We don't have gurus or spiritual masters we only have saints those whom have been healed. Also, as it is a tradition of healing it's not relegated to a special class of holy people or specialists because its for everyone. The closest thing we could come to the idea of spiritual specialist is the monastic, who are the very heart and soul of our tradition. However, we find that such a definition of specialist falls short because the same gifts these "specialists" use even little children have access to. I speak mainly about the Jesus Prayer the heart beat of the Byzantine Tradition.

In the Eastern Tradition we are taught that the practice of "unceasing prayer" is the means by which we find healing. Of course in the liturgy we celebrate and participate in the divine but our level of participation hangs on the fact of how much we have prepared ourselves for that experience. Ultimately all the events will lead us to one great liturgy where we see the Lord face to face and even then our Tradition teaches that we will experience him based on how we have participated in the healing of this life. In this regard, the scriptures teaches of the concept of different vessels some of glory and some of wrath as it says in Corinthians chapter 3 that even those who have rejected God - who have rejected healing will see him eternally as we do but for them this experience is hell. For us the fire of God is eternal joy but for them its eternal torment. Consequently, a life of prayer is not optional and this is why we emphasis unceasing prayer because I'm sure we can all admit we need healing.

The Jesus Prayer as we call it is the primary means of healing found in our Byzantine Tradition. The Prayer as it is taught has many variations the most common is "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner "and this is done through repetition. The reason why we find repetition is in order to help us focus the mind's eye completely upon Christ. Most of us if were honest will find that the mind does not want fully the things of God. In this matter we are kind of like little children when they come to church. If children are not properly trained in church you'll see them with toys or hoping over the pews. I remember one time, which our priest said in his lifelong ministries had never seen such a thing, that of boy having a toy cell phone going off during liturgy. Sure, we have heard our own real toys but it was kind of hilarious to see a toy ringing during his homily. I mention this because although we stand and sing inside we sometimes discover a battle going on inside in the mind. I merciful teach my own children that I know it's hard to worship at times but when we begin to focus on Jesus we will find joy and peace. In addition, I often teach the little ones that the liturgy is like taking medicine we dont often enjoy the medicine but we feel better after the fact. This is why in the Jesus prayer repetition is of great importance because it disciplines the mind and body to return to the master to our true source of fulfillment and joy.

Unfortunately, at times some have misunderstood this practice of repetition in our tradition. Some mistakenly believe that the Jesus prayer is a centering prayer. In contrast, centering prayer which can be seen primarily as a product of non-Christian religions of the East is a means to enter a psychological state. Their repetition produces in many ways a blank slate where they reflect or depending on their beliefs loose themselves. In being kind to these practices I can only say we begin were they leave off. In a similar goal of clearing the mind we never leave the dimension of the personal. We are bringing the mind into submission to a personal reality and the words we use are not tools to become empty but rather are an ongoing conversation with God.

If you think about it God is always speaking to us but we are still learning how to listen. Through the Jesus prayer we learn to see his presence and to hear his ongoing voice. Also, even when you find yourself not specifically engaged in the prayer because of your practice of it your mind wants to return to speaking to God. Some might say that ongoing prayer is allot of work to do but I would point out that such a statement comes from the fact of our need to be healed because we are eternally designed for an ongoing experience of God. The same voice, the same eyes, and hands will all behold God in eternity. As you can see we are in need of dire healing because I know that you might admit with me were not ready! But to be fair to those that might think it's all effort and no joy God rewards our effort with encounter. A person once asked St. seraphim (and I'm paraphrasing here) "when do we stop our effort in prayer" and his response was " when God shows up". There will be times when God comes to you in a mighty way and all you can do is just sit in the fire.

We are a tradition of synergy and this cooperation with God does not mean you do all the work because he shares in the labor. You actions become his actions you become what he is by invitation, which is by grace. He is what he is by his nature but you become a guest through healing to be what St. Peter called "partakers of the divine nature". This is something God is inviting all of us to and this is why our spiritual tradition is one for all. This includes the invalid, the impaired , the elderly, the child, and the common man all are invited to this healing and in our tradition we witness this through the use of the same gift "The Jesus Prayer". In fact, we are most known by this tradition among western Christians. Sure, we have others our icons, are liturgical worship, and how we approach the different theological mysteries that we have in common but for the most part the cornerstone of our tradition as witnessed in the monk and the byzantine child receiving their first prayer rope is the Jesus prayer. If I had to define our Tradition I would leave you with the answer: it's the Jesus Prayer a way to find healing and intimacy with God.. A way to participate in the divine nature and a way to have heaven today. Imagine that story I shared from the gospel about Jesus walking by because he's asking you today "do you want to be healed"? Are willing to see by faith how valuable you are to him? As I said before the world indeed revolves around you and God has many surprises in store for you. This is what we see in our Eastern Christian spirituality.

No Official Documents?

2011-07-13T08:27:00.002-04:00

     Back in the 80's I remember watching as a child the fall of the Berlin wall on TV. Learning latter as an adult the oppression of the people there that suffered under communism and it was amazing to see that the spirit of the people could not be crushed by the oppression they suffered. When the communist president gave the people a little freedom the fall of the wall could not be prevented. The people went wild with the little freedom they had and broke the chains that bound them. This great event although it's on another level reminds me of what had happened to Eastern Catholics at Vatican II. It seems when the Roman rite finally pulled back on positions concerning the Eastern Churches we got a bunch of Eastern Catholic that went wild with the little freedom they had and began to break down all the walls of Latinization.
     The events that followed Vatican II among Eastern Catholics was an awesome thing because it showed that the Eastern Tradition could not be destroyed by the sins of men. It is in fact Living Tradition a gift of the Holy Spirit and no matter how hard those in error tried they could not undo the work of God. At the grass roots level (person to person) the Faith of our Eastern Fathers remained intact and today we see it taking root in many of our churches.
     Still not everyone in Rome is ready to respect our freedom and even in our own churches we find people not knowing what to do with it. The Patriarch of the Melkite church expressed this when he said," Rome is not ready to accept the genuine rights of the Eastern Catholic Churches as proclaimed by Vatican II.”. He also said as I have mentioned many times in the past that it's up to Eastern Catholics to help Rome mature in these matters. Consequently, this can only be done by living and being true to our Traditions that we have received from the Holy Spirit. At a grass roots level we must maintain who we are and eventually these roots will bear fruit in every aspect of the physical church.
     My priest told me once in regard to some of the faith that we practice as Eastern Catholics, especially in regards to the papacy , that we are consider by some as heretics. However, he stressed that we are in communion with Rome because of our Tradition that the Pope is indeed the "First amongst equals". This title is not acceptable in Latin ecclesiology but it is the foundation of our union with the pope and reflects our call as Eastern Catholics to become a "bridge" between East and West.
     There are also many other things in our Tradition that are not theologically acceptable to the Latin tradition. Even though the Blessed John Paul the Great instructed the Church to see these differences as complimentary and even stated the fact that one tradition can appreciate the mysteries better than the other at times we still find those that reject us. In fact, many times I have found myself in defense of our Tradition and even recently I was accused of being a heretic by a Roman Catholic.
     When it comes to defense of our Tradition eventually we will become outnumbered because we just do not have the official documents to defend our Tradition. In regards to this fact I heard a person sarcastically say something of the nature," Vatican II said be True to your Tradition but ignore the Rest of Rome's teachings.". To some it seems that we have received a pass to break all the rules based on Vatican II. Unfortunately, we cannot use any official documents to defended our positions as being "Orthodox in communion with Rome".
     To those who want a satisfying response to our positions we can only honestly say that we are sorry because we have no official Roman Catholic documents. We have not yet won the full pass by Rome to be true to who we are on many levels. However, just like before Vatican II we don't need one. We are who we are because of the Holy Spirit as witnessed in our Living Tradition.
     So for those who break out the flow of Latin documents we can only respond that our practice of our faith is from Living Tradition. We are Eastern Christian in communion with Rome and we hope one day that Rome will recognize our rights to practice our Tradition. So far many of us that have a voice like the Melkite Patriarch that I spoke of have not been silenced or have been penalized by Rome on any levels--(someone must be listening over there).
     No official documents won us the freedom that we see in our churches today. The freedom we discovered in Vatican II only came about from the living Tradition. The freedom that we hope to see in the future will only come about by continuing to be everything Eastern without any compromise. This is the struggle that we face but a struggle that we hope will lead to the reunion of all the churches.

Sorry Orthodox Reunion is Closed

2011-07-02T15:34:00.004-04:00

     For about 8 years or so I had no idea what it meant to be Catholic in Eastern tradition. After I was brought on staff at my parish I felt a greater responsibility to teach authentic Eastern Christian Traditions. I remember discussing with my priest about the lack of Eastern Catholic literature and explaining to him that most of my resources come from the Orthodox Church and his response was, "should there be any difference?". Among other experiences that I had with my priest and in my personal studies I discovered that to some degree I had been involved in living a lie.
     Lie is a strong word for the situation since I had been doing it in ignorance but a lie is a lie no matter how ignorant we claim to be and when we realize it we are obligated to come to repentance. The lie that I was living was that of practicing a hybrid form of the Eastern tradition, which is one of the greatest reasons Orthodox Christians despise us. The Melkite Eparch Joseph (Tawil) exposes this fallacy that many of us are living in his document The Courage to be Ourselves where he says, " a Latinized Eastern Church cannot bear anything but false witness". He also states from the same document that our false practice of the Eastern traditions would, " block - perhaps forever - a union of the separated Churches."
     It's sad that one of the greatest obstacles between the Orthodox and Catholic churches has become Eastern Catholics. Look at what has happened to us from our communion with the church of Rome. Most of which comes from a lack of "Courage to be Ourselves". Even today with so much freedom to restore our tradition we find Eastern Catholics boasting about the lie they are living as if its a good thing.
     In fact recently, I was accused of being a "convert" for holding to the views as the Melkite Father gave above. Unfortunately, I was born into a pagan family and only discovered Christianity when I became an adult. For this reason I am sometimes treated as an outsider by some of the ethnic traditional Byzantines but I have no regret for my zeal or origins. If being a traditional byzantine (as some of my critics boast) means having a luke-warm, wishy-washy spirituality then I am happy to be what I am. I refuse to live a lie and continue the tradition of being an obstacle for unity.
     Being Orthodox in communion with Rome is not an optional dream for Byzantine Catholics. It must be the only way or else we will continue to deceive ourselves. As the Patriarch Gregorios III said once,:”We are an Eastern Church in communion with Rome and faithfully so, yet which wants to remain faithful to the pure, Orthodox spiritual tradition. I make bold to say that we are an Orthodox Church with the little or big plus of communion with Rome, with the Pope and our Holy Father Benedict XVI who presides in primacy and charity. Treat us as a real Eastern Church, just as you would the Orthodox on the day when the much longed for union takes place!" Maybe some of this was directed to some of us who worship in the Byzantine Catholic Tradition. I with him would ask Please -TREAT US AS A REAL EASTERN CHURCH!
     I guarantee you that as long as Byzantine Catholics remain anything else but "Orthodox" the Orthodox Church will remain closed to any union with Rome. Why would they want to throw away their Traditions? If it were the other way around and a Latin Church wanted to unite with the Orthodox Church would they throw their traditions to the wind? I think not.

Uniates "R" Us

2011-06-14T08:25:00.003-04:00

     Theologically many of us Byzantine Catholics are no different in the practice of Tradition found in most Eastern Orthodox Churches. Even in some cases if there were no Eastern Catholic churches around we would have no trouble going to an Orthodox one. In fact, I remember many years back I had a conversation with a local Orthodox priest he told me he was instructed to embrace us. When I asked him about why not the same treatment for Roman Catholics he told me because they didn't not believe the same things.
     Many of my experiences with Orthodox Christians have been in the same manner that I described above. Despite whatever differences we might have concerning Rome we can still recognize in each other the same traditions that we have received from our Fathers. In addition, it's not uncommon that you might find an Orthodox Christian who believes in the same things concerning the papacy. On the other hand, many will shudder at how we have been treated and even suppressed at the practice of our authentic Eastern Christian traditions.
     As you might know I write a great deal about our tradition and how we are called to renew our traditions. In writing these things I have received generous support but also much criticism. In being criticized I always try to listen to see if there are things that I need to make right. On the other hand, some of the criticism has been very derogatory and disrespectful. You would think that such negative criticism would be foreign to the Spirit of Christ but it seems that these critics are not aware this element of Christian charity.
    There are a few cases that I would like to bring forward in regard to the criticism that I speak of. Both of which it seems I have lost the identity of being a person because I was refered to as if I was a third person reality, which was a "Uniate". This term of course has allot of historical baggage for Eastern Catholics. In fact, as I have been sharing using this word, especially in conversations with us, is to some degree a verbal slap in the face.
     They say "sticks and stones" but what I am about to share can put that in question. First, there was a man who wrote to me after reading my Bio who said "I'm glad the Uniate churches are dying". When I shared with him that all Eastern Churches in the west are struggling he continued to refer to me as the Unite. For some reason he could not address me personally it was always" Uniates this" and "Uniates that". In his mind it seems I was no longer a human being.
     The other example is of a man who wrote to me after leaving the Eastern Catholic Church after getting fed up with Latinization. He became Orthodox and after this change in his mind I was no longer a truly "saved" individual. It amazing that one day he was not saved and the next day he was and all from getting mad at Rome. When I told him his position was a little bit superficial he began to refer to me as an emotional Uniate, which of course he used in third person instead of directly.
     In experiencing these things I did some personal reflection. I know there were times when I treated other human beings with a similar disrespect and so it is proper to forgive these individuals .In addition, recently I had listened to Elder Pavlos who visited St. Vladimir's seminary. He spoke on the nature of the Lord's command not to judge. In his talk he demonstrated the necessity to always treat others better then yourself and where discretion is not needed to give them the benefit of the doubt. In living in such a way we truly become like the little children of kingdom and demonstrate the love of God for all humanity.

Who is Right East or West?

2011-06-02T09:16:00.000-04:00

     During my early days I did some missionary work in south America.On one of the trips my translator had a bit of fun with me when I got into a discussion with some friends about science fiction. We begin to talk about Star Trek and I learned that the translation for these words would not translate into their traditional Spanish. Instead the title for their TV show was something like The Journey Across the Stars. It seems that their approach to the TV series even though it was different gave a little bit more deeper meaning to the title then the traditional words that we use in our culture.
     Like many things in different cultures you find ways of arriving at the same truths or ideas with some ways perhaps doing a better job of giving meaning. This could also be said when it comes to the various traditions that we have in our Catholic Churches in both Eastern and Western.I believe Blessed John Paul II had it right when he said in ORIENTALE LUMEN that one tradition sometimes arrives a little closer at the meaning of the mysteries then the other.
     With ever being cautious of relativism that claims that there are no absolutes when it comes to religious dogma we must recognize as Catholics the diversity that is used to describe the same mysteries of our faith. On the other hand, some of the ways that we in the Byzantine tradition have concerning these mysteries can never be reconciled with the traditional ways of Latin theology. For example, we can never have a Purgatory or an Immaculate conception in our spirituality because they just wont work being foreign to our theological tradition.It is true that we both recognize that after death a great mystery of purification takes place and that the Theotokos was pure but we both describe it differently.
     When it comes to thinking of the Church as I have been describing we find it difficult. We want things black and white or right or wrong. However, in thinking this way we forget our limitations as human beings in approaching the mysteries of revelation. We do have the Revelation but the way we describe it is limited by our human expression. Consequently, as the Pope had said we do find sometimes one Tradition coming closer to the mystery than the other.
     Its easy to take the path that says the Latins are in error or the Orthodox have not progressed and this is where we find many of the roots of division that we have today. In this path we find that we are most comfortable because we no longer have to recognize that we have all the answers to the Mystery. However, in recognizing this diversity we are forced to search within looking at the Traditions of our Sister Churches trying to find a greater way of living the mystery of our faith. When we have all the answers we no longer search but when we see the complementarity of the various traditions we begin the journey for greater meaning.
     As a Byzantine Catholic I find myself immersed in this journey. It seems that this Church that God has called me to has been given a special place in the history of the Church. Being despised by many in our Orthodox Sister Churches and even misunderstood by the Latin church we see the roots for true diversity bearing fruit in the Eastern Catholic Churhces. Of course we have allot of work to do in recovering our identity as an Eastern Church but this will only take place when we begin to think with a theological diverse mindset and learn not to fear Rome when we say we have our own way.

Dazed and Spiritually Confused

2011-05-16T13:51:00.000-04:00

     At a Byzantine Catholic pilgrimage I became somewhat confused at an announcement. We were told that this act of pilgrimage gave us the privilege of having an indulgence. I left somewhat confused and to some degree scandalized. After, I asked a priest if indulgences were not part of our spiritual heritage than why was this going on and I was told that the pope has asked us to do this. Unfortunately, I was told latter that it was not the pope but the actual laws we made for ourselves contained in the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches.
     For someone who is hard at work trying to fulfill the Vatican II mandate to return to authentic Eastern Christian roots the event at the pilgrimage seems to make my work in vain. We teach our parishioners that the dogma of purgatory and the doctrines associated with it are in essence a reflection of the Latin Tradition and have no place in our practice of spirituality. On the other hand, we have inscribed it in our very own laws. Should those being instructed in our Eastern traditions not feel anything less than a little spiritual confusion at this?
     Perhaps the Treaty of Breast against why we don’t use the word purgatory in our tradition has been reinterpreted to mean “WE DON’T LIKE THE DOGMA NOW BUT LATTER WE WILL COMPRIMISE THE SPIRITUAL TRADTIONS OF OUR FATHERS TO BE LIKE THE LATIN CHURCH” instead of “5. We shall not debate about purgatory, but we entrust ourselves to the teaching of the Holy Church.”.Maybe I am wrong but my study of the Eastern Tradition makes no room or progression toward the Latin spiritual heritage in this matter.
     On this subject more than once I have heard noted Roman Catholic theologians say that Eastern theology wants to remain in the past. Maybe this remains the rational to why our Eparchs aren’t trying to reform this latinization of our tradition? It’s possible that it has been received as a progression in our tradition. Or maybe there has been a grand failure in the area of catechesis to demonstrate that we have two different spiritualities that use the language of two different theological traditions. We do share the same mysteries in our different Traditions. However the differences in our theology beginning with how we approach the Trinity and to how we understand sin itself are very different.
     The differences that we have as I have stressed in many ways in past posts are to be complimentary. However, complimentary does not mean compromise or replacement! Grafting on the Latin practices of indulgences creates a spirituality that is foreign to our Eastern Tradition .When we do this we truly have thrown out our patrimony when it comes to how we understand sin, grace, repentance, and even final Theosis. You can’t have indulgences and have the things that make us distinctly an Eastern Church. There can be no compromise on this issue because it is an almost total replacement of our spirituality.
     I’ll try to conclude with maybe a few examples how the practice of indulgences becomes a replacement of our Eastern Christian Spirituality. The practice of attaining indulgences for purification is one of the corner stones of Latin spirituality. Indulgences for the Roman Catholic are a means to deal with the temporal punishment for venial sins that are forgiven but the person may not be purified from. Purgatory is the ultimate place for purification when it comes to these sins. Let me first contrast this by saying that Eastern Spirituality does not base itself in the practice of punishment and restitution. Our vision of God stems from the fact they we are in desperate need of healing from sin. When it comes to sin we have no mortal or venial because all sin cuts one off from the flow of grace, which is the very life of God. This understanding about sin leads to the constant need for purification “healing”. Through our acts of purification the healing that we receive is the very indwelling of the Holy Spirit and not a removal of a punishment. Like the Roman Catholics we pray for our dead not because they are receiving the punishment but because they are still being healed awaiting the final judgment.
     It could be said that many things are very similar despite the differences so why not change. It is true we both are trying to find eternal life but we both have our own gift from God. For the Eastern Christian our gift is expressed by a constant acquisition of the Holy Spirit. Our Eastern Liturgical life facilitates this acquisition and gives life to the practice of it in our everyday lives. Out of this pursuit we find that the Eastern Christian develops a life of constant prayer becoming a coworker with God in their everyday healing. We have our own love of what is beautiful “Philokalia” about God and to introduce the Latin practices of indulgences we lose the precious gift that God has given us to witness to the world.

