Podcasts about orthodox churches

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 22, 2024 Transcription Available

Full Text of ReadingsTuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 474The Saint of the day is Saint John Paul IISaint John Paul II's Story “Open wide the doors to Christ,” urged John Paul II during the homily at the Mass where he was installed as pope in 1978. Born in Wadowice, Poland, Karol Jozef Wojtyla had lost his mother, father, and older brother before his 21st birthday. Karol's promising academic career at Krakow's Jagiellonian University was cut short by the outbreak of World War II. While working in a quarry and a chemical factory, he enrolled in an “underground” seminary in Kraków. Ordained in 1946, he was immediately sent to Rome where he earned a doctorate in theology. Back in Poland, a short assignment as assistant pastor in a rural parish preceded his very fruitful chaplaincy for university students. Soon Fr. Wojtyla earned a doctorate in philosophy and began teaching that subject at Poland's University of Lublin. Communist officials allowed Wojtyla to be appointed auxiliary bishop of Kraków in 1958, considering him a relatively harmless intellectual. They could not have been more wrong! Bishop Wojtyla attended all four sessions of Vatican II and contributed especially to its Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. Appointed as archbishop of Kraków in 1964, he was named a cardinal three years later. Elected pope in October 1978, he took the name of his short-lived, immediate predecessor. Pope John Paul II was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. In time, he made pastoral visits to 124 countries, including several with small Christian populations. John Paul II promoted ecumenical and interfaith initiatives, especially the 1986 Day of Prayer for World Peace in Assisi. He visited Rome's main synagogue and the Western Wall in Jerusalem; he also established diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Israel. He improved Catholic-Muslim relations, and in 2001 visited a mosque in Damascus, Syria. The Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, a key event in John Paul's ministry, was marked by special celebrations in Rome and elsewhere for Catholics and other Christians. Relations with the Orthodox Churches improved considerably during his papacy. “Christ is the center of the universe and of human history” was the opening line of John Paul II's 1979 encyclical, Redeemer of the Human Race. In 1995, he described himself to the United Nations General Assembly as “a witness to hope.” His 1979 visit to Poland encouraged the growth of the Solidarity movement there and the collapse of communism in central and eastern Europe 10 years later. John Paul II began World Youth Day and traveled to several countries for those celebrations. He very much wanted to visit China and the Soviet Union, but the governments in those countries prevented that. One of the most well-remembered photos of John Paul II's pontificate was his one-on-one conversation in 1983, with Mehmet Ali Agca, who had attempted to assassinate him two years earlier. In his 27 years of papal ministry, John Paul II wrote 14 encyclicals and five books, canonized 482 saints and beatified 1,338 people. In the last years of his life, he suffered from Parkinson's disease and was forced to cut back on some of his activities. Pope Benedict XVI beatified John Paul II in 2011, and Pope Francis canonized him in 2014. Reflection Before John Paul II's funeral Mass in St. Peter's Square, hundreds of thousands of people had waited patiently for a brief moment to pray before his body, which lay in state inside St. Peter's for several days. The media coverage of his funeral was unprecedented. Presiding at the funeral Mass, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger—then dean of the College of Cardinals and later Pope Benedict XVI—concluded his homily by saying: “None of us can ever forget how, in that last Easter Sunday of his life, the Holy Father, marked by suffering, came once more to the window of the Apostolic Palace and one last time gave his blessing urbi et orbi (‘to the city and to the world'). “We can be sure that our beloved pope is standing today at the window of the Father's house, that sees us and blesses us. Yes, bless us, Holy Father. We entrust your dear soul to the Mother of God, your Mother, who guided you each day and who will guide you now to the glory of her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.” Learn more about Saint John Paul II! Saint of the Day, Copyright Franciscan Media

St Maxim (Sandovich), martyr of Lemkos, Czechoslovakia (1914)

Reason and Theology Show – Reason and Theology

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 6, 2024

St Maxim was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1888. At this time all Orthodox Churches had been captured and subjected to the "Unia," by which, though keeping the Orthodox liturgical rites, they were united to the Roman Catholic Church. Many of the Carpatho-Russian people were ignorant of the change and what it meant; others were unhappy with it but, in their subject condition, saw no alternative. Maxim's farmer parents, at great personal sacrifice, obtained an education for him that enabled him to study for the priesthood at the Basilian seminary in Krakow. Here he discerned the un-Orthodox nature of the "Greek Catholic" training there and traveled to Russia, where he became a novice at the Great Lavra of Pochaev and met Archbishop Anthony (Khrapovitsky), who encouraged him in his quest for Orthodoxy. (Archbishop Anthony, after the Russian Revolution, became the first Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad). He entered seminary in Russia in 1905 and was ordained to the Priesthood in 1911.Metropolitan Anthony, knowing the hardships and persecutions that awaited any Orthodox priest in Austro-Hungary, offered to find Maxim a parish in Russia. But Maxim was already aware of the hunger for Orthodoxy among many of the Carpatho-Russian people; several people from his village had travelled to America and while there had attended Orthodox Churches and confessed to Orthodox priests. They begged him to return to his country and establish an Orthodox parish there. When he returned to his native village of Zhdynia, the polish authorities, seeing him in the riassa, beard and uncut hair of an Orthodox priest, mocked him, saying "Look, Saint Nicholas has come to the Carpathians!" But the people of nearby Hrab sent a delegation asking him to set up an Orthodox parish in their village. This he did, setting up a house-church in the residence that the people gave him. Almost immediately, he and his people began to be harassed and persecuted, first at the instigation of "Greek Catholic" priests, then of the government. His rectory/church was closed, and he and several of his parishioners were repeatedly jailed, sometimes on trumped-up charges of sedition. (The Carpatho-Russian people were always suspected of pro-Russian political sympathies by the Austrian and Polish authorities). Despite these persecutions, through Fr Maxim's labors a wave of desire for Orthodoxy spread through the region, with many Carpatho-Russians openly identifying themselves as Orthodox. The government issued orders to regional mayors to forbid those who had identified themselves as Orthodox to gather and, in 1913, appointed a special commissioner whose task was to force the people to return to Catholicism. In 1914, war broke out between Russia and Austro-Hungary. Despite lack of any evidence that Fr Maxim had engaged in pro-Russian political activity — he once said "My only politics is the Gospel" — he was arrested and executed on September 6 by the Papal calendar, August 24 by the Church Calendar. He was denied any form of Church burial, and his father buried him with his own hands. Following the First World War, Orthodoxy became legal in the new Polish Republic, and a monument was placed over Fr Maxim's grave in his home town of Zhdynia. In 1994, the Orthodox Church of Poland officially glorified St Maxim.

Lutherans and Orthodox Team Up in Join Statement

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 2, 2024

Michael Lofton examines the case of the Lutheran World Federation and some Orthodox Churches signing off a joint statement concerning the filioque.

theology statement reason catholicism reformed orthodox team up orthodoxy lutherans lofton ybarra orthodox churches lutheran world federation

Orthodoxy and Ecumenism: St. Justin Popovic's Reply to the Serbian Bishops

Brooklyn's Dad Talks About EVERYTHING

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 14, 2024 18:27

In addition to St. Justin Popovic's piercing theological clarity, this text offers us three significant examples: 1) The Serbian Hierarchs humbly asked a priest for his thoughts before making their decision 2) This priest, St. Justin, responded boldly and clearly 3) The Serbian Hierarchs followed his advice. All this is regarding a most tempting and powerful heresy attacking the Orthodox Church today: Ecumenism. -READ the text here: https://www.orthodoxethos.com/post/orthodoxy-and-ecumenism-an-orthodox-appraisal-and-testimony 0:00 Begin 0:11 Introduction and Historical Context by Bishop 7:17 Quote from Bishop Athanasius Yevtich on St. Justin not breaking communion with the local Churches 8:39 St. Justin's reply to the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church -BUY “The Orthodox Church and Ecumenism” by St. Justin: https://lazarica.co.uk/bookshop/ -BUY "Orthodox Faith and Life in Christ" by St. Justin: https://ibmgs.org/miscellaneous.html -LISTEN to more recordings by Orthodox Wisdom of St. Justin's teachings: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzFKi22k2KYgxvJMJchHwGAWGZebY0s2s -FIND an Orthodox parish and monastery near you: https://orthodoxyinamerica.org/ _______ St. Justin writes: The Church of Christ has defined her stand towards heretics— and all non-Orthodox are heretics—once and for all through the Holy Apostles and the Holy Fathers, namely, through the Holy Theanthropic Tradition, which is unique and immutable. In keeping with this stand, Orthodox are forbidden to engage in joint prayer or liturgical communion with heretics. Was it really necessary for the Orthodox Church, the all-immaculate Theanthropic Body and organism of the God-Man Christ, to be so monstrously humiliated that Her theological representatives, including even Hierarchs (among whom were also Serbs), should seek after “organic” participation and inclusion in the World Council of Churches, which thus becomes a new ecclesiastical “organism,” a “new Church” above the churches, of which the Orthodox Church and non-Orthodox churches are merely “members,” “organically” joined to each other? Alas, an unprecedented betrayal! Orthodox theologians should participate not in “ecumenical joint prayers,” but in theological dialogues in the Truth and about the Truth, as the Holy and God-bearing Fathers have done throughout the ages. _______ Bishop Athanasius Yevtich writes: “We were closely acquainted with the Blessed Father Justin and we know that he had never broke communion with any of the Orthodox Churches or a Bishop or a Patriarch, not even with the Serbian Patriarch Germans (1958-1990—as some "zealots "shamelessly lie—not even when the Patriarch Ger-manos was one of the "presidents of WCC" (a formal and honorary title without any binding conditions or duties as indeed was the participation of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the WCC). As a free and responsible member of the Church of Christ, Justin prophetically reproved and, when necessary, criticized in written form (having written a couple of criticism letters to Patriarch Germans and the Synod, inter alia, the letters pertaining to superficial western ecumenism). But on no account did he ever create a schism, but on the contrary used to say: “Schisms are easily made but they are enormously difficult to heal.” -Notes on Ecumenism, pp. 36-37 _______ Orthodox Wisdom is dedicated to sharing the writings and lives of the Saints of the Orthodox Church. Glory to Jesus Christ! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/orthodox-wisdom/message

S3 Ep 74 Russell Brand and Donald Trump Exemplify the Christian Falling Away

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 30, 2024 34:02

Hus, Tyndale, Wycliffe, Luther, and countless thousands of others are rolling over in their graves seeing what the world calls "Evangelicals" and "Protestant" Christianity today swooning over right wing commentators and personalities entering into the Catholic Church. The doctrine of Christ's fully accomplished and completed work for which thousands have paid with their lives to defend has been cast aside for the Christian virtue signaling of embracing all things Catholic and Orthodox (as they still condemn you in their doctrines).While that falling away is occurring, much of Evangelical Christianity has tossed aside any semblance of values or consistency to embrace Donald Trump.I've been mocked, scorned, and even banned on right wing sites for merely quoting (QUOTING, mind you) the doctrines of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches or statements by Donald Trump.We could be seeing the end times apostacy (or apostasy, your choice) forming. Evil on the Left. Evil on the Right. And the work of Christ and his preeminence thrust aside as men seek power and glory and honor.

