#orthodox communion

[agentsofoakenshiield]

thought this was about Jesus being white and I was so ready to fight but nah this is a great post

"Christ on a cracker" well actually I think you'll find Christ is the cracker. And also the wine. But you wouldn't know that you fucking protestant heathen

[thebirdandhersong]

Since my staunchly Protestant (or, rather, my wary-towards-Catholicism-Anglicanism-and-Orthodoxy family) don't understand my excitement, I shall tell y'all instead. I'm going to 8am Mass tomorrow at the closest church by my house :D

[dramoor]

“It is only in prayer that we can communicate with one another at the deepest level of our being. Behind all words and gestures, behind all thoughts and feelings, there is an inner center of prayer where we can meet one another in The Presence of God.

It is this inner center which is The Real Source of all life and activity and of all love. If we could learn to live from that center we should be living from The Heart of Life, and our whole being would be moved by love. Here alone could all the conflicts of this life be resolved, and we can experience a love which is beyond time and change.”

~St. Bede Griffiths

[thegreatcallofgod]

EUCHARIST OR HOLY COMMUNION DOES NOT SAVE YOU : God saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness - Titus 3:5

RELIGION IS BASED ON FEAR & FORCES ITS BELIEVERS TO TRUST ON RITUALS THAN ON GOD'S GRACE.

So, do not be cheated anymore by preachers, who twist God’s word for selfish gains or force you to follow 'man-made' religion, denominations & its ungodly traditions. STAY AWAY FROM RELIGIOUS LEADERS & THEIR PLACES OF WORSHIP (1 Tim 6:5, Col 2:8). God bless you & yours.

The Great Call of God (TGCG)

[A non-religious & non-denominational SPIRITUAL ministry]

https://www.facebook.com/TheGreatCallofGod

[orthodoxadventure]

The Lord has given us the Sacrament of His Body and Blood for the purpose of feeding and elevating our spiritual life. I am that bread of life, said the Lord. My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed (Jn. 6:48, 55). Spiritual life is the result of being with the Lord. There is no true life outside of Him or without Him. But He says: He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him . . . I live by the Father: so he that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him (Jn. 6:56). That means that communion with the Lord works through the Communion of His Body and Blood. True spiritual life is powerful, productive and prolific. But without Me, says the Lord, ye can do nothing. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit (Jn. 15:5). He that eateth me, even he shall live by me (Jn. 6:57). Therefore, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, have eternal life. (Jn. 6:53-54).

-- Saint Theophan the Recluse: Path to Salvation; A Manual of Spiritual Transformation

[couldoneimagine]

i NEED to post about yellowjackets and I need to be understood and I need mutuals so let me talk about it

you know what character I think is underappreciated? (at least from what I've seen so far, I've been in the fandom for like a day)

Laura Lee.

I have to preface this by saying I'm not a fan of organized religion and I do think it is flawed, but I also am not a fan of flat one-dimensional characterization. a lot of devout christian characters in media are portrayed as like, just that. just christian. just devout. but Laura Lee is a person! she's a real teenage girl! she dances with everyone, she sings along to Salt-n-Peppa, we don't get a scene where she's like "oh I know them, i burned their CD at one of our gatherings recently" or whatever, she can just enjoy them! she doesn't turn her nose up at Nat who is like, the picture of what christians regularly regard as a sinner. she is able to be compassionate and kind and she has a purpose in this series. i think that's really great.

idk why that stuck out so much to me. i guess I can't think at the top of my head about devout christian characters in media who are allowed to be like, people. and I have a lot of criticisms of Christianity, hey, I was technically raised orthodox christian and I can't say it's given me much except for chronic anxiety but. I think it's not a hot take to say that christians are three-dimensional human beings too, basically

[pasdetrois]

on the bachelor and resurrection

Thinking about how the concept of resurrection is touched upon in Daniil’s routes, and how the Marble Nest makes something of a mockery of it, casting him into the role of both resurrectionist and the resurrected. The man with an affinity for the living trapped in a cycle of communing with the dead..