God is Hell

2011-05-02T12:42:00.000-04:00

     One time I received some religious literature from a Christian of the Baptist tradition. On the cover it had flames and the title said “Hell 1000 degrees hot and not a single drop of water”. I held onto this piece of literature for the longest time because I found it to some degree humorous. However, it holds a serious weight to it because this is often how many people have come to understand hell.
     In fact in opposition to this understanding about hell many Christian groups have all together thrown out the beliefs about hell. They claim that this understanding about hell is incompatible with the love of God in Jesus Christ. Personally, I would join them in the fact this understanding of hell makes God very sadistic. On the other hand, I cannot forsake the spiritual traditions of my Fathers, which might be something those Christian groups are totally unaware of.
     Contrary, to the modern understanding of hell some of the Fathers of the East have offered a different picture. For instance, St Gregory the Theologian said,” God Himself is Paradise and punishment for man, since each man tastes God's energies according to the condition of his soul.” Eternal punishment in this instance is not some place that God has made to hurt people but rather how a person experiences God in the life to come. As Metropolitan Hierotheos said in his book Life after Death, “God himself is paradise and he is hell.”
     The Metropolitan further points out that hell is not an absence of God or a created place of torment. Rather, he teaches that Hell is the energy of the uncreated grace of God and not something created. From this perspective the suffering notions that have been historically associated with hell (1000 Degrees hot) are more or less a suffering that we create for ourselves in the afterlife.
     God as understood as an experience of Hell to those who reject him makes the idea of hell a total action of mercy and love. I have even heard it described by those in our Eastern tradition as a place for those who cannot be healed, similar to our mental homes. Such an existence is not one that God forces them into for eternity but is the result of their own self deception and their continual rejection of him. At no point does He reject them rather we find them eternally rejecting him.
     One might ask why on earth would someone choose to live in misery for all eternity. The answer of course is found in the deception of sin. Sin is so destructive that it continues to corrupt what we are. Every time we choose it we reject God and this rejection carries on with us into the next life. God knew just how lost we are to it and this is why he came to destroy the power of sin on the cross. Now he offers you a way to escape the power of sin but you must choose to embrace the gift. He does not force people to go to hell neither does he paradise for he is both.
     With this in mind in recent events such as the death of the famous terrorist we should consider God’s form of eternal justice as opposed to our own. I know many think telling a person to go to hell or have hope that some sort of retribution will come down upon them in the next life to pay for what they have done is something good. However, our traditions understanding of hell challenges our way of thinking in these matters. Maybe Proverbs 24:17 “Don't rejoice when your enemies fall; don't be happy when they stumble.” makes more sense in this context knowing how one will experience eternity. As St. Isaac the Syrian said " those who are punished in Gehannah, are scourged by the scourge of love".

The Courage to be Ourselves---Where is it?

2011-04-04T19:41:00.002-04:00

     Many times I have run into Roman Catholics that think that the Eastern Catholic Church is the answer to all their liturgical problems that they have experienced. Thinking that we are their answer some decide to leave their own tradition. We always welcome such people but its unfortunate that they enter our Church under a false assumption. We in fact are not the improved Roman Catholic Church!
     The question we must ask ourselves is do we offer such people any reason to believe any less. In my own experience when I have tried to offer such people the facts of what Eastern Catholics are called to believe in they find that I am in error. Their thinking of course can be justified for on many levels we are no different then the Latin church. For instance, we find that the practice of our faith on a liturgical level is different but the theological dimension has in many places gone astray from what the Orthodox Churches would consider to be authentic Eastern spirituality.
     Its one thing when two traditions mutually influence each other but when one tradition is suppressed by the other it becomes something all together different. Consequently, this is where we find ourselves at today in the Eastern Catholic Churches. I hear many people blaming this on our communion with the church of Rome. However, is it possible that the blame could be found in ourselves?
     Obedience to Pope is a calling that we have all willing put ourselves under and gladly. However, obedience is not an excuse to go down the path of distortion and suppression of the precious gift of the faith of our Eastern Fathers. Did the apostle Paul do this when he came to the first pope for recognition and found that this pope was suppressing the very gentile believers that he minsterd to? Paul in fact was bold enough to say “I opposed him to his face” Gal. 2:11.Where is the courage among Eastern Catholics today to oppose all that’s not Eastern?
     What would happen today if all of us Eastern Catholics became courageous to oppose all that suppresses our tradition? Would the pope and the Latin Magisterium kick us out or would they like in the situation of the apostle Paul relent and give us the right hand of fellowship. I challenge you to discover it would be the latter because it is not the will of man that Eastern Catholics have a unique tradition but it is of God.
     The great Melkite Eparch Joseph Tawil taught us that we need to have the courage to be ourselves and that anything else would be to live a lie. We hear a lot about this venerated and historic man of the Vatican II era. On the other hand, where is his vision today and what is our destination as Eastern Catholic Churches in communion with Rome. Many of us are comfortable living a lie and have somehow developed a fear of losing the Catholic identity by being to Eastern. Well the truth is that in living a lie we do no justice to not only our own tradition but the Latin’s as well.
     Since the Second Vatican Council we have heard many good things from the Latin Church telling us to be true to who we are. However, it seems that Rome does not know how to give us the freedom they say they want to give us. To be honest even though such things are proclaimed I don’t think Rome knows how. Maybe it’s about time we become the Church we are called to be with waiting for someone to approve us being ourselves. There are in fact many not waiting like the eparch that I mentioned and so far no one has been condemned by Rome.Let us be what we are called to be.

The Devil in the Details

2011-04-01T12:09:00.000-04:00

     Last month the Greek Orthodox Church condemned and excommunicated a well known Eastern Christian Vassula Ryden. To many this was scandalous news for she truly had a positive message that many of us would like to hear about Church unity. What is unfortunate about the message is in the way it had been received, which was through the well known occult practice of automatic writing. Consequently, to accept her message you in turn would have to accept a practice long condemned by the Church.
     Personally, I don’t know this woman and I am not judging her character but I need not even attempt to look at her writings knowing their origin. To those who venerate her I would simply state this, “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace (1 Corinthians 14:33).” Why would our Lord give a message of great importance under the guise of a tradition long associated with the occult? It should be very obvious that there is another agenda at work here.
     This bait and switch tactic of the devil is nothing new to our tradition. The scriptures themselves speak in great detail of this work of the devil. For example, Acts 16:16-18 teaches the following: “Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her. (NIV)." The apostle Paul could have used this girl to spread his message of salvation for she was well known to have power in her community and could have directed many to accept Paul. However, the cost would have been grim because in turn Paul would sanction the occult.
     When it comes to supernatural experience the Fathers of the East were always overly cautious and for great reason. They knew that the weakness within us would readily accept anything and call it God. Saint John Climacus points this very truth out when he says, “When the demon of pride becomes established in his servants, then, appearing to them in a dream or in a vision in an image of an angel of light or a martyr, gives to them revelations of mysteries, and as if a gift of [spiritual] gifts, in order that these unfortunate ones, having succumbed to the temptation, completely lost their mind”. Many of our Eastern Fathers in addition to St. John always encouraged staying away from visions and the like. For them the path of humility was the best option for deepening ones relationship with God.
     According to our Fathers a passive and cautious attitude is what we must always carry with us in all matters of supernatural experience even if it’s not our own. Holding to the western saint John of the Cross, who was well influenced by the East,  teaching that God has all he has to say in his Word. Anything that leads us away from authentic revelation must be condemned no matter the cost. The Holy Tradition that we have in our scriptures, Fathers and councils speak all what we really know to discover intimacy with God. We don’t need any kind of angel or extra biblical revelation to tell us that real Church unity will be achieved when we all learn to take up the cross and follow Christ.

A Catholic of a Lesser God

2011-03-10T12:40:00.003-05:00

     It really is a tragedy to see Latinization alive and well in our Catholic Church today. According to the recent scandal Latin rite clergy in Italy demonstrate the superiority of the Latin tradition by vetoing the possibility of married Eastern Catholic clergy the ability to minister to their own flock. They say that there would be confusion among the faithful if married clergy came into their country . Are Italian Catholics that ignorant where they can’t understand the differences in tradition? The Italian media demonstrate quite the contrary naming one of their articles (click to Read more) about the scandal “Priests of a Lesser God”. Obviously, in the mind of the Italian Catholics there is a Latin rite agenda taking place.
     As an Eastern Catholic I have come to accept the unfortunate reality that my tradition does not exercise the same rights as the Latin Church. There is much talk about our rights and tradition but very little action. History demonstrates this in many ways (click to read more) and even in the US today many Eastern Catholic married men wait to exercise their tradition freely and seek ordination. Even though these men are called by God and obligated by their tradition they are no more than Catholics of the lesser God.
     With these things in mind I would like to share that not to recently I was asked by a Catholic to become Orthodox because of my insistence that we are an Eastern Church that shares the same Traditions as the Orthodox churches not in communion with Rome. As what has been stated by myself and many faithful Eastern Catholics we are an Orthodox Church in communion with Rome and not some kind of hybrid Catholic Community. This belief often falls through the cracks of the Catholic Church and is often considered a mode of dissent or even heresy by many. For many we are to be a Church that’s Roman Catholic but just with a different liturgy.
     With these great obstacles it’s understandable why many Eastern Catholics turn to Orthodoxy. In fact, after this scandal in Italy took place an Eastern Catholic told me that they were going to join the Orthodox Church. However, I would offer a different path for us to follow a path that our Master took himself. Looking in the Gospel we find our Lord’s greatest persecution was from the Jewish hierarchy. Many times he could not exercise his ministry freely and when he could it ultimately lead to his crucifixion.We need to realize that there never will be a golden age of the Church and corruption will always find its way to the top. Never the less, we can live it out the same way our Master did.
     Our Master was treated as the Jew of the lesser God and so must we be the Catholics of the lesser God. Our Lord even to the point of death prayed “forgive them they know not what they do” so must we never give up hope in our fellow Catholics. Let us continue on the path of being true to our tradition despite the persecution we face. If this is the path of divinization for us what will it be for the whole church? Don’t give up hope!
     Many of us enjoy a comfortable way of life. Consequently, we think spirituality must be the same way and in the wake of struggle we run away often to the Orthodox. Well they too have their own problems as they might tell you. Instead of leaving find God in the struggle as the apostle teaches us, “Strive earnestly in the good conflict of faith. Lay hold of eternal life, to which thou hast been called, and hast confessed the good confession before many witnesses. (1 Timothy 6:12)". Glory to JESUS CHRIST!!!!!!!

The Wolf in the Sheep’s Clothes

2011-03-08T12:35:00.001-05:00

     There are many today who say that any way to pray opens one up to God. They often say things like, “Just look at all the spiritual people in the many faiths and religions”. However, for the Christian, prayer saves no one if it is not directed to a right understanding of God. The gospel reveals this truth as we find in the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee (Luke 18:9-14). Obviously, the Lord points out that even though both men were affiliated with religion only one had the encounter with God. Instead of looking at the one(publican) that found mercy from God I would like to take a look at the one that didn’t(Pharisee) and try to discover his spirituality.
     The Pharisees as a Jewish sect were some of the most righteous people of their day. As the Pharisee says in his prayer, “‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’”. In all matter of modern purposes this prayer reveals a person in good social standing who even fasts and lives a life of prayer. Despite his prejudice against the tax collector we can find a man of who must to some degree is having a spiritual experience.
     Some have argued that men like this were only in their profession to look good in the eyes of others. This of course is justifiable because spirituality for many is a means to achieve a “good person” status in society. In my own life countless times I have heard people say when asked about eternal life respond “well I never hurt anyone” or “I go to church” therefore God should grant them eternal lif. However, this does not explain the fasting or the many hours of prayer the Pharisees were involved in. Why would they be doing such things if there were no benefits? They could easily achieve good social status by just following their religious laws.
     The Pharisee from the gospel parable that were discussing truly must have been having some sort of spiritual experience because he actually thought he was talking to God. In fact, why would he not for he fasted, was a good person, and was not hurting people like the tax collector. If God was not hearing him that only leaves two options that are either he was having a psychosomatic experience or was communing with the devil himself. To prove this point the Lord himself even accused some of the Pharisees as being children of the devil (John 8:44).
     It would be easy for us today to look at historically prayerful people like Ivan the Terrible who held all night vigils and say it was with the devil since he was a murder. However, it’s not so with the Pharisee or the modern day so called spiritual masters. The Lord told us they would come to us like wolves in sheep’s clothing. They are offering us a spiritual experience, the same one that the Pharisee was having. In return they ask only one thing to renounce that Jesus Christ is the only Way to the Father. Since for them any form of prayer leads to an experience of God.
     God is merciful to the ignorant as the Tax collector is a witness to this. However, for those who know the teachings of Jesus Christ we are called to elevate the ignorant into the light of Christ. To tell the Tax collector that God has a plan and purpose for them found only in Jesus Christ. Consequently, Christian prayer is a means of discipleship, a means of developing intimacy with the person given through revelation.
     The revelation found in the parable of the tax collector and Pharisee has led to one the greatest traditions of our Eastern Church the Jesus Prayer. Seeing in this the right way to approach God we must never forget the wrong way. We must not be deceived by the modern distortions of our Tradition but must as the scriptures teach us “ contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. (Jude 1:3).”

The Eastern Catholics Ecumenical Vocation

2011-02-24T18:48:00.001-05:00

     Back when I was in graduate school I took a course on the teachings of the second Vatican council. On the other hand, coming out of a corrupt catholic undergraduate school that had its own Vatican II understanding I had many reservations about the course. In demonstrating some of my reservations in some of my course work my professor said something that really blew my mind. He said, “The council is the work of the Holy Spirit” and in hearing this my reservations were opened to see what God was doing in the council. One thing in particular that I would like to emphasize that came out of the Vatican II reforms was the Vocation of the Eastern Catholic Churches to be a bridge between the separated Churches, which I believe was the work of the Holy Spirit.
     To some this Vocation is no more than a mistaken notion since we are in fact a testimony of a division that has taken place in the history of the Church. In fact you might be hard pressed to find any Orthodox Christians who see Eastern Catholics as anything like a bridge. On the other end, many of those in the Latin tradition think that we are the Orthodox who finally got it right. It seems for the most part this Vocation is anything but a reality or is it?
     A vocation is a gift from God and it is never dependent upon the circumstances that we find ourselves in, even if those circumstances challenge its very reality. With this in mind it does not matter how the Orthodox or those with distorted views in the Latin tradition see us for we must be that bridge. There should be no confusion about what we are regardless of our origins for this vocation that we have received is a call to action for today from the mouth of God.
     Looking into this call we must realize our historic potential as Eastern Catholics. We stand in a place where we have by vocation the gift to heal what was broken by sins in the history of the Church. Not only do I speak about what is commonly known as the great schism but about all Christian division in general. In saying this what comes to mind is how some of the Melkite Fathers at the Second Vatican Council mentioned the protestant Christians when it came to providing teachings about the papacy. They understood the papacy as a gift for all Christians. As I have stressed in the past we Eastern Catholic Christians have our own understanding of the pope in this regard, which is the pope as the First among equals with the special emphasis on the word First.
     How is it that we are so different then Latin Catholics in theology and practice and yet are able to worship at the same table? This is a great mystery that is becoming more acceptable and tolerable as that great day of Christ’s return approaches. In the mean time we must be true to who we are and to our vocation to be the last bridge standing. Despite what many say or think the Eastern Catholic Churches are God’s special gift of healing to the world. In my deepest opinion I believe that it’s vital that we no longer see ourselves as something negative or acting as some kind of monkey in the middle.
     We are indeed today something unique born out of a conflict but called to be the recapitulation of what has been. Hope must never leave our vocabulary as the vocation takes root no matter what obstacles we see. If God has called us to be a bridge we must lay claim to the teaching of the Prophet Isaiah who said,” so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.( Isaiah 55:11 NIV).”WE are that word today to the Church!