S4:E8 • Listening for the Spirit

Soul Care with Mama Rish

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 28, 2024 30:12

Have you ever heard of the Peshitta? It is the Holy Scripture known as a standard version of the Bible in Syriac traditional churches, as well as Orthodox Churches. And guess what ? That ancient language describes the Holy Spirit as feminine. Referred to as "she," and "Mother," we can learn that God is both the masculine and feminine aspects. The fullness of the deity in my mind would consist of both aspects of a loving being. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mamarish/message

god spirit bible mother holy spirit holy scripture referred syriac orthodox churches

Archbishop of Canterbury interviewed in Ukraine

The Church Times Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 15, 2024 27:55

Francis Martin, a reporter for the Church Times, was travelling last week with the Archbishop of Canterbury in Ukraine. On the final day of the trip, Francis interviewed Archbishop Welby, asking about what he had hoped to achieve, the differences he had noticed from his previous visit in 2022, and about tensions between the Orthodox Churches in Ukraine. They also spoke about the challenges currently facing the Church of England, and how the Archbishop divides his time. Try 10 issues of the Church Times for £10 or get two months access to our website and apps, also for £10. Go to churchtimes.co.uk/new-reader

church interview england ukraine canterbury archbishop archbishop of canterbury orthodox churches francis martin

#11508 Open Forum - Jimmy Akin

Catholic Answers Live

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 19, 2024

Questions Covered: 03:34 – What’s the scriptural proof for purgatory? 08:39 – Can you bless God? 12:23 – What does it mean to be made in the image and likeness of God? Are aliens also made in his image? 18:39 – My friend who survived the Bosnian war in the 90's said she will never become Catholic because the Catholic and Orthodox Churches influenced the war. How do I respond to this? 24:30 – Is wearing Nikes a sin because the name comes from a pagan goddess? 30:43 – What is the difference between the gift of prophecy and words of knowledge? Does bone broth break a Friday meat fast? 41:00 – Luke described the baby Jesus swaddled and hands and feet tied. Is this imagery of the crucifixion? 45:03 – My husband is a convert and just joined the Knights of Columbus. I don’t know anything about them. Can you explain? 49:39 – What do we know about the state of the soul of a person entering dementia, and losing mental faculties etc.? What can they do to go to heaven? …

god jesus christ catholic columbus knights bosnian nikes open forum jimmy akin orthodox churches

Blessings, ֎, Calendars and Christmas

The Popeular History Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 24, 2023 4:55

LINKS Declaration “Fiducia Supplicans” on the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings: https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2023/12/18/231218b.html Vatican News write-up on Calendar Change For UGCC https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2023-02/ukrainian-greek-catholics-to-celebrate-christmas-on-december-25.html "CardiNEWS" Background music by David Fesliyan. www.fesliyanstudios.com Tsar Power: https://tsarpowerpod.weebly.com/ The History of Saqartvelo Georgia: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-history-of-saqartvelo-georgia/id1567806651 TRANSCRIPT Hello everyone, First, some CardiNEWS! A few days ago, Cardinal Fernández, who, I should note, already made it into the next round of Cardinal Numbers so he's just running up his score at this point, issued a high level document in his capacity as the head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith–aka the Vatican's Head Theology Guy–that explicitly allows for the informal blessing of homosexual couples with certain conditions. The document was at pains to stress that it does not represent a change in church teaching. I'll defer to the theologians on that, but in the end I've seen takeaways ranging from “this is definitely a change in church teaching” in an excited tone from the more liberally inclined both inside and outside the Church and the same takeaway in a despairing tone from those more conservatively inclined. Then there are those who say “this is definitely NOT a change in Church teaching”, a take that comes mainly from more centrist folks and but also from the hard left who think allowing informal blessings of gay couples while being at pains to distinguish them from marriage isn't even close to the kind of change they want to see. Basically, whether you think this document represents Pope Francis changing doctrine seems to boil down to whether you were already expecting Pope Francis to change doctrine. Folks seem to be seeing what they expected to see. For my part, I was actually genuinely surprised, mainly because there had been none of the usual rumors preceding the release of the document. Usually you get more smoke before the fire. In the end, I am perfectly willing to say that blessings are good, get them if you can and are inclined to seek them. They're more readily available now than they were last week. The second topic tonight is something I meant to cover in my what to expect update but, well, forgot. I've started labeling my Cardinal Numbers posts with a special symbol, and I do mean special. Roberto from Tsar Power help me out *** thanks Roberto who is also from The History of Saqartvelo Georgia. So yes, the Arevakhach (֎) is an Armenian symbol symbolizing eternity, used in contexts from the Christian to the Neo-Pagan to the secular, always tied to Armenia, so it's kind of a national symbol for them. I admit I'm borrowing it for pretty much entirely unrelated purposes, namely that it's a distinctive looking symbol that also works in UNICODE and should therefore be able to render properly for ya'll pretty much regardless of device, plus outside Armenia it doesn't really have an established meaning that might confuse folks, so all in all those things add up to make it a useful symbol to use to make my Cardinals episodes stand out from the rest at a quick glance. So, with thanks to Armenian culture and my Armenian and quasi-Armenian contacts who assured me it would not be offensive to use the Arevakhach for that purpose as long as I took a moment to explain its place in Armenian culture and as a national symbol, I'll be using it to flag Cardinal Numbers content moving forward, starting with, well, starting with the back catalog stuff I've already started flagging, but then after that starting with the next batch of 12 cardinals which I am hoping but not guaranteeing will begin releasing tomorrow, as I present to you the 12 Cardinals of Christmas! Oh, and mentioning Christmas brings me to one other milestone I wanted to note. One consequence of Putin's invasion of Ukraine is the fact that the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has decided to partially adopt the Gregorian Calendar, 441 years after its introduction under Pope Gregory XIII. Orthodox Churches under the Moscow Patriarchate are among the few institutions still using the Julian Calendar, which Pope Gregory revised to reflect solar reality as Easter had begun to drift out of its springtime home. The move is not complete, as the present adoption of the new calendar actually doesn't apply to the dating of Easter in this case, but there is hope that the dating of Easter will be resolved a couple years from now, in 2025, for the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, the first great council of the Christian Church. I'm not going to hold my breath on the Easter controversy being fully resolved in my lifetime since it's one of the longest-running points of contention in the history of Christianity, but for now if you know any Ukrainian Greek Catholics, be sure to welcome them to Christmas in the Gregorian Calendar. З Різдвом (Христовим), or, Merry Christmas!

12/11/23 - Fr. Anthony Amato

Ask A Priest Live

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 12, 2023 47:25

Fr. Anthony Amato is the Pastor of St. Peter's Parish in Clifton Springs, New York. He was ordained as a priest in June of 2017 by Bishop Salvatore Matano of the Diocese of Rochester, New York. In Today's Show Why were the Apocrypha taken out of protestant Bibles? If you have the time, could you explain why each of the seven specific chapters were taken out? Where can I find specific instructions for the laity on when to stand, sit, kneel, genuflect, and make the sign of the cross? Can a Priest celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in a state of mortal sin? I belong to the Old-style Church of the True Orthodox Christians of Greece (the Synod of Chrysostom), but as far as I understand, even among the new-style Orthodox Churches it is considered schismatic. Can I convert to Catholicism in the same way as Orthodox New Churches that are recognized by the Roman Catholic Church do, and will I have any different status from believers who have converted to Catholicism? Is serving as an administrator strictly reserved to the priest, or can those duties be split between the priest and a layperson? I've heard that there's "nothing new under the sun." I'm of the firm belief that all the issues society is facing are reincarnations of early heresies already condemned by the Church. What are your thoughts? I was at Mass and a host dropped on the floor. What to do in that situation? And, how can I respectfully speak with the priest about this? I'm in the middle of a cross-country move and I wanted to know if it's permissible for me to be working on something like that on a Sunday? When it comes to Jesus' resurrection, we have a lot of testimony from His disciples about what happened, but do we have anything more in the way of scientific evidence? The only thing I can think of is the Shroud of Turin, which we can't be certain is the actual shroud of Jesus. What are your thoughts on the shroud? Visit the show page at thestationofthecross.com/askapriest to listen live, check out the weekly lineup, listen to podcasts of past episodes, watch live video, find show resources, sign up for our mailing list of upcoming shows, and submit your question for Father!

Today's Catholic Mass Readings Sunday, November 12, 2023

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 12, 2023 Transcription Available

Full Text of ReadingsThirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 154The Saint of the day is Saint JosaphatSaint Josaphat's Story In 1595, the Orthodox bishop of Brest-Litovsk in present-day Belarus and five other bishops representing millions of Ruthenians, sought reunion with Rome. John Kunsevich—who took the name Josaphat in religious life—was to dedicate his life, and die for the same cause. Born in what is now Ukraine, he went to work in Wilno and was influenced by clergy adhering to the 1596 Union of Brest. He became a Basilian monk, then a priest, and soon was well known as a preacher and an ascetic. At a relatively young age, upon becoming both bishop of Vitebsk and archbishop of Polotsk, Josaphat faced a difficult situation. Most monks, fearing interference in liturgy and customs, did not want union with Rome. By synods, catechetical instruction, reform of the clergy, and personal example, however, Josaphat was successful in winning the greater part of the Orthodox in that area to the union. But the next year a dissident hierarchy was set up, and his opposite number spread the accusation that Josaphat had “gone Latin” and that all his people would have to do the same. He was not enthusiastically supported by the Latin bishops of Poland. Despite warnings, he went to Vitebsk, still a hotbed of trouble. Attempts were made to foment trouble and drive him from the diocese: A priest was sent to shout insults to him from his own courtyard. When Josaphat had him removed and shut up in his house, the opposition rang the town hall bell, and a mob assembled. The priest was released, but members of the mob broke into the bishop's home. Josaphat was struck with a halberd, then shot, and his body thrown into the river. It was later recovered and is now buried in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. He was the first saint of the Eastern Church to be canonized by Rome. Josaphat's death brought a movement toward Catholicism and unity, but the controversy continued, and the dissidents, too, had their martyr. After the partition of Poland, the Russians forced most Ruthenians to join the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1964, newspaper photos of Pope Paul VI embracing Athenagoras I, the Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople, marked a significant step toward the healing of a division in Christendom that has spanned more than nine centuries. Reflection The seeds of separation were sown in the fourth century when the Roman Empire was divided into East and West. The actual split came over customs such as using unleavened bread, Saturday fasting, and celibacy. No doubt the political involvement of religious leaders on both sides was a large factor, and doctrinal disagreement was present. But no reason was enough to justify the present tragic division in Christendom, which is 64 percent Roman Catholic, 13 percent Eastern—mostly Orthodox—Churches, and 23 percent Protestant, and this when the 71 percent of the world that is not Christian should be experiencing unity and Christ-like charity from Christians! Saint of the Day, Copyright Franciscan Media

Today's Catholic Mass Readings Sunday, October 22, 2023

Mike Church Presents-The Red Pill Diaries Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 22, 2023 Transcription Available

Full Text of ReadingsTwenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 145The Saint of the day is Saint John Paul IISaint John Paul II's Story “Open wide the doors to Christ,” urged John Paul II during the homily at the Mass where he was installed as pope in 1978. Born in Wadowice, Poland, Karol Jozef Wojtyla had lost his mother, father, and older brother before his 21st birthday. Karol's promising academic career at Krakow's Jagiellonian University was cut short by the outbreak of World War II. While working in a quarry and a chemical factory, he enrolled in an “underground” seminary in Kraków. Ordained in 1946, he was immediately sent to Rome where he earned a doctorate in theology. Back in Poland, a short assignment as assistant pastor in a rural parish preceded his very fruitful chaplaincy for university students. Soon Fr. Wojtyla earned a doctorate in philosophy and began teaching that subject at Poland's University of Lublin. Communist officials allowed Wojtyla to be appointed auxiliary bishop of Kraków in 1958, considering him a relatively harmless intellectual. They could not have been more wrong! Bishop Wojtyla attended all four sessions of Vatican II and contributed especially to its Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. Appointed as archbishop of Kraków in 1964, he was named a cardinal three years later. Elected pope in October 1978, he took the name of his short-lived, immediate predecessor. Pope John Paul II was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. In time, he made pastoral visits to 124 countries, including several with small Christian populations. John Paul II promoted ecumenical and interfaith initiatives, especially the 1986 Day of Prayer for World Peace in Assisi. He visited Rome's main synagogue and the Western Wall in Jerusalem; he also established diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Israel. He improved Catholic-Muslim relations, and in 2001 visited a mosque in Damascus, Syria. The Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, a key event in John Paul's ministry, was marked by special celebrations in Rome and elsewhere for Catholics and other Christians. Relations with the Orthodox Churches improved considerably during his papacy. “Christ is the center of the universe and of human history” was the opening line of John Paul II's 1979 encyclical, Redeemer of the Human Race. In 1995, he described himself to the United Nations General Assembly as “a witness to hope.” His 1979 visit to Poland encouraged the growth of the Solidarity movement there and the collapse of communism in central and eastern Europe 10 years later. John Paul II began World Youth Day and traveled to several countries for those celebrations. He very much wanted to visit China and the Soviet Union, but the governments in those countries prevented that. One of the most well-remembered photos of John Paul II's pontificate was his one-on-one conversation in 1983, with Mehmet Ali Agca, who had attempted to assassinate him two years earlier. In his 27 years of papal ministry, John Paul II wrote 14 encyclicals and five books, canonized 482 saints and beatified 1,338 people. In the last years of his life, he suffered from Parkinson's disease and was forced to cut back on some of his activities. Pope Benedict XVI beatified John Paul II in 2011, and Pope Francis canonized him in 2014. Reflection Before John Paul II's funeral Mass in St. Peter's Square, hundreds of thousands of people had waited patiently for a brief moment to pray before his body, which lay in state inside St. Peter's for several days. The media coverage of his funeral was unprecedented. Presiding at the funeral Mass, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger—then dean of the College of Cardinals and later Pope Benedict XVI—concluded his homily by saying: “None of us can ever forget how, in that last Easter Sunday of his life, the Holy Father, marked by suffering, came once more to the window of the Apostolic Palace and one last time gave his blessing urbi et orbi (‘to the city and to the world'). “We can be sure that our beloved pope is standing today at the window of the Father's house, that sees us and blesses us. Yes, bless us, Holy Father. We entrust your dear soul to the Mother of God, your Mother, who guided you each day and who will guide you now to the glory of her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.” Learn more about Saint John Paul II! Saint of the Day, Copyright Franciscan Media

Do You Believe In Miracles!?

