I am a “re-vert” to the Orthodox Catholic Church and a member of a parish of the Orthodox Church of America. I am a layman and speak only for myself. I have no special wisdom, as is quite evident. I am unable to offer any counsel to inquirers. I suggest speaking to a priest or someone otherwise qualified for advice.
I’ve loved Orthodoxy enough to have joined it twice. (I left it for nearly 10 years.) Having said that, I’ll be the first to admit that Orthodoxy in the trenches is far from perfect and we have our own problems too. I’m not trashing the Church I believe in at all, for I believe what Orthodoxy teaches with all my heart….and that is what eventually drew me back to her. Right doctrine does not eclipse sin in its members nor does it prevent a type of triumphalism that sometimes arises among some of its members that fails to see that ‘the Spirit blows where He wills’ outside the visible confines of the Church. One quote from Orthodox spirituality that I would emphasize is this from St. Seraphim of Sarov: “Acquire a peaceful spirit, and around you thousands will be saved.” In Orthodoxy, doctrine is important. But, the interior transformation is just as important — perhaps even more important — and more challenging.
I include many links on this blog for informational purposes. Of course, inclusion of any links does not necessarily indicate approval. I can be contacted at orthocath1*at*aol.com.
Our return to the Church – March 7, 2010
Orthocath 
I myself converted to Orthodoxy from Roman Catholicism, but remain in a RC family and stillconsider myself sympathetic to both sides of the Adriatic. I refer to myself jokingly sometimes as Catholodox, but OrthoCath sounds good too.
I too an a convert to Orthodoxy from Roman Catholicism! I was chrismated in December 2011 at St Nicholas Cathedral in Washington, DC by Metropolitan +Jonah. All my relatives are either Catholic or lapsed Catholic/agnostics (we’re sadly called the ‘faithless generation’ and to large measure it’s true.) My parents raised my sisters and I Catholic, though my dad has of late been experimenting with attending Unitarian Universalist services.
I love this blog, “OrthoCath”- I feel that Orthodoxy is more a fulfillment of the ancient catholic orthodox Faith than a ‘departure’ from Catholicism. May the Lord continue to bless you!
Christ is Risen!!
Just stopping by to let you know that I’ve linked to your blog from Irenikon the Skete. I didn’t realize till I had a referral tonight that you had me included in your blog roll. I was pleasantly surprised and wanted to thank you and return the favor.
Blessed Bright Week!
Mary
Thank you for the blog link OrthoCath. Hope you don’t mind if I add you to my blog roll as well.
I too received a referral today and appreciate very much that you think I’ve got something anyone would be interested in reading about. I’m looking forward to going through your older posts as a quick glance showed me there was a lot of great content to catch up on. It will take me ages to go through all the great links you’ve listed. You really have compiled a good resource of Orthodox, RC and Byz Catholic links (and stuff I’d never even known was out there). God bless; we’re all in it for the glory of God.
Tina G
I was baptized Roman Catholic as an infant, confirmed at about ten years of age, left the Church to pursue hedonism at about thirteen, became evangelical Protestant at about age 20, marrried a Proestant girl at bout age 22, converted to eastern Orthodoxy with my wift at 48. Now I am contemplating reunion with the See of Peter. Whether I remain Eastern Orthodox or revert to Roman Catholicism, I am and will remain Orthocath, because I am convinced that the East and West are one and are destined to reunite officially.
In Orthodox Eucharistic Ecclesiology, Every Local Church(diocese) is the Catholic church in a particular area, not a mere part of the church, and every bishop is a successor of Peter.
I highly recommend the book, His broken body by Fr. Laurent Cleenewerk. It really clarifies the issues concerning communion between Rome and Orthodoxy. Others have recommended it as well.
Praise the Lord for bring you back. Looking forward to checking out some of your links to use at my blog: http://sowingseedsoforthodoxy.wordpress.com/. Herman Art
I want to thank you for first, linking my blog. I’m not by any stretch of the imagination a professional blogger, so I always appreciate tags from superior bloggers who think I’m worth reading. Second, great blog! It’s well written and I most certainly appreciate that you cite sources of whatever you’re quoting. I think you do a good service for your Orthodox faith and help us Catholic bloggers (Mark Shea included!) a lot in raising our standards.
Pax Christi,
MJL
Many thanks for the kind words. I’m no professional blogger myself but enjoy posting stuff from time to time. Thanks for re-posting my article on the Eastern Churches!
Good to see you here!
Thanks for stopping by and for the mention on your blog!
This is a good site! Still I must emphasize that union with the See of Peter is a must. We should not jump between Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches based on “how well they celebrate the Liturgy”. Either accept how they do it, work with them to change it or find another Eastern Catholic Church.
Thanks for visiting, Matthew, and for your comment. A couple of comments. First, I agree that one shouldn’t jump between Churches based on “how well they celebrate the Liturgy.” As for me, I did not return to the Orthodox Church for aesthetic reasons. I returned because I was convinced that Orthodoxy, despite its apparent shortcomings, contains the fullness of the Faith. For those wanting a good overview of the differences between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, I recommend the book by Fr. Laurent Cleenewerck: His Broken Body. A review of the book can be read here:
In XC,
Orthocath
Thank you for putting me on your blog roll. Your blog is a great resource for information. I hope the talks this week on Primacy lead to some conclusions.