Mantra Madness

2011-02-07T11:47:00.000-05:00

     Not too long ago I was accused of not being fair to other traditions of prayer found in other religions. In my defense I would state that it’s not the other prayer traditions that I’m against. Rather, it’s the attitudes that we find in our churches that have their foundation in religious relativism. All prayer traditions are not the same and there is no compatibility with the tradition of Hesychasm and other prayer traditions that stem from eastern religions.
     It truly is madness if you think about the great effort of some who try to take an Eastern Christian tradition and make into a universal practice found in many world religions. For instance, just put “Jesus Prayer” and “mantra” in your search engine and you will find all kinds of stuff. The amount of material demonstrates that for some an act of ignorance but for others the work of the devil. The devil knows if he can eliminate the personal revelation of God in the Jesus Prayer it will have no power. This is what we see in the work of those who make the tradition of Hesychasm just one of the many ways to find personal peace, harmony, bliss, or whatever else they call it.
     In the tradition of Hesychasm we find the human condition in need of healing. The need for healing has resulted from a broken relationship with God. The Hesychast through healing seek to return to a state where humanity was before the sickness, where in turn the Hesychast can develop in their personal union with God, which makes them a partaker of the divine nature (2peter 1:4).
     The primary means of healing for the Hesychast is the Jesus prayer. It through the invocation of the person of Christ (Rom. 10:13) that the Hesychast reestablishes and renews their relationship with God. In the deepest sense the prayer is an action of imploring God’s mercy through Jesus Christ by personal repentance. Consequently, you can’t take the person of Jesus Christ out of the prayer. If you do it becomes no more than a mantra.
     To be fare to other prayer traditions that use mantras we can say that the Eastern Christian tradition finishes up where they leave off. Learning to focus with the aid of a mantra has many beneficial effects for the body and mind. The benefits allow for a certain sense of peace which in turn can cause a person to contribute effectively to their environment. This experience could be said to be a kin to what we call watchfulness (nepsis) in our tradition. Also, it is here we can say that our tradition completes theirs because in this state of watchfulness we turn our attention on the person of Jesus Christ-we pray.
     Hence, watchfulness and prayer are what makes for the true spiritual tradition of the Hesychast. For those that use a mantra the words you use don’t matter since it’s the psychological state they seek. On the other hand, for the Hesychast the words are everything since they link you to the person of Jesus Christ. In addition, there is no guarantee that it will achieve the same results as a mantra since your attention is based upon returning to focus upon a person in the repletion of the Jesus prayer. However, you will experience God for who he is.
     The experiences generated by the use of a mantra have often been assumed by some as a force of divinity. There might be peaceful feelings involved but God can’t be manipulated. This is where we find a unique mark in the tradition of Hesychasm. In calling upon the person of Jesus Christ a Hesychast must also live a life pleasing to Jesus Christ. Following the teachings of Jesus Christ is what this Eastern Christian is based upon. To remove these unique aspects that involve the Jesus Prayer is to make into something it’s not.

Great Lent

2011-02-04T09:13:00.000-05:00

     Many of us are acquainted with the traditions associated with the Great Fast and Lenten season. However, I believe for some there is no personal connection with the actions we do during these times. In part I believe that this is due to the fact that many of us are culturally disconnected with authentic Christian spiritually, even more so Eastern Christian spirituality.
     As I have in many ways in my teachings, for those who know them, I have stressed that spirituality is healing therefore any actions we do that are associated with our traditions are a means to find healing. Consequently, the Great Lent is a way to furthermore repair, renew, and grow in our relationship with God. It seems simple enough to understand but at the core of the cultural disconnection that I mentioned there is an understanding of tradition based upon how our society – culture understands God, which is highly agnostic.
     In Agnosticism there is the acknowledgment of a divinity but one that is out of touch with a personal and true encounter. For the most part being agnostic is an intellectual option that recognizes a greater power at work in the universe. In addition, this agnostic view becomes highly evolved among Christians that acknowledge God and go to church every Sunday but do the rest of their lives on their own terms. You see there is no difficulty in intellectually acknowledging a divinity, a trinity or a Jesus lord. However, for authentic Christian spiritually, especially the Eastern Christian, there is no spirituality by simply having an intellectual belief about God.
     The Great Fast truly challenges, if we let it, this agnostic practice that we find in our culture in and our churches. If we understand that our ritual action, our self giving, actually connects us to God the cultural disconnection with our ascetic traditions no longer works. Instead, we find an encounter with a God who has personal attributes and qualities that can be known. This in turn facilitates personal responsibility and a way of life that cannot be known as an agnostic because we can say we “know” God.
     Sometimes when people say that they hear from God or know God, or even experience his presence they are offend dismissed or referred to as emotional or just plain nuts. It is sad that sometimes experience in spirituality, as it is sometimes called, is often delegated to the charismatic movements or the Pentecostal churches. In this regard, I remember hearing a story one time about an Orthodox priest speaking with a Pentecostal minister. The Pentecostal was going on about about the fire and experience of the Holy Spirit as if the priest was foreign to these truths. In response the priest had told him, “yes we have been dealing with this for 2000 years”. In my own opinion, Eastern Christian spirituality speaks more about encounter with God than any other Christian tradition.
     Once I was reading something form St. Symeon the New Theologian that mentioned that it is a normal part of Christian life to experience God. Of course, this comes through purification and out of God’s goodness. It does not mean that we will walk around spiritually high. Rather, it’s a unique personal experience with the loving Father. This is what we are to discover during the time of the Great Fast where we are to enter into the great mystery of our salvation.
     During the Great Fast we refocus on what is to be normally practiced all year for it’s a renewal and revitalization of these practices with the focus of Pascha. We must believe during this time that there really is an encounter at the end of the road. Sometimes this can be forgotten with the weekly abstinences that we impose on ourselves. In addition, we need to have the faith to see that what we will be celebrating we will also be experiencing. The liturgy that we celebrate is something we receive from eternity and it is experienced in our very own temporal world. You could say that God is waiting on the other end of Lent calling us to be ready to meet him as He is. This of course is the general principle behind all the ascetical practices of the Eastern tradition. Just as it says James 4:8 “Come near to God and he will come near to you”.
     In Great Lent and beyond we find that all actions of purification lead to greater intimacy with God. Also, there is no action too great or too small for it is action of love. You might not be able to fast as long as the monk but what you can give leads to the intimacy that God has called you to. This demonstrates one of the unique characteristics of Christianity because we don’t have gurus, spiritual masters, or specialists as you might find in world religions. The Lord invites all to intimacy with himself and this includes the simplicity of a child or those in a weak conditions; they too can purify themselves in the capacity that God has called them and experience intimacy.
     What then, some might ask, would be the purpose of the monastic or those who commit their lives to spiritual disciplines since such states are not needed for intimacy with Christ? My answer is that the Eastern Church will cease to exist if we don’t produce monastics from our families. We grow in intimacy and in the level we can express love. In monasticism we find in the Eastern Christian tradition the full expression of self giving to God. This is the path were on, which is a path of monastic spirituality.
     In general Monastics could never consider themselves masters or gurus of their special experience with God because it is something they are participating in and in turn are offering to others as a way of encounter. As I stressed this reflects the uniqueness of our religion. Through the gospel everyone can have intimacy with God and what intimacy we find in those who are more involved or skilled we find something in them that helps us who are less skilled to have a deeper relationship with God.
     The Great Fast now is a time for all skilled and non-skilled, the monastic and non-monastic. It is a time for us as a Church to prepare to enter into the great mysteries of our salvation. In saying “enter” of course I speak literally because there is a living and true encounter with God. This is what it amounts to: what are you looking for in this season of purification? If you are looking for a real experience of God he is waiting to give it to you. This is something we also must remember every day and in knowing this truth your prayers at the end of the day will never be the same.

Is God a Jerk?

2011-01-09T16:03:00.000-05:00

     Why is it that I find people in the Church that for some reason believe that God is out to get them? If this in fact was the reality concerning God I don’t think Christianity would have made it past the first century. It seems these people are constantly guilt ridden and fearful of a mad and critical God, who in essence fulfills the definition of being a jerk. As a Byzantine Catholic Christian I believe our tradition has a unique approach to showing just how wrong this thinking about God is.
     As St. Athanasius of Alexandria taught: “God became man so that man could become God’. Properly understood this saying demonstrates how much God wants us to be close to Him. So much so that He wants to share his very divine life with us giving us the ability to love Him forever. Every time I go to the Divine Liturgy I am reminded of this fact. It is in the Liturgy that we discover by faith that we stand in the presence of the saints and angles worshiping before our God. We are not cowering in fear but we find that we have the privilege to stand as a family member before the throne of God. In essence even though we are not worthy Christ has made us worthy to stand before the Trinity and receive all His blessings.
     The Apostle Paul also demonstrates how much God wants to be close to us and that He has only the best intentions for us with phrases like: “if God is for us who could be against us-Rom 8:31” or “there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ- Rom 8:1”.The image of God that the Apostle Paul brings forth is one that shows that God has only our best intentions in mind. There is no need for a follower of Christ to live in guilt if they have repented and turned their lives over to the love of God. To remain in guilt in fact is a sin, which is a sin against the love of God. Truly, the inability to make the act of faith and trust in God for forgiveness perpetuates a false image of God.
     With such forgiveness of course comes great responsibility. This is where we find the difference between feeling guilty and having conviction. Knowing how much God loves us and how He is working for our Good will change the whole reality of those times when we fall into sin. The false joy of sin is met with the strong conviction of the power of God’s presence within us. As I can tell you from experience, which I am ashamed to say, in trying to practice sin God never leaves you alone and constantly reminds you of his love. In this I have discovered that the practice of sin never truly can be the same as it was before you become aware of such love.
     Faith of course is dead without trying to do what is right. However, what is the value of doing what is right in the first place? Not knowing the value I believe sometimes leads to the vision of an angry sky god who is offended by us not working hard enough. I recall one protestant tradition that had a saying that we are “sinners in the hand of angry God”. In contrast, in our Eastern Tradition we discover that our actions of avoiding sin and practice of virtue our for our own benefit not because God needs them. The sin of our ancestors was a step away from God and nowhere in Genesis do we find God becoming this “angry God”. In fact, our fathers show that the punishments of our ancestors were given to lead them back to Him rather than an act of violence or offense.
     God truly is on our side. We have a great responsibility as Eastern Christians to show the joy of the resurrection in our everyday lives. This is the joy we celebrate at every Divine Liturgy the same joy those around us need to see. In this New Year we need to proclaim to the world that we have a religion of Joy, which is the true joy only found in Jesus Christ. In John 14:6 Jesus said that he was the way, the truth, and the life. This is the way that he offers us a way that is free of guilt and condemnation a way of complete intimacy and vulnerability to his presence

Finding a Spiritual Father/Mother (Where are the Eastern ones?)part2

2010-11-15T19:35:00.005-05:00

     Since, I wrote: Finding a Spiritual Father/Mother (Where are the Eastern ones?)part1 it has become the most viewed post of the blog. It really is amazing that on a daily basis people from all around the world have found an interest in this post. This only goes to show that there is a great hunger for this essential part of the spiritual life. In the first post I demonstrated some possible alternatives to what would be the ideal for having a spiritual Father and Mother.I hope to develop this further.
     Most of us recognize a deep hunger for a spiritual Father or Mother, even before reading the Philokalia or the way of the pilgrim. We are looking for someone to confide in, to give us direction, and to let us know that God is on our side. However, there is more often many obstacles to finding such a person. For instance, from finally finding someone who is worthy but has no time to living too far away to establish any possible nourishing relationship- not to mention other things.
     As I pointed out in the previous post it is to the monastic that such relationships find their ultimate expression for the Eastern Christian. Where I currently live the closest Eastern Orthodox Monastery is at least 2 hours away and in the case of many Eastern Christians there is often a great distance to find such people. For some an occasional sacrifice of making such a journey could provide some spiritual direction, but for others there is a deeper level of nourishment that’s needed. In fact, the ideal that we often read about in classical eastern spiritual literature speaks of ongoing developed relationships of accountability.Unfortunately, this ideal that we seek is often out of reach for the average Eastern Christian who is not part of a monastic community.
      To this struggle we can only say what other saints have taught: pray for a spiritual father or mother. In this regard don’t expect that one will be like from right out of Mt. Athos or even one that is related to a monastery. In this the scripture speaks to us as it says, “Where there are no wise suggestions, purposes come to nothing; but by a number of wise guides they are made certain. Proverbs 15:22” In this proverb wisdom is sometimes discovered in diversity. It is true that some of us may never have access to the ideal that we seek but the answer to what we are seeking might be the person sitting next to us every Sunday.
     In my own journey, Spiritual Fatherhood and Motherhood had been received through many people. In many ways it is as if I have taken a piece of them with me as I continue my journey. In fact, one relationship in particular I would deem irreplaceable because it gave me the means to develop spiritually on my own. This person came to me at the right time in my life when I needed Fatherhood the most. For a long time I was pretty much inseparable from this man of God and it was a difficult time when distance had separated us. One of his last saying to me was, “there are many wells to drink from”-meaning there are others to draw wisdom from.
     This teaching we need to be open to. There are many wells that we can drink from. As I said it could be a holy lay person in your church. It might even be your parish priest. But be patient because some people especially priests are not always there at the times we need them. In this matter, some priests are often pressed for time due to their great need to serve their communities but be patient, pray, and God will bring someone your way. There are many levels of intimacy and spiritual accountability among us. However, we must be open to these many wells that God has placed before us.
     We might now have the answer to finding spiritual fathers or mothers. However, it is most difficult to find the ones that are well versed in the spirituality of the East. Metropolitan Hierotheos once addressed this in one of his books saying that Hesychasm is something that has been lost in the church in our time. Based on this saying we might assume that finding such spiritual Fathers or Mothers are no more than a spiritual luxury. In this matter if we are a capable and aware we should use whatever resources that we can to develop our own Eastern Spirituality. With this practice whatever we draw from the many wells of wisdom could help supplement our own experience of the East.

"Listen only to the advice of your spiritual father,
answer him with humility
and, as to God, tell him your thoughts,
even to a simple meditation, without hiding anything,do nothing without his advice."
-----St. Symeon the New Theologian

To Read Finding a Spiritual Father/Mother (Where are the Eastern ones?)part 1 click (HERE)

Who are we? (Returning to our Eastern Roots part 2)

2010-11-10T10:24:00.005-05:00

     Since the Vatican II council many of us Eastern Catholic Christians have taken up the task of rediscovering our identity. In this quest there has always been tension with what will be acceptable to Rome. In some instances there really is no reconciliation with how Eastern tradition developed in compared to the Roman. Consequently, the Eastern Catholic Christian feels the pressure of where to place their loyalties- to be Catholic or authentically Eastern.
     Let’s face it there are some things in our traditions that can’t be reconciled and never will be. We need to recognize that we are loyal to the First amongst Equals by being true to our own patrimony. We have our own way that should not be conflicting but complimentary. We can only be loyal to the pope by being true to who we are. This calls for us to stop measuring or theology, ecclesiology, and disciplines by what takes place in the “Roman” apostolic see. We have our own apostolic sees, we have our own traditions, we have our theology, and ext...Anything less than following the Eastern patrimony is to have a false testimony about the Eastern tradition.
     We are not called to be an Eastern Church thats 90% Orthodox and 10% Roman Catholic. This only exists as a reality of the past latinization and it something we need to overcome. It’s time for Eastern Catholics to move out from the shadow of Rome and move into the light of the East. The answer is real simple to how we are to place our loyalty and Patriarch Gregorios III has the answer: As follows:”We are an Eastern Church in communion with Rome and faithfully so, yet which wants to remain faithful to the pure, Orthodox spiritual tradition. I make bold to say that we are an Orthodox Church with the little or big plus of communion with Rome, with the Pope and our Holy Father Benedict XVI who presides in primacy and charity. Treat us as a real Eastern Church, just as you would the Orthodox on the day when the much longed for union takes place!"
     Eastern Catholics please do as the Patriarch asks,”Treat us as a real Eastern Church”. An Eastern Church that’s 10% Roman is not an Eastern Church. Rather, it’s a lie to what we are. In fact, we really have nothing to offer the Orthodox Churches who would consider unity as long as were on this path. Why would they take on the plus of communion with Rome if it means a loss of their identity? This has been the case in the past but since the Vatican II council we are called to be a bridge between the Orthodox and Catholic. Even the pope is telling us to be true to our traditions. So why do many still cower in fear of the imperial dictator that does not exist? We are doing this to ourselves if continue to refuse the “courage to be ourselves”.
     It is essential that we stop developing our tradition based on Roman acceptance. We should only take from the Latin tradition only what helps develop our own. The Latin tradition has no trouble taking from our tradition to enhance their own and they do it without losing their identity. Nor should we. However, if we become roman in all things we really have nothing left to offer. The way that we follow our traditions is not the same way that the Latin tradition follows theirs and never will be.
     Long ago I learned that some ways of arriving at the mysteries of our faith are impossible to place side by side. It has been the tendency of certain catholic theologians to place the roman as the superior one, which then becomes the measure to how we do our own theology. This is a false witness to our established relationship with the Roman Church that “presides in love”. Instead we should look at the different theological traditions and reflect how one can help develop or guide the other. This will never take place if one is always superior to the other.
     These propositions that I am speaking of are difficult for many to accept. However, too many have a false understanding and are confused at what it means to be Catholic. We are not all Romans and communion with Rome does not require us to be anything less then what we are. Whatever happened to John Paul II's teaching on the Vatican II Decree on Ecumenism from Ut Unum Sint: “that in unity nothing should be required beyond what is necessary....In this process, one must not impose any burden beyond that which is strictly necessary (cf. Acts 15:28).” Well we have the physical unity why should we continue to be a burden to ourselves.

