This is a wonderful text by Met. Maximus and it has been several years since I read it and will be reading it again with the Father Dumitru series. There is an final essay on the phrase "Sister Churches" which might be interesting to read through prior to the start of the bi-lateral discussions on the Petrine Mission. I may have a stand alone copy of the essay that I can cut and paste from later. It isn't available on-line.

Eli

Dear Eli,

I gather from the name Father Dumitru that he is Roumanian. If so, Bishop Kallistos Ware said in "Gifts of the Desert" by Kyriacos C Markides:

I say:

Good for them!

Zenovia

Dear Zenovia,

And I say "Lucky for us!!" Metropolitan Maximus is another gift in bilateral relationships as well.

I have done some digging and found a couple of interesting references on-line that lay out the Catholic doctrinal congruences that accompany a teaching of the Divine Simplicity that may well over-rule the philisophical nay-sayers. Of course, as with the rest of Catholic teaching, we might have to accept a thing or two on faith.

If these sources look as good after a longer perusal as they did at first glance, I'll share them in the other thread on Father Dumitru's Orthodox Spirituality.

Also if you have not picked up on it, I very often mean references to "Catholic" teaching to include Orthodox Catholic teaching as well.

You will find Father Dumitru's book of essays on the Church sounding a bit down on the western Church but when looking at more of a variety of his works, there is more congruence than dissonance.

Eli