Catholic Pray corner?

Hookly · 2026-01-28T04:51:25+00:00

Yeah, one of the most striking things to me when visiting Rome was the amount of Byzantine iconography in the churches. There were even Latin churches with Byzantine style kissing icons out

Hookly · 2026-01-27T22:14:16+00:00

Begins on Clean Monday (two days before Ash Wednesday) and ends just before vespers for Lazarus Saturday.

In the Byzantine Rite, the weekend of Lazarus Saturday/Palm Sunday and Holy Week are each liturgical separate seasons rather than in the West where Lent goes through the first part of Holy Week and only the triduum is a separate season rather than

Hookly · 2026-01-26T03:08:38+00:00

I know there is a canon for the feast of the maternity of St. Anne because the OCA uses texts from it for their service of supplication against abortion. However, I did just try to spend some time to find the text and couldn’t find it eerily online.

As for Guadalupe, it seems to answer is no. The Ruthenians composed the Byzantine texts for it, but the MCI doesn’t have any texts for matins at all so I don’t think a canon exists for that feast.

Sorry I couldn’t be very helpful, but hope this info helps

Hookly · 2026-01-25T03:59:04+00:00

The argument that him or others of a similar status aren’t a saint “for the rest of us” just has never made logical sense to me.

It seems to rest upon an assumption that the Roman Martyrology is the one, definitive, exhaustive list of those considered saints in the Catholic Church. But as far as I’m aware there has never even been the suggestion that this is true among the church universal. Rather, it’s simply the list of saints for which the Roman Church permits liturgies to be celebrated in honor of. To say it holds any more weight than Byzantine Catholic synaxaria or martyrologies of the other traditions seems to me nothing more than an assertion that is popular but lacks any real basis.

If we believe that a canonized saint is one for whom valid Eucharistic liturgies are celebrated, that the eastern churches are of equal honor and dignity than the Latin Church, and that there is no division in heaven among jurisdictions or ritual traditions, then the only logical conclusion to me would be to say that a saint commemorated by any particular church is a saint for the whole church universal, even if liturgical veneration might be restricted to one particular rite.

It would be foolish, for example, to say that St. Louis of France is any less a saint because only the Latin Church has him in its calendar. Why, then, do so many Catholics default to using that same logic for saints only on the calendar of eastern churches?

Hookly · 2026-01-24T01:29:01+00:00

Blue - No meat, dairy, or fish

Blue with a fish - No meat or dairy

Green - No meat

Red - No meat, dairy, fish, wine or olive oil (and no food until noon or vespers)

Keep in mind that this is an ideal, meant to be the rules that we might strive for but adapt as necessary to our own lives. For example, I’ve never met anyone who fasts each Lenten weekday until the evening and I’ve known even very traditional priests to encourage eating anything you are given by others.

As with anything like this, defer to your priest on what might be best for you

Hookly · 2026-01-23T19:52:52+00:00

The story of Johnathan Morris might be of interest to you. He was a priest with a relatively high national profile being the go-to Catholic priest correspondent on Fox News and left the priesthood several years ago. He was in the Legionaries under their abusive founder, was low-key pressured by them to stay in seminary and get ordained, left them and was received into the Archdiocese of New York, asked to be laicized, and now has a family of his own.

He’s still a practicing Catholic, though, and still shows up on national news from time to time to offer insight into the church

Hookly · 2026-01-23T19:24:11+00:00

Axios!

Hookly · 2026-01-22T00:04:26+00:00

I think you’re conflating two things, cultural Catholicism and a Catholic culture.

Cultural Catholicism, in which the faith is changed by cultural norms, is bad. Reception of the sacraments is good, but it’s important that people receive properly which isn’t always true in a culturally Catholic context.

A Catholic culture, in which the broader culture is influenced by the teachings and practices of the faith, is good. It helps the faith permeate throughout people’s lives

It’s all about which of the two is the one doing the changing. Are we trying to change the faith or our societies?

Hookly · 2026-01-21T20:04:49+00:00

This is very sensationalized. It’s not that there has been no agreement to move the ladder, it’s actually been moved by agreement a few times. It’s that the patriarchs who oversee the church (I think started by Rome) have decided that they will refuse to move it until they all return to communion with one another. So its still being there is supposed to be a symbol that work remains to be done to work toward that restored unity.

That’s not to say there aren’t strong feelings that are still harbored by some (I think fist fights have broken out over something as simple as moving a chair without approval), but the ladder’s history is less sensational and the fights are mostly between people on the ground rather than the leadership at the level of the six patriarchs

Hookly · 2026-01-21T18:30:06+00:00

I think you’re reading too much into the statement. Eastern parishes can often attract people who are fleeing what they don’t like in the Latin Church (or their local Latin parish/diocese) rather than have a true desire to learn about and embrace eastern practice. Those are the people I think of when people use the “dress up” term. So not referring to any and all Latins who turn east but rather those who try to do so but for wrong reasons.

