www.byzcath.org Forums Ripe ground

Where to start with all of this... so much ground to cover.

It seems there is much interest at least in our area in Eastern Christianity. Our local Roman diocese has also been quite supportive of our outreach efforts.

I think outreach and working beyond geographic parish boundries is a must at least here our area of the Midwest. We have folks at such a geographic distance from the nearest fixed Greek Catholic parish that thinking "outside of the box" and taking the show on the road is essential.

We can hand out religious items and pamphlets, which is good and fine, but the real heart of becoming attached and loving Eastern Christianity lies precisely in the liturgical experience. It's sort of like handing out candy vs. inviting someone in for a gourmet meal.

We must give the experience of the riches of our Constantinopolitan tradition if we are to really be effective in bringing in souls. That has to be not only accessible, but our communal prayer is the very foundation itself for Christian community.

The Liturgy is, as VII so well said in Sacrosanctum Concilium the source and summit of our entire Christian life. Our liturgy has to be the foundation, catechetical vehicle, and center of the community it has been and can be.

And by Liturgy that is not limited to the Divine Liturgy, as our Constantinopolitan tradition is so replete, magnificent, and overwhelming in its splendor and diversity of services, all of which convey our beautiful spiritual and theological treasures.

Diak,

As a convert I know that indeed it was to a great extent the liturgy that drew us. However, almost as important is the architecture. When I travel I look for the domes and then the icon screen. If either are missing I'm disappointed. It is difficult for me to understand why we built badly and wonder why we don't eliminate those buildings that aren't Eastern.

Dan L

Dear Admin thanks for the forum!

The first step is to realize the only good fear is fear of God. Once we can accept that any other fear is a form of selfishness we are able to step forward with boldness. Once we are no longer intimidated by the world we are no longer afraid to open our mouths.

Where would we have been if the Apostles did not allow the Holy Spirit to work through them. We must be open to the workings of the Holy Spirit in our lives. That is the next step, to realize that through our Baptism and Chrismation we were sealed with every gift necessary to build the Church of Christ.

The way we accompish these things with the gift of God's mercy and grace is prayer, Scripture, fasting, and confession to empower us to recieve our Eucharistic Lord and take him forth to the world. Liturgy literly means work of the people. So it is our job to take what we are fed through the Divine Liturgy to our brothers and sisters. If we allow God, he will just put them in our path during the course of the day. However, he asks that go one step further and go to highways and byways.

Someone shared recently about thier priest going out to the homeless. Jesus says if you do to the least of these by brethern you do it to me. One of things that seems hard for us of the Eastern Rites is accepting those that don't fit our standards. Our Protestant brothern can say if you pray this prayer and accept Christ as your Lord and Saviour you are saved. We agree with that, but we have to be willing to say it is more. There is a responcibility that goes along with those words. That is what we have to be willing to do. When we came to the Church, if our car was broke down, someone picked us up. If there was no money for groceries for those that were laid off, the church met the needs. We have to be willing to take a chance and get out of our comfort zone to become evangelists for Christ. ARE WE?

My husband, Deacon Stan took a very detailed evanelization course and study at the University of Steubenville, tremendous door to door evanglization. So far he has not found anyone that has been willing to put it into action. So what can we do?

Pani Rose

Go on your own until someone goes with you and then continue to go.

Dan L

Peace all,

"Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you." (Matthew 7:7)

The journey of a 1000 mile begins with a prayer. A simple faithful prayer is the first step, the second step is just as easy as brother Dan said, start the journey and those who will be touched by the spirit will follow. (see also John 15:16)

Many times I found myself doing what other people may see as stupid, like roaming the streets wearing the hat of Santa praising the Lord with Christmas hymns. (maybe its �things as usual in the USA, Christmas spirit� here its looked at differently) This Christmas I felt frustrated because I had a very hard time making people happy and pass on the important message. I almost quit my �job� as Santa. However, after a long prayer and few days of very hard work (where I was called names) some Christian friends were touched by the spirit, and they too came with the best Christmas Chants and armed with Santa scarlet hats � all of us stood in the middle of the campus � spreading the joy of the Word.

This may sound childish, maybe you�ll think of me as crazy, but it took brave saints to take the Teacher�s words into action � Trust God, the Spirit is with you, take the first step and the sheep of Christ will fall behind you.

My Prayers are with you.


Yours in Christ,
A humble Sheep.

Eli, How VERY true! I always liked this quote from St. Catherine of Siena:

"If we were what we should be we would set the world ablaze."


Your brother in the Risen Lord,
+Fr. Gregory

AMEN AND AMEN!

Eli, excellent, excellent. And that's it - prayer is the heart of community and communion in our Christian life. It is what defines our identity as Eastern Christians.

It is the beginning of any realistic idea of living out our Christian existence. We may not have money always to give someone, but we can give them that jewel of prayer, and do it with them in the most complete sense of Christian charity and love.

Charity, social concerns, etc. all come from, radiate from our intimate communion with Our Lord which we realize at His Holy Altar. With that love we conquer the world through the Paschal Mystery of our Risen Lord, which we imbibe ourselves in.

All of our Christian life begins and comes out of prayer. What did Christ do before his public ministry - prayer and fasting in the desert. What did he do at the Transfiguration - went to Mount Tabor to pray. The beginning of the Passion began with - prayer in the Garden. Not just coincidence, I'm afraid.

Dan, I feel this is one aspect that may actually hinder us i.e. attachment to the physical structure and location. In the Midwest we just don't have the clergy and parish locations to serve everyone.

I for one am quite traditional about the physical architecture of the parish, facing east, nice iconostasis, no pews, etc. Anyone who knows me very well knows where I stand on all that. That indeed has to be restored if we are to be taken seriously as those who are living members of a venerable tradition. No problem there. You have to have the parish as the source of liturgical life to connect the domestic church with.

That entails, however, actually having the liturgical life at the parish that fosters the vitality and spiritual growth in the domestic church. That necessitates our fidelity to what the Holy Father has admonished us, the return to our authentic liturgical traditions.

We are sometimes seen as schizophrenic because of it. People ask why this church doesn't have an iconostasis, or why that parish doesn't have Vespers but rather Saturday evening Divine Liturgy. What can we say? It should be this way, but in this place it is that way....

The implications of what we are talking about here are quite radical, not only for clergy but for the laity.

I see the parish as rather the center radiating out the evangelical spirit like a light than drawing everything within.

As I learned many years ago from the Old Believers, the keeping of the beauty and fidelity to the received tradition is not reliant at all on the conventional model of a fixed parish. It is in the heart.

Our homes truly are domestic churches and we can make them lights in the darkness, little communities even when the parish may only be accessible a few times a year, or when that house is down the street from the parish church. We have to go out and pray with them.

Our Constantinopolitan tradition is reliant on the transmission of the lex credendi through the lex orandi. That's just how it is. The two greatest catechetical works in the Constantinopolitan tradition, Cyril of Jerusalem and Germanos of Constantinople, are both completely centered on the Liturgy as the vehicle of the catechesis.

So it is a double edged sword. The parish has to be the bastion of prayer and liturgical life. That is the source of everything. It's a "mini cathedral" composed of the "mini parishes" that are the domestic churches. So that has to be a priority, i.e. returning our parishes to those bastions of prayer they should be.

Regarding the domestic church, if we do not have our OWN domestic churches and the families dwelling within them in order, it all falls on its face, not only locally but at the parish level as well. The two are in intimate communion, one part of the other, and any weakness in one precipitates to the other.

Can our families pray together? We really need to get that in order as a priority. Can we invite our friends over for a meal and then ask them to pray Compline with us, etc.? Do we know someone who is sick that we can go and say the Canon for those who are sick? There are an infinite number of possibilities thanks to the richness of our tradition.

With our beautiful prayer and depth of theology contained in them, we have the most powerful means of spreading the Good News about our Lord.

Sorry about the rambling.