+ the reminders that neither remaining nor returning shall constitute anything akin to a victory for him—just a trick mirror and, if you'll forgive the pun, a dead end

(p.s. the original marble nest line is a bit clearer in this connection, where the word for Sunday can also mean resurrection)

[spiritofkoprijan]

[merthwyn]

The more I distance myself from (mainly) low Protestantism/Evangelicals and the more deep I get into Traditional denominations, the more I see myself longing for Holy Communion daily. Even now that I struggle with faith. And by longing I don't mean anything related to addiction or obsession. I see it as part of my whole being. In the same way I see (or used to see at least) prayer and thanksgiving, if not more.

[antennatoheaven]

i think gabriel eats communion wafers in wine for breakfast

[a-modernmajorgeneral]

Another chalice in San Marco, also likely looted from Constantinople by the crusaders, incorporates a vivid green glass bowl of Islamic origin. Decorated with a stylized running hare motif, the bowl was cut with a rotating wheel, a lapidary technique commonly used for sculpting stones. As such, it was likely produced in Islamic lands: either in ninth- or tenth-century Iran, or perhaps tenth- or eleventh-century Egypt, where this technique was used. Eastern Roman artisans probably transformed the green glass bowl into a chalice in the eleventh century with the addition of a silver gilt setting, gems and pearls, and an enamel inscription. Now partially lost, the inscription once read, “Drink of this all of you, this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins.” These words, spoken by Christ at the Last Supper and repeated by the clergy during the celebration of the Eucharist in the Eastern Roman Empire, enable art historians to identify this vessel as a Eucharistic chalice with confidence.

But how did this Islamic bowl end up in the Eastern Roman Empire and why did the Eastern Romans transform it into a chalice for the Eucharist?

It is possible that the green glass bowl came to Constantinople the same way that it eventually traveled from Constantinople to Venice: as booty from war (though not a crusade). The Eastern Romans made military gains against their Islamic neighbors to the east during this period and may have taken this glass bowl as plunder from Islamic lands. On the other hand, war was not the only way that objects traveled between cultures in the medieval Mediterranean, and there is no evidence that this bowl was brought to Constantinople as war booty. Historical documents record that glass vessels like this one were sometimes among luxury objects exchanged as diplomatic gifts by Eastern Roman rulers and their Islamic neighbors, so it is possible the green glass bowl came to Constantinople as a diplomatic gift from the Abbasids, Fatimids, or some other people. It is also possible that the green glass bowl simply came to Constantinople through trade. The tenth-century Book of the Eparch (a book of Eastern Roman commercial law) testifies that there was a market for Islamic goods in Constantinople at this time. But since we lack explicit textual evidence to corroborate any of these theories, we cannot say for certain how the green glass bowl came to Constantinople.

Materiality and ornament

As with the Romanos chalices, the materiality of the green glass bowl was surely an important factor in this object’s reuse. The stunning green hue of the glass bowl is unusual among surviving Islamic glass work. Both its color and its fashioning with a wheel were likely intended to produce the appearance of a precious stone, such as an emerald. And as with other Eastern Roman glass chalices, the transparency of the green bowl would have enabled worshippers to glimpse the Eucharistic wine while the inscription around its rim affirmed that it was the very blood of Christ.

The bowl’s running hare motif, however, is unique among surviving Eastern Roman chalices. Many Eastern Roman viewers would likely have recognized the angular hare motif as not Eastern Roman and perhaps even as Islamic in origin. This raises questions about why such a vessel might be converted into a chalice for the Eucharist, and how Eastern Roman users would have understood it.

Art, court, and diplomacy

To answer these questions, it is important to understand this vessel as a product of both the church and court of Constantinople. Although this chalice bears no donor inscription like those attributed to emperor Romanos, its costly materials and high quality of craftsmanship indicate that it too was likely commissioned by an emperor or some other elite patron in the court in Constantinople. As such, we can understand this vessel as one of many examples of Eastern Roman appropriation and imitation of Islamic culture in the tenth and mid-eleventh centuries. Such Islamic or Islamicizing elements appear on Eastern Roman clothing, jewelry, and lead seals of this period. Eastern Roman emperors and members of the court likely adopted such Islamicizing objects to project wealth, power, and a cosmopolitan identity.