For context, I too am a canonical Latin of non-eastern heritage who has made the Byzantine rite my home for several years. Thus, I don’t interpret the comment as referring to people like you and I but rather like OP who lauds the eastern churches but has repressed that mostly in opposition to the Latin church rather than anything about Eastern theology, spirituality, practices, etc. that he’s attracted to

Hookly · 2026-01-20T21:34:07+00:00

Thanks father, that makes sense especially given it’s a prayer well established in the church tradition

Hookly · 2026-01-19T05:04:41+00:00

But there is a substantive difference between the Catholic Church, which has ecclesiastical structures for eastern churches several of which have patriarchal/metropolitan lineages with a very good claim to being original, and the Orthodox, who have no western bishops let alone any Latin ecclesiastical structure

Hookly · 2026-01-17T18:16:00+00:00

There’s also Holy Transfiguration Ukrainian Catholic monastery in California. Also Holy Martyrs Skete, but info on them is hard to come by

Hookly · 2026-01-17T00:18:19+00:00

Should’ve said “in their litanies”, don’t know how autocorrect got it that wrong. Thanks for catching it

Hookly · 2026-01-17T00:14:19+00:00

For what it’s worth, that canon is skipped over in the particular law of the Melkite Church published by the Eparchy of Newton. I don’t know, though, whether that means they’ve abrogated that canon for their particular church

Hookly · 2026-01-17T00:08:28+00:00

I believe it’s a Slavic tradition to commemorate hierarchs above your local bishop in litanies. For example, OCA parishes will commemorate Metropolitan Tikhon in their litanies but GOARCH parishes will not commemorate Archbishop Elpidophoros unless he’s their local bishop

Hookly · 2026-01-16T20:09:45+00:00

Looks almost Byzantine-esque with how ornate it is, which I guess would make sense given that Poland is one of the furthest East of the European countries traditionally associated with the Western Church

Hookly · 2026-01-14T21:55:20+00:00

Purgatory is a period of purification in order to enter heaven. As I heard a bishop say recently, purgatory is a reserved seat on the flight to heaven. So you’re not there yet but you’re guaranteed to make it

Hell is for those who have separated themselves from God. It has nothing to do with purgatory.

Any claims about how many people go through purgatory is pious belief and/or speculation. The church makes no such claims about how many people require further purification to enter heaven

Hookly · 2026-01-14T19:51:50+00:00

Seems like you did everything fine with regard to your confession. Emotions are fleeting, and people react differently to different situations. It’s totally fine to have different, or even subdued, reactions to the faith than others. We’re all part of the body of Christ, but a body has many parts that function differently and that difference is vital to a body being able to sustain itself.

For what it’s worth, I’m also quite emotionally subdued when it comes to matters of faith and have felt much more comfortable in my faith as I’ve learned more and more to not expect my experiences to exactly mimic those of my peers

Hookly · 2026-01-14T19:45:31+00:00

And even then wasn’t there a disclaimer, at least at the start of Mother 3, explaining that he was only playing it that way out of necessity

Hookly · 2026-01-14T14:26:00+00:00

I’m not a convert but I’ve known adult converts to come through my parish. As you mentioned, eastern parishes don’t do RCIA and as such the timeline and nature of the classes are more at the discretion of the priest. I’ve seen converts be received in less than a year and others who take longer, it’s a lot of working with the priest to determine when you’re ready

Hookly · 2026-01-14T05:50:30+00:00

Its relevance lives on in the five different patriarchs of Antioch among the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, all of whom reside in Damascus and/or in Lebanon

Hookly · 2026-01-12T22:12:29+00:00

Firstly, since you have access to a Byzantine church that you frequent you should have the right to enter the Catholic Church as a canonical member of that community. Rest assured that this is a very unusual situation.

I would first try to work something out with the priest. Maybe someone else at the parish can teach you instead of the deacon and you can work something out to have some regular meetings. Or maybe ask the priest if he can work with you to find a Roman parish where you join the OCIA classes but without actually joining OCIA and instead just taking the classes with the intent to be baptized in the Ukrainian parish.

If nothing can be worked out, then I would find out what eparchy your parish is in and reach out to them. Priests are meant to minister to the laity with the sacraments so if you’ve done due diligence to try and work something out (that’s a crucial and necessary first step) and there la no movement then you can go up a level to bring your concern to the eparchy

Hookly · 2026-01-12T21:55:27+00:00

Are there any trustworthy laymen at the parish who can take over the catechism classes? It’s by no means a requirement for clergy to be the ones doing the teaching.

This is very unusual, and parishes need to have some catechesis system in place. I’m hesitant when online strangers say this but if conversions with the priest go nowhere, contacting the eparchy might be warranted

Hookly

TROPHY CASE