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 16, 2023 45:46

These are remarks delivered by Mike Church at the Saint Benedict Center Conference, October 13-14, 2023. The theme of the Conference was Cultivating and Passing on a Catholic Worldview". There is a term used in usury finances to describe a bank taking something back from you that they never owned in the first place and loaned you money to buy that wasn't there's either: it's called REPOSSESS. That's an odd choice of wording because RE possessing something implies POSSESSING it at some point in time and when a bank REPO'S your home, because you couldn't make the usury obligation, it takes possession for the first time so how can this be a RE-PO! The only exception to this rule is when the bank REPO'S a piece of real estate it had previously REPO'D from some other poor sucker. I dwell on this seemingly silly point because I use the term in this talk's title: Repossessing the Real Estate of the Catholic Mind. This sounded great in July when Brother threatened me at Rosary point to give him a title but as I started to develop the talk the Holy Ghost insisted I override Brother's veto and changed the title to the more catchy one of: DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES!? And WHAT is a miracle? “There is no impropriety in saying that God does something against nature when it is contrary to what we know of nature. For we give the name ‘nature' to the usual and known course of nature; and whatever God does contrary to this, we call ‘prodigies' or ‘miracles.'” - Saint Augustine Now I'm going to conduct an informal poll right now and sure that almost everyone in this room is going to vote the same… AFTER you show me your picture ID and voter registration card! LISTEN TO THE ENTIRE TALK HERE (Available on Monday, 16 October) The votes are in and miracles own in a landslide but did they REALLY win!? Outside of this room, I will wager you that Miracles would lose in a landslide especially if we gave the old school definition of what a miracle is AND what is required to “believe in them”; and this is where I want to start the meat and taters of this talk and hope to assist many Catholics to begin the work of repo-ing this lost real estate in our minds, the ACTUAL belief in miracles. Let's get started by getting an idea of what the modern world thinks a miracle is. Some of you will remember this clip from the year that was 1980. Now, I'm not saying that the defeat of the intrinsic evil that was the Soviet Union in a hockey game wasn't “miraculous”, in fact at least 2 members of the team, Mike Eruzione and Ken Morrow were Catholics, but they've never said that the win was a “Hail Mary”. The point I wish to make is that this game is still called “The Miracle On Ice”, in fact you can still buy a Miracle on Ice 1980 USA Hockey Team Lake Placid Celebration Photo! Much as I argued here back in 2019 that Catholics should smile and say an Ave everytime sports announcers say the home team needs a Hail Mary, I will argue here that having tens of millions of ‘Muricans calling something a “miracle” is good thing… at least the spell they word correctly! But I want to talk about REAL miracles where we know the hand and Graces of God actually interceded for or just inspired men and women of Christendom. There's a new book out that added lots of fuel to the fire that is this talk, it's called THEY FLEW - A HISTORY OF THE IMPOSSIBLE by Carlos Eire. This passage from the book is a is a perfect starting place. “The advent of the Protestant Reformation brought about a sudden redefinition of concepts such as religion, magic, superstition, and idolatry, as well as of assumptions about the relation between the natural and supernatural realms. Distinctions that had reigned largely uncontested in the Catholic Church of the West and the Orthodox Churches of the East since the first century suddenly began to be challenged in the early 1520s when an earth-shaking paradigm shift took place.

2831. Media Coverage of Russian Spies Recruiting Members of Orthodox Churches in the U.S. – Terry Mattingly, 10/10/23

Issues, Etc.

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 10, 2023 29:44

Terry Mattingly of GetReligion Pop Goes Religion: Faith in Popular Culture GetReligion.org The post 2831. Media Coverage of Russian Spies Recruiting Members of Orthodox Churches in the U.S. – Terry Mattingly, 10/10/23 first appeared on Issues, Etc..

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St Maxim (Sandovich), martyr of Lemkos, Czechoslovakia (1914)

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 6, 2023

St Maxim was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1888. At this time all Orthodox Churches had been captured and subjected to the "Unia," by which, though keeping the Orthodox liturgical rites, they were united to the Roman Catholic Church. Many of the Carpatho-Russian people were ignorant of the change and what it meant; others were unhappy with it but, in their subject condition, saw no alternative. Maxim's farmer parents, at great personal sacrifice, obtained an education for him that enabled him to study for the priesthood at the Basilian seminary in Krakow. Here he discerned the un-Orthodox nature of the "Greek Catholic" training there and traveled to Russia, where he became a novice at the Great Lavra of Pochaev and met Archbishop Anthony (Khrapovitsky), who encouraged him in his quest for Orthodoxy. (Archbishop Anthony, after the Russian Revolution, became the first Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad). He entered seminary in Russia in 1905 and was ordained to the Priesthood in 1911.Metropolitan Anthony, knowing the hardships and persecutions that awaited any Orthodox priest in Austro-Hungary, offered to find Maxim a parish in Russia. But Maxim was already aware of the hunger for Orthodoxy among many of the Carpatho-Russian people; several people from his village had travelled to America and while there had attended Orthodox Churches and confessed to Orthodox priests. They begged him to return to his country and establish an Orthodox parish there. When he returned to his native village of Zhdynia, the polish authorities, seeing him in the riassa, beard and uncut hair of an Orthodox priest, mocked him, saying "Look, Saint Nicholas has come to the Carpathians!" But the people of nearby Hrab sent a delegation asking him to set up an Orthodox parish in their village. This he did, setting up a house-church in the residence that the people gave him. Almost immediately, he and his people began to be harassed and persecuted, first at the instigation of "Greek Catholic" priests, then of the government. His rectory/church was closed, and he and several of his parishioners were repeatedly jailed, sometimes on trumped-up charges of sedition. (The Carpatho-Russian people were always suspected of pro-Russian political sympathies by the Austrian and Polish authorities). Despite these persecutions, through Fr Maxim's labors a wave of desire for Orthodoxy spread through the region, with many Carpatho-Russians openly identifying themselves as Orthodox. The government issued orders to regional mayors to forbid those who had identified themselves as Orthodox to gather and, in 1913, appointed a special commissioner whose task was to force the people to return to Catholicism. In 1914, war broke out between Russia and Austro-Hungary. Despite lack of any evidence that Fr Maxim had engaged in pro-Russian political activity — he once said "My only politics is the Gospel" — he was arrested and executed on September 6 by the Papal calendar, August 24 by the Church Calendar. He was denied any form of Church burial, and his father buried him with his own hands. Following the First World War, Orthodoxy became legal in the new Polish Republic, and a monument was placed over Fr Maxim's grave in his home town of Zhdynia. In 1994, the Orthodox Church of Poland officially glorified St Maxim.

St Maxim (Sandovich), martyr of Lemkos, Czechoslovakia (1914)

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Play Episode Listen Later Sep 6, 2023 3:47

St Maxim was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1888. At this time all Orthodox Churches had been captured and subjected to the "Unia," by which, though keeping the Orthodox liturgical rites, they were united to the Roman Catholic Church. Many of the Carpatho-Russian people were ignorant of the change and what it meant; others were unhappy with it but, in their subject condition, saw no alternative. Maxim's farmer parents, at great personal sacrifice, obtained an education for him that enabled him to study for the priesthood at the Basilian seminary in Krakow. Here he discerned the un-Orthodox nature of the "Greek Catholic" training there and traveled to Russia, where he became a novice at the Great Lavra of Pochaev and met Archbishop Anthony (Khrapovitsky), who encouraged him in his quest for Orthodoxy. (Archbishop Anthony, after the Russian Revolution, became the first Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad). He entered seminary in Russia in 1905 and was ordained to the Priesthood in 1911.Metropolitan Anthony, knowing the hardships and persecutions that awaited any Orthodox priest in Austro-Hungary, offered to find Maxim a parish in Russia. But Maxim was already aware of the hunger for Orthodoxy among many of the Carpatho-Russian people; several people from his village had travelled to America and while there had attended Orthodox Churches and confessed to Orthodox priests. They begged him to return to his country and establish an Orthodox parish there. When he returned to his native village of Zhdynia, the polish authorities, seeing him in the riassa, beard and uncut hair of an Orthodox priest, mocked him, saying "Look, Saint Nicholas has come to the Carpathians!" But the people of nearby Hrab sent a delegation asking him to set up an Orthodox parish in their village. This he did, setting up a house-church in the residence that the people gave him. Almost immediately, he and his people began to be harassed and persecuted, first at the instigation of "Greek Catholic" priests, then of the government. His rectory/church was closed, and he and several of his parishioners were repeatedly jailed, sometimes on trumped-up charges of sedition. (The Carpatho-Russian people were always suspected of pro-Russian political sympathies by the Austrian and Polish authorities). Despite these persecutions, through Fr Maxim's labors a wave of desire for Orthodoxy spread through the region, with many Carpatho-Russians openly identifying themselves as Orthodox. The government issued orders to regional mayors to forbid those who had identified themselves as Orthodox to gather and, in 1913, appointed a special commissioner whose task was to force the people to return to Catholicism. In 1914, war broke out between Russia and Austro-Hungary. Despite lack of any evidence that Fr Maxim had engaged in pro-Russian political activity — he once said "My only politics is the Gospel" — he was arrested and executed on September 6 by the Papal calendar, August 24 by the Church Calendar. He was denied any form of Church burial, and his father buried him with his own hands. Following the First World War, Orthodoxy became legal in the new Polish Republic, and a monument was placed over Fr Maxim's grave in his home town of Zhdynia. In 1994, the Orthodox Church of Poland officially glorified St Maxim.

Ep. 5 - More Catholic Than the Pope?

