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2018 AWRV Conference Keynote

Si fueris Romae, Romano vivito more; si fueris alibi, vivito sicut ibi.

“If you are at Rome, live in the Roman manner; if elsewhere, live as they do there.”

When St. Augustine arrived in Milan, c. 387 A.D., he observed that the Church did not fast on Saturday as did the Church at Rome. He consulted St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, who replied:

“When I am at Rome, I fast on a Saturday; when I am at Milan, I do not. Follow the custom of the Church where you are.” 

I would like to argue that we live in the West, in “Rome” as it were, and should follow the customs of the ancient Christian West, of Rome.

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The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus: Taken From Paraliturdical Devotions of the Western Church and Their Role in Orthodoxy 1992

The devotion to the Sacred Heart also is rooted in intuitions of the early Church and even in the Old Testament. Fundamentally, it is a recollection of the sacrificial love of Christ as witnessed in His Incarnation, passion, and death. It includes also, the fullness of Divine love for mankind which is evidenced throughout the history of our race and is fulfilled in Christ’s act for the salvation of man.

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A Condensed History of the Orthodox Western Rite

Any history of the Western Rite movement of the Orthodox Church should properly begin with Saints Cyril and Methodius, who operated during the ninth century in Moravia and Dalmatia. With the blessing of Pope Adrian II, later confirmed by Pope John VIII, these saintly brothers offered the Roman Mass in the vernacular to the people they were evangelizing. When offering the Roman Liturgy, they employed what is sometimes called “The Liturgy of St Gregory,” whose liturgical forms were set by the 6th century and codified by Pope St Gregory the Great (known as Dialogus). Continue reading “A Condensed History of the Orthodox Western Rite”

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Indulgences

I cannot attempt here to investigate the entire Roman Catholic doctrine of Indulgences. I only wish to comment briefly on the doctrine as it affects the practice of devotions. It does, indeed have an effect because the trend since the 17th or 18th centuries has been to grant indulgences mostly for performing devotions. Therefore, the practice of devotions has become linked in the popular mind with the gaining of indulgences.

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