Don't use the word "loser," which is just a pointless insult. Just call him faithless, which is exactly what Christ would have done.
Ortho Lounge
- Thread starter TrainedLogosmotion
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Don't use the word "loser," which is just a pointless insult. Just call him faithless, which is exactly what Christ would have done.
Man, you are so hateful. You have no idea what you're assuming about a stranger on the internet.
Congrats on becoming the first member I'll be ignoring.
Fr. Moses' message is to not convert just to a singular parish or canonical jurisdiction, but to follow Christ until the death no matter how narrow the truth gets, with the presupposition that Orthodox Christianity is the truth.
Today is the Sunday of the Samaritan woman, and Christ says in the Gospel "salvation is of the Jews" - the Church is the new Israel, and St. Paul warns the Romans that they could be cut off of the "tree" if they become arrogant, so make of that what you will.
One major difference between post schism Latins and the Orthodox is the view on grace. Fr. Seraphim Rose (he was an atheist until he began to continually seek the truth as a monastic, no money, no wife, but lots of grace and a brilliant mind) says in God's Revelation to The Human Heart that the focus on completion of obligations and externals in Latin theology is a replacement of the Holy Spirit - in other words the Bishops lost the grace of the Holy Spirit when they schismed and lied against Constantinople with lies and an actual forgery called the Donation of Constantine. Latins don't believe you experience God, they believe you experience "created grace" and Fr. Seraphim's anaylsis of this is that Rome is a religion of the mind only now, though God in His providence either draws back His lost sheep into the Orthodox fold, or as Fr. Seraphim says, gives them grace in spite of being outside the Church, and we leave judgement to the merciful God. Yes, we recognize that the world is horrible and the schism was horrifying, but it happened over centuries, and the laity of the west more or less let it happen to their own selves... this is the point Fr. Moses is getting at. And another put it perfectly with scripture "The kingdom of heaven is taken with force by those who are violent" that is, those who don't stop seeking, even when they feel like an atheist - And I believe you that you've tried very hard and yet feel like one. The worst thing we, who are mortal, can do on the paths to our deaths is give up, and even worse, notice that we are becoming prideful, but not ask God continually to save us from the foot of pride.
Martin Luther knew of Orthodoxy, yet he chose himself because of prelest, also, he was a big sinner but that's a different case. The Lutherans have "confession" but in a similar way, they eerily as a "church" recognize the total lack of grace by not doing any absolution, even though Christ promised His one Church that the apostolic ministers had power to bind and loose and be a conduit for the Holy Spirit to heal us. Christ is willing and even able to save all as the scriptures say, if only we don't give up, that's the caveat, and Judges 7:2, that's why many perish. I think that even the righteous praying for the dead is God's providence, He knew who would pray, wouldn't He? God knows our paths, and even if someone pulled a gun on you, God could jam the trigger if He knew He could save you, wouldn't He? But that doesn't mean all will be saved at all, despite Him desiring very much so.
I wish I knew your name, but I'm saying Lord have mercy for you regardless, because I know how hard it can get. We ALL need divine grace. I can't do anything on my own, brother. I know my memory is bad because I'm going through a very harsh time, and I know Orthodoxy is true, so even when I feel the closest I've ever been to feeling atheist, I know God is real, I just know I've tasted His beloved grace - and He is not the God of confusion. Furthermore, if He is real, He has a plan for us all, so who am I to step aside? But maybe, if He sees He can redeem evil to good, He lets us become lost for a little while. But the tomb is empty, brother, no doubt about it, and the world is against us, no doubt about it, but what mortal can stand against Christ and His love for us? None. Please, whatever you do, don't give up. And take a hike every so often, know thyself.
If you ever feel better about it, always remember to set reading the scriptures and gospels, and the lives of saints, every day, as a priority.
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I'm a new convert so I still have a lot of questions. I think my priest is very busy at the moment so I'll ask this one here. What is the correct way to pray for your heterodox family members, both living and deceased? What prayers should I pray for my living heterodox relatives? Is it allowed to pray for deceased heterodox Christians? I think I heard that it's not allowed but you can give alms in their name. I'd highly appreciate some clarification on this, if someone has the time. This might be worth its own thread, I don't know.
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With your whole heart!
You can pray for them in your own prayers and you absolutely should!
The misunderstanding probably comes from the fact that Orthodox churches do not commemorate non Orthodox in the Liturgy. You know the slips of paper that people write names on? You should only write Orthodox names on those. In your private prayers you can pray for anyone however you wish, for example you can say "Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on Thy servant [name]" or "Lord Jesus Christ repose Thy servant [name]" for the deceased
I don't consider this big enough to be in the news section, yet I wanted to share this:
Never thought I'd be cheering on Turkey to stand up to the clown puppet Patriarch in Constantinople. This guy spends more time in politics than actually tending to the Church.
Orthodox patriarchate removed from Ukraine statement after Turkey protests
Never thought I'd be cheering on Turkey to stand up to the clown puppet Patriarch in Constantinople. This guy spends more time in politics than actually tending to the Church.
God certainly works in mysterious ways. When the Jews, who had the Law and the Truth, wanted to kill Christ, God worked through the pagan Pontius Pilate to point out their hypocrisy and iniquity.
Lord have mercy.
If this is true, then let’s just hope and pray for his repentance
Sounds like BS to me. The person making the accusations is already a proven thief, so for him to make accusations in defense is par for the course.
Satan can enter anyone and turn a normally loyal man into a jealous backstabber. It's pretty scary tbh.
As for the $2.5 million dollar villa - is that actually Hilarion's or does it belong to the Church of Moscow? He says he plans to convert it into a monastery someday so I suspect it's actually just Church property.
The Church buying important assets is just a way of managing the wealth of the Church into future projects as well as creating a cash flow portfolio. Pretty standard fare. All profits are used for charity or the Church itself.
We live in a world where AI can replicate voice. I wouldn't be so quick to believe a thief.
It's so interesting. Voice recordings are totally worthless now, because even if they are real, any accused with a brain can just say it's AI and you can't really prove that it's not, because AI has gotten scarily good at imitating voices. People think it still sounds robotic like it did a year or two ago, but it has advanced very quickly.
Either way, it's best not to spread these types of accusations. If it's a lie, then you're partaking in the slander. Clergymen especially get slandered very often.
Yep and Hungary is getting a lot of push back for being willing to engage with Putin. So theres a lot of political motive to pull stuff like this. I'm definitely not going to come to any conclusions at this stage.
Hey bredren
I moved to a new city and the closest community is Rum-Orthodox and apparently half Arab, while the Romanian community is about 70 minutes away.
I'd really like to check out the Antiochians, but is it recommendable to change ethnic community like that? How different do they do things anyway? I understand they have the same basic rite, but is there anything for me to look out for?
I've only ever been to Romanian and one Russian service.
I moved to a new city and the closest community is Rum-Orthodox and apparently half Arab, while the Romanian community is about 70 minutes away.
I'd really like to check out the Antiochians, but is it recommendable to change ethnic community like that? How different do they do things anyway? I understand they have the same basic rite, but is there anything for me to look out for?
I've only ever been to Romanian and one Russian service.
I came into Orthodoxy through the Antiochians. I found them to be very warm and welcoming. The Antiochians are also very mission-oriented and at least where I was, half the congregation was converts.
Did you go through the catechism process and get baptized?
Yeah, I heard there are plenty of converts there as well. And Arabs. I'll go check it out tomorrow and report.
How did it end up going?
To my shame, I haven't been yet. My grandpa's diabetes acted up badly and the quagmire surrounding it it basically took up both weekends. I'll try to force myself to go on Sunday. I guess I'm also somewhat nervous about going to a new parish, particularly one that isn't Romanian and also episcopal. You can't even get the priest's contact online, which is how I used to ease into it beforehand in the past.
A new colleague of mine is Lutheran though, and we debated Church history and theology two weeks ago. He's beens sick since, but returned today and told me that he thought about our conversation for a long time while staying in bed and that he now wants to find out more about Orthodoxy, because he couldn't deny the holes in Protestant ecclesiology. I'll be over there in an hour, maybe I'll convince him to join next Sunday, to make it binding.
Might end up having to visit my grandparents though. We'll see. Prayers are welcome.