I have been following this blog for a while but haven’t made any introduction, so here’s a short one:
I grew up Roman Catholic, became rigid with more legalistic approach, drawn to the Byzantine way, and now a Melkite. Possibly the only Indonesian Melkite with Chinese ethnicity; currently a student in Ohio. I have a great respect and interest for Eastern Churches, dislike the ‘unnecessary intervention’ by Latin Church authorities on Eastern stuff, and I’m educating/sharing to Indonesian people about the Eastern Churches stuff on our page with several others.
Thanks for your introduction and thanks for visiting the site!
This is a very necessary site for people to dialogue. My wife and I are Roman Catholic converts to Orthodoxy. Both our families are RC (she’s Guyanese, I’m Puerto Rican) making us both the only Orthodox in our families. We love Orthodoxy immensely. However, we still include certain RC elements. We recite the Rosary (an Antiochian priest said there’s nothing wrong with that), visit the Blessed Sacrament (RC church is closest to us), have a few statues. We see it as being part of “Western Orthodoxy” since some of these practices are pre-schism. This helps us when we meet RC’s who are sympathetic to Orthodoxy or help create curiosity since we would pray the Rosary with some family members. We just do not partake of RC Eucharist (that’s self excommunication from Orthodoxy) and we recite the original Creed (Ortho). It just helps people to know there’s a place to go if contemplating leaving the Roman Catholic church. Orthodoxy is Home to us! Jesus is LORD!
Letting you know how much I do appreciate the work you’ve done here on your blog, as it’s truly marvelous seeing what the Lord has done in your life and through what you’ve shared….
Canonically I and my wife are Roman Catholics yet our Children are Orthodox. We did this as, at the time, the Latin Church in our area was just not a tenable place to raise kids Catholic (prayers to the saints, images, incense, relics, real presence, prayers for the dead etc). I was a convert to the Latin Church from Methodism in which I was raised, over 30 years ago and of course promised to raise our children Catholic. Catholic practice was greatly corrupted, if not disappeared here by the time our children came along. At the time Orthodox was the only hope I could see to raise our kids with Catholic practice, particularly in a parochial setting. We easily exist in both worlds.
I will make no friends among the Orthodox or Catholics by saying this however, I would say while there are particular differences or later additional codifications made by the Latin Church and a different liturgical development between the Churches of the East and the Latin Church, in the main the genesis of belief and practice is of (from) the same source. Namely Christ and the Apostles. Due to many geo-political, cultural and other different circumstantial experiences that separated the Churches over time in part, led the Roman Church to operate more and more separately and deal with controversies (often which were effectively regional to the west) in a more legalistic and dogmatic way than the east. Yet I would argue that these are just a different approach to dealing with and defining the same realities.
Regarding Primacy, of course Christ is the supreme head of the Church and no one would argue that. Patriarchs are the normative heads of regional (national) Churches, and together with their synods have primacy in those territories. To use the bible verses to support Papal primacy over all the Church is the same approach that protestants use to support their “doctrines”. However, from the earliest times we see Rome exercising what seems to be primacy particularly among the Churches in the west and a conciliarism (Councils) in the East, though at times history points to Papal primacy giving way to Councils and at other times Councils giving sway to Primacy. I think this evidences a certain genius, a “checks and balances” that Christ infused into the Church. Indeed at the Council of Jerusalem Peter spoke with particular authority yet James chaired the Council.
In any event there is nothing in Orthodox worship or practice that is foreign or uncomfortable to a knowledgable Catholic. For an Orthodox to attend to Catholic Mass (at least a novus ordo) is more problematic as the praxis is more like protestant “worship” than Orthodox (or Traditional Catholic) and the additional definitions maybe be a problem for some Orthodox.
In summary I would say that both Catholic and Apostolic Churches of the East and the Western Church bear some “ravages of time” some deformation from the Church of the first 300 years. There have been developments and definitions in dogma and practice that didn’t exist in the first centuries, and certainly there are more of them in the Latin Church, yet do this thinks change the body or is it just aged? I would say the Latin Church bears more signs of that aging than the east yet the body is in essence the same. Indeed I would say they are of the same body as their members eat and drink the same Body and Blood of Christ.
My dear friend and brother,
I read here regularly and just wanted to publicly acknowledge that I am always edified by your postings, here, at ByzCath, FB, and elsewhere. Since we first ‘met’, a lot of years have passed, a lot of thoughts, opinions, and knowledge have been shared, and a lot of prayers have been offered – always in charity and respect, regardless of the temples in which we’ve worshipped, and despite that we reside a continent apart from one another.
Whenever one wonders about the ‘realities’ of spirituality and theology expressed via the medium of the net, I’m reminded that a quarter century ago, folks such as us would likely never have had the opportunity to ‘know’ and learn from one another. How sad that would have been! So, one must give thanks to God for His gift to mankind of those who made this ethereal venue happen, Regardless of what they individually or collectively believed its purpose to be, it has, in the hands of those with the wisdom and skill to employ it, such as yourself, become a powerful tool for His glory.
I remain ever awed by the internet ministries that you’ve created and shared over the years and the efforts that you’ve devoted to promoting and sustaining our Eastern Christian faiths, as well as promoting the deaf ministry so dear to your heart. Treasuring our friendship, I offer my prayers for you and your family, that God grant you many more years in health, happiness, and service to Him, His peoples, and His Churches.
Many years,
Neil
Neil,
Thank you for these kind words and prayers. I, too, have treasured our friendship over the years and have greatly appreciated your work for both our Churches. Prayers for you and your family — one of these days perhaps we’ll get to meet each other.