To read Returning to our Eastern Roots part 1 click (here)

To Read the Patriarch’s document click (here)

Religion is Dead

2010-11-09T10:04:00.004-05:00

     In a friendly debate with a Baptist I was asked, “is your church a soul winning church and do you have ministries that go out and bring people into a personal relationship with Christ?” My response to him was that all Catholics have the obligation to bring others into a personal relationship with Christ. My response of course was based on Lumen Gentium [The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church] from the Second Vatican Council where it says, “The obligation of spreading the faith is imposed on every disciple of Christ, according to his state (17).” On the other hand, I later thought: is what he is asking an actual reality that is being practiced in our Eastern Churches?, well the evidence for this is obvious in some places. It seems with all our church members there remains a lack of commitment to the gospel way of life on mass levels. Could this be a sign that many people that are involved in our churches are wrapped up in religiosity?
    Religiosity was a term I first came across when reading Pope Paul VI’s Evangelii Nuntiandi [On Evangelization in the Modern World]. "The term describes the forms of expressions deriving from the search for God that have developed in the Church through the ages. These expressions if well oriented and grounded in a real experience of Christ have the ability to enhance Christian life. On the other hand, without a true experience of Christ these expressions become distortions (EN 48)".For instance, never missing the Moleben prayer but heading off to the night club afterwards for night of debauchery. It is as if the doing a religious act makes them right with God but in the rest of their life God is missing. Could these great acts of piety and involvement in the church be nothing more than a fraud -could the Baptist be justified in the question that he proposed above?
     The great atheistic philosopher Nietzsche in his teachings brought forth the idea that “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him” Could this be an actual reality that we see taking place in our churches? Have our Eastern Churches become no more than social organizations, instead of places that facilitate intimacy with God? If so we really have killed God and have made him no more than a puppet for social amusement. In contrast, I believe it’s not God to be dead but religion itself. Religion has the tendency to replace a relationship with God. It’s easy to follow certain rules, actions of public display of religion, and pious regulations. It’s another thing to express love and commitment to a person. In this case, the person of Jesus Christ.
     How could this be? Why are so many well-recognized good and involved parishioners in our churches missing the essence of the Church experience, which is a dynamic communion with Jesus Christ and how do you tell a parishioner that has been involved that they don’t have the real Jesus? In many ways it seems that they have gone to a doctor and received an inoculation to combat the real thing, in this case the inoculation is religiosity and the real thing is Jesus Christ. For all these questions there can be only one answer, which is our parishes need evangelization.
      Pope John Paul II of blessed memory saw the struggle that we have in our Catholic churches. In fact he had a vision for the parishes, which could be the answer to this problem of religiosity. Through his teachings on a “New Evangelization” found in Novo Millenno Ineunte, the pope gives five steps to revive our churches:
     The first step begins with us. As parishioners we are sometimes guilty for not doing our part in bringing God’s kingdom to others. We know that we are not always striving to be saints, let alone helping others to do the same. This realization only leads us to the first place to begin: which is to ask God for his mercy to change and also that our parishes would change. In recognizing where we have failed we can truly begin the journey into true discipleship and be effective evangelists. The former Pope teaches us that this kind of humility will only cause us to be more vigilant toward accepting what God wants (NMI 6).
     The second step is connected to the first. The desire for change must continue to be rooted and grounded in prayer. Desire is never enough to lead either ourselves or others into an authentic relationship with Christ; it must be an action flowing from grace. John Paul II teaches us that all our actions must rooted in contemplation and prayer if they are to be successful (NMI 15).
     The third step is the most difficult. The only way Jesus Christ can be authentically seen is found only in a Holy life, but one that goes beyond definition. The people in the parish are familiar with good deeds so it really is of no effect to have a good reputation. The holiness that is needed to reach these people must go beyond their senses in order to touch them within. This of course is gift to be sought after and must proceed from an unconditional surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in all things. It is only then that our presence and actions among them will have a deeper impact. John Paul II understood this when he spoke of this gift of holiness becoming a task that would shape our whole lives (NMI 30).
     The fourth step is most practical. The best thing for us to do to win people over to Christ in our parishes is to be available to them. This means not only getting involved in the different areas of parish life, but also reaching out and developing relationships among the parishioners. Sometimes it hard being available due to the many activities of life. However, while under the lordship of Jesus our small part in the parish can still be of great value for those of whom I am in contact with. The former Holy Father spoke of this value when he taught that in establishing communion with others the Church moves toward the reality that it is (NMI 42).
     The final step is the true test of faith. All the steps lead to this point where the ability for the person in bondage to religiosity has a chance to escape. If the type of evangelization that has been done so far has been successful then the people we are trying to reach will have seen the Holy Spirit alive in our lives through the supernatural testimony that has been established. However, it is not enough to be a holy and loving person of God. The Vatican II document Apostolicam Actuositatem [Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity] says, “A true apostle looks for opportunities to announce Christ (6)”. It is only in announcing to them who this person (Jesus Christ) that changed our life is that they will then be given the ability to escape religiosity. The former pontiff emphasizes this when he said, “those who have come into a genuine contact with Christ cannot keep him for themselves; they must proclaim him (NMI 40).”
     In conclusion, with the help of God we can help save people from dead religion. However, this is a difficult task due to the fact that it calls for personal transformation on our part. I am reminded of the truth an old Russian saint once said,” if you want to save others save yourself and then everyone around you will get saved- Seraphim of Sarov-”. How true this is in the work of evangelization.

To read Novo Millenno Ineunte click (HERE)

The Primacy of the Byzantine Tradition (Returning to our Eastern Roots)

2010-11-08T13:22:00.009-05:00

     It really is unfortunate that the ways of the secular world end up influencing the church in a negative way. This is something that we have always dealt with and the Church is always in need of renewal. One of the greatest battles that we face in our Byzantine tradition is the concept of spiritual relativism. Spiritual relativism teaches that there are many ways to God and the way that you get there really does not matter. In our tradition we continue to see latinization justified on these grounds. In the process of this spiritual relativism taking place we are seeing a slow procession away from what it means to Byzantine. It is true that we have our icon screens, chotki, and Divine Liturgies but what is the value of these gifts if everything else is our lives(i.e. spiritual practices) becomes Roman Catholic. Consequently, we end up becoming a Roman Catholic Church with an Orthodox theme instead of an Orthodox Church that’s in communion with Rome.
     Sometimes I have been accused of being a ritual purist or unrealistic in my teachings against latinization. However, what I believe that I am doing is being a good Catholic by adhering to instructions from our bishops. For example, In ORIENTALIUM ECCLESIARUM it says “6. All members of the Eastern Rite should know and be convinced that they can and should always preserve their legitimate liturgical rite and their established way of life, and that these may not be altered except to obtain for themselves an organic improvement.” And recently from the Pope “union of the Eastern Catholic Churches with the Church of Rome that is already realized must not lead to a diminution of the consciousness of the unique authenticity and originality of those Churches For this reason it is the task of all the Eastern Catholic Churches to conserve the common disciplinary patrimony and nourish their own traditions, which is a treasure for the whole Church”. With these teaching in mind I must protest those accusations against me and say it’s not me teaching Byzantine Catholics to stop clinging to the Latin tradition because it is in fact those in the Latin tradition telling us to stop—(the irony). In addition, I would challenge those that continue to promote and practice the Roman Catholic traditions and spirituality in our Byzantine Churches to stop and consider what the Melkite Eparch Joseph once said, "a Latinized Eastern Church cannot bear anything but false witness, as it seems to be living proof that Latinism and Catholicism are indeed one and the same thing.”
     All Christian spirituality is a good thing because it leads to God. However, there is a reason why there is a diversity of Churches that are called to embody a certain type of vision of God. In these churches we find certain aspects of revelation that give witness sometimes in a better and unique way than what is found in other traditions.For example, it says in ORIENTALE LUMEN: “one tradition coming closer to a fuller appreciation of certain aspects of revelation than the other”. This is one founding reasons why our traditions are “not to be altered” and why we are instructed to “conserve” and “preserve” our traditions.In addition, the spirituality of our tradition is not just found in the parish it is also found in our personal devotion. Being Byzantine does not just mean that you are a member of a byzantine parish; it means that you practice the byzantine tradition as a way of life, which includes how you pray and how you reach out to others through evangelization.

     Following ones spiritual tradition calls for obedience, sacrifice, and commitment for it is the essence of discipleship. A disciple receives spirituality form outside themselves and in return contributes to the tradition through assimilation . We just don’t take whatever we want as if we are looking upon a catholic menu at call it spirituality. There is a place for diversity but not at the cost of destroying a spiritual tradition to fit what we think works best. When it comes to taking something from another tradition the Fathers taught that this is a good thing if there is “an organic improvement”. This means that what ever we take from the Roman Catholic tradition must not diminish the theological and liturgical vision of the Byzantine tradition. The saints always borrowed from each other but in their borrowing they enhanced what was organically given in their patrimony instead of replacing it.
     There needs to be a primacy of Byzantine spirituality among the current practices that we see in our churches. This does not mean we take one spiritual practice and put it side by side and say it’s the same thing because were catholic. Whatever influence we take from the West must be on a level that is beneath the spiritual heritage the we have received from the East. This does not mean one tradition is better than the other. What it does mean is that each tradition has something very special to offer.
     The Catholic Church has many gifts to offer the world from the treasure of East and West. Let us preserve these treasures. We need as the Melkite Eparch Joseph also once said “the courage to be ourselves”. This courage calls for us to be Byzantine Catholics through and through. This leads us to no longer supplement our spiritual lives from what has been passed on from the centuries of latinization. Rather, it calls us to be true to who we are -Byzantine and Catholic- in every aspect of our spirituality. Anything less then this is ,as the Eparch says, a "false witness".

To go to part 2 of this post click here
To Read the Eparch Joseph's full document click (here)
To Read more from the Popes comments click (here)

Make Jesus Easy!

2010-11-06T22:41:00.000-04:00

     The Lord Jesus Christ spoke of spirituality in the following way, “Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find-Matthew 22:9”. With this in mind, it is imperative that we as Eastern Christians make spirituality convenient and accessible. This mandate is especially imperative for those educated in our tradition, either academically or by self study. Convenient does not mean void of content but it does mean translating the content into a language of the common speech. This is the philosophy of John Paul II’s “New Evangelization” to take what has worked for our past and make it accessible with” new energies”.
     When I first got introduced to the Eastern Church I picked up all four volumes of the Philokalia. Breezing though them I really did not find anything beneficial to my spirituality at the time. It pretty much was all Greek to me, as the saying goes, and it was. It would not be until many years later that I became reintroduced to the spirituality of the Philokalia from the teachings of Metropolitan Hierotheos. He spoke a language I could understand and demonstrated that the spirituality of the Philokalia (Hesychasm) is for all people and has the ability to lead someone into a deep relationship with God. In a like manner we need to present our Eastern traditions in such a way that they stir desire in the heart for Christ.
     We really do have an advantage as Eastern Christians in this area. We have a spirituality(Hesychasm) that is known to inspire and has both very simple principles(making it easily accessible) and complex elements(allowing the path for greater spiritual development).Hesychasm truly is a unique spiritual tradition for it allows even a little child to tap into the same spirituality that you find in the monastery. The beginning of this path to stillness (Hesychia) has for all in our tradition its origins in the Jesus Prayer or as we call it the Prayer of the Heart. This prayer is on the lips of young Eastern Christian children and is the same prayer of the Eastern monk in his cell, demonstrating that it is simple and complex, a spirituality that is truly for all.
     This uniqueness that we have concerning our spirituality truly needs to be rediscovered in our ranks. It needs to be represented, developed, and made accessible to all whom we have contact with. This of course beings first in our personal lives. Those of us that are capable need to stop talking about being Eastern and truly dive into the ways of our Fathers. This begins by the practice of unceasing prayer and taping into the wisdom that’s in the Philokalia and related sources. The treasure of the east must become our very own and it is from this treasure that we will be able to give the wealth that many need.
     There are so many waiting for us to make this courageous act, which is to dive into our tradition of Hesychasm. They are in our homes, churches, work, and the places that we gather. So many waiting to discover a simple way to experience the depths of intimacy with Jesus Christ. This is the great task that Christ gave his followers “Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find”. We have the invitation it is the Prayer of the Heart. A prayer for all, not just for the monk but also the little child.
     Speaking of the little ones and the Prayer of the Heart. It really is a simple faith that can learn this as a way to give to God. When it is learned this way it soon becomes a way of life, which can lead in many directions. This is where the complexities of Hesychasm take their course. However, it never loses its simplicity it always remains accessible to the child. This is a beautiful gift that God has given the world through our tradition. With such a gift comes great responsibility. Let us not neglect this precious truth.

For more on the New Evangelization (click here)
For more on Metropolitan Hierotheos (click here)

Spirituality based on getting High (Hesychasm in Captivity part 2)

2010-11-05T12:12:00.008-04:00

     Once I had a conversation with a person that visited my church. They told me of the ways that they appreciated the spirituality of the Eastern Tradition and presented themselves as very spiritual. However, later when I began to point out some essential truths about our Eastern Christian spirituality I became an enemy to this person,which was because they were of the New Age teaching.It really is a bizarre thing that our Eastern churches are sometimes understood as the more spiritual church in Christianity by the New Age Movement or to those who hold like minded philosophies while worshiping in our churches. It is as if our doctrine really does not matter for them because it’s the spirituality that counts. What they seem to fail to grasp is the fact that there is no Eastern Christian spirituality apart from Eastern Christian dogma. You can’t have one without the other.
     When it comes to the New Age movement and the religious philosophies that have their roots in this tradition we find they have their own form of Dogma. The dogma is that of having a spiritual experience. With this dogmatic position as a guide their teachings lead them to see that all religions are pretty much similar since in all a spiritual experience can be achieved. For example one leader of the new age a former catholic Bede Griffiths taught: “The original message, the essential truth, of every religion is the sacred Mystery, the presence in this world of a hidden Wisdom, which cannot be expressed in words, which cannot be known by sense or reason, but is hidden in the heart-- the Ground or Centre or Substance of the soul, of which the mystics speak-- and reveals itself to those who seek it in the silence beyond word and thought.” As he demonstrates every religion has the same mystery that can only be found through those who seek the experience. This is the foundation and dogma of the New Age.
     In this regard to the new age teaching I believe the peace loving Rastafarians are the only intellectually honest members of this religious system. For them the smoking of the ganja is the way that they get close to the divine. Their religion actually promotes getting high as a means to achieve world peace. If you take away the ganja you take away what essentially is the center of their tradition- getting high. With the New Age movement if you take away the mystical experience you take away what makes up the essential core of their tradition-getting high. All in all, we have essentially a religious system in the new age philosophies that create spiritual junkies. In fact when you try to point this out to those trapped in these systems then tend to get aggressive-just like a drug addict when you try to take away their dope.
     With these things in mind it is important to ask not only ourselves but also those of the New Age: “Would you follow God still if you received no mystical experience?”In this regard, we find some denominations of Christianity really at enmity with any kind of experience good or bad, such as the Baptist tradition. However, these groups have given us great Christians like Billy Gram or Charles Stanley. In their teaching all they are guaranteed is heaven in the life to come, and have no teachings that would lead them to believe that that are entitled to a mystical encounter-yet they find meaning in their faith and continue to follow God. If we worship in our churches in order to get a spiritual high we really have lost touch with what intimacy with God really is. The intimacy that is only achieved by following the teachings of our Christian faith. You cant have intimacy with Christ without the teachings.
     The tradition that we share as Eastern Christian teaches us that faith is never separated from the truth. You cannot believe in something if you have not been given the revelation of it. This revelation has been passed down from generation to generation through the proclamation of the gospel. The teaching of the new age that says that God’s wisdom” cannot by expressed in words” misses the point of the Incarnation. God had to come down to our level in order for us to be raised to his. He continues to do this where ever the gospel is proclaimed.In this proclamation all receive an authentic encounter with God, which leads to intimacy. Unlike what we find in the new age where only the mystic knows god or the one who meditates professionally.Yes, it is indeed true that in our Christian tradition that even our most unskilled at prayer and our weakest vessels can have access to a deep relationship with God because of the Gospel. For the New Age this will never be so because the mystical experience for them is only found in their mystics and spiritual professionals.
     When it comes to Hesychasm and the Jesus prayer we find something very opposite to what the New Age dogma is offering. The goal of the Hesychast is to grow in intimacy with the person of Jesus Christ. The person of Jesus Christ for the Eastern Tradition is never separated from the teachings that have been handed down through tradition. If you are praying the prayer tradition in order to have an experience you have failed to accomplish its true goal. Looking into the tradition of Hesychasm you will find a very developed system of Christian discipleship, which is very ascetic and calls for self sacrifice. The goal is to love God and not to accomplish an experience. There is no guarantee in Hesychasm that you will have a mystical experience. There is a guarantee that you will learn to be like Jesus Christ. This does not mean that there never will be a spiritual experience. However, it does mean that this should not be the goal. You can’t really love someone if you are always looking for what they can give you and Hesychasm is way of giving and not taking from God.

To see Hesychasm in captivity part 1 click (here)

The Prostitution of the Jesus Prayer (Hesychasm in Captivity)

2010-11-04T10:05:00.008-04:00

     The abuse of religion is the greatest form of addiction the world has ever known. Religion of course by definition is how humanity approaches God. What we find in these approaches throughout history are sometimes systems that lead to self gratification or even self indulgence. For instance, temple prostitution, which is still practiced today among certain Hindu sects, promises a spiritual high through the act of intercourse with the prostitute who is the incarnation of the divinity. This is no different in how the New Age and spiritualists (who have even infiltrated our churches) take our traditions of the Jesus Prayer and Hesychasm and sell it off as way to get a spiritual high.
     In our religion, as it is called, of Christianity we don’t find the definition of religion as a true description. This is because Christianity is a participation in a revelation. It is not a way that we come up with on our own to approach God because it is a way that He has made for us to return to Him. Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me”. Christianity is a relationship and a relationship that is established on God’s terms. This is why for the Orthodox and Catholic churches “Tradition” is revelation itself. In fact, spirituality itself is how one participates in “Tradition”.
     What is often lost in these New Age groups that take our Jesus prayer and use it for spiritual escape is the fact that the Jesus prayer is how the Eastern Christian participates in Christian revelation. It cannot be separated from the person of Jesus Christ, who in fact is the source of revelation. When they take our tradition of Hesychasm and put it on the same level as yoga they in fact make it be something it’s not. This is no less than a prostitution of our tradition to lead people into a spiritual high.
     Some might argue that all that there trying to do is find peace or harmony. However, this is one of the greatest deceptions the world has ever known. Peace is not achieved by getting high! Peace is only achieved in a right relationship with God. To create a state of self hypnosis or any other self created state has nothing to do with God. God is not a puppet that we can pull a string and manipulate. He is a person. Anything short of using our tradition of Hesychasm right is an abuse of our religion.
     The New Age movements were not the first ones to introduce getting a spiritual high. We find this problem with religion in the very origins of humanity in the Garden of Eden where the devil offers a spiritual high. In Gen. 3:5 we read, “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God”. Here we find that humanity though manipulation of reality wanted to achieve a spiritual high. They began to see reality in a new way after this experience. An experience that lead them away from God.
     It could be said that the abuse of religion, of trying to find a spiritual high, is a central theme of the Holy Scriptures, one which God tries to free us from. For instance, in the Exodus we find that God is not only trying to lead a people out of physical slavery, he is also trying to break their spiritual slavery to the gods of Egypt. The spiritual high offered by the Egyptian gods was so much a part of the lives of the Israelites that the sacrificial system that God introduced was designed to break them away from the very gods of Egypt. However, as we see through the scriptures the addiction to the spiritual high that the false gods offered was something the Israelites never really got free from.
     We in fact today live in the spiritual Egypt. We have many false gods disguised continual offering us “highs”, which lead us away from God. Many of these alternatives wear the cloak of peaceful religious experience.They promise harmony and joy but at the act of manipulating reality. As I pointed out in the past in Jesus prayer vs. centering prayer there really is no commitment necessary to God for these activities. Just like a dope addict who needs no moral commitment to their dope, neither does the spiritual addict. In fact you will find in some of the religious systems that promote spiritual high in the world, like some that can be found in certain Buddhist groups, virtues such as love are no more than a means to an end. There is no real love in some of these systems because the spiritual high is an impersonal experience.
     It truly is a shame to see our tradition being sold off to peddle spiritual highs. It’s important that we Eastern Christians become educated in our spiritual traditions in order to show the world that we have more than a high—we have a person. The person of Jesus Christ in our tradition of Hesychasm leads us into a state where we become free from spiritual highs or dependency upon sensual experience. He leads us to the most intimate state of existence where we are able to love God for who he is and not what he can give us.

