Santa Maria Antiqua

Thanks to reader Sean for alerting us to Project Santa Maria Antiqua, concerning the study and restoration of a mid VI-century church in Rome, abandoned and sealed in the IX century, and rediscovered a millenia later. 
The mural above captures a theme dear to this blog, as it depicts Christ enthroned, flanked by Greek Saints (on [...]

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“The Immaculate Conception and the Orthodox Church” (4)

By Father Lev Gillet
From Chrysostom, Vol. VI, No. 5 (Spring 1983), pp. 151-159.
(Continued from Part I, Part II & Part III)
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V. There are three principal causes which provide an explanation for the opposition with which the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception has been met in the Orthodox Church.
First and foremost, there is the mistrust felt a priori by many Orthodox about any doctrine [...]

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“The Immaculate Conception and the Orthodox Church” (3)

By Father Lev Gillet
From Chrysostom, Vol. VI, No. 5 (Spring 1983), pp. 151-159.
(Continued from Part I and Part II)
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IV. Let us now consider more closely the attitude of the Russian Church towards the question of the Immaculate Conception.
Every Russian theological student knows that St Dmitri, metropolitan of Rostov (17th century), supported the Latin ”theory of the epiklesis” (10); but young Russians [...]

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“The Immaculate Conception and the Orthodox Church” (2)

By Father Lev Gillet
From Chrysostom, Vol. VI, No. 5 (Spring 1983), pp. 151-159.
________________________
(Continued from Part 1)
III. I shall begin by quoting several phrases which cannot be said with absolute certainty to imply a belief in the Immaculate Conception but in which it is quite possible to find traces of such a belief.
First of all - the patriarch Photius. In his [...]

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“The Immaculate Conception and the Orthodox Church” (1)

By Father Lev Gillet
From Chrysostom, Vol. VI, No. 5 (Spring 1983), pp. 151-159.
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I. It is generally agreed, I think, that the dogma of the Immaculate Conception is one of the questions which make a clear and profound division between the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Is this really the case? We shall try to examine quite objectively what Orthodox [...]

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Opening of the ‘Pauline Year’ in Rome

The New Liturgical Movement has some lovely video screencaps from this evening’s Solemn Papal Vespers at the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome. The Pope has an extremely important guest this evening: His Holiness, Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople! There are some particularly moving pictures (here and here) of the Successor [...]

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Rejoice, Holy Chief Apostles Peter and Paul!

AKATHIST TO SAINTS PETER AND PAUL
KONDAK I
Of Himself our Lord said, I am the Good Shepherd and to you, the Chief Apostle Peter, He said, If you love Me, feed My Sheep, and Peter said, Yes, Lord, You know that I love you. I am Jesus, He said, in speaking to you, O Paul, Chief [...]

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More on Church Unity and Legitimate Variance

From Wei-Hsein Wan of Torn Notebook, chock full of brilliant quotes from great lights of the Church, both Eastern and Western, ancient and contemporary:
Church Unity and Legitimate Variance, Part II: Two Other Voices
For as, in the case of one and the same quantity of water, there is separated from it, not only the residue which is [...]

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Bishop Hilarion’s clarification

In response to the earlier post “Bishop Hilarion: God’s Mercy is immeasurable”, His Grace, Hilarion (Alfeyev), Russian Orthodox Bishop of Vienna, posted the following clarification in the combox:
Friends, I came across your blog by accident. Thank you for your interest in what I said in Rome. However, I must state that what some of you [...]

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Fr Lev Gillet on East and West

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 [...]

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