JimmyJoeofMukačevo

Latinizers to the left of me, Zoghbyites to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with Bl. Theodore Romzha.

[JimmyJoeofMukačevo @JimmyJoeByz]

"Let us call brethren, even those who hate us."

[JimmyJoeofMukačevo @JimmyJoeByz]

@chrysostomite Am I at least top 100? 🥺

[JimmyJoeofMukačevo @JimmyJoeByz]

@chrysostomite Your in the eparchy of Parma now... it is a different world.

[JimmyJoeofMukačevo @JimmyJoeByz]

@chrysostomite How do you say "jealous" in Rusyn?

[JimmyJoeofMukačevo @JimmyJoeByz]

@chrysostomite Vičnaja pamjat'

[JimmyJoeofMukačevo @JimmyJoeByz]

Not a comment on the war in Ukraine...

...but not killing a man who is surrendering and begging for his life is actually bare minimum humanity.

[Combat Archive @Combat_Archive_]

A Ukrainian FPV operator spares the life of an unarmed Russian enemy who was abandoned to his fate by his comrades, instead dropping him water and a note on how to surrender.

This is peak humanity.

[JimmyJoeofMukačevo @JimmyJoeByz]

Axios... Mnohaja i Blahaja l'ita!

[Jesuits West @jesuitswest]

Congratulations to Fr. Dennis Marzan, SJ, who was ordained to the priesthood on June 14 at St. Philip the Apostle Byzantine Catholic Church by Most Reverend Bishop Artur Bubnevych of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Phoenix.

[Fr. Herman ❤️‍🔥 @hmkherman]

These two events have struck within me a similar chord of deep sorrow. They are different events in many important ways, not least that last night’s destruction was wrought by the military aggression of a country which some today regard as a vanguard restoring authentic Christianity to an apostate world.

But they also share much significance. Both are centuries-old shrines of apostolic Christianity. Both are icons of the Church and Christian culture in a particular country. Both are loci of the lives and deaths of multitudes of saints: the podvigs of the Pechersky fathers … the martyrdoms of those slain in Paris by the revolutionaries – who themselves were fired up by indignation against a Christian civilization much of which had lost its savor.

Further, both show us that “the things of this world are passing away” (cf. 1 Cor. 7:31, 1 Jn. 2:17). And, as painful as it may be for many Catholics and Orthodox to admit, that does include the outward, institutional, cultural, and liturgical structures of the Church. There may be renewal … or there may not. The ruins of monasteries and churches in Turkey, Ireland, Mt. Athos, northern Africa, and now many of our cities in the West all testify to this. Here we have no abiding city (Heb. 13:14). Here, perforce, we have no abiding church – at least, if by “church” we mean anything additional to the Mystical Body of Christ, however hallowed.

And just what hallowing has flowed forth from the Kyiv Caves! As my friend Brendan Murphy put it, the Lavra is “the womb of Slavic monastic life. The diaphragm of its music. The place where the great ascetics repose.”

Did they ever find out what or who caused the Notre Dame fire? I don’t recall. But we know the cause of the Kyiv Caves fire. We know that Ukraine – including Christian Ukraine, certainly Greek Catholic Ukraine, but even Orthodox Ukraine – has become the abused scapegoat of a nation whose entire history and culture were born and flourished there.

And this is a call for us all to repent. We can learn the lesson Dostoevsky tried to teach through his Elder Zosima that “I, in my own person, can repent for the sins of the whole world.” I can recognize that I myself have had pet scapegoats throughout my life, individuals or groups whom I have scorned and in contrast with whom I have defined my own identity. We’ve been doing this since Cain killed Abel. It’s been happening since Adam blamed Eve and Eve the serpent.

It only stopped happening when Christ went willingly to his slaughter, a mute lamb, not opening his mouth.

So, in time – though today is likely too soon – those who are mourning this destruction and who are justly angered by it will have to take a look at a another bombed church: the old Coventry Cathedral. I went there when I was sixteen, and for the first time I deeply confronted the horror of war. I wept. And I came to the place of the church’s high altar, and saw the golden letters latterly engraved on the wall behind: “FATHER FORGIVE”.