To read Hesychasm in captivity part 2 click (here)

Many Churches Many Ways to Jesus Christ (Diversity in the Church as a Means of Salvation)

2010-11-03T00:44:00.003-04:00

     When I was a younger my mother became obsessed with Russian culture. So much so that today she teaches the Russian language to high school students. Being introduced to this different culture at a young age always carried with it some mystery, one that could be appreciated but never truly assimilated. For the most part it remained foreign to the culture that gave me expression. However, in the case of my mother two cultures met and one benefited from the other by giving her own greater value and meaning.
     Before he was Pope Cardinal Ratzinger spoke similarly about how the meeting of cultures sometimes benefit from one another, calling it interculturality. In his book Truth and Tolerance he demonstrates how each culture has its own experience of God and at the same time remains open to other cultures. He says that in this openness the meeting of two cultures can cause a purification or even a deepening of values, which is the universal nature of culture (pg. 64).In my own opinion, I believe this can also be said for the various churches that have been organically developed in the many cultures of the world.
     Through the various cultures that share the same humanity one can obviously conclude that God fosters diversity. This diversity of course having been exposed to sin needs healing and unification, which has been the work of the Church. In the healing and unification of human nature diversity was never lost and continues to play a role in the further healing that culture and the world need today.
     This means of healing given from diversity in fact has its very roots in the teachings of the Lord. He did not pick Peter and have the rest of the apostles uniformly line up behind him to form peters church, as some might express in some ways today. Rather, all the apostles were chosen by the lord himself and called to bring their diverse experience of His teaching to the many lands that they traveled. In fact, the gospels themselves are the work of diverse viewpoints and give different expressions of Christ for diverse audiences.
     After the apostles died off diversity as means of expressing salvation did not cease to be a reality. The diversity started by the lord continued on through the growth of the early church witnesses by different liturgical and theological schools that developed throughout the ancient world. This fact remains with us today where we find a wealth of spiritual traditions from the various churches that have continued through the apostolic lines.
     There is a reason why today this diversity that we have in our Church remains in its various forms and expressions, which is to speak the message of salvation renewed to the complex diversity of human nature. For this vary reason we Eastern Catholics have a moral obligation to renew and restore our ancient traditions that were given to us. There are many reasons that we can point to in order to explain why they were lost (latinization, secularization, and ext.). However, there is only one place we can lay the blame, if we continue to go on the path of depleting the diverse nature of our churches,---that being ourselves.
     We have heard great leaders come forth since the Vatican II council and even recently from the successor of Peter telling us to be true to our traditions. This is not a recreational activity for it means the very salvation of the world. There are many people in the world looking for what can only be found in our Eastern tradition. In fact, there are countless testimonies of how a person’s faith in Jesus Christ became more fruitful upon discovering a certain tradition. You even at times have one tradition influencing saints that belong to the other giving them greater insight into the mysteries that are expressed in their own tradition.
     If you would allow me to speak boldly in this regard. Byzantine Catholics need to stop supplementing their spiritual lives with the Latin tradition. If you feel called to the Latin tradition the door is open to you. However, our own tradition has a beauty of its own waiting for you to discover it. Many others are looking to meet God in this way as well and you might be the only one to be that path for them.
     I can only speak for myself in this regard when I say that the Latin tradition could not help me see God the way that I do today. It opened the door and showed me His love but it did not give me what I see today in my relationship with him, only the Eastern Church accomplished this. I know that I am not alone in this experience and this is something that we find happing in all the traditions of the Church.
     One expression of the Church alone does not have all the answers for the diversity of our nature. In addtion, Just like one culture can influence another so to the diversity from the churches speak to each other and gives each other life. In this truth we must realize that we have something to offer not only the world, but the very Church itself. Let’s be true to what God has given us.

Liturgy and Hesychia (diversity and tradition)

2010-10-31T09:17:00.006-04:00

     The ancient liturgies of the Church both East and West have their own beauty and in this beauty we find unique ways to discover the Hesychia (stillness) in Jesus Christ. Based on this truth there is the temptation to believe that one liturgical tradition is as good as the other, since both can lead to the same results. However, this belief undermines the very reality of the uniqueness of each tradition, which in fact comes from divine providence (see lumen gentium 23).With the failure to understand the uniqueness of each Tradition we fail to see how each contributes to human nature.
     As derived from the liturgical traditions of both East and West we find the saints of both traditions speaking of ways to achieve Hesychia (stillness). In fact we sometimes find one saints methods influencing another. For instance, in the writings of St. John of Cross we find the Eastern tradition influence from Dionysius, Maximus the Confessor, and others. However, what is often overlooked in the borrowing of methods is the fact of the uniqueness of the liturgical vision of the saint leads to a different theological vision, which results in a different spirituality. In the case of St. John of Cross we find the dark night of the soul as a way to union with God to be something totally foreign to the Eastern Tradition (see Vladimir Lossky -The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church pg 226).
     From different spiritualities that derive from each liturgical tradition you have obviously each theological vision leading to different experiences of God. Spirituality in this instance is not ones personal property, as what we find being taught in protestant Christianity. In fact spirituality is how we participate in Tradition. What is found in ones liturgical and theological vision will determine how they experience God. This is something the Eastern Church has always understood when it comes to Tradition. For the Eastern Christian, unlike how it’s emphasized in Western tradition, holy Tradition is more than instructions or an auxiliary to scripture. For the Eastern Church Tradition is Spirituality and spirituality is revelation. With this understanding we find to the extent that one participates in Tradition is the extent that one participates in God.
     This spirituality that we receive from our tradition truly says something unique about God and this is why it’s essential to preserve our traditions as derived from our patrimony. As divine providence would have it we really do have as John Paul II said, “Two Lungs” of the Church. In each lung we find one tradition speaking to certain aspects of the human personality. This is why it’s essential to understand what ones traditions has to offer and to recognize that one tradition might serve ones spiritual needs better then the other. In addition Eastern Catholics who continue to supplement their spiritual and liturgical life with the Latin tradition (Latinization) are in fact destroying the providential foundation of the Eastern tradition.
     One of the mistakes that I see being made from Eastern Catholics is the belief that their liturgical tradition has the same fluidity as we find in western tradition. In the west we find the liturgy giving birth to many types of spiritual schools(spiritualities within a spirituality) as it says in the Catechism of the Catholic Church 2684:"bearing witness to the integration of the faith into a particular human environment and its history". This is one of the unique aspects of the Latin tradition but it has no place in Eastern Tradition. What we find in the Eastern Tradition is that the Liturgy gives birth to one type of spirituality that of Hesychasm (the pursuit of stillness), which leads the Eastern Christian to the ultimate expression of their spirituality to be only found in the monastic.
     Unlike the Western tradition the monastic is the “Very soul of the Eastern Church “as it says Oriental Lumen. Based on this Eastern Christians have only one school of spirituality that of Hesychasm. The call to monastic retreat, to discover stillness, is not just the property of the Hesychasts of the Greek tradition on Mt. Athos. There we find a most developed form of this tradition, which is witnessed in the Philokalia. In fact, the pursuit of stillness is the very way of the Eastern Tradition. Every Eastern Christian is to develop in a spirituality that has its ultimate expression in the monastery. This cannot be said to be same for the western tradition.
     In all the theological and liturgical realties of the Eastern Church we find it leading to one place –Hesychia. This of course is the goal of all Christian spirituality in order to get us to the place of intimacy with Jesus Christ. However, each tradition has its own “experience of the God”. This experience speaks something very special to the uniqueness of humanity. We need to recognize this and be true to the traditions that God has given us. As Eastern Christians we have something very special to say about God. The Western tradition has something special to say as well. We need to appreciate these differences and listen to what God is saying to the world through them.—To breathe with both lungs of the church.

Hesychasm-What is it? (A modern definition for the Eastern Christian)

2010-10-30T00:16:00.000-04:00

     In the Liturgical life of the Eastern Church God does not hold back anything of himself. For instance, St. Mark the ascetic taught that through the sacrament of baptism we receive “mystically the fullness of grace”.St. Mark in the same sentence also said that we only become aware of this gift of God “to the extent that he actively observes the commandments. (Philokalia 1, pg.133)”. This action of becoming aware of the grace through the practice of the commandments is Hesychasm.
     Traditionally the definition of Hesychasm came to be understood as the pursuit of stillness (Hesychia) in Jesus Christ. The practice manifested itself over the centuries in the context of the monastic communities and is witnessed in the classical Eastern spirituality, such as the Philokalia or The Way of the Pilgrim. However, it was never meant to be an isolated tradition, which is how it is understood today. In fact, what we do see in the historical transition of Hesychasm is the very liturgical experience of the Eastern Church in its fullest context being expressed through the Eastern monastic.
     Hesychasm as we know it today is actually the most developed system of spirituality in Christianity. In the western church we find a plurality of spiritualities that relate to the Roman liturgy. In this plurality we find western monasticism sometimes as an extension of certain types of spirituality. However, in the Eastern Church there is one spirituality (Hesychasm) that derives from the liturgy and has its fullest expression in Eastern monastic life. Unlike the western tradition the Eastern tradition has no room for plurality or “hybridization” because the liturgy facilitates and is founded upon Hesychasm.
     The struggle that we see in our Eastern Churches, especially the Byzantine Catholics, is that we don’t understand how we are connected to the Divine Liturgy. Also, we don’t see the practice of Hesychasm as the normal expression of this connection. Instead what we often find are Latin supplemented spiritualities or even combinations of protestant expression, to even no lived spirituality at all. If Hesychasm does not become the normative teaching in our seminaries, ECF classes, and Ext…we will not only see a continued decline in our monasteries, the Eastern Churches might disappear from the Western world altogether. You can’t have a church without spirituality if you do it will die or become something else.
     For many the gifts of Hesychasm, such as the Jesus Prayer or the teachings of the Philokalia, have remained in the realm of Eastern piety instead of normal Eastern lived tradition. We must discover new ways to show that these gifts are the tools that lead not only the monastic into a lived intimacy (Hesychia) with Jesus Christ but also the everyday man. We must understand that there is no lived liturgical intimacy apart from Hesychasm. As Peter of Damascus taught without the practice of Hesychasm “it is impossible to attain any humility and spiritual knowledge. (Philokalia 3 pg.194)”.
     Hesychasm in definition is how the Eastern Christian lives what they received from the celebration of the Divine Liturgy. It is the practice of our ascetic traditions that leads us to discover the gift that we receive at each liturgical encounter. The gift can only be discovered through stillness (Hesychia) where we discover the Trinity hidden in the depths of our being. As St Mark the Ascetic taught in another place, “The lord is hidden in his commandments, and he is to be found there in the measure that he is sought. (Philokalia 1 pg.123). Commandments in this instance do not mean the 10 but the voice of the spirit, which speaks to us through the voice of our Holy Traditions. By following the way of life of our spiritual fathers, the ways of Hesychasm, we discover Christ hidden in our hearts. There is no more that He can give for he has given all of himself. He is waiting for us to discover stillness (Hesychia) where we will discover Him.
     In learning to discover Christ the Eastern Christian learns that they are hesychasts. For the Hesychast is the one who seeks Hesychia (stillness) and this is how the Eastern Christian practices their Traditions. The Liturgy is where the Trinity makes its descent into the very depths of the human heart. This grace becomes hidden in the depths of the Eastern Christian and they are called to make it their own through the practice of Hesychasm. It is through this action of making it their own that the Eastern Christian becomes divine, not by nature, but by participation-Theosis.

Eucharistic Adoration (Has no place in the East)

2010-10-29T16:46:00.011-04:00

Response to Father Deacon Paul (to read his comment click here)

     All though I respect you and venerate your efforts to defend the unborn I must humbly contradict your position. If you would Father Deacon, allow me to be the “fool” to say that Eucharistic Adoration has no place in the Eastern Church and it is not a replacement to “what has been successful in the past”. All though it can initiate Hesychia (stillness) it is not Hesychasm and will never replace 2000 years of developed Eastern tradition. Your position is genuine, and this Latin tradition has its own beauty. However, whether you know it or not by promoting such a position, as a member of the Eastern Catholic hierarchy, is in fact an effort to “Latinize” our tradition.
     You said,” Before anyone shouts This is not our Tradition; this is a latinization stop and think”. Well Father I did this very thing. I thought very deeply and recalled special memories in which Jesus Christ awakened my heart to the reality of his love when I stood before him in Eucharistic adoration. One memory in particular is when I was at grad school at Franciscan University. We had above our dorm a special chapel where perpetual adoration took place. In addition, to the real presence being venerated there was an icon on the wall of the Theotokos that had a reference to evangelization below it. I used to retreat there daily to pray and have nothing negative to say about the practice. It is beneficial in every way and has the ability to awaken people to the path of stillness. However, it is not a replacement or the answer to the renewal of Hesychasm in our tradition.
      Eucharistic adoration is proper to the Latin liturgical tradition in many ways. As you know the Latin liturgy is christocentric. It focuses upon the exclusive work of Christ in the forensic realities of his life. Christ crucified renews the broken covenant with mankind and establishes his reign on Earth. Through his suffering the price was paid for our failure to love God. He does the work that we cannot do and pays the covenantal sanctions by his suffering for our failure. The response to this great reality by the Latin Catholics is found in great acts of gratitude, penance, and the celebration of him who gives himself body soul, and divinity through the most precious sacrament. The acts of course are continued on by veneration of Christ through the sacrament. This is only to say a few things about the beauty of this tradition and its capacity to make a person feel right and loved by God.
     Eucharistic adoration could never theologicaly fit into the liturgical vision of the Eastern Church for many reasons. As you also know the Eastern liturgical tradition is Trinitarian through and through. Instead of focusing exclusively upon Christ and the crucifixion we find a heavenly celebration. We enter into the heavenly presence of God in the entire Liturgy-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The divine energies of God penetrate us as we experience the trinity throughout the liturgy. Christ (real presence) is present through the whole liturgy and most present at the time of Eucharistic consecration, where he is accompanied by a myriad of angels in order to take his seat in our heart. It is at the act of receiving the Eucharist that all the divine energies that are present in the liturgy come to penetrate the depths of our being. All the energies existing in Christ become our own through this act of liturgical “synergy”. From this experience we take up the work of deifying the whole nature-Theosis. We learn to discover Him within, which is the work of Hesychasm. This is why Eucharist adoration will always remain foreign to our tradition for this very reason.
     When it comes to Hesychasm we find our tradition showing the way to bring our Trinitarian experience to every aspect of our being. In the liturgical experience we find God sharing the fullness of himself with us, making us partakers of the divine nature. This reality remains within us hidden in the heart. The goal of the Hesychast is partake of the divine nature at all levels of humanity (Theosis). This is achieved by discovering Hesychia (stillness) of body and mind. By achieving Hesychia (stillness) of the body the Hesychast learns self control in calming the passions that constantly distract us from discovering the Christ hidden in the heart- through fasting, vigil, sleeping on the ground, spiritual reading ext... In the Hesychia (stillness) of the mind the Hesychast learns to silence temptation by continually invoking the name of Jesus Christ. Consequently, your solution to have Eucharistic adoration is not a replacement of Hesychasm, even though it can initiate it.
     You ask “what is solution”. The solution is to reeducate and to renew our traditions given to us by our fathers. The Latin Church has its own beauty and is able to meet the needs of mankind in a unique way. We have our traditions that God gave us, for they to have a unique answer to the struggles of mankind. We need a “New Evangelization” in our churches. One which leads us to discover Christ hidden in the heart, one that speaks the tradition of our Fathers in a modern voice.

Please know I say these things in humility and with love for our Eastern Traditions.