Will Wright Catholic

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 17, 2023 28:22

NOTE: This article from May 2023 was fairly popular, so I decided to record it for YouTube and for the Podcast streams. Enjoy, and please comment, like, and share!IntroductionThis is not an article refuting various theological points of the Society of St. Pius X. It is not an extensive refutation of the pernicious errors of sedevacantism. What it aims to be is a reiteration of what the Church Herself is, who we are in relationship to Her, and a warning to avoid the grave sin of schism.The Church of Jesus Christ is the Catholic Church. This Church is visible and clearly manifest. Jesus is not trying to trick us. God, our Father, desires our salvation. The Holy Spirit guides and guards the Church. Our Blessed Mother never ceases to intercede for us. No matter how bleak things seem, staying in the Barque of Peter is always the best option. What is the Church of Jesus Christ?During the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, the Council Fathers took up the task of writing a Dogmatic Constitution (the highest magisterial level of a Church document) on the Church Herself. The Mystery of the Church is expounded in this constitution: Lumen Gentium. Promulgated by Pope St. Paul VI in November 1964, the Council Fathers provided a clear and beautiful description of Holy Mother Church.Found in paragraph 8 of Lumen Gentium, in particular, is a nuanced and gorgeous explication of the Church. Passages such as these must be read in continuity with everything that came before this moment in the Church or we run the risk of reading it outside of the heart and mind of the Church. One word, especially, provides difficulty for some readers of Lumen Gentium: “subsists.” However, I hope to show, in short order, that this word is inspired. The paragraph begins: “Christ, the one Mediator, established and continually sustains here on earth His holy Church, the community of faith, hope and charity, as an entity with visible delineation through which He communicated truth and grace to all. But, the society structured with hierarchical organs and the Mystical Body of Christ, are not to be considered as two realities, nor are the visible assembly and the spiritual community, nor the earthly Church and the Church enriched with heavenly things; rather they form one complex reality which coalesces from a divine and a human element. For this reason, by no weak analogy, it is compared to the mystery of the incarnate Word. As the assumed nature inseparably united to Him, serves the divine Word as a living organ of salvation, so, in a similar way, does the visible social structure of the Church serve the Spirit of Christ, who vivifies it, in the building up of the body (LG, 8; emphasis added).”Let us pause here for a moment. To summarize: Christ is the one Mediator between God and man and the Church which He established and continually sustains is His Church. In a strongly analogous sense, the Church is both human and divine because there is a visible structure but an internal cohesion as well. The passage continues:This is the one Church of Christ which in the Creed is professed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic, which our Saviour, after His Resurrection, commissioned Peter to shepherd, and him and the other apostles to extend and direct with authority, which He erected for all ages as ‘the pillar and mainstay of the truth.' This Church constituted and organized in the world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him, although many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside of its visible structure. These elements, as gifts belonging to the Church of Christ, are forces impelling toward catholic unity.”If we understand that Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, founded a Church two thousand years ago, then we can acclaim rightly that this Church is divinely constituted. As the Church has always affirmed, the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ. This Church is visible. As Lumen Gentium, this Church IS the one Church of Christ professed in the Creed. So, why do folks have a problem with the phrase “subsists in?” Generally, it is due to a suspicion of the Second Vatican Council that sees the modernist boogeyman in every page of the documents of this Council. The Latin phrase used “subsistit in” is actually quite ancient, the meaning going back at least to the terminology of Aristotle. It means to exist as a substance. In other words, the Church was founded by Christ and has been sustained by Him as one, true, substantive thing. This one Church is the Catholic Church. So, why not just say is (est in Latin)? Well, not to belabor the point, but they did! The first part of the paragraph containing “subsistit in” begins: “Haec est unica Christi Ecclesia (this is the one Church of Christ).” The Council Fathers are not disputing the understanding of the Catholic Church as the Church of Jesus Christ.The Church of Jesus Christ can be encountered as a concrete subject only in the Catholic Church. The “elements of sanctification and of truth” outside the visible structure of the Church are the reality that God is present and operative in the Sacraments, such as Baptism and Matrimony, in Protestant communities and present and operative in all seven Sacraments in the Orthodox Churches. Nonetheless, the Church subsists only in the Catholic Church. These elements of sanctification are not substantial and concrete instantiations of the Church of Jesus Christ apart from the Catholic Church, rather they are an admittance that moves as He wills and is drawing all people to Himself in the Catholic Church. This is true ecumenism: being willing instruments in helping the Holy Spirit guide all persons to the truth and fullness of the Catholic Church, which is visible and concrete. To take another approach, we could say that when God effects a Sacrament or moves in grace and power outside the visible bounds of the Catholic Church, it is nonetheless a fact that “the one Church of Christ has an operative presence in them (Ut Unum Sint, 8),” as St. John Paul II wrote. So, if someone is saved by sacramental grace, it is still only by the grace flowing from the one true Church of Jesus Christ which is the Catholic Church, our sacrament of salvation on Earth. How Can We Identify the Catholic Church?The Catholic Church has always been visible, though admittedly clandestine in certain circumstances. We can think here of the difficult situation in China today or of the Church in Communist nations in the 20th Century. Or we can look at England under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Or under Roman persecutions or Muslim occupations. Nonetheless, the Church was founded by Christ and continues to be sustained by Him and guided and guarded by the Holy Spirit. The four marks of the Church are present in fullness in the Catholic Church: one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. The Church is one because Christ is one. In the inner life of the Trinity, there is no disunity. Likewise, the Church cannot have disunity, as it is the Mystical Body of Christ. The Church is holy because Christ is holy, though it is composed of sinners. The Church is catholic because it is universal (Greek: katholou - “according to the whole”). God desires the salvation of all and our Blessed Lord commissioned the Apostles to preach the Gospel to the ends of the Earth. This apostolicity finds fruition not only being built upon the successors of the Apostles, but it is also firmly set on apostolic teaching. As a result, the Church has a true unity of governance, preaching, teaching, and means of sanctification.The Catholic Church has a visible hierarchical structure. The successors of the Apostles are the bishops of the Catholic Church - this is historically provable. However, apostolic does not only mean the successors of the Apostles exist. If that were the case, then the Orthodox Churches would rightly be considered apostolic. However, apostolicity also requires the recognition that Jesus designated Peter as the Prince of the Apostles. The Papacy is the succession of this Petrine office. The teaching authority of Christ passed on to the Apostles, the Magisterium, is thus the successor of Peter in union with all the successors of the Apostles. In other words, it is the Pope in union with all the bishops of the world. The Church of Jesus Christ will thus be one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. It will have a visible hierarchy of the Pope, bishops, priests, deacons, religious, and lay people. Just as a body, the Church will have a metabolism, an internal means of sustenance, as well. This is clearly the Holy Eucharist: the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ hidden under the veil of a sacrament. There will be actual church buildings. There will be assemblies of the faithful. The visible Catholic Church will be manifest and clear to all who seek Her out, because Jesus is not trying to trick us. Good Distinctions is free to read and listen, but if you have appreciated the channel, please consider becoming a paid subscriber for as little as $5/month. It would greatly help us continue to produce content - Podcasts and YouTube software and equipment aren't cheap! Thank you for your consideration and prayers!What is Radical Traditionalism?Finally, with a working understanding of what is meant by the Church of Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church, we can turn our attention to “radical traditionalism.” Granted, this is a term which means as many different things as “conservative” and “liberal” do in American politics. My usage of the term is pragmatic, more than descriptive. A Catholic ought to be traditional, in the fullest sense of the term. A Catholic also ought to be radical, in the sense that radical comes from the Latin radix meaning “root.” We are rooted in Jesus Christ, and apart from Him we can do nothing.The Southern Poverty Law Center associates Radical Traditionalism with white supremacy, anti-immigrant attitudes, and anti-Semitism. Though there is some correlation in reality between radical traditionalist communities and these ideologies, there is no causation. In general Catholic circles, the main characteristic of radical traditionalism is not only a preference for the Latin Mass according to the Missale Romanum of 1962, but a tacit (if not explicit) rejection of the Roman Missal of 1970 (called the “Novus Ordo”). Further, “radical traditionalists” reject the Second Vatican Council, usually in its entirety. They see it as heretical nonsense, unfaithful, and a divergence from the true Faith. The term “radical traditionalist” is often wrongly associated with thrown around against those who attend the Holy Mass with the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICKSP), and other communities in full and complete union with Rome. This needs to stop. These communities are obedient to the Holy Father and their local ordinary. They do not reject Vatican II or the Novus Ordo. They have a deep love and reverence for the Vetus Ordo (the Old Order of Mass and the Sacraments) and have permission to celebrate the Sacred Liturgy according to that charism. Simply having a preference for the Latin Mass does not make someone a “radical traditionalist.” Radical Traditionalism is a rejection of Catholicism, underneath the veneer of a heroic savior-complex of safeguarding Tradition against the Modernists. Now, I want to be clear: Modernism is a serious problem in the Church and the world today. Pope St. Pius X referred to Modernism as the synthesis of all heresies. Ultimately, it is a denial of the supernatural and of mediation. This liberalizing tendency should be fought tooth and nail, without doubt! But what we cannot do is reject the Second Vatican Council, deny the legitimacy of the Novus Ordo, or choose to be disobedient to the competent authority. What is Sedevacantism?One of the loudest voices within radical traditionalism (at least on Twitter) is sedevacantism. Sede means “seat” in Latin and vacante means “empty.” Sedevacantists believe that due to formal heresy, the sitting pope lost the papacy. Usually, these groups will maintain that Pope Pius XII was the last valid pope, others will make arguments for Pope John XXIII and I have even heard one argument for Pope Paul VI (though this one makes the least sense). Mario Derksen of “Novus Ordo Watch” in his talk “Eclipse of the Church: The Case for Sedevacantism” on October 8, 2021 lays out his arguments. I do not intend to litigate them here, but I will share part of the conclusion of his talk: “If Francis and his five predecessors of unhappy memory were true Popes, then the forces of darkness would indeed have prevailed. Then the ‘most deadly foes of the Catholic religion,' as Pope Pius IX called them, would have triumphed, then the ‘proud gates of hell' would have succeeded in overthrowing the Chair of Truth and turning it into a fount of blasphemy and heresy. Then what had been the ‘citadel and bulwark of the Catholic faith' would have become the bulldozer of Catholicism.”So, for the sedevacantist, none of the Popes since Pope Pius XII have been true Popes. For those who are curious, that would be since 1958. For the last 65 years, the Members of the Body of Christ have been misled en masse, according to this view. Further, with virtually all of the cardinals, bishops, and priests complicit in this great apostasy, how are we to restore the Church to its former glory? Again, I do not intend to debate sedevacantism here because, frankly, I think the position is so intuitively absurd that it would be a waste of time to do so. If Mario Derksen is being honest about his own conclusions, he would likely agree. In the paragraph directly before what I have already quoted, he says:“Yes, we are happy to call it ‘Sedevacantism,' but it really isn't an ‘-ism' other than Catholicism during these perplexing times. It is a theological position that ‘creates itself', as it were, after we've ruled out the things we know to be impossible in light of the timeless truths of the Catholic Faith. Sedevacantism is what is left once we have rejected what is clearly false.”In other words, in the face of the entire Mystical Body of Christ on Earth, including five legitimately elected Popes, the sedevacantist chooses to trust his or her feelings rather than trusting that the Holy Spirit guides and guards the Church. I cannot think of anything more modernist than that.However, I will be honest. I am sympathetic to the sedevacantist view. We do live in troubling times. The Popes of recent memory, even the amazing St. John Paul II and the incredible Pope Benedict XVI, have made some strange choices and prudential decisions. Further, many bishops and priests have said and done horrifically scandalous things without any sense of justice of discipline meted out by the Church. But this is not an excuse to abandon reason and play the hero who is “preserving” the Church precisely by leaving it. Because, make no mistake, sedevacantism is formal schism. Though there are many independent sedevacantist churches, the most prominent are the Roman Catholic Institute (RCI), Most Holy Family Monastery (MHFM), Society of St. Pius V (SSPV), St. Gertrude the Great Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the Congregation of Mary Immaculate Queen (CMRI). If you want a more substantive refutation of Sedevacantism, I would recommend this fantastic resource from Noah Perez at Catholicism Coffee entitled “3 New Arguments Against Sedevacantism.”What is the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX)? In this article I want to outline some of the dangers of radical traditionalism. This article would get far too broad if I began refuting various points or getting into the nitty gritty. Those resources exist. My goal, again, is only to show some of the spiritual dangers posed by sedevacantist and non-sedevacantist radical traditionalists. The largest group of “radical traditionalist Catholicism” is the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX). Officially, the SSPX is not sedevacantist. They acknowledge the legitimacy of the Roman Pontiff and his predecessors. However, they reject the Second Vatican Council because they believe it contains theological errors and heresy. They reject large parts of the 1983 Code of Canon Law. Over half of priests and most of the original and current leadership of SSPX reject the New Mass as containing elements dangerous for the Faith. Since the days of Archbishop Marcel Lefevbre, they have conducted illicit ordinations of bishops and priests and consecrations. The Society has even discouraged its followers from attending the Latin Mass offered by priests in full and manifest union with Rome because of the belief that these ordinations are deficient because they were conducted by a revised rite. The website of the Society of Saint Pius X claims that “no canonical censures against the SSPX have ever existed (SSPX).” They also claim that the “persecution” of the SSPX is political in nature and that any notions of excommunication and schism are “false accusations.” To the contrary, Pope St. John Paul II through the Prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops publicly decreed on July 1, 1988 that Archbishop Marcel Lefevbre and the four new bishops he consecrated illicitly had incurred the penalty of excommunication. The legitimacy of these excommunications was further clarified and reiterated by the Vatican in 1996 and 1998. More recently, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis have made great strides in attempting to normalize the canonical status of the SSPX. Admittedly the level of ambiguity of their current canonical status among informed and very bright Catholics is puzzling to me. What is clear to me, though, is the spirit of disobedience that runs rampant through the SSPX. For example, the SSPX do not believe that they are in Schism (or ever were) nor do they believe that Archbishop Lefebvre was excommunicated (he was and that excommunication has not been lifted). Their reasoning can be found on their own website archives: “No penalty is ever incurred without committing a subjective mortal sin (canons 1321 §1, 1323 70). Now, Archbishop Lefebvre made it amply clear that he was bound in conscience to do what he could do to continue the Catholic priesthood and that he was obeying God in going ahead with the consecrations (Cf. the Sermon of June 30, 1988, and Archbishop Lefebvre and the Vatican, p. 136). Hence, even if he had been wrong, there would be no subjective sin (SSPX).”Archbishop Lefevbre believed, erroneously, that if he did not gravely disobey the Pope, then the Catholic priesthood would not continue. And they say that this was not a mortal sin; actually, they say that it was no sin at all. There are recent books that continue this line of thinking, such as SSPX “apologist” Kennedy Hall's new defense of the Society. This thinking is ridiculous and insidious. For a more sufficient refutation of this line of reasoning, I would recommend this 2008 article on the excommunications from Cathy Caridi, J.C.L. of Canon Law Made Easy. The disobedience of the SSPX is insidious because they believe they are the saviors of Catholicism and that they alone are safeguarding Tradition from the Modernist Church. However, unlike the sedevacantists, they still acknowledge the rightfully elected Pope and his authority. They simply choose to be disobedient. In some regards, this position is even less tenable and less sympathetic than full-blown sedevacantism. The SSPX has significantly more faculties under some of the allowances granted by Pope Francis. Pope Francis gave priests of the SSPX faculties to validly and licitly absolve sins; this is a faculty granted by the local ordinary regularly. They were also granted faculties to witness Holy Matrimony validly and licitly. Those within the Society argue that this shows that they are not in schism and they are in union with Rome. I think it says more about Holy Mother Church's care for souls who are currently under the care of the Society than it does about the priests and leadership of SSPX. These are not canonical changes; they are indults (extension of legal authority in an action that the Church does not sanction). The reality is that the SSPX is not in full communion with the Catholic Church, they have no canonical status in the Church, and they are in schism (just as the Orthodox Churches are in schism). There is an excellent compilation of references by prominent clergymen about the reality of schism of the SSPX by no less than Cardinals Burke and Mueller here. A Schismatic Spirit is DeadlyThe Church of Jesus Christ is the Catholic Church, which is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. Sedevacantism and positions such as that of the SSPX do harm to each of the four marks of the Church. The clear and manifest schism of sedevacantism is a wound to all four marks of the Church, but so is the ambiguous and insidious schismatic spirit of the SSPX. The Church of Jesus Christ is one, with Christ as Head and we as Members of His Mystical Body. This is an invisible reality but it is also clearly visible and hierarchical. As a Catholic, to reject the Vicar of Christ as the head of the Church on Earth is to reject Christ Himself. It is to cut off oneself from the Church. Of course, we pray for reconciliation and unity! As long as someone has breath in their lungs it is not too late to repent and return. However, we need to understand that schism is a grave evil on the same canonical level as formal heresy and apostasy. To leave the Barque of Peter in times of turbulent water is a misguided plan. Yes, times are difficult. Yes, the Church is in crisis. But Jesus Christ is not in crisis. He is asleep on the bench as the waves and wind rock and batter the boat. He is with us and all we need to do is call upon Him; He will calm the raging sea. Instead, if we trust in our own power, we will drown. If we make ourselves the authority, we will be doing the will of the Enemy rather than the Holy Will of the Father. If we are to love Christ and His one, true Church then we must avoid radical traditionalism and every sense of a schismatic spirit with a holy fervor. Noone knows better than Holy Mother Church. Times are tough. But the Church of Jesus Christ is the one place to be. A schismatic spirit is deadly to the soul.As St. Augustine said: “Bad times, hard times, this is what people keep saying; but let us live well, and times shall be good. We are the times: Such as we are, such are the times.”Good Distinctions is free to read and listen, but if you have appreciated the channel, please consider becoming a paid subscriber for as little as $5/month. It would greatly help us continue to produce content - Podcasts and YouTube software and equipment aren't cheap! Thank you for your consideration and prayers! Get full access to Good Distinctions at www.gooddistinctions.com/subscribe

