My Friends,
To those who love Jesus the Christ, to those who claim to love Jesus the Christ but whose life does not reflect this and to anyone else who wants to hear;
The world and the church are in a serious mess. There are Apostolic churches who claim the creed, there are breakaway from the mainstream Apostolic churches who still claim Apostolic succession while attacking the mainstream churches they broke away from and also attack other breakaway groups as non-canonical.
This is a great word; Canonical, it is used to discredit those that someone else deems as unworthy of being called true Christian. It is used by many to attack others while they themselves claim some sort of succession yet are also called non-canonical by those who they have attacked. We have Eastern Orthodox with Eastern Rite liturgy and we have western Orthodox with Western Rite liturgy and each having issue with not only the opposite but also with others claiming the same rite as being non-canonical. Again this great word in use. Along with this Orthodoxy we have the Roman church which claims Orthodoxy and yet Rome and the Orthodox church do not get along.
We have those reformed groups or Protestants who some claim Apostolic succession while others scoff at the idea and ridicule the very thought of it. These groups are also divided among many doctrines and not only attack one another but also attack those of any type or sort of Catholicism or liturgical worship. The teachings and doctrines, the theological surmising, the rites and the style of worship differ so much that it is in fact putrid. The correct rite, the canonical status, the once saved always saved, we are working out our salvation day by day, written prayer non-written prayer, we have the Messianic Jew with it's legalism, I'm the only true church no we're the only true church, again this is putrid.
Do we actually believe that we can change the world? The world sees the church just as I have it written above. To add to that it includes the commercialized institution that is called church that demands money to stay in business while it preaches what it does not practice. The church in general is full of corruption; homosexuality, pedophilia, so called men of the cloth who claim celibacy and yet have women on the side, married men of the cloth who have women on the side, or they have young girls or young boys while declaring the world to be corrupt. This is what the world sees.
Yet, we all claim to be followers of the Christ awaiting His return.
Pray my friends and pray hard. The stench of corruption must be removed from the church, all of the corruption from all of the church, we fool only ourselves, I cannot believe that we are nothing more than stench in the nostrils of Almighty God.
Think what you want about me and what I have written, but you had better open your ears and eyes and pray like your life depended on it because it does.
May Almighty God have mercy on us all!
In Christ,
Monk Michael
To those who love Jesus the Christ, to those who claim to love Jesus the Christ but whose life does not reflect this and to anyone else who wants to hear;
The world and the church are in a serious mess. There are Apostolic churches who claim the creed, there are breakaway from the mainstream Apostolic churches who still claim Apostolic succession while attacking the mainstream churches they broke away from and also attack other breakaway groups as non-canonical.
This is a great word; Canonical, it is used to discredit those that someone else deems as unworthy of being called true Christian. It is used by many to attack others while they themselves claim some sort of succession yet are also called non-canonical by those who they have attacked. We have Eastern Orthodox with Eastern Rite liturgy and we have western Orthodox with Western Rite liturgy and each having issue with not only the opposite but also with others claiming the same rite as being non-canonical. Again this great word in use. Along with this Orthodoxy we have the Roman church which claims Orthodoxy and yet Rome and the Orthodox church do not get along.
We have those reformed groups or Protestants who some claim Apostolic succession while others scoff at the idea and ridicule the very thought of it. These groups are also divided among many doctrines and not only attack one another but also attack those of any type or sort of Catholicism or liturgical worship. The teachings and doctrines, the theological surmising, the rites and the style of worship differ so much that it is in fact putrid. The correct rite, the canonical status, the once saved always saved, we are working out our salvation day by day, written prayer non-written prayer, we have the Messianic Jew with it's legalism, I'm the only true church no we're the only true church, again this is putrid.
Do we actually believe that we can change the world? The world sees the church just as I have it written above. To add to that it includes the commercialized institution that is called church that demands money to stay in business while it preaches what it does not practice. The church in general is full of corruption; homosexuality, pedophilia, so called men of the cloth who claim celibacy and yet have women on the side, married men of the cloth who have women on the side, or they have young girls or young boys while declaring the world to be corrupt. This is what the world sees.
Yet, we all claim to be followers of the Christ awaiting His return.
Pray my friends and pray hard. The stench of corruption must be removed from the church, all of the corruption from all of the church, we fool only ourselves, I cannot believe that we are nothing more than stench in the nostrils of Almighty God.
Think what you want about me and what I have written, but you had better open your ears and eyes and pray like your life depended on it because it does.
May Almighty God have mercy on us all!
In Christ,
Monk Michael