For further reading click (adoration revisited)

Hesychasm in the teaching of Metropolitan Hierotheos

2010-10-28T11:19:00.006-04:00

     The Eastern Church is dead and void without the practice of Hesychasm. In fact, there really can be no spiritual renewal in our Eastern churches without the discovery and renewal Hesychasm. In some places we find great effort to reform the liturgy or certain traditions that deal with the exterior of the Eastern Church. However, there has been little or no effort in trying to reform the internal and spiritual practices of Eastern Christians. This is no different then what the Lord spoke of in Matthew 23:26 where he spoke about those cleaning the outside of the cup and not the inside. If we want to see true spiritual renewal in our Eastern Churches we need to focus our energies upon discovering the heart of what makes us Eastern Christians, which is the ancient practice of Hesychasm.
     Many times in this blog it has been pointed out that Hesychasm is for everyone and that it is an essential part of Eastern Christianity. However, we find according to Metropolitan Hierotheos that this message “has been lost in our time”. It seems that Hesychasm has been reduced to a tradition that is for specialized monastics or even reduced to an optional way of expressing Eastern spirituality. Unfortunately, this reduction of Hesychasm is a failure to grasp Eastern Christianity in its essence.
      There are many people out in the world looking to find a way to heal their inner condition. If we do not learn to heal our own or know what our Eastern tradition is offering we really don’t have anything to offer those seeking. It really is not enough to bring someone into our liturgies, as some would speculate, and hope that the emotional experience that they have will somehow constitute a healing or a spirituality. Sure, it may be a start, but those who come into our churches must be taught how to make the liturgical encounter their own by teaching them the ways of Hesychasm.
     Metropolitan Hierotheos understood the value of Hesychasm for the Eastern Christian. He saw throughout the Tradition of the Eastern Church that the Holy Fathers continually stressed the practice of Hesychasm. For instance, he says “St. Gregory the Theologian regarded Hesychia (stillness) as ESSENTIAL for attaining communion with God”. As the saint says, “It is necessary to be still in order to have clear converse with God and bring the nous (mind) back from its wanderings”. The Metropolitan points out that the nous (mind) is blind to seeing the mystery of God because of our passions that constantly distract us. He teaches that the only way to experience the mystery of God is through the purification of the nous (mind) by the practice of Hesychasm (Orthodox Psychotherapy pg 312).
     From what the Metropolitan is teaching Hesychasm must not remain an optional practice or be delegated to some monastic professional. According to the Metropolitan every Eastern Christian is called to be a Hesychast, one who follows the way of stillness in developing intimacy with God, which he states is in fact the way of the Eastern Tradition. In fact, it was practiced by the Lord himself who in the Gospels was recorded as many times going away to pray alone from the desert to isolated places. The apostles too stressed in many ways of how to be watchful, mentally sober, and how to keep our attention upon Christ (Orthodox Psychotherapy pgs. 318,321,322).
     In addition to what is found in the scriptures the Metropolitan points out that we find just about in every century Eastern Fathers like St. Maximus the confessor, St. John the Ladder, St, Symeon the New Theologian, or even St. Gregory Palamas who taught and practiced Hesychasm. Hesychasm was never meant to be a specialized tradition. We find even in the homilies of the Eastern Fathers speaking to their parishioners who were not always monastics the ways of Hesychasm. From this truth the Metropolitan points out that Hesychasm can be experienced by all but at different depths (Orthodox Psychotherapy pgs. 318,327).
     First and for most the Metropolitan understood the monastic as the one to give the most effort in discovering the depths of the tradition as he says, “It is inconceivable that there should be a monk who does not devote time to practicing godly Hesychia”. He goes on to say that it (Hesychasm) "is the only way of knowing God”. In essence, it is a natural aspect of monastic life. This is witnessed in the monastic tonsure when they are given a prayer rope and instructed to “have the name of the Lord in your soul, your thoughts, and your heart, saying always: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner “.
     Knowing that not all are called to the rigors of monastic life the Metropolitan says, “All Christians can attain stillness (Hesychia) and thereby also a vision of God”. He goes on to demonstrate how Peter of Damascus teaches:”For all men need this devotion and stillness (Hesychia), total or partial, and without it, it is impossible to attain any humility and spiritual knowledge”. Those who are not living in the monastery have the same obligation to seek communion with God, all though they may not experience it the same way the monastic would. (Orthodox Psychotherapy pgs. 334).
     Being the very way to achieve stillness (Hesychia) for both the monastic and those living in the world the practice of Hesychasm must be understood to be the very core of the Eastern Church. All the things that bring wonder to those who come into our Eastern churches (liturgy, iconagrphy, chant ext...) have their very root in stillness (Hesychia).As a result, Hesychasm is not an optional tradition for the Eastern Christian since it is the only way to have communion with God.
     Hesychasm is the pursuit of stillness. The stillness that allows us to have communion with God. Therefore it is for everyone. It is also a developed tradition. Being the very foundation of Eastern Christian Spirituality having roots in Holy Scripture and found in many of the Eastern Christian Fathers up until our very time. As Eastern Christians we are called to be Hesychasts, one who seeks Hesychia (Stillness). Not only must we seek it we must also teach others how to have communion with God. The teaching of course must be an action of renewal from the level of the home, to the parish, and all the way to the seminary. As I stressed in the beginning: the Eastern Church is dead and void without the practice of Hesychasm.

All quotations and information was based on Metropolitan Hierotheos' book Orthodox Psychotherapy
You can read a partial copy for free online by clicking this link: http://www.pelagia.org/htm/b02.en.orthodox_psychotherapy.05.htm

Becoming an Eastern Christian-Body-Mind-Soul

2010-10-26T14:05:00.019-04:00

     I humbly admit it took me 8 years to discover what it means to be an Eastern Christian. For many years I looked at the East from the optic of the various western traditions that I had been exposed to --never truly understanding it. The measure of how I valued the Eastern Church always had its roots in the Latin Patrimony. For instance, the Roman dogmas from Papal infallibility to Immaculate Conception became the rule of thumb for what was acceptable in the East. From this point of view the Eastern Church fell under Rome’s shadow and I was not able to appreciate the East for what it is.
     Joining the Eastern Church requires the same principles of missionary work. Any missionary will tell you that it is a difficult thing to bring the gospel into another culture. First they must learn the language in order to communicate, and then they must adopt the customs in order to function in the culture, and also they must learn to see the community’s world view. If there is a lack in the effort of these three actions from the missionary they might not be able to communicate with the community and remain “foreign” to it.
      In a similar way this is no different to one who is assimilating Eastern Christianity.In fact,those who want to truly understand or experience the Eastern Church must do it in the same way a missionary would encounter another culture or risk remaining "foreign" to the tradtion.Historically instead of trying to learn the theological language, church disciplines and the spirituality many have forced their Western or Latin views upon a valid expression of Christianity. This is a well known fact by those Eastern Christians that united with Rome who are struggling to return to the traditions of their Fathers. In addition, this is going on today by those devout Roman Catholics that transfer rites, who dont see the need to change their understanding of Church.
     Basically there are three fundamental realties of the Eastern Church, liturgical, theological, and spiritual or what I like to call at the level of the body, mind, and soul. In reference to what was shared about the missionary work you can’t expect to understand or participate in a culture unless you experience it the way the people do. This is no different in joining or appreciating the Eastern Church. In approaching the Eastern Church we have to understand their liturgical life(body), the theological language that they speak (mind) and how they live their spiritual traditions (soul).If you miss one of these aspects you miss what it means to be Eastern.
     Out of the three forms the liturgical seems easy to approach. It is commonly accepted that there are different “rites”. Most coming into or in trying to understand the Eastern Church easily conclude that there are many different liturgical traditions that have come about from the Apostles. Roman Catholics transferring rites or worshiping in the Eastern Church sometimes don’t ever get beyond this point. In addition, many of those Eastern Catholics in trying to practice the reforms of Vatican II in restoring the Eastern liturgical practices believe that’s all that the reform requires of them. They also do not understand the other aspects of the Eastern church; they are only Eastern in the liturgy(Body), but fail to be Eastern in their theology(Mind), and Fail to practice the spiritual Traditions of the Eastern Fathers properly(soul).
     The next form, theological language (Mind), is often the most difficult to grasp by those outside of authentic Eastern Tradition. In fact, for many centuries many Eastern Catholics were forced, or did not have the resources to develop in their theological tradition. Consequently, in some places the Latin way of expressing theology became the norm of how Eastern Catholics expressed their faith. On the other hand, Since the Vatican II council Eastern Catholics have been given the freedom to practice their historical theological and ecclesial traditions. From this practice the saying “Orthodox in communion with Rome “is derived. However, many of the Eastern Catholic faithful still live under the shadow of the Latin patrimony. Many are fearful of expressing something that may be to Orthodox and this is even more so by Roman Catholics coming into the Eastern Church who dont modify their understanding. As a result, a foreign Latin view is forced upon the Eastern Church. This amounts to a latinization of the (mind) for even though they worship in the Eastern Church (body) they still are thinking like Roman Catholics.
     With people thinking theologically or having an Ecclesiology by what goes on in Rome it’s pretty much impossible to experience the third form, the spiritual traditions (Soul). Unfortunately, we discover that the stereotype given by some Orthodox, Eastern Catholics are Roman Catholics with Eastern Liturgies, a truth. As a result, what is to be derived from the theological, ecclesial and liturgical vision becomes something else and results in a new form of spirituality 'hybrid”. This leads to the fact that instead of seeing Hesychasm as the (soul) of Eastern spirituality it becomes an additional personal devotion among many of the spiritual traditions that come from the Roman rite. Consequently , there can be no authentic Eastern Spiritual practice, "in the fullest sense", by have a "foreign" theological or ecclesial vision.

If we want to be truly Eastern we must be Eastern in body, mind and soul. You can’t have one without the other. This takes missionary effort on our part if we have been raised in a foreign tradition. If we don’t learn how to practice authentic Eastern Christianity in its fullness we will remain “foreign" to the community.In order to accomplish this task, we must truly take on the persona of being “Orthodox in communion with Rome”.With missionary zeal we must take up a learning of the traditions of our Eastern Faith from the preserved sources and at the same time practice communion with Rome, as it was in the first millennia.

The New Evangelization and the Eastern Catholic

2010-10-24T09:10:00.004-04:00

    Jesus said to go out into the entire world and preach the gospel to every creature. This call of Jesus had an immediate response as the apostles and early disciples went everywhere spreading the good news, which was followed by miracles. However, as the Church grew and became a regular part of the various cultures it found itself in need of renewal. In our modern time, even in our Eastern Churches, this is the case. The Eastern Churches, marked by a long period of internal struggle and lukewarmness, which originates from many factors, have in many ways lost touch with the calling to evangelize the world. We are not alone in this and the Fathers of our modern Church age since the Vatican II council have called for a “New Evangelization”.
     For many Eastern Catholics evangelization is a strange term, especially the term “’New Evangelization”. However, it is a fundamental aspect of the Christian life. Not only do we find the concept evangelization in Holy Scripture it also has been in many documents since the Second Vatican council. Basically, evangelization is the way the Church’s members bring others into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. For the most part this is an ongoing process for two reasons. The first is that we are always in need of deeper conversion and there is always someone who has not met Jesus Christ in a personal way (who may be sitting next you every Sunday). On the other hand, the concept of a “New Evangelization” is something entirely new to the Church for it was recently introduced by the former pope. This type of evangelization is not different in content from regular evangelization but it is different in its application, approach and energies.
     The reason for this call to a new evangelization is that we are living in a time when Christianity is being dismantled from the cultures that have long been influenced by it. There are three main factors behind this problem. First of all, many people who go to Church have never met Jesus Christ in a personal way. For some reason or another, what has been taught in the Church does not seem to reach internalization. As a result, there are many who have knowledge about Christ but have never met him. Next, prevailing ideas from the secular culture seem to be of more value than Church teaching. Being bombarded on a regular basis from ideas via the media or elsewhere people are being convinced that certain ideals are ok, such as gay marriage or all religion is the same. Consequently, when the Church claims that these practices are wrong it falls on deaf ears. Finally, doctrines of demons have been introduced by influential figures that have made their way into authoritative positions, even in our churches. These people are strategically placed by Satan in positions where they teach people things that are contrary to Church teaching. For example, I remember in my undergraduate studies one of my professors taught the class that the age of redemption is passing away and the new religious symbol would be the Earth and not the cross—at a Roman Catholic university. Unfortunately, because of their influential positions what it taught by them is perceived as truth. As we can see, the Church is in deep need of a “New Evangelization.”
     The new evangelization begins with Christ but it also begins with us as individuals. John Paul II once spoke concerning the type of new evangelists the world would need in the new millennium. He claimed that this new kind of evangelist would have to be a contemplative. What he said is at the core of all evangelistic techniques, which is personal holiness. True evangelism proceeds not from knowledge about Christ but form a person’s actual experience of Christ. For example, I can’t tell others about the love of Christ if I myself have not experienced that love. Furthermore, a personal experience of Christ is not a one-time event. The pope spoke of evangelists being contemplatives, which are people who continue in an ongoing experience of God. In fact, this is how our Fathers of the Eastern Church teach us to live” in continual remembrance of God”. As a result, our original experience with Christ or going to church once a week is not sufficient by itself to facilitate an ongoing ministry of evangelization. On the other hand, the key to becoming the "new evangelists" is an ongoing holiness, which is fostered by unceasing prayer, devotion, praise, fasting, giving alms, keeping vigil, and obedience. Without an ongoing holiness the sharing of Christ with others would not have the full power that God desires.
     Some might say only those in the monastery can practice these ways to holiness. However, this holiness necessary for evangelization is a gift for every one because everyone in the church is called by Jesus Christ. The work of evangelization was never intend for a group of specialists because the very nature of the Church is missionary. It is through baptism that we are given the grace to be holy and to share in the ministry of Jesus Christ. This is one of the greatest gifts of God for it gives us a new life and a share in his mission through this sacrament. This could also be said of all the sacraments for in one-way or another they enhance our relationship with Christ and give us the ability to share in Christ’s mission to save humanity.
     With such powers flowing from the Church we must know that we are not alone in the mission. It sometimes feels like no one cares or no one listens and our Eastern Traditions seems like they are going to disappear from the Western world. One of the reasons why I started this blog and the other social network sites was to show you that you are not alone. In fact, there are many others rising up and speaking out about our struggles. In these efforts we must keep Christ before us and cling to the way of living that our Eastern spiritual traditions call us to. In order for us to have something to offer those who are seeking.
     With our Eastern Traditions in mind it would be good to also pay attention to what the former pope said concerning certain saints. He said we need to reconnect with the mystical tradition of the Church. However, the saints that he recommends for the New Evangelization were taken from the Western Tradition. With the Eastern Tradition in mind I believe every Eastern Catholic should have regular devotion to the Philokalia and seek the wisdom and intercession of saints like St. Seraphim of Sarov, St. Symeon the New Theologian, St. Gregory Palamas and Elder Sophrony.
     Evangelization is not optional for an Eastern Catholic, let alone any Christian. The Fathers of the Vatican II council stated that a good apostle must always look for an opportunity to proclaim Christ. It’s one of the fundamental aspects of being called by Jesus Christ., We need to proclaim Christ to others and then we will see our Eastern Churches fill up. It is not enough to know about Jesus Christ for he is calling us into a personal experience of his divinity. Out of this participation in the divine nature we truly find the fuel that will bring others into our churches.

Information based on the following book:
http://www.amazon.com/John-Paul-II-New-Evangelization/dp/0867167483/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1287924613&sr=8-1-spell

A Papal Vision for the Eastern Catholic (Reflections on Patriarch Gregorios III: We ought to have a pope)

2010-10-23T17:00:00.004-04:00

,     As a neophyte to the Eastern Catholic Church it is not satisfactory just to take upon the few distinguishing elements of what makes one Eastern and Catholic. Rather, I believe it’s essential, as when joining any family, to share the good and the bad, to truly become part of the family (church) in all its aspects. Some might see this as the zeal of a convert. However, I never understood myself as a “convert” from a part of Christianity into another. Growing up a heathen and then as an adult meeting Jesus Christ I entered a natural procession of growing in understanding of the one that I love. This procession would eventually bring me to the East where I found the deepest expression of God’s love for mankind.
     In all the expressions of Christianity that I encountered there was always tensions of having the right belief in order to have a right relationship with God. This tension does not disappear even if one finds themselves in the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church because there is always the danger of our self distortions. In the gospels we find this truth by the fact that the Lord never attacked the “dogma” of the Jewish sects but instead he attacked how they practiced it. In my opinion what we see in our struggles in the Eastern Church amounts to a practice or even to an ignorance to how to practice the faith given from the Fathers of the East.
     In studying the traditions of our Eastern Catholic churches in search of solutions and trying to find paths to renewal I tend to see a cycle of blaming Rome. It is true that union with Rome caused the struggles with Latinization as Patriarch Gregorios III recently said, “Life in the ecclesial communion with Rome has caused us to lose part of our original authentic Eastern tradition that we have not succeeded in keeping in its wholeness.” However, he also said “Despite that we feel happy in this communion”. Looking at this attitude from the patriarch we must see the benefits of the gift of the papacy to the world, even if historically there have been abuses of the sacred office.
     It was very recently that our Pope said,” "As has been many times repeated, the full union of the Eastern Catholic Churches with the Church of Rome that is already realized must not lead to a diminution of the consciousness of the unique authenticity and originality of those Churches For this reason it is the task of all the Eastern Catholic Churches to conserve the common disciplinary patrimony and nourish their own traditions, which is a treasure for the whole Church."Regardless of what happened in the past, there are no longer obstacles for Eastern Catholics to become active and engaged in discovering their traditions. If we are not doing these things there is no one left to blame since we have received this call from the pope himself.
     In leading us to become authentically Eastern in all things the pope does not seem to be afraid of where this will lead the Eastern Catholic churches. In fact by being true to the ecclesiology of the East we find the Eastern Catholic churches in a prophetic place. The primacy of Peter as professed in the first millennia is the primacy that Eastern Christians are called to embrace today. By practicing this we can show the Orthodox and other Christians that the papacy inspires diversity and is a sign of unity for the whole Church. With this in mind the Patriarch Gregorios III says, “It is up to us to make our model a prophetic one. It has the power of a prophetic gesture, sign or call to more unity, as is the dream of all Christians.”
     The call to preserve, to return, and to practice authentic Eastern tradition has been the voice of Peter since Vatican II. Never, do we hear in the voice “except how you feel about the Papacy”. In fact, Eastern Catholics are called as the Patriarch said in the past to” speak up, to discover the real Eastern ecclesiology and to develop it, and help the Western mentality to mature in that regard”. In understanding this Eastern Catholics find themselves in a special place in the Church one that needs to be discovered and one that requires courage.
     A common mistake in the practice of Catholic Christians (east and west) is to believe that the Latin patrimony has all the answers to how Primacy is to be defined. John Paul II in ORIENTALE LUMEN taught that:" there are even at times when we find one tradition coming closer to a fuller appreciation of certain aspects of revelation than the other”. The Eastern Catholic Churches must believe that they have the fuller appreciation of the Papacy. We are the only ones that can bridge the gap between East and West by how we practice our tradition of union with the Pope.
     Only by truly practicing our vision of the papacy do we put ourselves in the place to speak to other Eastern Christian churches, which are not in union with Rome. In this regard Patriarch Gregorios III says “We ask them, whilst awaiting complete and perfect unity with Rome, to consider the pope as primus inter pares, as the symbol of Christian unity respectful of the identity of each Church and its tradition and particular and specific ecclesial governance.” In the past (during the unions) it could be possible to assume that Eastern Catholics (or even Rome herself) did not understand the papacy in how it relates to the Eastern Churches. However, this is not to be the case in our churches today.
     It is obvious that the Roman Catholic Church is opening up to the fact that its vision of the papacy is incomplete without the East. This is witnessed by John Paul II and our current pope with teachings found in Ut Unum Sint that brought an invitation to the East to help discover a way in which the Petrine office can work for the whole church. Whatever differences that we find between the East and West, in the theological language concerning the Petrine office, Eastern Catholics find themselves in a historic position. We now have the opportunity to invite the Orthodox to join us to consider union. With this possibility Patriarch Gregorios III said, “So the pope would be the centre of Christian unity, whilst awaiting the ecclesial, hierarchical and perfect theological communion.”
     As Eastern Catholics we find ourselves in an important place in the history of the Church. We have the power not only to only bring union once and for all between the Orthodox and Catholic but it is possible to show other Christians that the pope can be a symbol of unity in Jesus Christ. We have before us a prophetic calling as Patriarch Gregorios III says, “The Christian world needs this sign of hope, this courageous step. The Christian world, the Christian Church in all its denominations needs this step forward, this prophetic gesture, particularly in these times when many powers are raised against the Church and its values.”
     We don’t understand why the Lord permits the struggles that we have in the Church but we do know that he can make all things good as it says in Romans 8:28 “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”Despite the past in the Eastern Catholic churches we now have a unique relationship with the pope, making the pope as Patriarch Gregorios III said “the symbol of unity, despite diversities present at all levels.”

