Some questions...

[Sword of the Lord]

I'm being called to Orthodoxy to the point of dreaming about the church and thinking about it all day long. I drive a forklift for a living and have had 2 incidents in 2 weeks because of my spacing out thinking about the church. I think perhaps it's time to entertain the idea and please God...

How is it that Mary and the Saints can hear all of our prayers? The ability to hear thousands of prayers at once is a... Godly ability, no?

Does the Orthodox church believe Jesus is sacrificed again at every mass as Rome does?

 

[tapi]

I'm in a bit of hurry so I cannot write in-depth right now :z

But I want to suggest, on the subject of the Eucharistic sacrifice, this lecture by Metropolitan Kallistos.

Met. KALLISTOS Ware - The Eucharistic Sacrafice - Who Offers What to Whom? - YouTube

 

[Tigger45]

Subscribing :{)

I'm being called to Orthodoxy to the point of dreaming about the church and thinking about it all day long. I drive a forklift for a living and have had 2 incidents in 2 weeks because of my spacing out thinking about the church. I think perhaps it's time to entertain the idea and please God...

How is it that Mary and the Saints can hear all of our prayers? The ability to hear thousands of prayers at once is a... Godly ability, no?

Does the Orthodox church believe Jesus is sacrificed again at every mass as Rome does?

 

[Knee V]

As to the mechanics of exactly how things work in heaven, we don't pretend to know. All the saints in heaven participate with us in our struggle, but beyond that we just don't know.

And no, we don't believe that Christ is re-sacrificed during the Liturgy. Rather, we transcend time and participate in the once-and-for-all timeless sacrifice on the cross. And I think that the Catholics believe the same thing.

 

[Sword of the Lord]

I've always been taught that Catholics believe Christ is re-sacrificed during mass. If this isn't the case, apologies to Catholics.

What's the Orthodox teaching on purgatory? I've read everything from they believe in it, they don't believe in it, and they just don't know. I've read some Orthodox say it would be better if the church did believe in it???

 

[Knee V]

Also, the only way that you'll ever know for sure is visit a parish, attend some Liturgies (I've heard some priests recommend that we attend at least 12 Liturgies before deciding either for or against it), and stay in contact with the priest. Keep in mind, though, that we just started Lent and the churches will be significantly busier. So if you try to get in contact with a priest and you have a hard time, don't take it personally. After May 5 (when we celebrate Pascha this year) things will begin to calm down and get back to normal.

 

[Knee V]

I've always been taught that Catholics believe Christ is re-sacrificed during mass. If this isn't the case, apologies to Catholics.

What's the Orthodox teaching on purgatory? I've read everything from they believe in it, they don't believe in it, and they just don't know. I've read some Orthodox say it would be better if the church did believe in it???

Purgatory was one of the major hot-button issues at the Council of Florence in the 15th century, which was the last attempt at reunion between East and West, about a century before the Protestant Reformation. The Eastern fathers of that council were adamant in their rejection of Purgatory and in their insistence that Purgatory would have to be dropped by the Latins as a term for reunion. That, of course, did not happen, and we still reject Purgatory while the Latin church still teaches it.

Google the Council of Florence and read what some of the Eastern fathers had to say about Purgatory.

There may be some Orthodox who like the idea of Purgatory, but the Church has always officially rejected it.

 

[Sword of the Lord]

I can't imagine "liking the idea of purgatory." I much prefer the idea that I'll be with Christ when my body fails me, and not in some place of purification.

 

[Protoevangel]

I'm being called to Orthodoxy to the point of dreaming about the church and thinking about it all day long. I drive a forklift for a living and have had 2 incidents in 2 weeks because of my spacing out thinking about the church. I think perhaps it's time to entertain the idea and please God...

Please do be careful.

How is it that Mary and the Saints can hear all of our prayers? The ability to hear thousands of prayers at once is a... Godly ability, no?

Godly? Not necessarily. They are in Heaven with God. Heaven is not part of our created world of space-time. They have all of Eternity to hear our prayers, and no time limitation to respond.

Look at it this way: Let's imagine a line drawn on paper that represents one person's entire lifetime from the conception to death. Let's say you want to make a mark on that line somewhere near the beginning. Do you have to have any special "Godly" power to do that? Do you have to hop in a time machine to go back to the point at which the line was first drawn? No, you are outside of that line, so you are free to touch it at any point.

I'm not sure that's a good example, but it may help you to wrap your head around the concept just a bit.

Does the Orthodox church believe Jesus is sacrificed again at every mass as Rome does?

I've always been taught that Catholics believe Christ is re-sacrificed during mass. If this isn't the case, apologies to Catholics.

There was one Sacrifice. We enter into that one Sacrifice Sacramentally. We do not re-Sacrifice.

EDIT-->
BTW, what you have been taught about the Catholic understanding is not correct. They do not believe is is a new Sacrifice either. They also believe that it is a making present (re-present) Christ's one Sacrifice.
<-- END EDIT

What's the Orthodox teaching on purgatory? I've read everything from they believe in it, they don't believe in it, and they just don't know. I've read some Orthodox say it would be better if the church did believe in it???

