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We have had a difficult January unfortunately in regards to the health of numerous family members.

Please pray for the recovery of my wife’s grandmother. She is struggling with multiple physical and mental ailments, is in the ER and is likely going to have a changing living situation wherein she will possibly be in a nursing home.

Please pray for my father, that he may have an improvement in mental health and return to the church.

Please pray for my grandfather and aunt as well, that they may recover from recent heart issues.

Thank you and god bless you all.

I do believe the dark side can manipulate through signs, wonders or magic. I don't want to say I've seen it but there is a chance I have. I just don't want to accuse God for being evil. It's like I could be desiring something evil then temptation dealing with that particular something surrounds me sometimes. Sometimes all it takes is a thought and something seems to read my mind. Like I was talking to people about the lottery and covetousness. I get on the bus and in front of me, written on the back of a seat, it says money. Things like this happen often. One day I was talking to God about Odysseus being taught to us in school but not Jesus. I go looking on social media and found a channel I liked dealing with Jesus and some music I think. Not sure what I did but I think I clicked on something or looked up the song and it lead me to Odysseus. How could something of Jesus lead me to Odysseus? It was images of Christ which could be idolatry so that's possible. Not sure what the reason for this was but I tried to resist temptation. So, if a sign, wonder or miracle is good and without sin I believe it to be from God. For every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of lights.

As for God, I was looking in my backyard and I saw a squirrel. I asked God to protect the squirrel from backyard cats and birds. Like in this area where I live. Eventually I go outside to take out the trash. While walking to the dumpster I see a bird on a post. It swoops down right past me and flies into the backyard after the squirrel. The squirrel runs up a tree and gets away. This was literally minutes after praying. I personally believe God is teaching me and molding me like clay. The someone I told mentioned birds needing to eat. So I prayed for that. Then shortly after, maybe a couple days, with the prayer still fresh on my heart, I believe God showed me a bird with something in its mouth flying down the street. God does things like that for me from time to time. He even instills within me fear. One of my prayers led to a dog biting me in the face. Yet the other places me in jail and another prayer left me bleeding in strange places. I believe God is training me as He shows me mercy. He is my teacher.

Christ is in our midst!!

I lifted some thoughts about the Holy Spirit how He relates to Christ, and how He relates to us. If you want to know how you have received the Holy Spirit, take a look and compare this to your life.

Christ prayed when He merged from His baptism in the Jordan, making it clear that this was a special moment in his life. The Holy Spirit came down on him like a dove at Theophany. This is similar to how the Spirit empowered the disciples at Pentecost for their mission. Jesus’ baptism prepared him to spread the good news, heal broken hearts, and set people free. He was gentle, kind, and always ready to help those in need. Our baptism prepares us to share in the work of Jesus. We are called to care for one another, to help those in need, to show mercy and love, and to guide others toward God’s goodness. We have a mission to share God’s love with others. Just as Jesus was empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are also given the strength to do good in our lives. We can bring hope to those who are sad, help those who are struggling, and show kindness to everyone we meet. Through our actions, we can show the love of God in the world.

To my mind, Basilians are Eastern rite Jesuits.

Obviously, that isn't quite right (no pun intended), but what are the more significant differences?

I did something sort of similar, but I was younger (late twenties), had one child at the time, and was moving near family. But we did have to rebuild most of our social network and learn to live on less money.

I'm not sure I have any advice aside from what you already know: start meeting people ASAP. If you don't have community at your parish (yet!), you can probably find some group of people nearby who at least share the same values. For example, my wife was able to find a mom's group at a local Roman Catholic parish full of some very wonderful families.

Some new poems
http://www.christiantalkzone.net/forum/index.php?threads/poems-for-gods-glory.4428/post-38592

and
http://www.christiantalkzone.net/forum/index.php?forums/catholic-and-orthodox.179/

Ah, very interesting. I knew he had disappeared from Catholic circles. I just found a letter that wrote about five years ago criticizing the state of Catholicism, published on New Liturgical Movement: https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2019/09/an-orthodox-monk-on-modern-catholic.html

This applies only if you were received prior to age 14. If you received Sacraments of Initiation after age 14, you belong to whichever Sui Juris church received you.


