Please pray for me. I have been going through many trials recently and this has manifested in doubts about the faith. I'm someone who probably has old and have intrusive thoughts about theological matters such as evolution fitting into church teaching, or why the world isn't a simulation, and get hung up on them not being able to reason myself out of these issues. Please just pray for my mental health and peace of mind.

Background. I grew up Catholic- baptized and confirmed. Spent my adulthood is various protestant denominations. I discovered EO a few years ago and fell in love, and was chrismated. I moved a few months ago. I visited the local EO church and got nothing but side eyes and told I didn't dress like everyone else - cuz I had on pants, no veil and makeup. I've been sick the last 7 weeks. I couldn't make liturgy but managed to make a local Catholic service. During this illness the Catholic church has brought me much comfort. Now I'm considering Eastern Catholic. Here's my problem. My hubby & I weren't married in the Catholic church, so I could never take communion. Seems like I'm stuck EO or become protestant if I ever want communion again. My hubby wasn't happy about the 'convalidation' thing. Any advice?

I am looking for sources that discuss the creation of sacred images and the process by which one should prepare themselves in order to perform that duty and why that preparation is important. I am wanting to try and make a case against AI generated images being used in a parish even outside the church proper.

Particularly pre schism sources if possible.

Please keep me in your prayers. I feel spiritually lost between the east and west lungs of the church. One day I will feel that I'm spiritually eastern and want to canonically transfer. The next I'll be doing a deep dive into western devotions and saints, and be falling in love with the western liturgical traditions. Has anyone else felt like this before?

I have a few questions about the Russian Greek Catholic Church. What are the differences in liturgy between the RGCC and the ROC? Due they use mostly orthodox prayer books? What are relations like between Russian greek Catholics in Russia and Roman Catholics in Russia? And lastly do any of they're churches use the old Russian rite?

“Accept me today as a partaker of your mystical supper, O Son of God,
For I will not reveal your mystery to your enemies,
Nor will I give you a kiss as did Judas,
But like the thief I profess to you:”

In the part before communion (idk if there is a name for this) we say “I will not reveal your mystery to your enemies”

What secret are we not revealing?

​

Hello everyone I come from an Islamic background (druze to be exact)in the middle east and I'm seriously discovering the rich christian heritage of this region and I feel called to it after I studied the gospels and had a religious experience involving Christ

Idk where to start or how I should go about this, I know everyone I know would leave and hate me if I go through with it including my family and I feel honestly split between following Christ and losing everything in my life or just staying where I am

Any advice ? Perhaps from converts from similar backgrounds ? And I'm mostly interested in the Melkite church if someone from that tradition can assist it would be great

The most basic understanding that I have of the universe from a Roman Catholic perspective… is that God is above, transcends over all time, space, and creation, He’s everywhere. How does Eastern Orthodox/Eastern rite theology express this… would it be in the Essence/Energies explanation or..?

I’d like have a better grip, understanding on what that’s all about. I’m under the impression that God is high above, but never distant from everything.

Hello everyone and God bless!

I'm a Latin Rite Catholic doing some research about saints venerated in the Eastern Catholic Churches that aren't venerated in the Latin Church. There are very few (or none) resources online about many of the 23 Eastern Churches, so I thought I'd ask here: if any faithful of the Coptic, Ethiopian, Eritrean, Albanian, Belarussian, Croatian-Serbian, Greek, Hungarian, Italo-Albanian, Macedonian, Romanian, Russian, Slovak and Syriac Catholic Churches at least somewhat knowledgable about their church's liturgy and calendar see this post, I ask them to DM me or comment below. I'm particularily interested in the liturgical calendars of these churches with all the known and obscure saints inscribed in them.

I have been trying to learn how to make the chotki and I see two methods, one that uses two strings and a another that uses 4. Is there any pro and cons to each one ,or is it purely preference and not much of a difference?

Hi there, I'm just wondering what the best textbook for Syriac (Western) is. I've seen a couple of options, but I'm wondering if anyone who has learned Syriac has recommendations? I'd prefer a textbook that is fairly vocab heavy rather than pure grammar rules.

The textbooks I've seen online

New Syriac Primer - George Kiraz

Introduction to Syriac - Wheeler M. Thackston

Robinson's Paradigms and Exercises in Syriac Grammar

Basics of Classical Syriac - Steven C. Hallam

Thanks

Edit - thanks everyone Ill probably use the Robinson's textbook