For a long time friends have asked me about my own spiritual journey from being a Benedictine monk and priest in the Latin tradition to end up as part of the Eastern (Greek-Catholic Melkite) Church. On March 31st 2009 I celebrated thirty years as a priest, it seemed to me that this was the time to reflect on my own journey which has taken me into priesthood, monasticism, ecumenism, education as teacher and lecturer and always a struggle as a seeker, with the life of God. It seemed to be a 'right time', not primarily for comments and critique on religious issues but for sharing the riches of the tradition!
At the beginning of the Divine Liturgy the Priest sings these words,'Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and always and unto ages of ages,Amen'. This greeting sets the scene for all of us gathered to celebrate the Eucharist, for as the theology of the Eastern Church points out so clearly we are part of the Kingdom of God now, the icons that are present in a Byzantine church force us to recognise the saints as present now, in a true sense the the light of heaven shines in the world that we inhabit. This is part of what I want to share.
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Father, I'm interested to know more about your spiritual journey from Latin to Melkite. I'd be very interesting for me to hear this from you since I am transferring from Latin to Melkite... =)
ReplyDeleteFather, I was trying to figure out what Melkite refers to and can't figure out whether it's in communion with Constantinople or with Rome. :)
ReplyDelete*If* Melkite is really another word for what people refer to when they speak of Greek (or Russian, or Antiochian, etc.) Orthodox Church - why use it? This is not a criticism, just my curiosity.
Anyway, peace to you. :)