Orthodixie

Kneeling “is clearly rebellion, grave disobedience and mortal sin,” Father Martin Tran, pastor at St. Mary’s by the Sea, told his flock in a recent church bulletin. The Diocese of Orange backs Tran’s anti-kneeling edict.

Since at least the 7th century, Catholics have been kneeling after the Agnus Dei, the point during Mass when the priest holds up the chalice and consecrated bread and says, “Behold the lamb of God.” But four years ago, the Vatican revised its instructions, allowing bishops to decide at some points in the Mass whether their flocks should get on their knees. “The faithful kneel … unless the Diocesan Bishop determines otherwise,” says Rome’s book of instructions. Since then, some churches have been built without kneelers.

At the center of the controversy is the church’s concept of Christ, said Jesuit Father Lawrence J. Madden, director of the Georgetown Center for Liturgy at Georgetown University in Washington. It’s a question raised in the bestselling book “The Da …”

More to it.

HT: NewsForum

From Fr Mark Mancuso

On this Sunday, that before the Feast of the Ascension of Christ, the Church recalls to our attention the Gospel of the man born blind. There are two points here that I would particularly like to remark on.

First, the words of Christ about why the man was born blind. Replying to His disciples, He says that his blindness was not because the man sinned, or his parents, but so that the works of God be made manifest in him. In other words, according to our Lord Himself, illness or handicap do not always occur on account of personal sin or the sin of others, but they may be providentially allowed for the glory of God to shine forth.

We can see this in the lives of some disadvantaged people. They find their disadvantage to be a challenge, a challenge that may bring out the best in them. We can think for example of certain Downs Syndrome children who are unbelievably kind and loving, far more so than if they had been born ‘normal’. We can also think of some blind people who, having lost one sense, have refined another sense almost to perfection, and show an understanding of the inner self that the sighted do not have. We can all think of examples of incredible courage and love among disadvantaged people. Why? Because the grace of God is upon them: ‘the works of God are made manifest in them’.

On the other hand, we can also think of people with great ‘advantages’. For instance, there are extremely beautiful women or very wealthy men who are quite unable to find wedded happiness. They are rather surrounded by those who have no interest in them as people, but only wish to take base advantage of their skin-deep looks or their bank accounts. We can also think of particularly intelligent and educated people,whose intelligence has ‘gone to their heads’, and they have become extraordinarily pretentious and silly, laughing-stocks before the face of the world. Thus their advantages become their greatest handicaps, hindrances to any sort of happiness.

In the case of the man born blind, all his life had been but a preparation for his meeting with Christ. Not only was his soul pure enough, refined by his lifelong handicap, to receive healing from the Lord, but also he confessed Him as the Son of God, thus making the works of God manifest in himself.

Firstly, the Pharisees, who were truly blind because they forbade healing and good works on the Sabbath, questioned him and intimidated him and his parents and then cast him out. And he witnessed to them that, ‘I know not whether Jesus be a sinner or not; one thing I know; I was blind, now I see’.

Secondly, he added: ‘If He were not of God, he could do nothing’.

And finally he confessed that he believed that Christ is the Son of God – one of the first in the Gospels to do so.

The judgment of the man born blind was then sound. He can teach us how to judge, or rather discern, others – by their fruits. If we, or others, are of God, then we shall last and bear good fruit, for if any is not of God, he can do nothing. And if any is of God, then he will finish by bearing witness to the Divinity of Christ.

The second thing that we should notice in today’s Gospel is the way in which Christ healed. He spat on the earth and ‘made clay of the spittle’. We note this for every sacrament of the Church heals in the selfsame manner:

Clay cannot heal the blind and yet with the breath of God, it becomes the container for the healing grace of God.

Water cannot heal and yet the water of baptism heals because the blessed water bears the Holy Spirit. Oil cannot heal and yet the oil of chrismation and unction heal because they are filled with the grace of God.