Patriarch Gregorios statements taken from:
http://byzcath.org/index.php/news-mainmenu-49/3079-patriarch-gregorios-iii-we-ought-to-have-a-pope

Popes comments take from:
www.zenit.org/article-30600?l=english

Hesychasm and Happy Meals (Monastic Foundations)

2010-10-21T10:54:00.001-04:00

     There is no Eastern Church without monasticism. For the Eastern Church Monasticism is a “reference point for all the baptized, according to the gifts offered to each by the Lord”. Whatever state we find ourselves in as Eastern Christians we derive our spiritual identity based upon the monastic. With this understanding the monastery is more than just another way of living but represents the fullness of what it means to be an Eastern Christian for “Monasticism has always been the very soul of the Eastern Churches”. (Orientale lumen 9).
     One of the reasons for the declines in Eastern monasticism is the failure of Eastern Christians to understand the delicate balance as described above.What sometimes is missing in the Eastern Christian home is the spirituality derived from Eastern monasticism. In this regard, it is a known fact that families that practice their spiritual traditions become a source of vocations. When the Word of God is being assimilated at an early age in goes on to bare fruit. As John Paul II said, “The Starting point for the monk is the Word of God, a Word who calls, who invites, who personally summons, as happened to the Apostles. When a person is touched by the Word obedience is born, that is, the listening which changes life”. (Orientale lumen 10).
     Eastern Christian families are called to the live the traditions that we find in Eastern monasteries. They are to understand themselves as the possible foundation for the journey into the fullness of Christian life, as lived in monasticism, to either their own children or to those whom they meet. The Hesychast is the fullest expression of Eastern Monasticism and in every way the Eastern Christian families are to be the” Hesychasts” who live in the world.
      The fullness of the Eastern Christian spirituality is always found in the monastic way of living. As it says in Orientale lumen 9 “When God's call is total, as it is in the monastic life, then the person can reach the highest point that sensitivity, culture and spirituality are able to express”. Looking to the monastery and to the hesychasts those who live in the world must appropriate to the best of their abilities this spirituality. This can be a difficult step, especially for big families, but it is what essential gives an Eastern Christian their spiritual identity.
     In all our attempts to bring the monastic into our ways of living the home of the Eastern Christian must become the domestic monastery. In this regard, Abbot Nicholas of the Holy Resurrection Monastery had this to say about how he saw this transition in the Eastern Christian home being revived “One of the most wonderful aspects of Eastern Catholic life over the past twenty years or so has been the rediscovery of this ascetic tradition in the hearts and homes of many individuals and families. The Philokalia is read. Fasts are kept, if not perfectly, at least more strictly. Icon corners are set up, the Jesus Prayer is said and people search out a good spiritual father or mother. All these are signs of an active embrace of the "practical" life of the Byzantine spiritual tradition.” As the Abbot witnessed these are some of the foundations that should be at the core of every Eastern Christian home.
     One of the greatest struggles in integrating monastic life into the home is bringing it down to the level of the child. If were honest with ourselves we know it’s not easy to live our traditions. There is a lot of resistance from the world, the enemy, and our own weaknesses. These difficulties are even more challenging for a child. In the world of a child they will only do what’s good for them by offering them something good. Much like we find in the world of food it is often been the trick of restaurants to offer “happy Meals” food with prizes in order to get the kids to eat.
     As a parent myself I know that there is a balance to using obedience and reward when it comes to the spiritual life. Like many daily disciplines, such as brushing ones teeth, kids won’t do it unless there told to. This is no different in the life of prayer. Parents should not be disappointed that their kids find prayer boring. As an adult I know that prayer is often ascetic and I can understand why children would say such things. However, through constant practice, like brushing ones teeth, the child picks up the good habit and learns that prayer is for their benefit.
     When it comes to the “happy meal” as parents we need to be creative in our efforts to teach children the foundations of Hesychasm. There are many ways we can make them feel rewarded by certain actions of spiritual effort. For example, kids love to be the leader of praying the Jesus prayer or leading the daily prayers. Sometimes you can even turn into a contest to see how long one can pray-kids love a challenge. There are many ways to show them that their contributions are pleasing to God and we must constantly remind them that God is happy with what they have given.
    Whatever state of life we find ourselves in we must understand the delicate balance between the home and the monastery. The Hesychast is the one at the heart of our Eastern Tradition as fullest expression of the monastic life. We are called to emulate the Hesychast and to incorporate to the best of our ability the “stillness of Jesus Christ” through the practice of our Eastern Spiritual Traditions. If you are an Eastern Christian parent you must guide your little ones into the spiritual traditions of the East by whatever means necessary “happy meal”. The Eastern Christian family is the foundation for monastic life the first step into a life of seeking stillness in Jesus Christ.

More from Abbot Nicholas’ document:
http://hrmonline.org/PDFs/Abbot_Nicholas'_paper_at_Orientale_Lumen_Conference_V,_2001.pdf
More from ORIENTALE LUMEN:
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_02051995_orientale-lumen_en.html

Hesychasm is for All

2010-10-18T19:01:00.000-04:00

     While one parent is trying to break up a wrestling match in the living room the other is at the office dealing with an irate customer. Both of their lives are filled with struggles and worry. Some might wonder if it’s even possible for such persons to have a deep connection to God.
     Sometimes people who live secular lives are faced with the temptation that only those in the monastery have access to developing intimacy with God. It is easy to get discouraged when you’re constantly faced with the challenges of the day. However, it’s a myth to think that the monastics go without their share of struggles and noise.
      Just like those who live outside of the monastery the monastics must learn how to confront the experiences that disturb ones frame of mind. Abba Moses speaking to the monks about life in the desert said “Just as it is impossible to stop a watermill from turning, although the miller has the power to choose between grinding either wheat or tares, so it is impossible to stop our mind, which is ever moving from having thoughts, although it is within our power to feed it either with spiritual meditation or with world concerns (Philokalia 1 pg98).”As Abba Moses points out the mind is always being disturbed and monastics must continually learn to focus their attention upon God throughout the day.
     Like the monastics people living in the world must learn how to confront each situation, good and bad, by learning how to involve God or as the Fathers call it “continual remembrance of God”. For both the monastic and those living in the world both are called to control their thoughts and focus on God. This one of the central themes in the tradition of Hesychasm. In fact, the Philokalia refers to the battle of controlling one’s mind and keeping attention upon God as “The science of sciences and art of arts (Philokalia 1 pg.183)”.
     With this understanding about the practice of Hesychasm we discover a gift that is for all. Even though the tradition has its roots in the monastery it was never meant to be an isolated form of spirituality. There has always been a delicate balance between the monastic and the non-monastic. However, in both ways of life we find the same tools that bring healing to the world.
     At the heart of the Hesychasm we find the cornerstone of Eastern Christian spirituality, which is the Prayer of the Heart. The Prayer of the Heart or Jesus Prayer is the central means of facilitating intimacy with Jesus Christ shared by both the monastic and non-monastic. In addition, we find the ascetic disciplines that surround the practice of the Jesus prayer shared by all in the Eastern Christian tradition.
     What distinguishes the monastic in the practice of Hesychasm is the dedication that is given to the practice. In the Eastern Christian tradition the monastics have the highest place of honor for it is their commitment to Hesychasm “stillness” that the greatest realization of Christian intimacy is experienced. In many ways they become the physicians to the rest of the Church who receive the healing they experienced. The healing that the monastics achieve in the battlefield of the monastic community or hermitage becomes truly a healing for the whole Church.
     Unlike the monastics those outside the monastery have a different commitment to Hesychasm “stillness”, which is achieved in the battlefield of “secular life”. Using the gifts of healing that they receive from the monastics those living in the secular world learn to develop intimacy with Jesus Christ and lead others into the same healing. This is where the balance between the monastery and the world, that I spoke of, is achieved.
     The most difficult challenge for us in the world is how to utilize Hesychasm in our everyday experience. It would be easy to say pray the Jesus Pray all the time, as we should, but it’s more challenging than that. The challenge is to learn how to make each day have meaning .St. Theodoros the Great Ascetic taught his monks to “work purposefully”. This is something we need to do in each day, making God the goal of our every effort.
     In addition to teaching us how to keep focused St. Theodoros also taught his followers about how Hesychasm is practiced,”This way of life ordained for those who live in stillness: fasting to the limit of one’s strength, vigils, sleeping on the ground…..prayer which is unceasing” (Philokalia 2 pg25).What he says about fasting (to the limit of one’s strength) needs to be the measure of how we incorporate all the ascetic disciplines that he spoke of.
     With these ascetic practices and making God the goal of one’s effort the parents that I spoke of, in the begining, can be seen in different light. The struggles that a person faces (wild offspring-irate customers ext.), whatever it might be, are ascetic opportunities to find God. Its all in how you respond to the situations and how live in the rest of the day. By practicing Hesychasm in the levels that we can we can discovery intimacy with Christ all day long.

Finding God in the Eastern Church

2010-10-15T11:05:00.003-04:00

     Walking into an Eastern Church shrine, for the first time, I was unaware of what was going to happen to me. Suddenly, it was as if I went from one reality into another. From my own shallow way of seeing God into a way that was far beyond and deeper than I could conceive. Immediately, I was brought to tears and could not stop the flow of desire in my heart for God.
    I will never forget the experience that I shared above. It started me on a journey to where I find myself now, in the Eastern Church. At the time I had been a fairly new Christian and in my arrogance I believed that I knew everything about God. However, the experience that took place showed me that there was so much more of the mystery of God to be “experienced”. This truth in my opinion is how the Eastern Church gives witness to God in the world.
     The witness of the Eastern Church says that God indeed can be experienced. Heaven is not something we need to wait for in order to meet God. The theology of the Eastern Church teaches that we encounter God now, not just in our ideas but in the body. In fact it’s through continual purification of the body and mind that we grow in a true experience of God.
     This experience of God, as the Easter Church teaches, is offered to all who call on the Lord Jesus Christ (Lord Jesus Chrsit,Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner). It is only in Christ that humanity and divinity became one. The Father gives full access to this union in Christ through the gift of the Holy Spirit. The gift that truly brings peace to the longings of the human heart.
     Beliefs and precepts about God are never enough. The longing of the human heart is not fulfilled with knowledge about God, it wants to experience God himself. In our time this is witnessed by how many young people in our culture get involved in the occult and new age practices. They are looking for something they can experience. Many of them have grown up in traditional Christian families but have never experienced the presence of God. Unfortunately, they try to find it elsewhere in false teachings.
     On another level we find the longing of the human heart in Christianity within the Pentecostal and charismatic movements. We find in them the desire to experience God on the level of the human emotions. These groups are often discredited by the more traditional followers of Christianity. However, those who cling to the traditional don’t seem to have the resources or answer to the longing that we see in these groups.
     Archimandrite Zacharias had a profound understanding of why the Christian movements, that I described above, developed and the same could be said about our young people who leave. He expressed that these things develop when people are “prevented from worshiping God from the heart (Hidden Man of the Heart pg.179)”. If the heart is not experiencing God it will either look for him in other religions or movements will be started within the church to find Him.
     The Archimandrite hoped that those searching would one day discover the riches from Jesus Christ in our tradition of Hesychasm. He said that he hoped they would discover, “The true unbroken Tradition of the Church, the Tradition of the Prayer of the Heart, which is the surest and humblest prayer in the edification, inspiration and salvation of man (Hidden Man of the Heart pg.180).” This Tradition that he speaks of is the center of what it means to be an Eastern Christian.
     We have so much to offer, as Eastern Christians, but we first need to discover and practice our traditions. In my own experience I encountered God in a way that I never thought I could. A way in which our Eastern tradition offers us to experience. God is looking for those who would be living shrines, like the one I visited, to carry his “Experience” into the world.
     This brings my point about finding God in the Eastern Church. The whole purpose of why I started this blog and the other resources that I provide is because I believe the Eastern Church has the answers to what the heart is looking for. We need a spiritual renewal in our Eastern Catholic churches. It begins by a return and practice of our “Eastern Traditions”.
     There is a method to my various discourses on tradition, or latinization. One person complained that I was not writing enough about spirituality. My only response to this is there will be no spirituality to offer if we lose the Traditions of our Fathers, the Traditions that reach the longing of the human heart.
     We need to begin on a grass roots level and start teaching, practicing, and promoting the Prayer of the Heart. The practice of the Jesus prayer and our tradition of Hesychasm are essential characteristics of what it means to be an Eastern Christian. Too often, at least from what I have seen, these elements are treated as private options.
     The Divine Liturgy or are Iconography, the things we are often praised for by the west, are just the outward realities of what is to be lived on the inside. If we are not living the Eastern Spirituality we are not fully reflecting the outward realties. There is a vision of God in the outward worship, a vision that has its roots within us.
     There is so much more of God to be experienced. Our Eastern Traditions invite us to this deeper experience every time we step into our Churches. God is waiting to be found in our Eastern Churches. First he wants those around us to find him in our own lives. Eastern Tradition begins with you and me.

Thank you for your interest the past 3months and for the 3000views. Please keep me in prayer.

The Imperial Overreach

2010-10-14T11:14:00.013-04:00

More responses to Alex      Alex struggles to understand what the Eastern Catholic recognizes in the authority of the pope and if the Orthodox really have any authority at all, and tries to make sense of why we don’t recognize Latin dogmas. Thanks for keeping me busy Alex.
     What is unfortunate in what we find coming from the western church is that there still are found those pushing for a middle ages type of papal imperialism. With the Pope (who they would have as emperor) as their starting point they then try to push a system of traditions and practices, on Eastern Christians, that takes no consideration of the patrimony of the East. Its seems they have only eyes for Rome and try to pass that which is Latin as the universal norm of all. As one Eastern Christian pointed out: this is no more than an “imperial overreach”.
      To begin to answer Alex I would like to draw attention to the imperial overreach in his thinking. He may not be doing this intentionally, but never the less, you find this “programming” even among our own ranks. Alex said that, “The Dogma of the Immaculate Conception likewise was proclaimed for all Christendom not just the West, I know that the East has no need of it as there is no systematic doctrine on original sin”. Alex, it’s not that we have no need of it or haven’t developed a system of Original sin. Rather, it’s the fact that it’s foreign to us. In fact, we do have a theological tradition concerning the first sin “ancestral sin” and we find in St. Gregory Palamas the system by which the Theotokos becomes the “all holy”.
     Like many he tries to understand why we dont use the Latin dogmas, under the shadow of the pope by trying to keep everything Catholic based on the pope.It truely is difficult for many to understand that our Tradtion is not dependent upon what goes on in the Latin tradtion and if it happens to be differnt its not because of how Alex put it: as not developed as the Latin Fathers. We have our own way of doing things and our own patrimony.
     Its comments like the one above that assume that just because the pope proclaimed something-- automatically makes it for all Christendom. Well, all of Christendom is not Latin. Eastern Catholics recognize many of the papal teachings and dogmatic postions as being totally valid and true but representing the Latin Tradtion. The dogma Alex made a statement about has nothing to do with the Eastern tradtion and does not represent Eastern patrimony.
     Furthermore, Alex claimed that the heart of the issue is that the Roman Pontiff is the universal pastor, Vicar of Christ, and that no other bishop has authority unless united with him (as he took concepts from Lumen Gentium 22). The questions that an Eastern Christian might ask Alex are: If the pope goes into heresy who will then have the authority to correct him since authority rests on him? When there were multiple popes at one time in the history of the church did the bishops that followed the wrong one no longer have the authority? When the pope visits the ecumenical patriarch does he not recognize his authority? Here again is a dogmatic position that is foreign to the patrimony of the East, one which the Melkite fathers of Vatican II, metioning the same statments as Alex, saw as leading to abuse, an “imperial overreach”.
     When it comes to papal primacy Eastern Catholics have always understood it as part of Eastern Tradition, even infallibility. However, the centralization of the Roman pontiff has always been a great concern. Our tradition has developed a fuller vision in the area of collegiality. Authority in our tradition comes from Christ, all bishops have a universal role in governing the church, and all bishops are vicars of Christ. The pope has a special role as head, but the head never works above our outside the rest of the bishops.The emphasis you put on Lumen Gentium 22 does not fully reflect our tradition and never will. If it did there would be no need for the popes to seek a fuller understanding of papal primacy, “one that will work for the whole Church”.
     As for the comments that the Orthodox only recognizes the pope as honorable position; I would say this is often an exaggeration. One might ask those bishops that are under the ecumenical patriarch: is this for honor status or canonical protection? You will always have extreme prejudice on both sides. However, the comment that Alex presented could best be answered by the Orthodox Metropolitan John Zizioulas of Pergamum. He believes in a universal primacy but not the kind that most Roman Catholics would have. He says the following: "A universal primus exercising his primacy in such a way is not only useful to the Church but an ecclesiological necessity in a unified Church."
     Also, I would like to add for Alex to help him understand how many Eastern Catholics understand an exercise of infallibility, that is also found in the Metropolitans statements: …"the universal primacy of the Church of Rome would mean in the first instance that the Bishop of Rome will be in cooperation on all matters pertaining to the Church as a whole with the existing patriarchs and other heads of autocephalous churches. His primacy would be exercised in communion, not in isolation or directly over the entire Church. He would be the President of all heads of churches and the spokesman of the entire Church once the decisions announced are the result of consensus."
     I would like to thank Alex for his concerns. I would also thank him for demonstrating something that exists in our own Eastern Churches the “imperial overreach”. Much of which exists out of innocence, ignorance, or being afraid of losing what it means to be Catholic. However, we need to speak out against these abuses.
     We are called to be a bridge of unity between Orthodox and Catholic and not a mutilated form of Eastern Christianity. As an Orthodox friend pointed our recently: do we expect the Orthodox to take seriously talks of reunion when the Eastern Churches in union with Rome are forbidden to practice or have forgotten their traditions. Eastern Catholics are not second rate citizens of the kingdom of God we must speak out against the continued imperial overreach into our traditions..

Metropolitan John Zizioulas statements were taken from:
http://orthodoxwiki.org/John_%28Zizioulas%29_of_Pergamon

To further understand more on the Melkite Fathers at the council read my post:
http://easterncatholicspiritualrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/09/toward-new-dogma-of-universal-primacy.html

Being True to Who We Are

2010-10-13T10:57:00.002-04:00

A response to Alex
Alex put forward a few things in a recent comment: Why ambiguity towards the pope and infallibility? Have the Orthodox been right for the past thousand years? What about the credibility of the Roman councils?

