u/Lonely_Sun5275

1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. 5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. 6 But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 "or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Romans 10:1-10

Especially those last two verses really seems to affirm a kind of faith alone view to me. What's the Orthodox reading of this passage?

Please recommend good books on how to pray, especially ones by Saints. Thank you.

It's like "prayer pre-workout" as Fr. Moses McPherson says. We're physical as well as spiritual creatures, and coffee helps get the physical side of the mind more attuned to focus, and thus to prayer. Just a tip. Glory to God for coffee ☕

I find it very soothing and helpful to pray. But is it ok to do?

Other than attending services, what is one spiritual discipline that you (at least try) to do every day, that you would credit as the most important spiritual thing you do?

Example: I think St. Paisios once said he considered reading the Psalter for an hour a day, and the Jesus prayer at night, as the most important thing he would do.

If literally calling men Father doesn't count, what does?

Setting aside the services. When it comes to private prayer practice, and assuming it's all done with the same level of intensity/focus and intent, is one unit of time spent doing one form of prayer - say, praying the Psalms - just as beneficial as that same time being spent doing spiritual reading, or the Jesus prayer, or an Akathist? Is all prayer, prayer? Or are there some forms of prayer that are, for lack of a better way to put it, "pound for pound" better than others?

Psalm 1 describes the blessedness of the man who meditates day and night on the Law (or instruction/teaching) of the Lord. What is this Law for Christians? Presumably it's the teachings of Christ.

But is there still benefit in meditating on the Law of Moses, given that that's what the Israelites had and knew as the "Law of the Lord," and presumably even including the author of Psalm 1 (though we don't know who he is)? After all, Christ says that not an iota or a dot will pass from the Law until all is fulfilled. And we as Christians still preserve those books of the law in our canon. They must be profitable for something, even if maybe not as directly deifiying as the words of Christ themselves.

I've been told that the Law still reveals the nature of what's good and what's sin, even if it's impossible for any of us to keep perfectly. Pretty sure that's also much of what St. Paul argues in his Epistles.

If a Christian only had the Old Testament to work with, and cooperated with God's grace in good faith, meditating on it and practicing it as best they could and in good conscience, could they theoretically achieve a level of perfection?

Hi all, does anyone know where I could find and purchase an audio version of the Abbey Psalms, available for download in MP3 format? Thanks.

Looking to hear from the experiences of former Eastern Orthodox who joined communion with Rome. What made you decide to make the switch? Asking as an Orthodox catechumen who's been wrestling with possibly going Catholic myself.

Why would God have it so that as late as almost 2000 years after His Ascension, entire parts of the world (such as India or Latin America) comprising billions and billions of people have still barely even heard about the Eastern Orthodox Church?

"And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head. And they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel." Hosea 1:11

I have heard the Catholic Church be likened to Judah and the Orthodox Church to Israel, typologically. Following that, could this be about reunification? And if so, does it mean the Orthodox will recognize something like a Pope, or earthly head of the Church?

Specifically his book, "Russia and the Universal Church"

This is an idea I heard from Joe Heschymeyer, online Catholic apologist. He said (paraphrasing) that we cant expect the true Church to have to be found by means of "self-shepherding," meaning a self-directed search through all the dogmas and controversies surrounding the schisms, only to come to one's own conclusions anyway as to which Church makes the most sense. Like, how is an illiterate peasant supposed to figure out if the Filioque is true, or how many natures Christ has? And even if they could, how do they know they're coming to the right conclusion, and not just relying on their own understanding? So, for this reason Joe says to trust the Papacy and the teaching magisterium of the Catholic Church, since that alleviates the burden of having to figure it all out by oneself. The Papacy would be a clear, visible sign of unity which both an illiterate peasant and the most educated person can recognize and submit to, and not have to rely on themselves to sort out all the complicated dogmatic differences between all the churches.

Thoughts? How would you answer this?

What's the Orthodox way of deciding what makes a council ecumenical?

We're supposed to pray without ceasing, but there's also human limitation and burnout, and also prideful undertaking. How does one find a balance?