Rediscover The Ancient Faith.
A Living Tradition of Healing and Unity.
Words From Father Germaine:
The Holy Orthodox Church was united across all the Holy Roman Empire. From Byzantium in the east all the way to Rome in the west and even in the British Isles and what is now modern-day France. The Church existed in a way that was united in doctrine and theology for over a thousand years after the day of Pentecost in AD 33.
The Liturgy, or “work of the people” varied from east to west due to the cultural and societal makeup of the regions in which the Church existed. In the West, the Liturgy, like the Latin language, tended to be terse and Patristic. Yet slight differences were reflected in the Liturgies of Rome, Milan, Toledo, and Lyons. The differences came to be known as rites: Ambrosian, Roman, Mozarabic, and Gallican and were named after Saints Ambrose, Gregory, and Germanus. Further, within the Roman Rite there developed Uses of which Sarum is perhaps best known.
Each of these Liturgies contained the essential elements that were required to be canonically correct and united in theology, but differed in appearance, hymnody, and language. Much was borrowed between them in the early years, less in the latter.
The Western-Rite is a concerted effort by the Orthodox Church to pastorally respond to the numerous requests of Western Christians to re-establish the Western Orthodox Church as it existed prior to the Great Schism. This is not reminiscing of a by-gone era, but a living truth found in Christ’s saints who hail from western lands. The Saints are not dead, and neither are the liturgies, devotions and practices that brought them to the light of Christ.
St. Genevieve Orthodox Church engages in this noble spiritual work, with gratitude!
The Church as a Spiritual Hospital
The Orthodox Church is often likened to a hospital for the soul. In this sacred space, the faithful receive the spiritual medicine needed for their healing through the sacraments, prayers, and the ascetic practices of the Church. The Church Fathers understood that spiritual maladies require spiritual remedies of the soul. It isn’t a matter of paying a debt, but rather of healing and a return to a blessed state.
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