Alexandros Lordos

@poperespecter1 Original text of St. Cyril's fifth mystagogical catechism, which the author you quoted was summarizing, can be found here: CHURCH FATHERS: Catechetical Lecture 23 (Cyril of Jerusalem) share.google/73lfFdIZ6sy1gf…

@poperespecter1 Does your Novus Ordo have the prayer for the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the holy gifts? I suspect not, as this is a long-standing difference between Eastern Orthodox Churches and Rome, even before the schism. The Orthodox Liturgy is exactly as Cyril describes, to this day.

I was reading a book on the early church (written in 1915) and came across this paragraph regarding the liturgy of the 4th century. It reads exactly like the Novus Ordo liturgy. The Novus Ordo is not new it is in many ways more ancient than most other liturgies.

@DracoReformans We have Christ's example guiding us in this. He didn't hesitate to point out false beliefs of Saduccees and Pharisees. He did this not to condemn them, but to help them see the truth. This became the ethos of the Church, from the Apostles to the early Fathers, and to this day.

@DracoReformans Having said that, the Orthodox ethos is vigilant to point out when a spiritual belief is false, and do so with pastoral concern. We do not consider it to be loving, to enable any and all beliefs, for the sake of avoiding conflict.

For those of you considering Orthodoxy Just realize that once a year you will have to curse and anathematize all of your Protestant or Catholic relatives, friends, and neighbors… simply for disagreeing with the EO teaching. The document is called the synodikon. Look it up

Go to your ChatGPT and send this prompt: “Create an image of how I treat you”. Share your image result. 😂

@TaylorRMarshall As for childrens' morals: This is NOT an impediment to priesthood. If a priest's child falls into a dissolute life, this becomes cause for more intense prayer and paternal / pastoral sensitivity, beginning at home.

@TaylorRMarshall I know many good (Orthodox) priests with 5 or more children. They look after them like any father would, and their sacrifice prepares them for pastoral duties. They get a decent Church salary (in trad Orthodox countries) so they can raise their family AND be full-time Priests.

Imagine if we had married Catholic priests: The Catholic priest who followed church teaching and rejected contraception as an evil would have a wife AND 4-12 children! Who pays for those 14 people? And y'all get mad about second collections….. Moreover, Paul says that if a child of a cleric becomes unfaithful to Christ, then this renders that minister unworthy of office. So imagine having a great priest but his daughter rejects the faith and so he's sidelined. We don't want this. Clerical celibacy is prudent and commendable. Be wise.

@TaylorRMarshall As for the Roman practice of only celibate priesthood, I always felt this was due to pragmatic concerns of the medieval era - to prevent nepotism and corruption in the priesthood. It was never about theology, and maybe you should rethink if the practice is still helpful today.

@TaylorRMarshall Thus, at every Liturgy, the whole congregation - priest and laity - is adequately free from materialist desires to "lift up our hearts unto the Lord" and "make the holy offering in Peace". No need for priests to be more abstinent than the rest, when all are held a high standard.

Catholics believe priests must not engage in intercourse because priests OFFER SACRIFICE. They are not mere “preachers.” In the Bible, offering sacrifice requires continence.

@Sola_Requiem I think this conflict between East and West occurred because the East was more immersed in Johannine / Cappadocian theology, which developed sophisticated Triadology by 350 AD. In contrast, Rome had been stronger in Christology, as demonstrated by Pope Leo I at Chalcedon.

@Sola_Requiem In our understanding, the Son and the Spirit mutually enable each other's work for the salvation of humanity, while both have their origin in the Father, one begotten, and the other proceeding. But, the Father gives all to the Son, so the Father's spirit becomes the Son's spirit.

The Filioque is true.

@elladeonRH @LizzieMarbach This, in fact, was preserved in early cultural memory: Hegesippus, writing in early 2nd century, also asserts that Joseph and Cleopas were brothers, which would make James and Joses first cousins of Jesus. Draw it as a family tree, and it will all make sense.

@elladeonRH @LizzieMarbach Mary of Cleopas, the mother of James, is clearly identified in the bible as the sister of Mary, mother of Jesus. Because it is implausible that two biological sisters got the same name, it is more likely they were sisters in law, and that Joseph and Cleopas were brothers.

The Bible says that James, Jude, Simon, and Joseph were the brothers of Jesus. And context makes it incredibly clear they are speaking about biological brothers here.

@LizzieMarbach Furthermore, Jesus not following his family from Jerusalem back to Galilee at age 12 is inconsistent with him having younger biological siblings. If he did, he would have been responsible for them, and his absence would have been noticed immediately.

@LizzieMarbach There is more biblical context to consider: James and Judas are later identified as having another biological mother, Mary of Cleopas. Our Lord asks John to take Mary in as his mother, an unlikely request if she had other biological children.