I'm assuming this was a valid baptism, but, if it wasn't, you could be received into which Sui Juris church you wanted through baptism. Otherwise, you are likely a member of the Latin Church.

The Diocese of Arlington has a very good summary of these rules: https://www.arlingtondiocese.org/ca...-of-canonical-affairs/canonical-affairs/

The Primate of Albanian Orthodox Church in critical condition [risu.ua]
From RISU; "Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew expressed deep concern about the health of Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana and All Albania, who is currently in critical condition in an Athens hospital.

The Primate of the Albanian Church was urgently transported from Tirana to Athens by a Greek Air Force military plane after a sharp deterioration in his health. According to doctors, the Archbishop, who has been treated for a viral infection since December 30, developed gastralgia. This was reported by Orthodoxtimes."

Here is the document in Latin and English
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PraIJhhQnRYf9c1QMLBbkzbctd2KfSh3/view?usp=sharing - English

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GGjArrCT0g0QeDewDBdjZ4E1wLHuB8ns/view?usp=sharing - Latin

That the whole year may be holy, peaceful, and sinless let us ask the Lord.

Mary was one of the sources of information for St. Luke's Gospel. I'm not sure it's fair to say the Scripture is entirely silent on the warmth between the two, especially in light of Tradition.

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

I'm a Roman Catholic and long-time lurker of the forum who has finally decided to come into the open. I've attended a local Ruthenian Byzantine church semi-regularly for years, but I will be seriously discerning whether to make the switch permanently over the next year or so.

I appreciate you all having me!

Christ is in our midst!!

I'm sorry for your loss. Why not? No one here will tell and I don't think the Koliva police will catch you.

Dear Steve,

Happy St Steven's Day! Ven. Andrey received Old Believers under his protection and promoted the study of their Rite. He was related to Tsar St Nicholas Romanov by blood and helped rescue a good number of Russian arisocrates fleeing the Bolsheviks. Leonid Fyodorov was appointed by him to serve Russian Catholics - for which Leonid spent 14 years in the Solovetsky penal colony.

Alex the old Believer

Actually, I have purchased prayer ropes from Phillip the Beadsman - they are exquisite and he will also make custom orders!

Alex

With respect to the veneration of Orthodox saints in EC Churches . . . there is fully liturgical veneration of many saints glorified by the Orthodox Churches within EC churches.

St Photios the Great, Defender of Orthodoxy is formally honoured within the Ruthenian Catholic Church. St Gregory Palamas is honoured liturgically as well and it is quite standard to hear him commemorated on the Second Sunday of Lent - Patriarch Josef Cardinal Slypij in particular promoted his liturgical veneration. Rome itself acknowledged St Gregory's sanctity in 1973 although I've lost my reference for that.- it was first brought to my attention by Fr Archimandrite Sergius Keleher ("Incognitus" here - memory eternal!).

There are icons of all manner of Orthodox saints in St Michael's UGC parish in Welland, Ontario. Also an icon of St Job of Pochayiv in another UGCC pariwh in Alberta. I've also seen the icon of the Pillars of Orthodoxy in a UGCC monastery on the tetrapod . . .

The Syro-Malabar EC church commemorates the feast of the Greek Doctors or Fathers on the same date as the Assyrian Church of the East does. These are none other than . . .Diodore of Tarsus, Theodore the Interpreter Bishop of Mopsuestia and a patriarch of Constantinople by the name of . . . Nestorius.

They also honour other Assyrian saints like Mar Babai the Great and others too.

Don't come after me - contact them.

Rome itself has sporadically received a number of post-Schism Orthodox saints including St Sergius of Radonezh and St Seraphim of Sarov.In 1904 when the Russian Catholic Orthodox church came into being under the Venerable Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, Rome recognized ALL of the post-schism Orthodox saints in the Russian Orthodox calendar for liturgical veneration by this EC Church.

And in the diary of Bl Basil Velichkovsky CSsR, he wrote that whenever an Orthodox parish came into communion with Rome, he made it a policy to leave their locally-venerated saints in their calendars - meaning even very locally honoured worthies that had not yet even made it into the more regional Orthodox calendars.