We reject Purgatory as a Latin novelty.

 

[Knee V]

There is much about the state of the soul after death that is still a mystery to us. Although we reject Purgatory, we don't know all the things that take place nor exactly how they happen. We know a few general things: when we die we are escorted by an angel; we will receive a foretaste of our judgement and eternal state; some day we will be resurrected; we will be judged.

 

[jckstraw72]

St. John of Kronstadt on how the Saints hear our prayers:

How is it that the saints see us and our needs and hear our prayers? Let us make the following comparison: Suppose that you were transplanted to the sun and were united to it. The sun lights the whole earth with its rays, it lights every particle of the earth. In these rays you also see the earth, but you are so small in proportion to the sun, that you would form, so to say, but one ray, and there are an infinite number of such rays. By its identity with the sun this ray takes an intimate part in lighting the whole world through the sun. So also the saintly soul, having become united to God, as to its spiritual sun, sees, through the medium of its spiritual sun, which lights the whole universe, all men and the needs of those that pray.

 

[Dorothea]

St. John of Kronstadt on how the Saints hear our prayers:

How is it that the saints see us and our needs and hear our prayers? Let us make the following comparison: Suppose that you were transplanted to the sun and were united to it. The sun lights the whole earth with its rays, it lights every particle of the earth. In these rays you also see the earth, but you are so small in proportion to the sun, that you would form, so to say, but one ray, and there are an infinite number of such rays. By its identity with the sun this ray takes an intimate part in lighting the whole world through the sun. So also the saintly soul, having become united to God, as to its spiritual sun, sees, through the medium of its spiritual sun, which lights the whole universe, all men and the needs of those that pray.

I remember reading that a couple years ago. LOVE IT. I'm gonna save it. Thanks for posting it.

 

[Sword of the Lord]

Do you all believe Mary was born without original sin and is queen of heaven?

 

[Kristos]

St. John of Kronstadt on how the Saints hear our prayers:

How is it that the saints see us and our needs and hear our prayers? Let us make the following comparison: Suppose that you were transplanted to the sun and were united to it. The sun lights the whole earth with its rays, it lights every particle of the earth. In these rays you also see the earth, but you are so small in proportion to the sun, that you would form, so to say, but one ray, and there are an infinite number of such rays. By its identity with the sun this ray takes an intimate part in lighting the whole world through the sun. So also the saintly soul, having become united to God, as to its spiritual sun, sees, through the medium of its spiritual sun, which lights the whole universe, all men and the needs of those that pray.

That doesn't make any sense to me...the analogy seems reversed from the question.

 

[Lukaris]

Do you all believe Mary was born without original sin and is queen of heaven?

We do not believe in the immaculate conception. A catechesim I have states, "As the mother of our Lord & God & Savior Jesus Christ she excels i grace & nearness to God every created being, and is worthy of all honor & reverence short of that reserved for God alone." We call her the "Theotokos" or she who bore God & the title: Mother of God is acceptable, the catechism I have states, "She is truly Theotokos because the sane Divine Person who is the Son of God from all eternity is also born of her flesh after His manhood." (A Catechism of the Christian Doctrine, Syrian Antiocian Archdiocese c. 1949 unde (late)r Metr, Antony Bashir).

Also our idea of sin is of an ancestral one fro Adam. The individual is not born with inherited guilt but of the inherent propensity to sin which we all do (see Romans 5:12-21). Adam committed the original sin but we are not individually guilty of original sin. "Jesus Christ came on earth to aave men from sin, in which they were born & live; and from death, to which they have been condemned ever since the fall of Adam." (from an 1845 English translation of the Shorter Catechism of Metr. Philaret of Moscow).

 

[jckstraw72]

That doesn't make any sense to me...the analogy seems reversed from the question.

not sure what you mean ....

 

[jckstraw72]

but we are cool with the title "Queen of Heaven" because she is the mother of the King, and she is the holiest created being, most closely united to the will of God.

 

[Knee V]

Mary is the prototype of the Church. Whatever we may affirm about her is true because it is true for the whole Church. For example, Mary is the "Theotokos", or "God-bearer", because she bore God in her womb. In the same way the Church bears Christ within her, and individually we are called to bear Christ in our lives. She epitomizes what the whole Church is called to be. Even in calling her "Queen of Heaven", while it is true that she is the mother of the King, we all reign with Christ, and the whole Church will become what Mary epitomizes in that regard as well.

 

[Knee V]

Do you all believe Mary was born without original sin...?

Yes, but so was everyone else.

 

[ArmyMatt]

How is it that Mary and the Saints can hear all of our prayers? The ability to hear thousands of prayers at once is a... Godly ability, no?

with God nothing is impossible, if He wants Mary to hear a petition, she will.

Does the Orthodox church believe Jesus is sacrificed again at every mass as Rome does?

kinda, I think the best way to look at it is that we plug into the eternal sacrifice of Christ on the Cross