One of just seven sentences spoken from the Cross by our mute Lamb of God.

But all things have their season, and many are not yet ready to forgive. Because to truly forgive requires first that one has fully grieved what has been lost. And so much has been lost. And so much more may still be lost. And it is hard to grieve while one’s nation, one’s family, one’s children, are still at war. So, yes, Coventry is probably for another day. But at least today we can pray. We can pray perhaps along the lines of something I posted a few months ago with reference to our own country’s corruptions and abominations – but with an additional line for today.

* * *
For several years, I have often practiced this short rule of prayer, inspired by St. Sophrony of Essex (and reminiscent of St. Faustina’s Chaplet of Divine Mercy).

I commend it to others during these times that coincide with the Apostles’ Fast.
Make twelve prostrations, saying with each:

Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on your whole Church and on your whole world. (five times)

My most holy Lady Theotokos, save, help, and protect your whole Church and your whole world. (twice)

Holy Forerunner of Christ, John the Baptist, pray to God for the whole Church and the whole world. (once)

Holy and righteous Joseph the Betrothed, pray to God for the whole Church and the whole world. (once)

Holy apostles Peter and Paul, and all ye holy apostles and martyrs, confessors, ascetics, and righteous, pray to God for the whole Church and the whole world. (once)

All saints of the Kyiv-Caves Lavra together with all the saints of Rus'-Ukraine, pray to God for the whole Church and the whole world. (once)

Holy archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, and all ye holy angels, overshadow the whole Church and the whole world with the wings of your protection. (once)

[JimmyJoeofMukačevo @JimmyJoeByz]

Today I ate french fries with a successor to the apostles...

[JimmyJoeofMukačevo @JimmyJoeByz]

I was formed as a Christian entirely within the Ruthenian church. There is not a Latin bone in my body. I love our Lady's rosary so much that even thinking about praying it warms my heart. When we pray it at my parish we use forms of the prayers native to our tradition, and we sing the old Carpathian spiritual songs afterward. Novenas and Consecrations and all the other Latin devotions feel very foreign to me, but the Rosary feels as Eastern as anything at this point.

[JimmyJoeofMukačevo @JimmyJoeByz]

@WASPapist It's not the epiclesis which may be incompatible with the Roman rite but placing the epiclesis after the institution.

[JimmyJoeofMukačevo @JimmyJoeByz]

@WASPapist It would also require having the epiclesis after the institution narrative which may be incompatible with the Latin rite.

[JimmyJoeofMukačevo @JimmyJoeByz]

@WASPapist It be one thing to use St. Basil's anaphora on his feast day in the Roman rite like St. James' anaphora is occasionally used in the Greek rite, but to to write something new based on something ancient when the ancient thing isn't even part of your tradition is weird.

[JimmyJoeofMukačevo @JimmyJoeByz]

@WASPapist These ordinariate guys are onto something...

[JimmyJoeofMukačevo @JimmyJoeByz]

@WASPapist @hmkherman

[Jesuits West @jesuitswest]

Dennis Allan Vivar Marzan, SJ, of Jesuits West, will be ordained to the priesthood on June 14 at St. Philip the Apostle Byzantine Catholic Church in Sacramento. Meet Dennis and our five other ordinands: https://t.co/L84pa3royJ

[JimmyJoeofMukačevo @JimmyJoeByz]

@chrysostomite @geeg_mp4 What's his take in summary?

[JimmyJoeofMukačevo @JimmyJoeByz]

@michaeljknowles 😠

[JimmyJoeofMukačevo @JimmyJoeByz]

@ByzantineYurii "As you can see, we listed the holy mysteries and there are seven things on the list..."

"OK..."

"So... There are seven of them..."

"Stop being so legalistic!"

[JimmyJoeofMukačevo @JimmyJoeByz]

@ByzantineYurii That's how we roll in the hills