     The Pope recently urged Eastern Catholics to conserve their identity(link to document). The question that one might derive from this is: why would he ask us to do such a thing, if we were already doing this? The fact is, there are many Eastern Catholics that have yet to put this in action, especially in understanding the things you mentioned.
     The ambiguity you mentioned comes from the beliefs of many conservative Eastern Catholics. However, the true ambiguity is from those in the Western tradition, who don’t understand our Traditions. The councils that you mentioned for some Eastern Catholics would not fully be ecumenical, like bishop Zoghby, because they are based purely on a Latin vision of the Church.
     In fact, you will find that many Orthodox have no problems with the dogmas you mentioned. What they do have a problem with is abusive interpretations of them, which sometimes make the pope above the church itself. Papal infallibly is consistent with early tradition as long as it included the rest of the bishops, not just the pope. Infallibility is understood as a gift of the whole Church. Consequently, Eastern Catholics do not adhere to infallible dogmas like the Immaculate Conception. We recognize it as a formulation of Latin theology and foreign to our patrimony.
     It’s not a matter of as how you put it “for a thousand years the Roman Church was wrong and the Orthodox was right”. Rather, it’s a matter of how both theological traditions understand the councils or dogmas. As John Paul II taught in ORIENTALE LUMEN there are even at times when we find one tradition coming closer to a fuller appreciation of certain aspects of revelation than the other.
     With this in mind the John Paul II taught in Ut Unum Sint that there needs to be new way of exercising primacy, which is even emphasized in the current papacy. Eastern Catholics agree with this teaching. The Fathers of our churches never denied the role of the papacy. However, the Fathers have always opposed the abuse and exaggeration of the teachings.
     Even though the pope makes such comments as these and the current ones about conserving our traditions, we are forced to ask: are Roman Catholics truly ready to recognize our views on the papacy? The Patriarch Gregory III of the Melkite Church once said, “The difficulty lies in the fact that Rome is not ready to accept the genuine rights of the Eastern Catholic Churches as proclaimed by Vatican II.”
     On the one hand we are told to end latinization and on the other hand we find criticism of being too “Orthodox”. Are we to become as some Orthodox criticize us of as being Roman Catholics in Eastern clothes? I think not! Patriarch Gregory III also said that Eastern Catholics should, “have to speak up, to discover the real Eastern ecclesiology and to develop it, and help the Western mentality to mature in that regard.”
     Eastern Catholics have an obligation to be “Eastern” and we are not to back down. We are not a half way house between East and West. Part of being Eastern is recognizing the role of the pope without losing what it means to be Eastern. If the pope in his recent comments wants us to be true to our traditions, then we need to “speak up”.

Quotations from Patriarch Gregory III were taken from Dr. Joel I. Barstad, research:
http://www.imageandword.com/agc/2009/04/is-the-ratzinger-proposal-dead/

Living the Zoghby Initiative

2010-10-12T12:10:00.003-04:00

Recently, leaders from the Eastern and Western Church got together to make progress toward full reunion. During this meeting many people recalled the pope’s comment in the past of his willingness to return to a papacy of the fist millennium, even though what the pope said was not an official statement.
There are many who see the return to the faith of the first millennium as the answer. When he was Bishop Elias Zoghby of the Melkite Church proposed that we start living like it’s the first millennium now. His beliefs were accepted by many of the faithful and still are being practiced today. He proposed a profession of faith that many of us Eastern Catholics adhere to:

Profession of Faith

1. I believe everything which Eastern Orthodoxy teaches.

2. I am in communion with Rome as the first among the bishops,

According to the limits recognized by the Holy Fathers of the East

during the first millennium, before the separation.

     Basically, the Bishop sought for the possibility of reestablishing communion with the Orthodox in stages. His vision basically lays the ground work for double communion. A communion where Eastern Catholics would truly become the bridge between the East and the West.
     In the Bishop’s teachings Eastern Catholics could be truly what they are called to be “Orthodox in communion with Rome”. His proposals even won the approval of the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Biblos and Batroun, George Khodr, who said "I consider this profession by Kyr Elias Zoghby to fulfill the necessary and sufficient conditions to re-establish the unity of the Orthodox Churches with Rome."
     Unfortunately, with the rejection by many of those in authority his initiatives remain on the grass roots level in both the Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches. It’s not to uncommon that you will find Eastern Catholics, that have no Eastern Catholic Church around, going to Orthodox Churches and receiving communion and vice versa. Many of us on the grass roots level are hoping and praying that those in charge will commit all their energies to making full union a reality.
     If we wait for the people on the top it might be another 1000 years of separation. During the next 1000 years, just like the previous, both sides will continue to develop in ways in which there can be no reconciliation. As Bishop Elias Zoghby said, "to prolong the schism is to remain in sin.".
     In hearing what his grace has said it’s easy to lay blame on those who have the authority in the Church. However, St. Isaac of Syria said “Do not hate a sinner, for we all are to be responsible .”.Looking at this wisdom we all must take responsibility for the divisions in the Church. We have all opened the door to sin either voluntarily or involuntarily. Consequently, the failure of one part of the body affects the whole (see1cor.12:26).
     Since we all are responsible for the divisions in the Church we must all work to heal it. House wives, theologians, monks, and hermits all have a part to play in healing the Church. If one part of the body effects the whole in a negative way it can also effect it in a positive way. Every spiritual effort we make is a contribution to the healing of the schism.
     In a practical way we must apply the spiritual effort to acts of brotherly love. We must live as if there is no schism. If we are both united to Jesus Christ I am obligated to treat you as such. If one church refuses to give you communion, my communion with you is not diminished. As Bishop Elias Zoghby pointed out, Eastern Catholics share the same faith as the Orthodox. As a result, we share the same Jesus.
     On a more internal level we must be regularly offering prayers for healing of the schism. We often pray for the ones we love in our physical families, we should pray even more for the healing of our spiritual family. In fact, we should set aside times of fasting and prayer for this very purpose.
     We must realize that we are all pieces to the great mystery of the Church. When he was with us Bishop Elias Zoghby was a real pioneer for healing the Church. As Eastern Catholics we need to recognize who we are and live the Zoghby Initiative.

All quotations and information is based on the articles in: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoghby_Initiative

Eastern Catholic Parents on a Pilgrimage

2010-10-10T16:20:00.001-04:00

     Today, I thought I would share from my experiences of the pilgrimage that my family and I recently went on. For the past 10 years I have traveled to St. Augustine, FL where I had a spiritual awaking at the shrine of St. Photios in the historic downtown area. In addition, this year the Byzantine Catholics of the south had their annual pilgrimage to the Byzantine Catholic shrine located near America’s oldest chapel. At the pilgrimage our bishop gave my wife and I a blessing since we are celebrating over 10 years of marriage. He also blessed our five children who participated in the pilgrimage with us.
      One of the reasons why I felt like sharing about these personal things is because I would like to demonstrate how the traditions of our Eastern Church fathers fit into modern families, like my own. Sometimes people are tempted to think that only the monastics can truly live the traditions of our Church, which is not true. Even though I am not a spiritual master I find that “practicing” our Eastern Traditions gives meaning to all aspects of life.
     If you have children you might be aware of the difficulty in caring for them and teaching them how to behave. Never the less, God can be found in every aspect of the family. In fact, God chooses the struggles in families to be a means of finding intimacy with Himself. As I learned in my pilgrimage.
     Walking into the shrine of St. Photios the presence of God began to speak to my heart. Suddenly, this all went to flight when looking down I saw my 3 year old was reaching out to grab a candle from the offerings of light. To this I quickly reacted saving him from a burnt hand but I lost the feelings that were speaking to my heart. This was the beginning of many struggles in our pilgrimage.
     Later, at a vigil with my fellow Byzantine Catholics I was barely able to stand from chronic arthritis, having to carrying two little ones, and helping the other children to maintain good behavior. In this I found myself at the point of asking for mercy. The mercy that I was seeking was for my desire not to be at the Holy place. My mind was far from worship and I felt that it was difficult to give God the participation in my heart. It was supposed to be a night of peace and joy. However, the pilgrimage became for me a real struggle to worship.
     At the end of night I was speaking with my oldest about the events and the struggles to behave and stay awake. I told her that I knew it was difficult to worship when you’re tired but we must learn to find God in the struggle. This is what it means to sacrifice and to truly give. This was something that I was learning still myself.
     It would be practical not to bring my children at all. However, God gave them to me to learn his ways. Being a parent is a path to holiness. Holiness does not come easy and parents know the struggles that I described above. However these struggles are a means to developing spirituality as St. Hesychios teaches, “Unexpected trials are sent by God to teach us to practice the ascetic life. (Philokalia 1 pg.176)."
     As the saint described above God was teaching me to make ascetic actions in the struggles I faced. They were actions to bring his presence into the events, instead of trying to avoid the situations with mental flight or physical escape. In essence, I was in the process of learning how to find him in all things.
     Our tradition of watchfulness, which means keeping the mind free from those things that distract us from God, is not learned by avoiding life. Watchfulness and being aware of the presence of the Lord comes at the price of self sacrifice. In my situation I was faced with some difficult circumstances where God was inviting me to pay that price.
     With this in mind, St. Diadochos’ teaching comes to mind,” When we have purified ourselves by closer attentiveness, then with a fuller experience of God we shall attain what we desire. (Philokalia 1 pg.259).” What the saint is teaching us is that the way we respond to situations needs to be purified. When we begin to turn to God in all things we will find the peace that only he can give.
     We might think it’s natural to run away from pain and embrace pleasure. In fact, this is what we do on a daily basis. The truth is, even in what is good for us, which might be difficult, we find the physical body often present and the mind in another place. In our Eastern tradition of Watchfulness we learn how to keep the mind in its proper place in all struggles. In addition, by eliminating the fantasy of being free from pain we learn how to bring God into every moment.
     It might be easier for us to pray when no one’s around. In fact we should learn to cultivate these moments in the day. However, there are times we must leave the prayer closet and engage the world and fill it with presence of Jesus Christ. Watchfulness and continually invoking the name of Jesus are ways our tradition teaches us to fill the world with God’s presence. In my personal journey I’m still learning to do these things. Things that are not just for the monastic, or priest, but for everyone-especially moms and dads .

Latinization and Secularization-“Where is Jesus?”

2010-10-07T08:35:00.002-04:00

     Looking at some of the latinization that exists in our Eastern Catholic churches we find that most of it comes from a personal choice rather than a pressure from Rome. In the past pressure from Rome could be justified but no longer. The only latinization that we see currently is of our own doing.
     What truly grieves pastors in Eastern Catholic parishes is when some of their flock decides to go all Latin. In some cases transferring rites can be justified, especially if you find that God has called you to do so. However, most of time this happens, in my opinion, is because they were not living Eastern spirituality in the first place. This seems to be an ongoing problem in our churches.
     If things don’t change its possible that most of the flock could eventually become Roman Catholic. Consequently, our churches will not be able to sustain themselves due to lack of involvement. This will eventually lead them to close, which is happening now. As result, those faithful to their Eastern Catholic churches will have to find new places of worship, either in the nearest Orthodox Church or Roman Catholic one.
     Even though latinization plays a factor in those leaving our churches it is not the underline problem. Rather, it’s the secularization of our Christian identity that leads people to think that spirituality is an optional practice. The ideology of our culture teaches that it does not matter how you worship God as long as you’re a good citizen. In my estimation this is some of the fuel behind not only the prevalence of latinization but a lack of intimacy with the Lord himself.
     If my secular status determines the actions of my spirituality I have just forsaken the faith of my Fathers. The secularization of our spirituality gives fuel to sustained latinization. It also becomes a mask to what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. There can be no development in intimacy with Jesus Christ as long is it’s done on societies terms. This is what we find is common practice in our churches and why many leave.
     There is no way that someone would forsake the traditions of their spiritual Fathers if they are being nourished spiritually by them. They either were never taught them or they just don’t matter. In the case of being called to another tradition you take the intimacy that you have received with you and build upon another. Unfortunately, what we see going on in our churches today pertains to spirituality rather than ritual reform. When the people return to seeking intimacy with Jesus Christ then we will see an end to latinization.
     Renewal then must began with a “New Evangelization”, which John Paul II said is not new in content but in energies. We must begin afresh to live the traditions of our Fathers in a contemporary setting. Instead of trying to get others to follow our Eastern traditions we must first live them ourselves without compromise. This calls for us to stop watering things down or delegating the spirituality to others. Every Eastern Christian is called to live the spirituality of their Fathers and this is no option.Only when this happens it can be passed on to others
     Sometimes people are tempted to think that having a deep relationship with God is only possible for the priest or the monastic. In fact this kind of temptation is reinforced by social thinking leaving the responsibility “for all” to find intimacy with Christ to others. It’s easy to buy into this deception because following the teachings of Christ requires us to follow a narrow way. The call to develop intimacy with Jesus Christ is not an option. Would you tell someone you’re married to that you will only spend time with them a few hours a week? This obviously won’t work for a marriage let alone a relationship with God.
     Some might even think that the traditions of our Fathers are too hard and should be left in the monastery or the parish. St. Diadochos of Photiki said, “the path of virtue seems very rough and forbidding. (Philokalia 1 pg.291)”.He goes on to say it’s not hard to follow God but we are accustomed to seeking earthly pleasures and this is why it’s difficult. In many ways we are like those struggling with drug addictions. In the life of an addict you find that the addiction is all that matters. Even though it’s destroying personal relationships the addict refuses to give up his pleasure even at the cost of the loved ones.
     Is spiritual recovery even possible for those immersed in the world? St. John of Karpathos says yes, “The Scriptures testify that if a man still under the sway of the passions believes humbly yet with all his heart, he will receive the gift of dispassion (Philokalia 1 pg301)”According to the saint we can be free to seek God if we become honest with ourselves and truly expresses a desire and need for intimacy with God. I recall a Saint of the Western Church that once said “all we have to do is ask”. God is waiting and willing to lead us into a life of intimacy in the Holy Spirit.
     If we want to see latinization end we must end the secularization of our lives. The Lord Jesus Christ wants to be seen in the lives of every one that claims his name. This has to be done on His terms not our own. The spirituality of our Eastern tradition gives us the means to develop the intimacy that Christ is calling us to. When people see Jesus Christ in a lived tradition they will want it to. They will no longer be looking for substitutions because they will have the well spring of eternal life.

Hope or Insanity

2010-10-06T10:20:00.006-04:00

     There will always be times in our lives when we have to look beyond ourselves. There is no escape from this. We either must chose to look beyond or face insanity. In most cases we try to distract ourselves from these decisions but it won’t be avoided forever.
     Looking back at the times before I followed the teachings of Christ I remember having faced a choice of exercising hope or going insane. If I did not have knowledge about God I probably would have found myself in the latter. There were a few occasions when I had experienced a great sense of hopelessness.
     It was as if a great darkness swallowed me up and told me life had no meaning and that I had no meaning. There was nowhere to hide from this experience I could either give in or fight it. Even though I was not yet a follower of the teachings of Christ I was still able to utilize hope in him. It was the hope that said this feeling was wrong and that there was meaning to life.
      This description seems weak in compassion to the experience. However, I might not be writing about this if I did not aggressively “hope”. Even though the feeling passed it came back on opportune occasions and still the violent exercise of hope in God prevailed.
     When I became a follower of Christ this confrontation still found occasions to plague me. It seemed even more complex now that I lived a life in the Spirit. The complexity that developed was related to my service to God. On some occasions of great efforts in service the dark experience tried to get me to run away from what I was doing for the Lord. I knew if I didn’t fight this it would lead me away from God.
     Looking at the Philokalia I later learned that this experience was a battle with the demonic power of dejection. St. John Cassian said this about the demon of dejections attack on the soul, “he leaves it senseless and paralyzed, tied and bound by its despairing thoughts. (Philokalia 1 pg. 87)”This was exactly how I felt and if I had not by the goodness of God persisted in hope I would have probably ended up in a clinic.
     Unlike, what the Fathers teach us. We sometimes forget that we are in a battle against demonic forces, which are pretty much part of our daily struggle. I remember a priest once said, “If you haven’t met the devil yet you must not be serving the Lord”. His point was that all who seek intimacy with Jesus Christ will experience the oppositions from the evil one.
     This truth does not discount the psychological or neurological sciences that help heal the human condition. In fact, you would hope Christians in these fields would be well armed to see the full picture of human health both physically and spiritually. With this in mind, the Fathers of the Eastern Church give full emphasis to the mask behind the struggles we face in the 'mind", which sometimes can even be on a clinical level.
     It was St. Hesychios the Priest that gave us the phrase, “The science of sciences and art of arts is the mastery of evil thoughts (Philokalia 1 pg.183)”. In Eastern Christian spirituality there can be found a therapeutic way of healing the human condition, since all our struggles stem from Ancestral sin. The Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos once said, “By adhering to Orthodox therapeutic treatment as conceived by the Holy Fathers of the Church man can cope successfully with the thoughts (logismoi) and thus solve his problems completely and comprehensively. (Orthodox Psychotherapy pg.12)”. The Metropolitan has a real grasp on Eastern spirituality as a means of healing the human condition. In his teaching he emphasizes that Eastern theology itself is a means of healing.
     Sometimes people are unaware of the teachings of our Fathers or even discount them as primitive. However, sometimes even in the clinical field there will be those that the doctors can’t seem to help. For instance, one time there was this teenager that I met in my younger years. She had been one of the few young people in Michigan to receive shock treatment for cronic depression. When she was introduced to the teachings of Jesus Christ she found a way to deal with what was going on inside and no longer needed the shock therapy.
     In our healing we find that Hope is one of the greatest gifts to humanity from God. He never leaves us without hope, even in great failure. In fact, when our ancestors sinned in the Garden the Lord offered them hope in the condition that they found themselves(Gen 3:15).It was hope like this that made St. Seraphim say, “All those having firm hope in God are raised to Him and enlightened with the radiance of eternal light.”With such hope we can face any struggle no matter how difficult and find the healing that God is offering to humanity.

We must remember that healing is an ongoing experience. Also, we must remember that the enemy is always looking for opportunities to attack us. There are many ways God has granted us to find healing, much of which comes from mental health professionals. In my own testimony I found strength in the teachings of our tradition. Through the struggles we face He has always given us the way to hold the crosses we must endure—“HOPE”.