In addition to their primary ritual functions, there is also evidence that sacred objects like chalices sometimes played a role in Eastern Roman diplomacy. The eleventh-century Eastern Roman historian John Skylitzes describes how the emperor Leo VI led Arab diplomats into the church of Hagia Sophia and showed them sacred vessels and other church objects—an episode illustrated here in a twelfth-century copy of Skylitzes’s history. In this scene, two Arab figures enter the church from the left, while the emperor—crowned and clad in gold—points to a golden chalice and other church objects held for display by church officials.

So, we can conclude that the patron of the chalice with hares likely intended Eastern Roman viewers (and perhaps even foreign visitors) to recognize the Islamic origin of the green glass bowl with hares. To display such a beautiful object of Islamic origin in tenth- and eleventh-century Constantinople was to project wealth, power, and a cosmopolitan identity. If there were any concerns about using an Islamic object for Christian religious purposes, the chalice’s Eastern Roman setting with its Christian inscription must have rendered the glass bowl suitable for use in the celebration of the Eucharist. An inventory of objects in the church of San Marco from 1325 mentions a “green chalice decorated with silver,” perhaps referring to the chalice with hares and suggesting that this object may have continued to function as a Eucharistic vessel even after it was transferred from Constantinople to Venice. Together with the Romanos chalices, the chalice with hares shows the important roles that materiality, ornament, and craftsmanship could play in an object’s cross-cultural mobility, reuse, and preservation through the centuries.

Byzantine chalice which originated as a green glass cup or bowl which originated from either Egypt or Iran in the 9th-11th century. When it made it's way to the Byzantine Empire it was decorated and turned into a chalice

[eli-kittim]

Is Rebirth Based on the Sacraments or Experience?

Eli Kittim

The Pope recently made a shocking statement that it is dangerous to seek a personal relationship with Christ outside the Church. His statement implies that there is no salvation outside the Church. Yet, neither Jesus nor any of the evangelists ever said that “everyone who believes in the church of Christ will be saved” (Mark 16:16). Nor did Jesus ever say that one must be born-again into the church. The apostle Paul never said “if anyone does not belong to the church, he does not belong to Christ” (Romans 8:9). Rather, he said we are born-again only in Christ (Romans 5:12-21). The Bible is very clear that we are saved through a born-again experience of Jesus Christ (John 3:3-5; Acts 2:1-4). Philippians 2:12 says, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” while Ephesians 4:22-24 teaches us to put on a new identity in order to renew the spirit of our minds . Romans 8:9 reminds us that unless the Holy Spirit has radically transformed us, and indwelt us, we do not belong to Christ. This is why 2 Corinthians 5:17 says that those who are born-again in Christ are a new creation. Their personality has changed. Their mind has changed. That’s why, in the Bible, those who are radically transformed receive new names (e.g. Abram/Abraham, Jacob/Israel, Saul/Paul, and so on). Unfortunately, nothing else can purify our carnal nature and make us vessels of holiness.

Many people are deceived into thinking that they are saved by their own personal acts of the mind or the will, that is, either by believing in Christ, or by making a public profession of faith, by praying the sinner's prayer, through rites, sacraments, dietary laws, through works of the law, or through an intellectual assent to the truths of Christianity. But all these behaviors, works, and food-rituals are not capable of radically transforming a sinner into a saint because they do not really purify our carnal nature, nor do they fill us with the Holy Spirit. Only an existential rebirth in Christ can do this. This is because a person is still carnal and his sinful nature continues to dominate his mind even after partaking of the sacraments or performing works of the law. Only a radical transformation of the mind can change all this.

So my question is this: how do we reconcile Jesus' command for us to be born of the Holy Spirit with the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox teaching of salvation through the sacraments?

This is an issue of the utmost importance in which people's lives are at stake. This is a very serious matter. We're talking about whether people are saved or not. If people are being misled into thinking that they will go to heaven, when that is not the case, then it is incumbent upon me to warn them. The New Testament does not suggest that the merits of redemption are appropriated directly through the sacraments, since this would constitute a carnal spirituality that is based on external props, which cannot possibly change us from within. The sacraments are an extension of the Jewish Passover and the Jewish dietary laws. Neither can truly change our carnal nature from within. In Matthew 15:11, Jesus explains that the dietary laws do nothing because it is not the foods you eat that cleanse or defile you but rather what comes out of your uncleansed and unregenerate heart that defiles you: “it is not what goes into the mouth that [cleanses or] defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”

