• Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.

Recent content by Pyotr

  1. Pyotr

    What do you think of this "western" Christian song?

    Dude, you are one heck of a Ray Boltz fan...haven't heard these songs in a while (though I did translate and sing Allegiance in Spanish once). I'd agree with choirfiend, though...the Apocalypse gives us a good picture of heavenly worship: the holy ones sing the same songs over and over (and...
  2. Pyotr

    Virgin Mary

    Well, like was said before, if Mary had said no and God had gone to "Suzan," then "Suzan" would have been the one whom we call more honorable that the cherubim etc. It's interesting to think, though, that God had been preparing a certain maiden to come from a certain geneaology for generations...
  3. Pyotr

    Bishop issues

    Ah, y'beat me to it! ;) I'd piggyback on what's been said here (which's been great) and say that, as Christ gave the Apostles the authority to bind and loose in the kingdom, thus giving them the authority as rulers of the Church (a la Heb. 13), so the bishop's vestments reflect that authority...
  4. Pyotr

    What makes a council ecumenical?

    FWIW...there's not really any one way we definitely can say, at the moment of said council, that it is absolutely ecumenical. For a council to be ecumenical, it has to reflect the teaching of the Church, which can only be determined upon its "ratification" by the bishops who signed it (and the...
  5. Pyotr

    If you could summarize Orthodoxy in 1 sentence what would it be?

    An encounter with God, both physically--through the sacraments of baptism (an encounter with His death and resurrection), oil (an encounter with the Holy Spirit), bread and wine (an encounter through the mingling of bodies and bloods)--and spiritually--through constant prayer and reading of...
  6. Pyotr

    Conversions to Orthodoxy

    It's posted on a sticky topic above, but here 'tis again... I grew up Southern Baptist, but I had had some exposure to the charismatic movement in high school, so ORU was a wonderful thing, I thought, in terms of all the charismatic stuff. I liked the upbeat, energetic thing that was...
  7. Pyotr

    Question on Assurance of Salvation

    Bounce this idea off the folks here, as it's pretty much the impression I've gotten after being Orthodox for 4+ yrs: Basically, I'll start w/St. Paul writing to the Corinthians (Ch. 3, starting in vs. 10): "According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have...
  8. Pyotr

    St. Maximus the Confessor

    Hey, hey, hey! Let's keep this on-topic, people! The REAL question is...did St. MAXIMUS prefer Paul or John...? ;)
  9. Pyotr

    What do you do when...

    good last couple of posts. I'll piggyback on that and say...when life does you like this, know that this is the cross that makes salvation possible. Without this, we can't be saved.
  10. Pyotr

    Who's your patron saint?

    St. Peter, chief of the Apostles. Was all set to be named after the Prophet David, as my first name is David and my birthday always falls around his commemoration (my bday's 12/27 and he's commemorated the first Sunday after Nativity), when my priest suggested (after I had a tearful confession...
  11. Pyotr

    The principle of economy

    Well, like I said, most would chrismate; a few (Serbia and Jerusalem, I think, as well as Mt. Athos) would baptize. Again, though, this is seen as doing the same thing; a Catholic who joins the Orthodox Church is saying that the Catholic Church is not the Church of Christ and therefore is...
  12. Pyotr

    Hit my first wall

    Ragamuffins, First of all, love the name. Second of all, as Marjorie said, try to look at the icon you mentioned as an icon of the Incarnation and not so much as an "icon of Mary." The Theotokos is, of course, the majority of what's in the icon, but the whole point is that she's revealing...
  13. Pyotr

    The principle of economy

    Hi, Rosa... Economy is usually discussed in terms of baptism/reception of converts. Basically, there are no sacraments outside of the Church (at least, not as far as we know; we're not qualified either to say that there are or there aren't). Consequently, we have to treat all coming into the...
  14. Pyotr

    Mary - The Mother of God?

    From another post of mine (which sort of repeats and sort of piggybacks on what others have said here): If Christ is not God, in and of Himself, we are not saved. By calling Mary the Mother of God, we in no way mean that she is the originator of God; only that the One whom she carried in her...
  15. Pyotr

    A problem with one of the titles of Jesus...

    Isn't it the Akathist to the Lord Jesus?
See more
Top Bottom