Let's also remember that there continue to be a great plethora of local Roman Catholics saints and beati whose cultus Rome has not yet formally acknowledged but those veneration as such is even encourgaged by Rome. Pope Francis recently approved the local veneration of a Blessed Jean who was honoured locally in Italy for a few hundred years before.

Members of the Anglican Ordinariate too continue to privately honour their own Anglican saints especially King Charles the Martyr who has statues and even churches named for him throughout the Anglican communion.

Alex

Blessed Eternal Memory!

Byzantine podcast "What God Is Not," headed by Fr. Michael O'Loughlin and "Mother" Natalia, has brought on porn star Bree Solstad to help lead the podcast team and teach Byzantine theology and spirituality. Solstad is one of the latest "celebrity" converts to the faith, with a twist - even after her "miraculous" conversion to the faith, she maintained an Amazon wish list linked to her former Only Fans account, asking the online Johns to whom she previously performed sins of lust for supplies to make overpriced rosaries she sells on Etsy. As ridiculous as this is, there may be a bright side - she most likely has a better grasp of theology than "Mother" Natalia, who endlessly rambles on with the most vacuous and useless spiritual "insights" imaginable.

Hi everybody. I am a Latin Rite Catholic who feels a draw to the east and want to spend 2025 living like a Byzantine. I attend an Eastern parish, and I’m involved there. However, I realize there are so much I do not understand. I know Theophany is coming up soon and there is a fast, but I’m not quite sure what that means in eastern context. Also, our priest mentioned something about fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, but again I am not sure what that means. I would appreciate any insight that you can provide. Please forgive me if this is the wrong place for it and let me know if there is a better forum or in chain on this already.

Acts 10:9-16
The next day as the three travelers were approaching the town, Peter went out on the balcony to pray. It was about noon. Peter got hungry and started thinking about lunch. While lunch was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw the skies open up. Something that looked like a huge blanket lowered by ropes at its four corners settled on the ground. Every kind of animal and reptile and bird you could think of was on it. Then a voice came: “Go to it, Peter—kill and eat.” Peter said, “Oh, no, Lord. I’ve never so much as tasted food that was not kosher.” The voice came a second time: “If God says it’s okay, it’s okay.” This happened three times, and then the blanket was pulled back up into the skies.

By that logic, the old testament imposes 613 commandments, sabbath rules, sacrifices etc. Christ gives one rule, to love your neighbor like yourself, which is, in and of itself, to love God (who is, ontologically, Love, and who resides within the "hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick and imprisoned", as per Matthew 25:37-40) and his one commandment of Love, removing the previous self-serving rules of slavish individualistic self glorification, putting mankind at the center of one's actions.

I was talking to a Melkite priest today and I was told that, even though the Melkites have cut mutual sacramental ties with the Antiochian Orthodox, on the other hand Constantinople feels "compelled" towards the Melkites due to the historical events that lead to their schism, deeming the Melkite church as a sister church to the Greek Orthodox church, rather than a "traitor" church like with the UGCC, with whom they kept no ties, hence that it's pretty much up to the priest whether to allow it or not, but that technically the Melkites are still in communion with the Greek Orthodox and can receive Holy Communion at a Greek Orthodox parish. Is this true?

Astronomical and Ecclesiastical Full Moons, 2025

Astronomical full moon (UT) / Gregorian EFM / Gregorian date of Julian EFM
Jan 13 / Jan 14 / Jan 18
Feb 12 / Feb 13 / Feb 17
Mar 14 / Mar 14 / Mar 18
Apr 13 / Apr 13 / Apr 17
May 12 / May 12 / May 17
Jun 11 / Jun 11 / Jun 15
Jul 10 / Jul 10 / Jul 14
Aug 9 / Aug 9 / Aug 13
Sep 7 / Sep 7 / Sep 11
Oct 7 / Oct 7 / Oct 11
Nov 5 / Nov 5 / Nov 9
Dec 4 / Dec 5 / Dec 9

Good question! Finding a spouse is the ultimate point, I wish it was a bit easier than it seems to be!

Do y'all still do these vespers?