According to the apostle Paul, before we are born-again (i.e. renewed in the spirit of the mind) we operate based on the lusts of the flesh (carnal-minded), but after we are born-again we get a new operating system that works through love, not lust (Ephesians 4:22-24)! Thus, partaking of the sacraments does nothing to change or cleanse our carnal nature (or sin-nature). We can conduct psychological experiments to demonstrate that the same carnal mind operates after partaking of the sacraments as before. If a Catholic or Orthodox Christian is honest, they’ll have to admit that the same sinful thoughts, inclinations, and lustful desires are still present after partaking of the sacraments. How then can the Catholic and Orthodox Churches claim that Holy Communion is an "atoning sacrifice" for the faithful and that we are born-again through the sacraments?

Do we really understand what the new birth entails? We need to read Acts 2:1-4, Ephesians 4:22-24, and Philippians 2:12, among other passages, to see how it is accomplished. It comprises a personal and existential experience of God where we surrender our mind and will to him. Read Galatians 2:20, where Paul says: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” Do you think that Paul’s crucifixion or death resulted from his participation in the sacraments? Of course not! Paul is referring to the death of the old self, as mentioned in Ephesians 4:22-24. This existential experience is known and written about by Catholic contemplatives, like John of the Cross, but rejected my the Magisterium of the Church, even though John of the Cross is a Doctor of the Catholic Church.

Being grafted into Christ (Rom. 11) means that we become part of the body of Christ. This can only occur when the Spirit recreates us through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, via a new birth, similar to the existential experience that the faithful had (Acts 2:1-4). Jesus said you must be born-again οf the Spirit, not from the earth. He didn’t say you must consume bread and wine or attend church to be born from God.

In conclusion, nothing external can change our carnal nature and fill our hearts with love, or give us the peace that surpasses understanding. This can only occur in a dark night of the soul when our identity is deleted and God himself becomes our new identity or our new self (cf. Galatians 2:20)! Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts to salvation.

For further details, see the following essay:

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit

[dramoor]

"I cannot see the face of another without looking at them. To see your face, I must reveal my face. That face-to-face encounter is pretty much the deepest and oldest experience we have as human beings (first experienced with our mother in nursing). For the whole of our lives, our faces are the primary points of experience and reaction. We cannot truly know the other without encountering them face-to-face. That we are being changed by beholding the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ suggests that we have to look at him – directly. This is very much part of the meaning of true communion.

Salvation is communion. Sin is an enduring shame.

It is into this existential/ontological reality of sin/shame that Christ enters in His Incarnation, suffering and death. The depths of hell are everlasting shame and yet, He doesn’t hesitate to enter there in order to rescue us. Christ’s rescue of Adam and Eve in Hades are a final echo of the encounter in the Garden. They hid in shame, but He came looking for them. Then, He covered them with the skins of animals, but now He covers them in the righteousness of the Lamb who was slain. Then they were expelled from Paradise; now they are restored. Then, they fled from before His face; now they behold Him face to face – and rejoice."

~Fr. Stephen Freeman, From To See Him Face To Face

"But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." ~II Corinthians 3:18

(Image spotted on facebook)

[thegreatcallofgod]

EUCHARIST OR HOLY COMMUNION CANNOT PROTECT YOU : As soon as Judas had eaten the bread, Satan entered into him - John 13:27

CHRIST LIVES IN YOU, IF YOUR PASSIONS & DESIRES OF SINFUL NATURE ARE CRUCIFIED WITH HIM (Gal 5:24).

So, do not be cheated anymore by preachers, who twist God’s word for selfish gains or force you to follow 'man-made' religion, denominations & its ungodly traditions. STAY AWAY FROM RELIGIOUS LEADERS & THEIR PLACES OF WORSHIP (1 Tim 6:5, Col 2:8). God bless you & yours.

The Great Call of God (TGCG)

[A non-religious & non-denominational SPIRITUAL ministry]

https://www.facebook.com/TheGreatCallofGod

[orthodoxadventure]

In the Eucharist we are standing in the presence of Christ, and like Moses before God, we are to be covered with His glory.

--Rev. Dr. Alexander Schmemann: For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy