EWTN Live - 2014-4-9- Abbot Nicholas Zachariadis - Holy Resurrection Monastery

are we approaching the New Evangelization of our post-christian society with all the church's tools at our disposal or are we limiting ourselves to what we're comfortable with or what we're used to tonight we'll see how our Eastern Catholic brothers and sisters can help so please stay with us thank you very much and welcome I'm father Mitch Pacwa and welcome to EWTN live which is our chance to bring you guests from all over the world and our guest tonight has been all over the world he's born so speak between east and west north and south he's here tonight to help us bridge those gaps for the sake of the New Evangelization to reach a post-christian world he's the abbot of holy resurrection monastery in st. Nazianz and Wisconsin please welcome Abbot Nicholas Zakaria Dees Thank You cotton a welcome oh thank you thank you good to have you here good to be here thank you very much no I mentioned that you're in between east and west and north and south just so our audience has a sense you have a quick rundown of your background very diverse Mitch I I come from a Greek family that lived in Egypt for several generations I was born in Egypt and we went to Australia when I was six years old I grew up in Australia because you don't have much of an Egyptian no it's more Australian down under and and now I establish this monastery in the US so this is my home now and I've lived in you know I've studied in Europe and I've travelled right and you also are a Greek Catholic correct and which specific right people to great Catholics of course means like Roman Catholics it refers to the right rather than an ethnic group the ethnic group I belong to is is Greek is great Greek Hellenic if you like but that's a very small community and it doesn't exist outside of Greece so in the u.s. I'm part of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church which is Greek right like Ukrainians or Mel kites but Romanian in its ethnic identity although some parishes are now very American because they've been here for long-term benefit one of the things that is helpful for people to understand is that a number of the rights are named after their default language so it's Greek because the default language of the liturgy would have been that of st. John Chrysostom and st. basil correct language in Greek the language and the culture yes absolutely now that's not completely correct because of course in in the right in Rome the liturgy the mass was in Greek for the first 500 years so you can't apply that too far back but yes the the culture and the language of the right was originally Greek and so now Romanians Russians Ukrainians Mel kites that are Arab speakers follow that ritual tradition right and then you also have the Syriac right using Syria correct you have our meaning and the Latin course in the Latin Rite is the right most of us know where the default language is diversity that we have with the 22 different writes in the church and it's a it's a great blessing you know it's part of what it means to be Catholic it says if the Catholic Church wouldn't be Catholic if it wasn't didn't incorporate all those apostolic traditions not just the Latin one exactly know something that is not always so well understood is a the importance of monasticism in the East and B Eastern monasticism being in this country let's talk about those two issues a little bit what's what is the role of the monastic community in the Eastern Church well I think originally in the church of course in the whole church the the the the the highest form of life was martyrdom red martyrdom as we call it a matter of fact just just today are we announced that a Jesuit was martyred 75 year old father of and elect who was shot to death while he's just five real God just trying to take care of his flaw correct and so and that would be the harem but that's the highest form of course and then of course in the early church before the church became legal that was very common and they were always thought as the the most holy Christians the epitome of what it meant to be a Christian not the bishops although a lot of the bishops of course were martyrs as well and once martyrdom those stopped because the church became established then it was the ascetics the monastics that began to be seen as the most important the most holy men and women and of which bishops began to be chosen from from those ranks so it's from the beginning of the church monastic life has a privileged position in the Eastern Churches that has continued to this day at least in theory in principle in the Latin Church - but in the Latin Church because of the different history of the West in the second millennium monastic life began to change also with the mendicants and then with the Jesuits and so on so it's a bit more diverse there that there are different situations and then the the fact that there is our Eastern monasticism in this country what led you that no further did you found we founded the monastery we were privileged at Pope John Paul wrote a wonderful apostolic exhortation oriental illumine in 1995 and in this he encouraged the eastern Catholic churches that over hundreds of years had become kind of a bit more lazy in a bit more just copying the Latin Church for various reasons which was bigger were richer more influential and particularly living in a western country Pope John Paul the great soon-to-be Saint John Paul's encouraged these and Catholic churches to revive their ancient liturgy their ancient spirituality and part of that of course was going to be their ancient form of monastic life it continued to exist in orthodoxy so the living tradition ever died out it just died out in the East and the Greek Catholic churches and so we have one attempt to revive that in a Byzantine Catholic Church in America and there's a handful of attempts throughout the world there few unfortunately at this stage we hope they will grow but it's absolutely essential to the identity of what it means to be Byzantine Orthodox or Catholic the Maronites also have netizen that seems to been going on and in a tradition of Hermits in now in this country there's also a Maronite Eastern Rite our monastery in Massachusetts and a couple of Hermits held so that this is part of that no perhaps in this land was more religious freedom it can be reestablished we hope so and this is the religious freedom and also diversity and richness the u.s. is such a diverse country but mainly Protestant of course in even the Catholic Church is is a minority and of course there's a huge Eastern Orthodox and a huge Eastern Catholic presence so I think it's unique in all countries in the world to have that mix and and also of course you've had here Abbot Philip Anderson so there's a revival of more traditional Latin Benedictine monasticism yes yes I wait kind of trying to do that in the Byzantine Catholic wellness in its some it's a very important part but what are the things that we taught earlier that it seems very important to you is to see the role of monasticism and particularly the Greek Catholic form of monasticism in the New Evangelization how do you see that because you know we think of monks retreating from the world how is it that you'll be part of a new evangelization we think of monks is retreating from the world but also historically monasticism has always established Christian culture if it wasn't for Benedictine monasticism Western Europe would never have revived be the old Barbie exactly and so there's always this tension between the the cloistered life or life of prayer the contemplative life and but because it's the epitome of what it means to be a Christian particularly if you break it down a Catholic and then if you break it down and more a Byzantine Catholic or a Latin Catholic monasticism is the the best carrier of that and in in eastern monasticism monastic life as pope john paul ii said in his apostolic exhortation is the reference point for all the baptized another way of saying that is monastic life is the model for the priesthood of all believers so some people confuse that particularly in the Latin Church they think the ministerial priesthood is the priesthood of all believers is is the epitome so you have you know some women that say well we're baptized we're members of the priesthood of all believers why can't we come priests but that's not the case it's it's monastic life for men and women that is the reference point for the priesthood of all believers not that the Ministry of clerical priesthood that's something different and so this emphasis on the mystical dimension of faith is also something that I think has been lost in the West particularly in Western Christianity for various reasons I think it's absolutely at the heart of what Christianity is about the fact that when I speak about mysticism that's foreign to a lot of Christians and unfortunately to a lot of Catholics they said esoteric I think points to a real problem I heard with a young journalist an article that came out last Friday and it was called mysticism monasticism and the New Evangelization and the people the magazine it was printed in they I think they they didn't know how it would go it got more hits on than many hundreds of times than all the other articles so there's enormous interest out there and hunger for the spiritual and I'm hoping that in the New Evangelization the East Eastern Christianity can be a good influence in western Christianity to reintroduce that that core of what it means to be a Christian mystical dimension we might talk of the physical emotional intellectual and the deepest of all the spiritual or mystical dimension you know one one of the things that sometimes I've certainly brought up in sermons over the years is the temptation to make evangelization into a form of inducing people to join your club yes it you know you've got the Moose you've got the elves you've got you know different clubs here and there you just come and join our club we're just a Catholic club but that's not what it's about correct it's something more profound than membership in a club correct it's I'm going to say something controversial and for roman catholics will be controversial to hear but the mystical dimension in our faith which is where grace acts on our souls is even deeper than Dogma or doctrine now I know that sounds it doesn't mean that I'm a relativist we can't do away with Dogma or doctrine it's absolutely essential but there is an element of what takes place of our relationship with God that is deeper than even that after all doctrine and even dogma our only language formulations of something that can't be fully explained and this that can't be fully explained is what I'm talking about this mystical dimension where God directly at least in the east the emphasis on uncreated grace that it's not just God revealing himself through his creation but he himself directly encountering our souls the deepest part of who we are that's where we find him in the most intimate profound way and that's what I mean by Christian mysticism and once we forget that or don't talk about it enough I think we're even doctrine can become irrelevant and I'm afraid I think that has amongst progressive elements in the church but even conservative elements in the church that emphasize doctrine and truth and you can't get away from that but if you don't also emphasize the deeper more profound reality of what is taking place people aren't going to listen to the most superficial levels which which which is a doctrine see I like to explain the role of doctrine in the mystical life using an image from GK Chesterton that doctrine forms something of a fence that protects us a line falling off the edge but it's with in the same thing with our moral teaching having clear well-thought-out morals not based on just how you feel but unclearly thought these are a fence around the perimeter of a dangerous place once you are within that fence you can play wildly and freely so long as you don't cross the fence but the fence is not the game exactly mysticism is that the SE is the entrance into the relationship exactly the fence protects you from falling off the edge and I think that's important for us even a certainly progressive Catholics but even conservative Catholics to not concentrate too much on the fence at the neglect of what's actually in there I think we need to talk about that in the New Evangelization and share our experience of that of an encounter express that liturgically and spiritually in our prayer lives in our theology the East has traditionally done a better job of this at least in theory it's kept that more intact and I think that is a very important to learners interest even amongst non-christians even amongst non Catholics even amongst so-called a theists they're atheists on the intellectual level but some sometimes there is still a relationship of grace with God that is deeper and if they go deeper they'll often find that so I think I think there is enormous potential to do more of that in the New Evangelization well one of the other problems in the modern world is that mysticism is generally associated with having a state of consciousness New Age writers meticulous and superficial people who have not a very profound understanding of Buddhism or Hinduism but sort of skim like a rock across the service touching at different points but more interested in the skipping this is what people oftentimes mean by mysticism and trying to get an experience I can feel and you know you see uh not only Buddhism Hinduism or Sufism and now Kabbalah you know all these things are talked lightly about to see what I can get out of it but you're talking about another level correct and I think that I think a lot of fallen away Christians and Catholics turn to these because I think the church has been neglected neglectful in emphasizing authentic Christian mysticism and they know that they've got this hunger for mysticism and they go looking for it in more superficial places and only get a superficial view Christian monasticism in its essence is about grace uncreated grace God Himself but it's it's not completely apathetic it's a long word it's it's it's essentially catified because it's Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit encountering us on the level of our souls which is a revelation of himself which is a knowledge that's deeper than intellectual knowledge we how can we explain it we can't but we know we've had that encounter and all of us have had that encounter we just haven't been trained or educated to to to to see it to recognize it to connect with it and I think we need to do that much well here's gonna be the question then you know what is there in say the daily order and in the teaching and the prayer life of the monastery that draws the monks toward mysticism but what do they do and what can Resta people learn how to do in order to enter into that mystical aspect of our faith we are we are a very cinematic monastery not community orientated so very liturgical there are other monasteries that are more aromatically you know the monks praying by themselves in silence that's always been a tension exactly that's always been a tension in monasticism and - Christian monasticism has to have both but some monasteries are more in one direction and some in others we're much more on the cinematic community liturgical so we spend a lot of times in the TG and the Byzantine liturgy of course is very mystical very symbolic very poetic and so it rings home that it's not just about formulated doctrines it's it's something much more profound the icons the the lamps the incense the singing it touches something that can't be conceptualized it's not that it's a merely a categorical tool it's the only language that's possible but conceptual language is impossible to pass on this encounter and so it has to be done poetically or symbolically to engage the whole our souls the whole of who we are so someone visiting amongst you would see that that the mic spent a lot of time in liturgical prayer in sensing icons and singing in lighting candles and that's a profound a way of showing that we're attempting to live the life of grace in heaven here on earth one of the ways I oftentimes think of the Eastern liturgy is that it's something like a wave in California once you get your surfboard in it the wave goes and you keep moving with us so long as you don't fall off you just keep moving with the rhythm of it and it has its own dynamic to carry you like a wave around here is a surfboard correct of course the liturgy in all the ritual traditions is the same reality but the dynamic in Eastern liturgy in Byzantine which is one I know is different than the dynamic in the Latin liturgy which is much more cerebral much more focused much more precise the Byzantine liturgy is much more symbolic much more as you say you're swimming at all you're taken by though you're carried by it everything is sung it is a different approach I always tell people when Latin Catholics come to our liturgy and they say I couldn't concentrate there was too much going on I was distracted because they have that they approach it like the Latin liturgy that's very precise very focused I say to them well you can't do that you'll go crazy if you try to pick up everything that that was given to you in the liturgy you just have to swim in it or dance in it it's a different approach well in one part of the approach certainly that's part of the Maronite tradition that I'm more familiar with is there's a lot of repetition correct so that you may not focus on one point at one on every point at one point day but in the repetition various elements correct come and affect you and you engage in that part of the way it's a mystical it's more of a mystical and less of a cerebral encounter with God and that's precisely why it's repetitious and imprecise because we are creatures we are limited how far we can conceptualize the Creator and that's really emphasized in Eastern Allah teaches in the West particularly in the second millennium the emphasis there's been more of an I mean still mystical of course but the emphasis has been much more on the cerebral the meditative the conceptual aspect as well you know the body and blood of Christ is truly present in its forms and so on and and I think it's important for folks to realize that occurs because different kinds of heresies affected the definitions that were important in the east from the definitions important in the Weirich it's not that one is better than the other they're both products of their own histories and what they've had to defend which all together make up the Catholic faith this is it this is the important thing Catholics are blessed that this whole tradition is their traditional in reading this article reading some of the comments of this article that I co-authored in this magazine someone said I'm not sorry that I left Eastern Christianity for Western Christianity after reading at all but sometimes i hunger for what i had there we don't need to do that as Catholics we can have both at least that's our heritage we can't maybe live Faline both because we're limited human beings but that is the Catholic heritage it's not the one or the other it's both in you know folks in our audience know if a Roman Rite Catholic came to the Divine Liturgy at your monastery would they be allowed to receive Holy Communion absolutely if they are prepared and they would normally receive Holy Communion in their own church the rules applies the rules of their own church I mean obviously we follow a slightly strict fasting rules and so on but if they receive Communion in their own church they are permitted to receive Communion absolute and they could come to you for confession absolutely no I mean in other words we are in full communion absolutely that's not the Byzantine Catholic Church the technically the Orthodox Church is what we say Orthodox are those that are the same as us and they have valid sacraments but they're not in full communion with the Catholic Church we are know one of the things that this is just something as you discussed us you know we live in a world a modern culture in which knowledge of a lot of things is not running rampant you know in very many many surveys and on the street questionnaires people can't pass the same exam new citizens pass they can't answer the same questions about our own country yet alone about the faith correct you know my the that poetic that liturgical sense be something that speaks to a world that isn't as clear on ideas and be able to involve them in this wave to surf into the mysticism and the in the relation with Christ absolutely I think the best example is of that is that we encourage children even infants receive Holy Communion in our tradition in the Latin and again just so folks understand and you know as an infant children receive baptism Chris mission which is confident it's the right confirmation and the Eucharist First Holy Communion right right at baptism and that was the part that was the practice in the universal Church east and west till about the first millennium and then in the Latin Church it slightly changed and they went to this thing of being able to understand the age of reason but you know our attitude is kids probably have a better understanding the mystical than adults we're the ones that are spoiled because of distractions and I think kids learn symbolically can can have religious experiences very profound that stays with him the rest of their lives I believe I received my vocation when I was six years old no it wasn't conceptual it was in church it was a mystical experience if you like I don't like to make too much of that but I think we underestimate and that's why we encourage kids we don't dumb down the liturgy for them on the OP the opposite they can appreciate the the symbolism the poetry the music the candles the incense better than us adults can often and so it's something that a person who is willing to enter into riding the wave correct can come in and with the repetition eventually ask the questions and it begins to intellectualize the reality the mystic reality the mystical engagement with Christ that is taking place eventually he's being he becomes able to conceptualize that and and intellectualize that and begin to formulate what's going on another element too is that in the east there's is a more explicit dependence on the action of the holy spirit yes you know this that the eastern liturgy is more conscious oh the Holy Spirit just I said more explicit of course the West is true but it's more explicit that the Holy Spirit is the one leading you into the depths of mr. Scott absolutely absolutely and yes absolutely you see you always have the the problem we're creatures and God is the creator how do you bridge that gap and in the Western Church that emphasized the oneness of God from st. Augustine and even before from Greek philosophy you know the problem with the one in the many the oneness of God is preserved to some degree at an expense of the breach between the creature from the Creator in the Eastern Churches because what's emphasized more is the tri-personal nature of God rather than his oneness then the holy spirit can actually choose by his authority to bridge that gap and come down to the creature so the the creator and the creature is linked not in essence but in energies the Holy Spirit God's action it's the difference between father Mitch if I gave you knowledge of myself and wrote a letter and gave it to you that's a gift that I've given you created grace if you like and you know something about me but if I came up and touched you like that I would give you maybe a more imprecise knowledge of who I am but a more intimate and direct knowledge and that's what uncreated grace is it's God actually touching us not just communicating us through his creation but he himself the creator actually touching our souls and that's why our intellects which are of course created creatures and struggle grapple to understand what's going on all right well one of the things that we have to grapple with is they've run out of time for the session that's but we will come back in about two minutes and we like to get your questions and your comments so please stay with us thank you and welcome back now if you'd like to learn more about the Byzantine Divine Liturgy their sacramental life and liturgical year ewtn religious catalogue has some great resources available for you one is a DVD series that's called light of the east it's hosted by Byzantine Ruthenian priests father Michael SOPA Liga and father Joseph Berta that's a great place to start also there's a program that you can bring up to speed on the history development and meaning of icons it's called reflections of glory the origin of icons check those out of EWTN religious catalogue I just go on the internet EWTN religious catalogue calm or call one eight hundred eight four six three one six you know and what they have there on the icons be especially interesting because a lot of people have really taken an interest in having icons in their home so be good to take a look at that also if you are interested in making a pilgrimage here like some of these nice folks have done please contact our pilgrimage department at two zero five two seven one two nine six six two seven one two nine six six or it can go to the web site ewtn.com and one of the things that they'll help you with the scheduling of masters programs all of that are places to stay place to eat and we'd love to have you come here and join us ever are you ready for some question time ready let's giddyup we'll start off with Steve hello Steve hi were you calling from from Kentucky's great sorry about your basketball loss yeah well thank you for remembering that thank you for making that oh yeah know what I see see right here I have been recently reading some of the early documents of the early fathers of the church in particularly trying to glean from them the whole area of the Eucharist and the meal and the consecration and in a very very early church and what I was wondering is what what really is can you briefly say what is the difference between the Latin Mass which we attend and the Greek liturgy around the consecration I I'm just interested in what that looks like I have never been in an Eastern Catholic Church well yet to find one and and attend Divine Liturgy it's it's wonderful yes absolutely you know to see it is always better than to hear about it theologically the difference in the first thousand years the theology Eucharistic theologies would not have been very different but in the West because of scholasticism and the the way that the Western Roman Empire an influence by Aristotle in philosophy and Thomas Aquinas and also with the what later became the Reformation the Eucharistic theology then began to change somewhat yeah it was especially under Berengar correct a Rican who denied the resurrection that still and so and there the rise of course of humanism the introductive the greater emphasis on Aristotelian philosophy and that began to use different languages that wasn't different of course than what the East users or what the West used to use but it was a development to explain Eucharistic theology to the West to address challenges that Eucharistic theology was being challenged by in the West we're in the East those challenges didn't really occur and so the older theology still applies liturgically externally there's things like the Latin Church use unleavened bread we use leavened bread in most Eastern Churches the emphasis on the whole of the Holy Spirit Day of the Cleese's coming down and changing the gifts is emphasized more and and also it's good to know that the the epiclesis the calling which means calling down upon of the Holy Spirit is present in the Latin liturgy correct but usually before the words of institution well you can of course it's the same mass but it has a different theology and I would say that the theologies of the East and the Western churches the difference is a deep but fundamentally of course it's the same reality we'd have to believe that if we Catholic absolutely and you also see a number of elements for instance the dialogue the Lord be with you with his spirit look to the same we have that correct and as one of my one of the my Jewish students who became a Catholic um when she started going to message she came out of there said you stole absolutely I said well of course we stole your prayers all the big names in the Catholic Church are Jews absolutely Jesus Mary Joseph exactly Interpol and so of course of course it's using them in that Jewish aspect the liturgy shows up in all the rites because it's apostolic sometimes more in more influence in one right than another and in different ways but I've seen that for example in our liturgy traditionally we have their concerts and the curtain the curtain comes of course from the curtain in the temple but in the Latin Church they used to have curtains until the 16th century to the originals and Peter's in Rome had a curtain so these are all from symbol symbols from Jewish worship temple worship and synagogue worship even you saw some like a tabernacle right salutely and the curtain is still in front of the lute for the same reason Italy ma'am were you from I'm from Dunedin Florida good to have you and your question what age to your do you do all three sacraments you stated that it was at all three ages all three sacraments at the same age in the early church of course not everyone was Christian so when a family was when a father was baptized the whole family was baptized no matter what age they were grandparents children infants they were all baptized confirmed and given Holy Communion we do the same when someone enters the church either as an adult they receive them there if they are infants if they're they receive them there so if a family is Catholic or Orthodox and they've got a newborn child after 40 days usually they'll be brought to 40 days and they'll be brought to the church and that ties Chris mated confirmed and given First Holy Communion okay we only give them the a drop of the precious blood usually by the finger the the priest dunks his finger in the precious blood and puts it on the tongue of the baby yeah it's a the in the Maronites we give them baptism and chrismation but first communion is is delayed but it's a lot of Western influence by the but the superior West I'm Joe I know I know before the Marilyn's it was the protective one yes but it was because they were protecting for sure sure but but yeah it's and so then when we see little children by the time they can walk at 3:00 4:00 they come up to Holy Communion or why shouldn't they if they're baptized why shouldn't they be Chris mated and and given Holy Communion they're full Christians they don't understand it we don't understand it how can we understand this mystery of the real presence they shouldn't be deprived our Lord said bring the little children unto me in the West because we were know all of our ancestors were barbarian it just took a little longer for us to get things I didn't say that we have a call a whole John Hope all the Mitchell Oh world father hello John and what do we do for you today John okay I got a couple um the first one is how can we relate the icons and what do they mean directly connected with the New Evangelization and the second is I wondered if of course on talking Eastern Orthodox here has he ever been to any of the Greek they have a monastic state one tip of Greece and it's near Mount Athos they have Greek monasteries the whole state is for months and then they have fog well that'll do okay god bless you it was already stirred thank you - thank you no of course the first question our icons of value in the New Evangelization absolutely because icons which are in the Byzantine church sacramentals and the distinction is the sacrum odds are sacramental for us imprecise conceptual people is not but they're important because you see they emphasize the mystical they emphasize the knowledge of God revelation that can't be intellectually explained fully and so their pictorial theology if you like and of course they're important because just like poetry in in liturgical texts is important because it's not that it's pampered it's made to be more entertaining or more colorful it's because the full reality can't be explained in scientific language or just conceptually so you need art and music and poetry to express the more profound revelation in you know that's why we recommend that video on looking at icons because it's it's a different form of art and we're accustomed to in the West which is three-dimensional icons are two-dimensional with the idea that you add that next dementia rect you involve yourself in the process their theology they are they are transfigured reality and that's why they're presented in two dimensions we should say that iconography was the art form of all the churches including the Western for the first millennium it was only in the second millennium that in the Western Church through the Renaissance and Baroque period that art became more influenced from classical art and became more naturalistic that's pretty late but if you see the art in the first millennium the West used icons as much as these exactly the same very much so a great place to go would be Ravenna and it's a good way because you learn to pay attention where our hands pointed where eyes directed faces and so it's this helps you to understand the focus and the meaning and teaching that's going on it's not just beauty it's not even just catechesis it's their actual prayers they are pulling you into the mystery we call them windows into heaven yes windows into heaven we've got another question about Mount Athos oh yes yes I haven't been I've been to meteora the rock monasteries one of my mind's father Moses has been to Mount Athos and father Maximus has been to Patmos so between us we've been to the important greek orthodox monasteries you know I've been department meteora but not about us ma'am where are you from well I'm from here blunts feel Alabama good so father in the West our emphasis in catechesis is to prepare our students and our children to complete the sacrament of initiation so in your faith you have completed them at baptism so then my question would be what is your model of catechesis for your young and your young adults once they've completed the second well the catechesis of course the catechesis father Mitch of course is the same except we don't hold the sacraments ransom to catechesis we're saying now we're going to explain to you what is already happening to you what you do what is taking place what you're doing yes and there's it engaged and if they're enthusiastic to learn as you're unfolding it if so many times our youth tend to lose interest you know one of the this is a real pastor problem and but behind delaying confirmation even more I receive confirmation when I was 10 or 11 oh but now it's oftentimes late because once they get confirmed then they say well I've graduated so I don't need to come back to catechism anymore there are pastoral issues yeah rap hostile issues and I don't know what the answer is but we have to be very careful not to make pastoral issues more important than any other issue we have to really be careful because then we can we can we can make the three our theology decadent we can compromise it and our liturgical practice another thing is in the Byzantine liturgy no people say well the Latin Church has a shorter mass we have to make our mass shorter otherwise people go to the Latin Church our people again pass for consideration that would be to compromise who we are we have to be very careful Pope Benedict was big about this that personal considerations are important but they can't override everything else right right and it's certainly one of the very important developments of the Second Vatican Council was in recognizing the role of the eastern churches to make sure that they be who they are you know maintain their identity and not turned it into remember once I asked a lot of questions one of my questions is what happens if you take all the Crayolas in the box and melt them together and I found out that it's just a nasty dark gray yes you know and that's you don't want to melt all these distinctiveness together you want to keep the distinct errect and I think and I think we've done that better than the West in some ways and I think we can also be an example to the West I hope a good example that in some ways the Latin Church has in some ways after Vatican 2 given up too many of their good traditions - yes that it can do and I think perhaps we can be a reminder to them that they should rediscover some of those that it is certainly difficult if they don't value their own tradition for us as much smaller Eastern Catholic groups in communion with them how we can we explain to our people that we should preserve ours I think we should remind the Latin Church that they need to better preserve some of their own traditions - yeah there was a certain triumphalism of the present moment correct in the period after the council and I think it's now being fought to do better we have another caller hello Adam you're on yeah were you from yeah from Park New Jersey great and what's your question first of all I wanted to find out you seem to wearing they're appearing different today and why but also for about Nicholas if you could speak to the use of symbolism icons candles and intents and why that is different in the Catholic Church thank you thank you oh I'm wearing my GB which is my mirror night investment that we use in the liturgy because I'm as someone who's biracial Tamara lights in being with our another Eastern Rite Catholic I thought I just saw my ZB - so we can look we can look the same right we can never say well I've got a few x-15 assault but yeah so then you're part of the question about the the symbolism the symbolism as I say in the in the West in the second millennium liturgical worship became somewhat more cerebral and more less mystical poetic and less poetic for that reason but there was still the symbolism i i conce began to be replaced with statues incense was used not as much as in the east but still it was used at benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and also at solar masses candles maybe a votive candles at with statues so I don't think that the differences are very large now after Vatican true certainly change and I would say some of those changes were poorly thought out and departed even from the Latin tradition as much as from the the common apostolic tradition of all the churches right it was a combination of one approach of accumulation by saying we'll you know some statues and icons are bothersome to people from non Catholic churches we'll just want to get rid of that while non Catholic Protestant you look as impressed not non Catholic Orthodox churches well a lot of the other statues either well then what like that you have like an image right yes but it's and so and and now in fact I've been and as I travel around I see that a lot of Catholic churches are putting images back but iconography yes the old the older form even in the Latin Church for the first thousand years I think that's why to go back to the patristic tradition of the West as well as the but it's you know the it's again that's changing and more calm no mr. God yeah another question your young man were you from trend here so what's your question well my question is uh what is the importance of having these different rights in the Catholic Church well the importance is that our Lord called many apostles and disciples particularly the twelve that were with him at the Last Supper and when he the Holy Spirit was given to them at Pentecost they went to the ends of the earth to establish the faith to preach the gospel and celebrate the Eucharist and this was an apostolic times and the church grew with different were in theologically culturally liturgically different in the different cultures so the apostolic tradition of the church like it or not is not one color it's not just the Latin tradition it is equally the Syriac tradition or the Byzantine tradition or the Armenian traditional of the Coptic tradition so it's not something that we choose it was the way that tradition has beat the faith has been handed on to us it hasn't been handed to us one faceted it had been handed to us you know diamond faceted many facets and so if we miss the other facets we're only getting a partial view of the faith it's as simple as that yeah or I like to use an image from cooking that it's not just porridge it's rather a very rich very diversity flavoured stew correct and it and that there are tastes and flavors and we learn from each other correct you know things that the other doesn't always remember it's it's in the other communities i John Paul the great has said that you know different churches express different realities of the faith better than other churches so and he could see that the Byzantine church or some of the Eastern Churches can express some elements of the faith for example the mystical dimension better than the Latin Church he had no problem saying that you know the question was to the oddities young man were you from I'm also from Brownsville Alabama so just a pattern so what's your question my question is father since the child receives all three sacraments of shishun do the parents decide the same thing for the child or there's a child decide later on in life well the yes the the parent are the parents the parents choose the name for the child and now if the child is going to be become a monastic a nun or a monk then they have some say in the their abbot or Abbess will choose the name for them and sometimes priests get particularly celibate priest will be given the bishop will choose a name for them too sometimes you know with this I think it's important to see that your monastery is not just about maintaining some ethnic identity passing on recipes dances and customs he'd be and always good but it's also about doing the kind of work of evangelization and going out and I want to give people a way to get in contact as they can you can go to its holy resurrection monastery in st. Nazianz Wisconsin and the website is WWE our em online it's our m o and Li ne so HRM online org and you can get haven't we have run out of time I ask you please join me in giving a blessing obscurity I'd be delighted to her mighty God bless you and keep you and cause his face to shine upon you and lead you in all of his ways by his peace the Father the Son Holy Spirit amen amen and want to thank you for being with us thank you for the many youth keep this network going so keep us in between your gas bill that's billing cable bill and we'll be able to pay all of our bills we very much needed your support and you'll see as we go back to the audience there's one couple celebrating 55 years of marriage see if you can pick them out you

Channel: EWTN

Views: 28,009

Rating: 4.8239999 out of 5

Keywords: Catholic, EWTN, Christian, television, Abbot (Religious Leadership Role), Eternal Word Television Network (Organization)

Id: T_UGpvLA7Sc

Length: 56min 34sec (3394 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 10 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/Alistairdad]

I know that revered and dear abbot! A saint of a man

[u/bellku]

Glory to Jesus Christ!