www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology is any serious preaching in EC or OC) on sin being down these day

IS anything more than the whitewash over sermons on sin still being offered from our pulpits these days? It seems the truly needed words about the harshness and reality and consequences of
have gone by unto mish mash words of :everything is going to be aright. With very little in the way of behavior changes coming from the sinner. Our institution seem now put up with the sin and sin leading to the Altar rail for reception of Holy Communion with no seemingly changes in one's hear. Seemingly the same blank stares from the same blank faces Sunday after Sunday.Anybody else notice this and out priest will to let it slide??

Obviously, you have not been to Holy Transfiguration in McLean recently.

We have great challenging homilies at St. Nicholas in Watervliet, NY.

The same "non-mention" is true for "living together", pre-marital sex, homosexuality, abortion, artificial contraception, divorce, pornography, and watching pagan sitcoms, gossip, and non-attendance at obligatory divine services.

Many clergy feel they can't condemn them because 1/3 to 1/2 of the people sitting in the pews are serious offenders. Even though the subjects can be approached with mercy and suggest repentance they have become gun-shy because of previous complaints.

Just sayin...

Praise God we get many of these homilies with some regularity. Also against despair, technological addictions, Sunday abuse, careerism, etcetera. All hope is not lost!


Truly. We do well to praise and thank clergy when they preach well, especially when visiting other parishes.

We had a visiting priest form Krizevci in the former Yugoslavia at our parish.

He talked about sin and said that "the problem is that there doesn't seem to be any sin around these days. For example, there is no longer any sin of overeating. If someone overeats, then he or she is said to have a healthy appetite!"

Really, our Churches seem to need some sort of adult spiritual training in prayer, a sense of sin etc.

Prayer is really the key to everything. If we don't manage prayer well in our lives, then we lose faith, a sense of sin, the need to confess etc.

Alex

The leaven of the Pharisees infects deeply and widely.

We--clergy and congregants alike--are against sin in general, and even against particular sins SO LONG AS those particular sins are readily identified in others.

But let the preaching touch upon our own particular sin, let alone our cherished unconfessed sin, then great offense will be taken.

Not at the sin itself, nor at its exposure, but at the one who brings it to light.

For that reason clergy are admonished by the church fathers never to preach in such a fashion that the hearers would identify a particular person in the congregation as the practitioner of a particular sin.

From a list of questions for the Confession of a Priest:

It would seem John Chrysostom violated that one prolifically. For his sins, he was banished to the Crimean wilderness, where he perished from exhaustion and ill treatment. Moral: never preach in such a way that the Empress sitting in the imperial loggia is too obviously identified with Jezabel.

And how do yo know what sins those going up to Communion are guilty of?

I think Fr. Deacon Lance is correct here. Why my parish priest does give strong sermons and exhorts us faithful to go to confession often and live an authentic Eastern Catholic/Orthodox life of repentance, we should never, ever, look at anyone but ourselves when we approach the eucharist.

Let us remember to be like the publican and fight the urge, strong as it may be (and I am guilty of this sin), to be like the Pharisee when it comes to those who present themselves to receive the Eucharist. Only God, the person receiving, and their spiritual fathers/confessors know their hearts.

I meant "while" and not "why." I miss the edit button.

My wife fills in any gaps left by our parish priest when it comes to enumerating my particular sins . . .

She is walking evidence against the ordination of women . . .

Alex