#byzantine catholic

[lichozestudni]

anyway, Pope Francis is dumb as hell, he praises Russia's anti-Catholic, barbaric history.

russians: persecute catholics and destroy their country (e.g. after they invaded poland, they closed many roman catholic churches and turned them into orthodox churches, they did not allow people to build catholic churches, they persecuted priests, they hanged many priests who were against russian occupation, Tsarina Catherine personally forbade any contact with Rome, Nicholas I closed many monasteries, churches in poland (1832), he stole their property (1842), he sent many priests to forced labour, e.g. they sent many to Siberia for hard labor, + they especially hated and persecuted greek catholics/byzantine rite catholics)

Pope Francis: what a wonderful legacy 😍

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🤡...

[apenitentialprayer]

Liturgical Elements: The Embolism

In the liturgical rubrics of the Mass, the "embolism" refers to a short prayer spoken out loud by the priest after the congregation has collectively recited the Lord's Prayer. According to Nicholas Ayo (The Lord's Prayer: A Survey Theological and Literary, page 196), "the embolism functions like a marginal gloss, an explanation of the last line of the Pater, and an unfolding of its many implications." In reformed liturgy of the Roman Church, the English translation of the embolism is as follows:

Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil; graciously grant peace in our days, that, by the help of Your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

In the Tridentine form of the Roman Mass, a longer embolism was recited:

Deliver us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, from all evils past, present, and to come; and by the intercession of the Blessed and glorious ever-Virgin Mary, Mother of God, together with Thy blessed Apostles Peter and Paul and Andrew, and all the saints, mercifully grant peace in our days, that sustained by help of Thy mercy we may be always free from sin and safe from all disturbance. Through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Our Lord, who lives and reigns with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

The Ambrosian Rite, being another Latin rite, has an embolism that is unsurprisingly similar to the Tridentine one:

Deliver us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, from all evils past, present, and to come; and at the intercession for us of Blessed Mary who brought forth our God and Lord, Jesus Christ; and of Thy holy Apostles Peter and Paul and Andrew, and of blessed Ambrose Thy confessor and bishop, together with all Thy saints, favorably give peace in our days, that assisted by the help of Thy mercy we may be both delivered from sin and safe from all turmoil. Fulfill this by Him with whom Thou livest blessed and reignest God, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever.

The embolism was not only an element of Roman liturgies, either. Take, for example, this embolism used by the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church (notice how the doxology that follows the modern Roman embolism is instead integrated into this one):

Merciful Lord, lover of all mankind, do not let us be overcome by temptation, but deliver us from the rebellious evil one and his perverse and evil ways. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory belong to You and Your Only Son and Your Holy Spirit, now and always and forever.

Here is the embolism of the Syro-Malabar Church, reflecting the Eastern Syriac rather than Western Syriac tradition:

Lord, God Almighty! Fullness of all goodness! Our Merciful Father! We entreat You for Your mercy. Do not lead us into temptation. Deliver us from the evil one and his hosts. For Yours is the kingdom, the might, the power, and the dominion in heaven and earth, now, always, and forever.

In the Greek liturgies, the embolism only survives in the Liturgy of Saint James, which has the following:

Lord, lead us not into temptation, O Lord of hosts! For Thou dost know our frailty; but deliver us from the wicked one, from all his works, from all his assaults and craftiness; through Thy Holy Name, which we call upon to guard us in our loneliness.

On a final note, Fr. Frederick Holweck, the author of the Catholic Encyclopedia's article on the embolism, thought that the Mozarabic embolism in particular was "very beautiful." In addition to being said after the Our Father at Mass, the following prayer was also said after the Our Father in the Mozarabic Church's Morning and Evening prayers:

Delivered from all evil, strengthened forever in good, may we be worthy to serve Thee, our God and Lord: and put an end, O Lord, to our sins; grant joy to them that are afflicted; bestow redemption upon the captives, health upon the sick, and repose to the departed. Grant peace and safety in all our days, shatter the audacity of our enemies, and hearken, O God, to all the prayers of Thy servants, all faithful Christians, upon this day and at all times. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, ever through all the ages of ages.

[roratecaeli]

Emperor Constantine I with his mother, St. Helena, holding the True Cross

Unknown author

[myvinyllove]

[staticrevelations]

can’t get over imogen calling her Saint Laudna can’t stop picturing an undead laudna lovingly rendered in the style of old catholic portraits of saints with a big golden halo around her head

[teenageascetic]

"That is why St Paul speaks of conjugal rights as a debt; to show that neither husband nor wife is his or her own master, but rather are each other's servants. As for you, husband, if a prostitute tries to seduce you, tell her, "My body is not my own, but my wife's." And let the wife say the same to any man attempting to undermine her fidelity: "My body is not my own, but my husband's." So if neither husband nor wife has power over their own bodies, they have even less control over money."

-St John Chrysostom On Marriage and Family Life.

[an-architect-of-words]

Bunny’s Moral Crisis and Julian being Anti Judeo-Christian

I was positive I got the impression, during my first read of TSH, that Bunny was truly morally bothered by the farmer-killing. Then I started wondering, post-reading, if I was being too generous, and Bunny legit was just worried for his life and was angry that the group was keeping secrets from him (that second one is what Henry told Richard).

But I got to the part in my on-and-off listening to the audiobook where Julian tells Richard he’s wondering what’s going on with Bunny. Julian says Bunny keeps approaching him and asking to talk about morality (particularly sin and forgiveness). Julian says he’s getting concerned that Bunny may convert to Marion’s religion. He asks Richard what denomination she is, and Richard says he thinks she’s Presbyterian. Julian is disappointed and says the only Christian denomination he can gracefully accept losing a student to is Roman Catholic.

Now this scene is interesting to me for a couple reasons. Firstly, it does indicate there may be more going on with Bunny internally than the Greek class gives him credit for. If Bunny is trying to approach Julian privately to talk about ethical dilemmas, this shows some level of genuineness in his questions (Julian also believes it to be earnest questioning). But secondly, Julian’s comment about only finding the Roman rite to be a worthy foe is so, so interesting to me.

The scene shows that something more is going on with Bunny, but it also reveals that Julian hates Judaism and Christianity— making exceptions for people like Dante and Giotto. The thing that’s fascinating to me about this detail is that Julian’s statements show the central theme of the whole book: that beauty is worth something if it’s backed by things of substance (Georges Laforgue says this, and the same thing is said by Theo in The Goldfinch. This is a concept important to Tartt’s writing).

Julian has a basic respect for Catholics, because Catholicism traditionally also has emphasis on art, philosophy, and classical aesthetic beauty. And, perhaps most importantly, Roman Catholics have kept Latin as the language of the Church and Vatican. The medieval Catholic Church was perhaps the biggest patron and commissioner of artists, and from the Catholic Church came Notre Dame, Aquinas, Dante, etc. Here, Julian mentions that the Catholics make “worthy foes” for the pagans, and what he means is that there’s all this aesthetic beauty and classical study within the Catholic Church. But it’s key here that Julian hates other branches of Christianity. The scene emphasizes that the only thing he enjoys about Catholics is their specifically classical history.

The thing I like about this detail is that it is a really specific bit of characterization to show that Julian does not care about morality or the search for truth that’s at the heart of all religions and mythologies. He’s different from people like Aquinas because he does not see human art and language as a means to articulate and pay homage one’s moral beliefs. He sees art/language as the highest good in and of itself. Once you remove the classics aspects of Catholicism, Julian does not care. And we see this because of his apparent disdain for Protestants and Jews. This also reminds me of Bunny saying Henry thinks Jamaicans have no culture. Obviously, they do, but it’s not the particular kind of culture and expression Julian and Henry find legitimate.

I guess I like how Donna Tartt understands her own theme and can show how it’s applicable so naturally just in the way her characters talk. We get a lot of hints about how closed-minded and shallow Julian actually is before we get to the end of the book where it’s confirmed.

[calabria-mediterranea]

The village of Pazzano and the ancient Hermit of Santa Maria della Stella, Calabria, Italy

Pazzano is quaint little village situated between Monte Stella and Monte Consolino and it extends to the north to the lush green Serre mountains.

The most important thing to see in Pazzano is the Hermit of Santa Maria della Stella, an ancient byzantine hermitage sited in a natural cave on Monte Stella.

In the 11th century Byzantine monks lived in the sanctuary. Cristodulo was one of the first the Hegumen. In 1096, it became a minor monastery. In the Norman period it was converted to a Catholic monastery.

Inside the hermitage there is a 16th-century statue of Madonna in marble and Byzantine frescos representing saints.

Photos by Antonella Gentile

Follow us on Instagram, @calabria_mediterranea

[gratiae-mirabilia]

pls reblog + explain your answer in the tags!

[warismenstrualenvy]

Iconostases in the Greek Catholic Churches of Slovakia

[jameslmartellojr]

[graysoniconography]

Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn Gate (Version 2)

This is a revision on my original take of this icon which I posted. I thought it needed more color so I decided to re-do all the color from scratch, and I much prefer this version. It is a gorgeous icon housed in a church in Lithuania. May the Theotokos intercede for us all!

[roratecaeli]

It is more important that we should remember God than that we should breathe.

St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Archbishop of Constantinople, Church Father and Doctor

fresco from the Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora, Constantinople

[myvinyllove]

[monasteryicons]

Coming this winter to Monastery Icons.

[myrddin-wylt]

I feel like I should warn my new followers that I have PMDD and sometimes get extremely, unreasonably combative for absolutely no reason. like right now. I wanna rant and this is your disclaimer.

like I cannot for the fucking life of me understand how people think the First Crusade was the first holy war between Catholics* and Muslims when the Umayyads and Franks, Visigoths, Normans, Italians, and Sicilians et al had been duking it out in Iberia, France, and Italy since the Early Muslim Conquests in the 7th and 8th centuries. do not let the name fool you, the First Crusade was not the first crusade. like it’s just... bro they were fighting on and off more or less constantly since first contact. what do you MEAN you think the Crusades were the unprovoked start of Christian-Muslim holy wars and not a new phase of an already extant centuries-long conflict. I think you’re just a fucking idiot.

strictly speaking, depending on how you want to define ‘Catholic,’ (since the Nicene Christian denominations at least were extremely ambiguous and fluid at this point and significant/formal schism only happened much later) the first Catholic/Nicene Christian-Muslim conflict started in September 629 AD with the Battle of Mu’tah, which was fought between the Byzantines and Ghassanids vs the Muslim Arabs led by the Pr. Muhammad. like when I say ‘first contact’ I mean first contact.