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The Patrick Madrid Show: June 20, 2023 - Hour 2

The Patrick Madrid Show

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 20, 2023 51:10

Patrick answers listener questions about the Latin Mass, do Orthodox Churches have councils, what's the best way to “handle” stored fertilized embryos, what does “the Veil of the Temple was torn in two” mean, and is it sinful to use Starbucks and Target gift cards that ever given to me? Teresa - My father-in-law is a seven day Adventist and doesn't remember getting baptized. Can I go to his baptism and would it be valid? Darin - The Latin Mass really helped me understanding the Body and Blood of Christ, it is separated and then reunited so they can receive the Eucharist in its entirety. Cheryl - Do the Orthodox Churches have councils? Diana - There was a drag story event held near my workplace. What are your thoughts on it? If a couple uses IVF, and they have fertilized embryos in storage, what is the best way to “handle” them? James - I work in the video game industry and saw the company that makes the game engine I use is supporting pride month. Am I supporting evil by using this game engine? Cindy - Target and Starbucks: can I use gift cards from these places that were given to me? Caroline (email) – What does “The Veil of the Temple was torn in two” mean?

The deep divisions between Orthodox churches

The Religion and Ethics Report - Separate stories podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 24, 2023 9:00

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church says it has broken all ties with the mother church in Russia.

deep russia divisions ukrainian orthodox church orthodox churches

The deep divisions between Orthodox churches

The Religion and Ethics Report - Separate stories podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 24, 2023 9:00

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church says it has broken all ties with the mother church in Russia.

deep russia divisions ukrainian orthodox church orthodox churches

Ep. 125 | The Traditions as They Were Delivered

Good Doctrine

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 12, 2023 48:53

What were the "traditions" that the apostles and Jesus spoke about in the New Testament? Surely it wasn't that awful carpet color that was in your childhood church's sanctuary... was it? Prompted by a listeners question, in this episode we talk about the Catholic and Orthodox Churches and what is our responsibility in "defending" doctrine. Josh's new books:- The Exorcism of Satan- The King's CommandOur sponsor (and an EXCELLENT resource for Bible study): Logos.com/gooddoctrineIntro/Outro music from bensound.comEmail us at: gooddoctrinepodcast@gmail.com

Ep. 124 | Listener Question: What is our Apologia?

Good Doctrine

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 4, 2023 47:22

Prompted by a listeners question, in this episode we talk about the Catholic and Orthodox Churches and what is our responsibility in "defending" doctrine. Josh's new books:- The Exorcism of Satan- The King's CommandOur sponsor (and an EXCELLENT resource for Bible study): Logos.com/gooddoctrineIntro/Outro music from bensound.comEmail us at: gooddoctrinepodcast@gmail.com

Homeschoolers score higher, Nigerian Muslims killed 40 Christians last week, British pro-life leader arrested for praying outside abortion mill

The WorldView in 5 Minutes

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 22, 2022 7:14

It's Thursday, December 22nd, A.D. 2022. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Jonathan Clark Nigerian Muslims killed 40 Christians last week Muslim Fulani herdsmen killed 40 people in a Christian-majority part of northern Nigeria over the last week. In one attack, Pastor Yusuf Gan of the Evangelical Church Winning All, was severely beaten in front of his family. His wife and children were then abducted. Christian Solidarity Worldwide President Mervyn Thomas said, “These renewed attacks are occurring in the run up to the Christmas holidays, raising concerns of a possible campaign to disrupt the festive season in this predominantly Christian area.” British pro-life leader arrested for praying outside abortion mill British police arrested Isabel Vaughn-Spruce, the director of March for Life UK, last Thursday for praying silently outside an abortion mill. The thought-police received a tip-off from a bystander concerned that the pro-life activist might be praying in her mind. Local authorities have established censorship zones around abortion mills to keep pro-lifers away. Police also banned Vaughn-Spruce from praying publicly beyond the censorship zone. She said, “It's abhorrently wrong that I was searched, arrested, interrogated by police and charged simply for praying in the privacy of my own mind.” In Psalm 94:20-21, the Psalmist asks, “Shall the throne of iniquity, which devises evil by law, have fellowship with [the Lord]? They gather together against the life of the righteous, and condemn innocent blood.” Ukrainian President addresses Congress Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with President Joe Biden at the White House yesterday. In his first trip outside Ukraine since Russia invaded in February, Zelenskyy addressed Congress. ZELENSKYY: “Against all odds, and doom and gloom, the Ukraine didn't fall. Ukraine is alive and kicking. (applause)We have no fear. Nor should anyone in the world have it. “Ukraine gained this victory, and it gives us courage which inspires the entire world. Europe is now stronger and more independent than ever. The Russian tyranny has lost control over us.” U.S. Congress set to fund $45 billion more of aid to Ukraine Lawmakers included a $45 billion package for Ukraine aid in a must-pass $1.7 trillion government funding bill, reports ABC News. Congress has until midnight Friday to pass the bill and avoid a shutdown. Just prior to Zelenskyy's visit, the U.S. confirmed it would send its famed Patriot surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine. Ukraine vs. Russian Orthodox priests in country Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials are cracking down on Orthodox Churches in the country that have ties to Russia. Ukraine's Security Council recently seized the assets of seven senior Orthodox clerics and placed them under a travel ban. Odessa Texas next sanctuary for the unborn Odessa, Texas is the sixty-second city in the U.S. to become a Sanctuary City for the Unborn. Last Tuesday, the city council voted 6-1 in favor of a Sanctuary City for the Unborn ordinance. Mayor Javier Joven welcomed the vote after working for two years to get the measure passed. Councilman Steve Thompson was the lone vote against protecting the babies. To politely register your objection with Councilman Thompson's vote you can email him at sthompson@odessa-tx.gov or call 432-335-3276. The ordinance bans the killing of unborn babies as well as abortion-inducing drugs within the city limits. The measure prohibits performing abortions on Odessa residents regardless of where it would happen. And the city cannot enter into contracts with organizations that fund abortion. Romans 13:3 says, “For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.” Elon Musk to step down as CEO Tech billionaire Elon Musk will be stepping down from CEO at Twitter after asking users on Sunday. Fifty-seven percent voted for Musk to step down in the Twitter poll. Musk still owns the company, but said he will find someone else to become CEO. Twitter reveals FBI paid millions to suppress anti-Democrat tweets Meanwhile, Musk continues to release disturbing internal Twitter documents, exposing how the company operated before he bought it. The latest Twitter files show the FBI paid $3.4 million to the social media company to suppress negative tweets about Joe Biden and the Democrats. Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the Incoming House Oversight Committee Chairman, told CBN News that investigating the situation will be a top priority for Republicans. COMER: “Anyone that cares about free speech should be outraged. Whether you're Republican or Democrat, this has to stop. This is going to be a top priority for the Republican majority in January.” Home sales down 35% U.S. homes sales were down 7% in November compared with October. They're down 35% compared with a year ago. It's the tenth consecutive month of home sale declines. However, median home sale prices have increased 3.5% to $370,700 compared to last year. Homeschoolers score higher And finally, analysis by Houston Christian University professor Lisa Treleaven found homeschool students score better than their peers on the Classic Learning Test. The standardized college entrance exam is grounded in the liberal arts tradition and uses classic texts as opposed to the contemporary writings used in SAT and ACT tests. Homeschool students earned mean scores of 78. Private school and charter school students scored lower at 75 and 73 respectively. Public school students scored the lowest at 66. Treleaven noted, “This is consistent with prior research findings of superior academic performance of homeschool students as compared to other school types.” Close And that's The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Thursday, December 22nd in the year of our Lord 2022. Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

Talk 83: The Importance of Reading the Lives of Saints when Dealing with the Heresies of Ecumenism and Covidism - Part 2