A piece of cloth cannot heal and yet a priest’s stole can heal through the grace of Christ at the sincere confession of sins and the repentant intention not to sin again.

Bread and wine cannot heal and yet bread and wine transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ heal through the Holy Spirit.

Wood and paint cannot heal and yet icons can heal by the Holy Spirit Who penetrates into their material essence and radiates grace from them.

Smoke cannot heal and yet incense burnt brings healing through the blessing of Christ.

Christ teaches us then that all things can be used for our healing and benefit and salvation, but that they must first be touched by His grace.

In this way our bodies, mere flesh and bones and blood, can become containers of Christ. Our souls activated, we can become lamps of the Holy Spirit; the eyes of our souls, the doors of perception, become seeing, and we see the whole of God’s Creation as it really is. We see that every blade of grass and every hill, every tree and every cloud, every drop of rain and every ocean, all creatures and all people, are miracles of God’s handiwork, signs of His sacramental presence among us, and we see that we live not in the banal, everyday world, but in potential Paradise, the world as it really is, as God made it first, for we see God the Creator behind all things and all people.

And then we too, together with the man born blind, can say: ‘I was blind, now I see’.

Persecution and martyrdom of Christians under 20th century totalitarianism—mainly of Russian Orthodox Christians under Bolshevism—is by far the greatest crime in all of recorded history. It is several times greater than the Holocaust in terms of innocent lives brutally destroyed. It has killed more Christians in a few decades than all other causes put together in all ages, with Islam a distant second as the cause of their death and suffering. And yet it still remains a largely unknown, often minimized, or scandalously glossed over crime.

According to the respected and reliable OUP World Christian Encyclopedia (2001), there have been many more Christian martyrs in the 20th century—over 45 million—than in all of the preceding 19 centuries of Christianity. Of that number, some 32 million were killed by “atheists” and over 9 million by Muslims.

More to the story.

Thanks to blog reg, Paul.

Remember the notice about the movie, The God Who Wasn’t There?

Well, here’s an update.

Thanks to blog reg, Robert.

Un. Real.

All the speculation, the books, the seminars, the movies …

To decipher the meaning behind the Number of the Beast.

Could it be so easy?

HT: NewsForum

With a surname like Petranek, you don’t immediately think Anglican. But if people can look Anglican, Richard Petranek used to. Maybe that’s because the first time I met him he was in the clerical dress of an Episcopal priest. These days he comes to church dressed in a suit and tie. Since renouncing his orders in the Episcopal Church, especially now that he is enrolled as an Orthodox catechumen, I’d have to say he looks merely distinguished. Soon, God willing, he’ll once again be dressed as a priest – only this time he’ll be Orthodox. Doesn’t “Petranek” sound Orthodox? He will serve as the founding priest of Houston’s new Western Rite Orthodox mission.

I sat down with Richard Petranek recently and the following interview is presented in hopes of introducing him and his vision to those in the Houston area and beyond. Petranek, who served as a priest in PECUSA for nearly 33 years, is well aware that the Western Rite might not be everyone’s cup of tea. But, what I came away with more than anything else is that Richard Petranek is a pastor. He cares about people, the flock. He believes he is on a journey through Faith, within the True Church, to Christ and His Kingdom.

When did you first encounter Orthodoxy?

“I began reading about Orthodoxy in seminary. In 1974, Fr Alexander Schmemann had an article in TIME magazine. It caught my attention and I wrote to him. What impressed me most was … humility. This great man, who did not know me at all, wrote back. Not only that, but it was a hand-written letter! I’ve been searching for that old correspondence recently – but, I remember it dealt with ‘realizing Theology by Communion’.”

Why did it take you so long to come home to Orthodoxy?

“Politics. I’ll be honest, I got into the politics of the church. It was only later – much later – that I came to the realization that I was so involved in politics that I’d lost my soul.”

I’m sure there are some that would name their favorite ecclesiastical “ill” and say, “Dick, why on earth did it take you so long?”

“For me, the issue was order. In almost 35 years I’d witnessed a complete turn-around in the established order of the church. The role of the Bishop had changed from Chief Pastor to Chief Administrator. This, I believed, was a tragedy because, historically, Anglicanism was orthodox. Yet, in the US, the church seems to have lost its roots. I was but a few years away from retirement. But, in the end, I asked my wife: ‘What are we fighting for? We don’t believe this way.’”

When did you begin this journey? Where are you now?

“I’d been meeting, off and on, with Fr John Salem for the past five years. A few months ago I renounced my Orders in the Episcopal Church. Since that time, my wife, Elaine, and I have been on an incredible journey! We’ve traveled to several Western Rite parishes and worshiped regularly with the Houston Antiochian parishes, St George & St Joseph. We have about 40 souls making the journey with us. Elaine and I, along with many others, were enrolled as Catechumens at St Joseph’s earlier this month.”

How does your wife feel about all this?

“She loves it! Our first meeting with Bishop BASIL was so refreshing for her. It was such a change to talk solely about spiritual health as opposed to social issues. The bishop was concerned about her soul! She’s loving it. I say all this with the understanding that by leaving PECUSA I’ve forfeited many benefits; we’ve sold our home, our car, our boat … And we are in a better place, spiritually, than we’ve ever been.”

Why the Western Rite?

“My culture. I’d served as a priest for so long … it makes sense to me. It makes sense to my people. To my mind, the purpose of the Western Rite is to reach out to those who are familiar with Western practice – seeking the True Faith of the Apostolic Church as found in Orthodoxy.”

What sort of folks do you believe are attracted to the Western Rite mission?

“Those who appreciate the historicity of the Church – who know the struggles of the early Church and how She was reconciled when there were differences. I mean, there’s nothing new under the sun. All the problems we see plaguing various Christian groups today have been around from the beginning.”

What version of the Western Rite will you be using? Music, etc?

“We will use the St Tikhon’s Liturgy and that of St Gregory, along with the St Ambrose Hymnal.”

Is it true that key figures in the Orthodox Church, past and present, are opposed to the Western Rite?

“Yes!”

How do proponents of the Western Rite respond?

“My Bishop, my Metropolitan, and my Patriarch support it – that’s good enough for me. Antioch was always the center of missionary outreach. The Western Rite is part of the missionary outreach of Orthodoxy. It was in Antioch that St Paul began his three missionary journeys. He didn’t let cultural differences change the essence of the Faith. We see our mission in the same light.”

Someone posed the question: “If ten years from now – for any reason or no reason – the Western Rite was abolished or folded into the Eastern Rite, where do you think that would leave your parish and long-term faithful?”

“They’d go to the Eastern Rite. I can’t see myself convincing someone to be Western Rite as opposed to Eastern Rite. The theology is the same, the expression is different. I also can’t tell you how freeing it is to be under a bishop who is concerned for the salvation of souls. The person is extremely important in Orthodoxy – that’s where the emphasis is … not primarily in getting bogged down in social issues, agendas, and debates. I know what my bishop believes. It’s what I believe!”

When is your first worship service as the Western Rite Orthodox mission in Houston?

“June 4th. We’ll have Matins at 10:00 AM, followed by Christian Education.”

After you all are received into the Church, what will be your worship schedule?

Matins, 9 AM
Eucharist, 10 AM
Church School, 11 AM

I also hope to institute a mid-week Liturgy as well.

Finally, where will you be meeting?

“Beginning Sunday, June 4th, we’ll be meeting at:
11749 Memorial Drive next to Ninfa’s Restaurant
(between Dairy Ashford and Eldrige).”

Contact: Houstonwesternriteorthodox@yahoo.com

The worship of Western Rite Orthodox parishes may look and sound a whole lot different than the more common Eastern Rite of the Church. At first glance, it may even resemble Anglican worship. Then again, one could ask: What does Orthodoxy look like? What does it sound like?