The whole teaching of the Latin Fathers may be found in the East, just as the whole teaching of the Greek Fathers may be found in the West. Rome has given St. Jerome to Palestine. The East has given Cassian to the West and holds in special veneration that Roman of the Romans, Pope Gregory the Great. St. Basil would have acknowledged St. Benedict of Nursia as his brother and heir. St. Macrina would have found her sister in St Scholastica. St. Alexis the “man of God,” “the poor man under the stairs,” has been succeeded by the wandering beggar, St. Benedict Labre. St. Nicolas would have felt as very near to him the burning charity of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Vincent de Paul. St. Seraphim of Sarov would have seen the desert blooming under Father Charles de Foucauld’s feet, and would have called St. Thérèse of Lisieux “my joy.”
– Archimandrive Lev Gillet (“a monk of the Eastern Church”), Orthodox Spirituality (Crestwood NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1978), pp. x-xi.
More on the life and witness of Father Lev here.
Greetings to all and may God bless you on your endeavours. Forgive what may seem to be an out-of-place intrusion, but I was hoping that someone may assist in shedding some light on a topic of interest. So much is made of the differences between the Greek and Latin views of the Trinity. The Greeks are meant to have stressed the hypostases, wheres the Latins, the essence, Surely this is a gross generalization… surely the Greek Fathers made an issue of the “ousia” as much as Latin Fathers allowed for the “persona”. Can anyone assist with substantiation….
fr. Petros