Orthodox Talks

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 13, 2022 291:17

As we read in the lives of the saints, during periods of heresy God permits plagues, famines, earthquakes, floods, civil wars, invasions, etc., to occur as a means to bring Christians to repentance. The heresy of Ecumenism has been plaguing the Orthodox Church now for 100 years and we can say with certainty that the majority of Orthodox Churches have been infected with this disease. Consequently, because of this heresy, God has permitted many disasters to occur, not only in the Orthodox Church, but in the world.Further to this, as often happens during periods of heresy, additional heresies arise. This is exactly what took place starting in 2020 when the heresy of Covidism manifested itself. As with Ecumenism, the majority of Orthodox bishops have submitted to this heresy, or have remained silent even though they know Covidism is contrary to Orthodoxy. Orthodox Christians throughout the world have had their faith shaken. This should not shock us or cause us to lose our souls because Christ Himself pre-warned us, saying:“Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8)“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” (Matthew 7:15)Only a few Orthodox bishops during the last 100 years of Ecumenism - and now Covidism - have refused to submit to these vile heresies, and even fewer have openly condemned them. This, too, was foretold to us. Saint Paul the Apostle says:“For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, and will not spare the flock. Also, from among yourselves men will rise up and distort the truth, in order to lure the disciples into following them.” (Acts 20:29-30)Saint Paul also tells us that the reason God permits divisions in the Church is so that genuine Orthodox Christians can be clearly seen to have God dwelling within them. For God cannot dwell in those who are heretics (even if they are officially part of the canonical Orthodox Church).“In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a Church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there must be differences among you to show which of you have God's approval.” (1 Corinthians 11:18-19)In this talk, Father Kosmas, with much pain, reveals something that he has always believed but was reluctant to say until the right time. It has become apparent to him, through those enlightened by the Holy Spirit - the saints, grace-filled elders and right-believing clergy - that now is the right time to fully expose the abomination. What abomination? The betrayal of Orthodoxy by most of the Orthodox hierarchs, priests, and even monastics. Father Kosmas then presents soul-saving advice given by saints and grace-filled clergy and monastics of what to do during these difficult times when it has become apparent that many clergy are, not only failing to teach Orthodoxy to the faithful, but are openly and defiantly teaching heresy as wolves in sheep's clothing.The following questions are also discussed:What is meant by, “Now the devil is on vacation, because his work has been taken over by the bishops”?Should we consider cowardice to be a great sin?What did Elder Justin Parvu of Romania mean when he said, “The time will come when you will be sold by your shepherds. They will watch you being ripped apart by the wild beasts and they will not come to your help”?Why did the Mother of God refuse to enter the cell of a virtuous monk?For more, visit our website: www.OrthodoxTalks.comDuration: 4hrs 51mins

Kresta In The Afternoon - 2022-11-28 - An Advent Recipe for Readiness

Catholic

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 29, 2022 113:43

Are the Catholic and Orthodox Churches moving toward unity on the date of Easter? Matthew Bunson fills us in, and Mike Aquilina tells how the Prophecy of Malachi told the early Christians what to look for in the Messiah. We begin this Advent season with Msgr. Charles Pope, who has a recipe for Advent readiness, and Brant Pitre, who helps us walk a spiritual path with Jesus.

jesus christ christians advent catholic recipes prophecy afternoons readiness msgr orthodox churches kresta

November 25: Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Virgin and Martyr

Catholic Saints & Feasts

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 24, 2022 6:08

November 25: Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Virgin and Martyrc. Late third–early fourth centuriesOptional Memorial; Liturgical Color: RedPatron Saint of philosophers, apologists, and all who work with wheelsAn obscure Egyptian wins the double crown of virgin-martyrThe armies of Alexander the Great swept south and east from Greece three hundred and thirty years before the infant Jesus ever gently swayed in His Mother's arms. After Alexander conquered Egypt, he founded a new coastal city and crowned it after himself. Alexandria, Constantinople, Caesarea, Antioch, and numerous other foundations gratified the colossal egos of the mighty men who laid deep foundations and raised high walls to commemorate themselves and their patrons. How different from the Christian era and its venerable custom of naming places in honor of the Lord, Mary, and the Saints—San Francisco, Christchurch, El Salvador, Sao Paolo, Asunción, and on and on. Today's saint—Catherine of Alexandria—appropriates Alexander's name for Christianity, something beyond the imagining of that Greek pagan of old.Saint Catherine of Alexandria was a virgin-martyr from the waning years of the persecuted Church in the early fourth century. Reliable documentation about her life may still lie undiscovered in a dusty codex whose heft is sagging a shelf in a neglected monastic library. Until such authentic corroboration of her life is brought to light, however, the total absence of verifiable facts make Catherine an enigmatic figure. Precisely due to this dearth of biographical information, Catherine's feast day was removed from the Church's universal calendar by Pope Saint Paul VI in 1969.In 2000, Pope Saint John Paul II went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land to properly commence the third millennium. Among the holy sites he visited was Mount Sinai, Egypt, on whose summit Moses received from God the tablets of the Ten Commandments. The Orthodox Monastery on Mount Sinai is named in honor of Saint Catherine, after a legend which holds that her relics were borne there by angels upon her martyrdom. The Orthodox Abbot of the monastery sadly refused to pray with the Pope during his pastoral visit to St. Catherine's. Among the unstated reasons for this rebuff may have been the Church's decision to liturgically suppress Saint Catherine's feast day in 1969. So, in 2002, Pope Saint John Paul II restored Catherine's feast day, perhaps as a generous ecumenical gesture to the family of Orthodox Churches.Devotion to Saint Catherine began in the late first millennium among the Orthodox. Her cult migrated to the West with the crusading knights when they returned from the Holy Land in the twelfth century. Devotion to Saint Catherine exploded in popularity throughout the High Middle Ages until she was one of the most commonly invoked saints in all of Europe. Even a college at England's Cambridge University was established in Catherine's honor in 1473. It is said that Catherine was a beautiful young woman from a noble Alexandrian family who had a miraculous conversion to Christianity, compelling her to make a vow of virginity. Her erudition and persuasive gifts convinced fifty of the Emperor's most able philosophers of the truth of Christianity. Catherine then had further successful forays in converting the Emperor's own household and soldiers. When she rejected the Emperor's romantic entreaties, he sentenced her to be shred to pieces on a spiked wheel. But Catherine's bindings were miraculously loosened and she survived the ordeal, only to then suffer beheading, thus earning the double crown of both virgin and martyr.In the summer of 1425, a young French girl named Joan, standing in her parent's garden, gazed into the mist closely enveloping her and saw something. It was Saint Michael the Archangel and two women wearing rich crowns. One of these women was Saint Catherine of Alexandria. Catherine spoke sweetly and softly to young Joan, saying that she would be Joan's counsel, guide, and protector. She even promised to one day lead Joan to paradise. Years later, when Joan acquitted herself well under questioning by theologians, just as Catherine had done when questioned by philosophers, the townspeople said that Joan of Arc was none other than Saint Catherine of Alexandria come down to earth again.Saint Catherine of Alexandria, your intelligence and devotion led you to be outspoken for Christ. Intercede on behalf of all Christians, making them fearless in their advocacy for, and defense of, the truths of our faith, even to the point of death.

Today's Catholic Mass Readings Saturday, November 12, 2022

Fr. Kubicki’s 2 Minute Prayer Reflection – Relevant Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 12, 2022 Transcription Available

Full Text of ReadingsMemorial of Saint Josaphat, Bishop and Martyr Lectionary: 496All podcast readings are produced by the USCCB and are from the Catholic Lectionary, based on the New American Bible and approved for use in the United States _______________________________________The Saint of the day is Saint JosaphatIn 1595, the Orthodox bishop of Brest-Litovsk in present-day Belarus and five other bishops representing millions of Ruthenians, sought reunion with Rome. John Kunsevich—who took the name Josaphat in religious life—was to dedicate his life, and die for the same cause. Born in what is now Ukraine, he went to work in Wilno and was influenced by clergy adhering to the 1596 Union of Brest. He became a Basilian monk, then a priest, and soon was well known as a preacher and an ascetic. At a relatively young age, upon becoming both bishop of Vitebsk and archbishop of Polotsk, Josaphat faced a difficult situation. Most monks, fearing interference in liturgy and customs, did not want union with Rome. By synods, catechetical instruction, reform of the clergy, and personal example, however, Josaphat was successful in winning the greater part of the Orthodox in that area to the union. But the next year a dissident hierarchy was set up, and his opposite number spread the accusation that Josaphat had “gone Latin” and that all his people would have to do the same. He was not enthusiastically supported by the Latin bishops of Poland. Despite warnings, he went to Vitebsk, still a hotbed of trouble. Attempts were made to foment trouble and drive him from the diocese: A priest was sent to shout insults to him from his own courtyard. When Josaphat had him removed and shut up in his house, the opposition rang the town hall bell, and a mob assembled. The priest was released, but members of the mob broke into the bishop's home. Josaphat was struck with a halberd, then shot, and his body thrown into the river. It was later recovered and is now buried in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. He was the first saint of the Eastern Church to be canonized by Rome. Josaphat's death brought a movement toward Catholicism and unity, but the controversy continued, and the dissidents, too, had their martyr. After the partition of Poland, the Russians forced most Ruthenians to join the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1964, newspaper photos of Pope Paul VI embracing Athenagoras I, the Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople, marked a significant step toward the healing of a division in Christendom that has spanned more than nine centuries. Reflection The seeds of separation were sown in the fourth century when the Roman Empire was divided into East and West. The actual split came over customs such as using unleavened bread, Saturday fasting, and celibacy. No doubt the political involvement of religious leaders on both sides was a large factor, and doctrinal disagreement was present. But no reason was enough to justify the present tragic division in Christendom, which is 64 percent Roman Catholic, 13 percent Eastern—mostly Orthodox—Churches, and 23 percent Protestant, and this when the 71 percent of the world that is not Christian should be experiencing unity and Christ-like charity from Christians! Looking for wisdom from the saints? Click here! Saint of the Day, Copyright Franciscan Media

Father Kubicki - Prayer Reflections November 12, 2022

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 12, 2022 2:00

Today is the feast of Saint Josaphat. Saint Josaphat, known as the Apostle of Union, dedicated his life to promote unity with the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Father talks about a basilica named after Saint Josaphat. Let us pray for unity in the Church.

church father prayer reflections union catholic apostles kubicki orthodox churches

Today's Catholic Mass Readings Saturday, October 22, 2022

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 22, 2022 Transcription Available

Full Text of ReadingsSaturday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 478All podcast readings are produced by the USCCB and are from the Catholic Lectionary, based on the New American Bible and approved for use in the United States _______________________________________The Saint of the day is Saint John Paul II“Open wide the doors to Christ,” urged John Paul II during the homily at the Mass where he was installed as pope in 1978. Born in Wadowice, Poland, Karol Jozef Wojtyla had lost his mother, father, and older brother before his 21st birthday. Karol's promising academic career at Krakow's Jagiellonian University was cut short by the outbreak of World War II. While working in a quarry and a chemical factory, he enrolled in an “underground” seminary in Kraków. Ordained in 1946, he was immediately sent to Rome where he earned a doctorate in theology. Back in Poland, a short assignment as assistant pastor in a rural parish preceded his very fruitful chaplaincy for university students. Soon Fr. Wojtyla earned a doctorate in philosophy and began teaching that subject at Poland's University of Lublin. Communist officials allowed Wojtyla to be appointed auxiliary bishop of Kraków in 1958, considering him a relatively harmless intellectual. They could not have been more wrong! Bishop Wojtyla attended all four sessions of Vatican II and contributed especially to its Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. Appointed as archbishop of Kraków in 1964, he was named a cardinal three years later. Elected pope in October 1978, he took the name of his short-lived, immediate predecessor. Pope John Paul II was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. In time, he made pastoral visits to 124 countries, including several with small Christian populations. John Paul II promoted ecumenical and interfaith initiatives, especially the 1986 Day of Prayer for World Peace in Assisi. He visited Rome's main synagogue and the Western Wall in Jerusalem; he also established diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Israel. He improved Catholic-Muslim relations, and in 2001 visited a mosque in Damascus, Syria. The Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, a key event in John Paul's ministry, was marked by special celebrations in Rome and elsewhere for Catholics and other Christians. Relations with the Orthodox Churches improved considerably during his papacy. “Christ is the center of the universe and of human history” was the opening line of John Paul II's 1979 encyclical, Redeemer of the Human Race. In 1995, he described himself to the United Nations General Assembly as “a witness to hope.” His 1979 visit to Poland encouraged the growth of the Solidarity movement there and the collapse of communism in central and eastern Europe 10 years later. John Paul II began World Youth Day and traveled to several countries for those celebrations. He very much wanted to visit China and the Soviet Union, but the governments in those countries prevented that. One of the most well-remembered photos of John Paul II's pontificate was his one-on-one conversation in 1983, with Mehmet Ali Agca, who had attempted to assassinate him two years earlier. In his 27 years of papal ministry, John Paul II wrote 14 encyclicals and five books, canonized 482 saints and beatified 1,338 people. In the last years of his life, he suffered from Parkinson's disease and was forced to cut back on some of his activities. Pope Benedict XVI beatified John Paul II in 2011, and Pope Francis canonized him in 2014. Reflection Before John Paul II's funeral Mass in St. Peter's Square, hundreds of thousands of people had waited patiently for a brief moment to pray before his body, which lay in state inside St. Peter's for several days. The media coverage of his funeral was unprecedented. Presiding at the funeral Mass, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger—then dean of the College of Cardinals and later Pope Benedict XVI—concluded his homily by saying: “None of us can ever forget how, in that last Easter Sunday of his life, the Holy Father, marked by suffering, came once more to the window of the Apostolic Palace and one last time gave his blessing urbi et orbi (‘to the city and to the world'). “We can be sure that our beloved pope is standing today at the window of the Father's house, that sees us and blesses us. Yes, bless us, Holy Father. We entrust your dear soul to the Mother of God, your Mother, who guided you each day and who will guide you now to the glory of her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.” Learn more about Saint John Paul II! Saint of the Day, Copyright Franciscan Media

St Maxim (Sandovich), martyr of Lemkos, Czechoslovakia (1914) (August 24 OC)

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 6, 2022

St Maxim was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1888. At this time all Orthodox Churches had been captured and subjected to the "Unia," by which, though keeping the Orthodox liturgical rites, they were united to the Roman Catholic Church. Many of the Carpatho-Russian people were ignorant of the change and what it meant; others were unhappy with it but, in their subject condition, saw no alternative. Maxim's farmer parents, at great personal sacrifice, obtained an education for him that enabled him to study for the priesthood at the Basilian seminary in Krakow. Here he discerned the un-Orthodox nature of the "Greek Catholic" training there and traveled to Russia, where he became a novice at the Great Lavra of Pochaev and met Archbishop Anthony (Khrapovitsky), who encouraged him in his quest for Orthodoxy. (Archbishop Anthony, after the Russian Revolution, became the first Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad). He entered seminary in Russia in 1905 and was ordained to the Priesthood in 1911.Metropolitan Anthony, knowing the hardships and persecutions that awaited any Orthodox priest in Austro-Hungary, offered to find Maxim a parish in Russia. But Maxim was already aware of the hunger for Orthodoxy among many of the Carpatho-Russian people; several people from his village had travelled to America and while there had attended Orthodox Churches and confessed to Orthodox priests. They begged him to return to his country and establish an Orthodox parish there. When he returned to his native village of Zhdynia, the polish authorities, seeing him in the riassa, beard and uncut hair of an Orthodox priest, mocked him, saying "Look, Saint Nicholas has come to the Carpathians!" But the people of nearby Hrab sent a delegation asking him to set up an Orthodox parish in their village. This he did, setting up a house-church in the residence that the people gave him. Almost immediately, he and his people began to be harassed and persecuted, first at the instigation of "Greek Catholic" priests, then of the government. His rectory/church was closed, and he and several of his parishioners were repeatedly jailed, sometimes on trumped-up charges of sedition. (The Carpatho-Russian people were always suspected of pro-Russian political sympathies by the Austrian and Polish authorities). Despite these persecutions, through Fr Maxim's labors a wave of desire for Orthodoxy spread through the region, with many Carpatho-Russians openly identifying themselves as Orthodox. The government issued orders to regional mayors to forbid those who had identified themselves as Orthodox to gather and, in 1913, appointed a special commissioner whose task was to force the people to return to Catholicism. In 1914, war broke out between Russia and Austro-Hungary. Despite lack of any evidence that Fr Maxim had engaged in pro-Russian political activity — he once said "My only politics is the Gospel" — he was arrested and executed on September 6 by the Papal calendar, August 24 by the Church Calendar. He was denied any form of Church burial, and his father buried him with his own hands. Following the First World War, Orthodoxy became legal in the new Polish Republic, and a monument was placed over Fr Maxim's grave in his home town of Zhdynia. In 1994, the Orthodox Church of Poland officially glorified St Maxim.

St Maxim (Sandovich), martyr of Lemkos, Czechoslovakia (1914) (August 24 OC)

Way of the Fathers with Mike Aquilina

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 6, 2022 3:47

St Maxim was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1888. At this time all Orthodox Churches had been captured and subjected to the "Unia," by which, though keeping the Orthodox liturgical rites, they were united to the Roman Catholic Church. Many of the Carpatho-Russian people were ignorant of the change and what it meant; others were unhappy with it but, in their subject condition, saw no alternative. Maxim's farmer parents, at great personal sacrifice, obtained an education for him that enabled him to study for the priesthood at the Basilian seminary in Krakow. Here he discerned the un-Orthodox nature of the "Greek Catholic" training there and traveled to Russia, where he became a novice at the Great Lavra of Pochaev and met Archbishop Anthony (Khrapovitsky), who encouraged him in his quest for Orthodoxy. (Archbishop Anthony, after the Russian Revolution, became the first Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad). He entered seminary in Russia in 1905 and was ordained to the Priesthood in 1911.Metropolitan Anthony, knowing the hardships and persecutions that awaited any Orthodox priest in Austro-Hungary, offered to find Maxim a parish in Russia. But Maxim was already aware of the hunger for Orthodoxy among many of the Carpatho-Russian people; several people from his village had travelled to America and while there had attended Orthodox Churches and confessed to Orthodox priests. They begged him to return to his country and establish an Orthodox parish there. When he returned to his native village of Zhdynia, the polish authorities, seeing him in the riassa, beard and uncut hair of an Orthodox priest, mocked him, saying "Look, Saint Nicholas has come to the Carpathians!" But the people of nearby Hrab sent a delegation asking him to set up an Orthodox parish in their village. This he did, setting up a house-church in the residence that the people gave him. Almost immediately, he and his people began to be harassed and persecuted, first at the instigation of "Greek Catholic" priests, then of the government. His rectory/church was closed, and he and several of his parishioners were repeatedly jailed, sometimes on trumped-up charges of sedition. (The Carpatho-Russian people were always suspected of pro-Russian political sympathies by the Austrian and Polish authorities). Despite these persecutions, through Fr Maxim's labors a wave of desire for Orthodoxy spread through the region, with many Carpatho-Russians openly identifying themselves as Orthodox. The government issued orders to regional mayors to forbid those who had identified themselves as Orthodox to gather and, in 1913, appointed a special commissioner whose task was to force the people to return to Catholicism. In 1914, war broke out between Russia and Austro-Hungary. Despite lack of any evidence that Fr Maxim had engaged in pro-Russian political activity — he once said "My only politics is the Gospel" — he was arrested and executed on September 6 by the Papal calendar, August 24 by the Church Calendar. He was denied any form of Church burial, and his father buried him with his own hands. Following the First World War, Orthodoxy became legal in the new Polish Republic, and a monument was placed over Fr Maxim's grave in his home town of Zhdynia. In 1994, the Orthodox Church of Poland officially glorified St Maxim.

2.1 Where Councils Come From: An Introduction

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 15, 2022 19:23

When the Church is in crisis, its bishops meet in council. Since the generation of the Apostles, this has been the customary way of settling major disputes over doctrine and discipline. In the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 15, the Twelve met with certain elders and chosen experts to exercise an authority that was different from the authority that any of them possessed individually. This established a practice for the ages to follow. The councils in the time of the Fathers—the first seven ecumenical councils—are considered authoritative by the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches. In this episode, we look at the pre-history of those councils and consider their definitions and authority. LINKS Cyprian of Carthage, On the Seventh Council of Carthage https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1719 Canons of the Council of Ancyra (A.D. 314) https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3802.htm Canons of the Council of Necaesarea (A.D. 315) https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3803.htm Mike Aquilina's website https://fathersofthechurch.com Mike Aquilina's books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/ Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org Donate today! https://www.catholicculture.org/users/donate/audio

church acts catholic council fathers feast apostles twelve catholic church courtesy orthodox all saints councils carthage canons patristics orthodox churches

Title Podcast# 0424: The Resurrection | 23/04/2022

Coptic Voice Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 23, 2022 139:51

The Resurrection. Many of the Orthodox Churches celebrates Easter by saying:Christos Anesti (Χριστός Ανέστη). Christ rose himself from the dead. He gave us hope and to belief in him. indeed he is risen. Gospel Reflection (John 20:1-18).

jesus christ resurrection orthodox churches

Mar 26 - 2nd Sorrowful Mystery

The God Minute

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 26, 2022 9:24

2nd Sorrowful MysteryThe Scourging at the PillarHail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death. Amen. MUSIC“The Sorrowful Mother, Страдальна Мати” - A well known Ukrainian hymn in both Catholic and Orthodox Churches in Ukraine and abroad. This version is sung by the Vydubychi Church Chorus, and is from their album “Sing Praises To Our God, Sing Praises!”"Petricor"

god jesus christ lord mother ukraine mystery catholic ukrainian amen sorrowful sing praise orthodox churches

The Life of Metropolitan Philaret of New York

Lighthouse Faith – FOX News Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 15, 2022 17:36

Metropolitan Philaret of New York, third First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, and towering figure in the great cloud of 20th century witnesses. An ardent defender of the Truth, both the Person of Christ and the dogma and ethos of His Body, the Orthodox Church, Vladyka Philaret's ascetic and prayer-filled heart guided ROCOR from 1964 until his repose in 1985. He is well known for his three “Sorrowful Epistles” written to the Hierarchy of the world in defense of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church against ecumenism and modernist corruptions of the life of the Church. Thirteen years after his repose on Nov 8/21, 1985, his relics were translated to the crypt under the altar at Holy Trinity Monastery and Seminary in Jordanville, NY and were found to be incorrupt. In God's time, we may see this righteous Hierarch officially number with the Saints. Fr. Seraphim Rose wrote of Met. Philaret in 1976: “Among the Primates of the Orthodox Churches today, there is only one from whom is always expected—and not only by members of his own Church, but by very many in a number of other Orthodox Churches as well—the clear voice of Orthodox righteousness and truth and conscience, untainted by political considerations or calculations of any kind. The voice of Metropolitan Philaret of New York, Chief Hierarch of the Russian Church Outside of Russia, is the only fully Orthodox voice among all the Orthodox primates. In this he is like to the Holy Fathers of ancient times, who placed purity of Orthodoxy above all else, and he stands in the midst of today's confused religious world as a solitary champion of Orthodoxy in the spirit of the Ecumenical Councils.” Learn more about Met. Philaret at the ROCOR Eastern Diocese website: https://www.eadiocese.org/metropolita... And also at this blog (run by an Old Calendarist, for your information): http://blessedphilaret.blogspot.com This channel is dedicated to sharing the writings and lives of the Saints of the Orthodox Church. Glory to Jesus Christ! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/orthodox-wisdom/message

Ukraine and the Spiritual War Behind the Actual War

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 13, 2022 35:18

Is a Holy War over religion and politics the real impetus for Russia invading Ukraine? Former Ambassador for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback believes it was probably a huge factor, largely downplayed or ignored by Western officials. Three years ago the Patriarch of Orthodox Churches in Istanbul granted the Ukraine Orthodox Church independence from the Russian Orthodox Church. Putin, who sees himself as the defender of the faith, was livid, and so was the Russian Church hierarchy which is closely aligned with him. Putin has a long memory, but a short fuse. And there's more spiritual warfare going on in Ukraine than meets the eye or ears. On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, we go to the National Religious Broadcasters convention in Nashville and talk with three faith experts about what's happening in Ukraine: Ambassador Brownback, along with Dirk Smith of EEM (Eastern European Missions) which has a supplied millions of Bibles to Ukraine, and Dr. Jeff Meyers, President of Summit Ministries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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#Ukraine: Side by side: the Ukrainian and the Russian Orthodox churches of Carnegie, PA. Salina Zito, CNN, New York Post; author, The Great Revolt. @SalenaZito SalenaZito.com @DCExaminer

The John Batchelor Show

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 10, 2022 10:10

Photo: #Ukraine: Side by side: the Ukrainian and the Russian Orthodox churches of Carnegie, PA. Salina Zito, CNN, New York Post; author, The Great Revolt. @SalenaZito SalenaZito.com @DCExaminer https://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/insight/2022/03/06/salena-zito-ukraine-crisis-brings-out-the-best-in-americans/stories/202203060046

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Unprecedented number of weddings and christenings in Melbourne's Greek-Orthodox churches - Χαμός στους Ελληνορθόδοξους ναούς της Μελβούρνης με γάμους και βαφτίσεις

SBS Greek - SBS Ελληνικά

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 10, 2022 9:30

Hundreds of weddings and christenings have taken place in Greek Orthodox churches in Melbourne since last October. Similarly, many companies selling wedding and christening items are doing big bucks. - Εκατοντάδες είναι οι γάμοι και οι βαφτίσεις που έχουν πραγματοποιηθεί σε Ελληνορθόδοξους ναούς της Μελβούρνης από τον περασμένο Οκτώβριο μέχρι τώρα. Παρομοίως, πολλές επιχειρήσεις με είδη γάμου και βαπτιστικά κάνουν χρυσές δουλειές.

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Father Steven of the Delaware Ukrainian Orthodox Churches Discusses the Russian Invasion with Rick Jensen

The Rick Jensen Show

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 25, 2022 11:33

Father Steven of the Delaware Ukrainian Orthodox Churches Discusses the Russian Invasion with Rick Jensen

father russian invasion ukrainian delaware russian invasion orthodox churches rick jensen

Season 2 Trailer and Preview

Theology for the People

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 13, 2022 1:06

It's been a minute since the last episode of the Theology for the People podcast dropped. That's because we're currently in the process of recording episodes for Season 2 which will be released over the next several months. Some of the topics we will be discussing this year include: How Adoption is a Picture of the Gospel Why the Ascension is More Important than You Might Think Did the Reformation Reach the East? Orthodox Churches and the Protestant Reformation The True Story of St. Patrick of Ireland What is Deconstruction, and How Should We Respond? And more! Also, stay tuned for more information about my upcoming book: I Could Never Believe In...: Responding to 9 of the Most Difficult Questions for Christianity. More information about the book and its release coming soon. Thanks for listening, and keep an eye on your podcast app for new episodes coming soon! If you'd like to suggest a topic for the podcast, you can do so here: https://nickcady.org/ask-a-question-or-suggest-a-topic/

christianity ireland east picture theology responding ascension deconstruction more important orthodox churches gospel why

Does the Russian Orthodox Church Need to Participate in the Ecumenical Movement? (Part II/II)

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 8, 2022 29:59

St. Seraphim (Sobolev) of Sofia (+1950) gives an exemplary defense of the ecclesiology of the Church and on this basis, why the Russian Orthodox Church (and all local Orthodox Churches) should not participate in the Ecumenical Movement. Delivered euring the proceedings of the Congress of the Orthodox Churches at the celebration of the Quincentennial of the autocephaly of the Russian Orthodox Church, Moscow, Russia, July 13, 1948, on the eve of the Amsterdam Conference of the World Council of Churches. Consider how much has changed since this address as given, and how the words of the Saint have been followed by some, and rejected by others.St. Seraphim is known as defender of the truth of the Church and as a wonderworker. He was glorified as a Saint by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2016. A beautiful and well-known saying of his reads, “Adapt your life to your Faith, not the other way around.” The book of his life and works: https://churchsupplies.jordanville.or...A brief account of his life here: https://blog.obitel-minsk.com/2021/02...Text of recording: http://www.dep.church/downloads/StSer...From “Does the Russian Orthodox Church Need to Participate in the Ecumenical Movement?”:“Let us remember its essence and its aim, and let us wholly reject the ecumenical movement. It constitutes a falling-away from the Orthodox Faith, a betrayal of and treason against Christ, which are things that we must avoid in every way so as not to fulfill the words of Saint Seraphim: ‘Woe to him who even in one iota falls away from the Holy Ecumenical Synods.'” “From this, it is obvious who really stands behind the ecumenical movement: Freemasons, longtime foes of the Orthodox Church. It is also clear to what end the ecumenical movement, at all of its gatherings since its inception, has striven: not a dogmatic union of all so-called “Christian churches” with the Orthodox Church, but a commixture of both, achieved by means of the falling away of the Orthodox from their Faith through an ecumenical familiarity with heretics, especially with Protestants. This commixture is equivalent to the destruction of Orthodoxy.”“The Orthodox Church should never join with those of other confessions. Such a union is unfeasible, utopian, and extremely harmful and even disastrous for the Orthodox Church. Orthodox Christians should, rather, join with each other, and so fulfill the commandment of Christ: “Neither pray I for these alone [i.e., the Apostles], but for them also which shall believe on Me through their world; that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us.” In this context, the word “all” means “believers,” and the word “believers,” here, does not signify Orthodox together with ecumenists and heterodox Christians; one can only understand the word to mean “true believers,” i.e., Orthodox Christians. As God declared, “I am...the truth,” He could not have meant, here, heretical Christians, but rather only right-believing ones.”“For not joining the ecumenical movement as the Orthodox ecumenists have, we are accused of an essential lack of love for non-Orthodox Christians. However, through their involvement in the ecumenical movement, Orthodox ecumenists break the Holy Canons; violate Orthodox ecclesiological dogma; establish friendships with Protestants and Freemasons at ecumenical gatherings, which makes them lenient toward Protestants propagandizing in Orthodox countries; and assist the enemies of the Orthodox Church in their work for Her elimination. The Orthodox ecumenists' behavior in their relationship to ecumenism is a complete outrage; it is egregiously unseemly behavior, in which, according to the teaching of Saint Paul, there is no love: “Love,” he says, “doth not behave itself unseemly.” It is obvious, however, that any lack of love is not to be found with us, but with the Orthodox ecumenists, since they do not express love, but rather behave unseemly. Let them ask their conscience—it will answer --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/orthodox-wisdom/message

Does the Russian Orthodox Church Need to Participate in the Ecumenical Movement? (Part I/II)

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 6, 2022 25:48

St. Seraphim (Sobolev) of Sofia (+1950) gives an exemplary defense of the ecclesiology of the Church and on this basis, why the Russian Orthodox Church (and all local Orthodox Churches) should not participate in the Ecumenical Movement. Delivered during the proceedings of the Congress of the Orthodox Churches at the celebration of the Quincentennial of the autocephaly of the Russian Orthodox Church, Moscow, Russia, July 13, 1948, on the eve of the Amsterdam Conference of the World Council of Churches. Consider how much has changed since this address as given, and how the words of the Saint have been followed by some, and rejected by others.St. Seraphim is known as defender of the truth of the Church and as a wonderworker. He was glorified as a Saint by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2016. A beautiful and well-known saying of his reads, “Adapt your life to your Faith, not the other way around.” The book of his life and works: https://churchsupplies.jordanville.or...A brief account of his life here: https://blog.obitel-minsk.com/2021/02...Full text: http://www.dep.church/downloads/StSer...From “Does the Russian Orthodox Church Need to Participate in the Ecumenical Movement?”:“The Russian Orthodox Church has been invited to participate in this ecumenical conference as one of many ecclesiastical organizations, each of which understands itself to be the Church. But we Orthodox Christians confess that, strictly speaking, only one community of true, faithful Christians can be called “the Church,” as established by God Himself for our salvation. To call every heretical community “the Church” is to have an incorrect understanding of the word and to trample upon the dogma of the Church as it is taught in our Faith, as laid down by the ninth article of the Symbol of the Faith.”“The Orthodox viewpoint always defines the One Church as consisting only of right-believing Orthodox Christians. Our Church has never considered heretics to be included in Her ranks, as members of the Body of Christ.”“Members of the Orthodox Church who are sinners, no matter how great their sins may be, are always able through the Mystery of Repentance and with the help of active and saving Grace to become Saints; they can attain to a true and perfect Grace-filled sanctity. But for the heterodox, whether as individuals or as a group, it is not possible to become Saints, because the Grace of the Mystery of Chrismation and the Grace of the Mystery of Repentance are not active among them. Heterodox are only able to become Saints if they repent, renounce all of their heresies, and unite themselves with the Orthodox Church; only then can one include other Christians in the Holy Church of Christ.”“But what sort of Grace is this, which, according to ecumenists, allows Christians of other creeds to become Saints? According to the teaching of the Holy Fathers, the Grace of the Holy Spirit is manifest in two forms: firstly, as an external, providential Grace, which acts in and throughout the lives of everybody, enabling anyone to accept the True Faith; and, secondly, as an internal, salvific Grace, which revivifies, redeems, and functions solely in the Orthodox Church. Undoubtedly, in the previously cited quote by the Orthodox ecumenist, external Grace was not what he had in mind, since when it acts in the lives of Christians of other creeds, and even in the lives of non-Christians, it does not make them Saints. It follows, then, that what he had in mind was the internal, revivifying Grace. But this Grace is either wholly absent in Christians of other creeds or is present but inactive, unable to save or to make them Saints. So neither the one nor the other type of Grace can make heterodox Christians into Saints. Subsequently, it is inappropriate for Orthodox ecumenists to speak at all about either Grace or sanctity in connection with Christians of other creeds.”This channel is dedicated to sharing the writings and lives of the Saints of the Orthodox Church. Glory to Jesus Ch --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/orthodox-wisdom/message

68: Unification Council of Trve Kvlt Orthodox Churches (Nazi) (teaser)

The Empire Never Ended

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 19, 2021 2:53

Boris updates The Empire Never Ended on our pals in Montenegro followed by a dive into the strange world of uncanonical, unrecognized Orthodox churches. The TENE squad tries to make sense of vast array of strange acronyms and an icon gallery of weirdos ranging from Russian Nazi collaborationists in New York to apocalyptic anti-communist religious fanatics. This is The Empire Never Ended, the Antifascist Amerikanski-Balkan podcast about (neo) fascist terror, the (deep) state and the alienation, nihilism and desperation produced by the capitalist system. And how to get rid of all that. Something like that... Subscribe to our Patreon for weekly premium episodes! And check out our social media for updates and whatnot: Twitter + Facebook + Instagram + YouTube

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St Maxim (Sandovich), martyr of Lemkos, Czechoslovakia (1914) (August 24 OC)

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 6, 2021

St Maxim was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1888. At this time all Orthodox Churches had been captured and subjected to the "Unia," by which, though keeping the Orthodox liturgical rites, they were united to the Roman Catholic Church. Many of the Carpatho-Russian people were ignorant of the change and what it meant; others were unhappy with it but, in their subject condition, saw no alternative. Maxim's farmer parents, at great personal sacrifice, obtained an education for him that enabled him to study for the priesthood at the Basilian seminary in Krakow. Here he discerned the un-Orthodox nature of the "Greek Catholic" training there and traveled to Russia, where he became a novice at the Great Lavra of Pochaev and met Archbishop Anthony (Khrapovitsky), who encouraged him in his quest for Orthodoxy. (Archbishop Anthony, after the Russian Revolution, became the first Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad). He entered seminary in Russia in 1905 and was ordained to the Priesthood in 1911.Metropolitan Anthony, knowing the hardships and persecutions that awaited any Orthodox priest in Austro-Hungary, offered to find Maxim a parish in Russia. But Maxim was already aware of the hunger for Orthodoxy among many of the Carpatho-Russian people; several people from his village had travelled to America and while there had attended Orthodox Churches and confessed to Orthodox priests. They begged him to return to his country and establish an Orthodox parish there. When he returned to his native village of Zhdynia, the polish authorities, seeing him in the riassa, beard and uncut hair of an Orthodox priest, mocked him, saying "Look, Saint Nicholas has come to the Carpathians!" But the people of nearby Hrab sent a delegation asking him to set up an Orthodox parish in their village. This he did, setting up a house-church in the residence that the people gave him. Almost immediately, he and his people began to be harassed and persecuted, first at the instigation of "Greek Catholic" priests, then of the government. His rectory/church was closed, and he and several of his parishioners were repeatedly jailed, sometimes on trumped-up charges of sedition. (The Carpatho-Russian people were always suspected of pro-Russian political sympathies by the Austrian and Polish authorities). Despite these persecutions, through Fr Maxim's labors a wave of desire for Orthodoxy spread through the region, with many Carpatho-Russians openly identifying themselves as Orthodox. The government issued orders to regional mayors to forbid those who had identified themselves as Orthodox to gather and, in 1913, appointed a special commissioner whose task was to force the people to return to Catholicism. In 1914, war broke out between Russia and Austro-Hungary. Despite lack of any evidence that Fr Maxim had engaged in pro-Russian political activity — he once said "My only politics is the Gospel" — he was arrested and executed on September 6 by the Papal calendar, August 24 by the Church Calendar. He was denied any form of Church burial, and his father buried him with his own hands. Following the First World War, Orthodoxy became legal in the new Polish Republic, and a monument was placed over Fr Maxim's grave in his home town of Zhdynia. In 1994, the Orthodox Church of Poland officially glorified St Maxim.

St Maxim (Sandovich), martyr of Lemkos, Czechoslovakia (1914) (August 24 OC)