Comments on: Catholic-Orthodox pilgrimage visits Istanbul, St Petersburg

By: Elizaveta Tchijov

Elizaveta Tchijov — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 11:02:54 +0000

Dear Monseigneur Sean,

Thank you very so much for a wonderful description of your journey to Istambul and St.Pete. I learned about your blog from Peter Anderson, who together with my father, late Rev.Archdeacon Andrei Tchijov in 1988 established under the blessing of Metropolitan Alexis, now the Holy Patriarch, Seattle-Leningrad Church Sister Program.
My Dad had also worked for many years in close association with Mitropolitan Vladimir. Is fantastic when leaders of different Christian Confessions can meet and share their ideas and projects to the future.
May God bless you
Kind regards,
Elizaveta Tchijov

By: Joe Gallagher

Joe Gallagher — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 03:59:02 +0000

Cardinal Sean,

I took a video of your excellent talk at the “Theology on Tap” in Quincy, MA, and posted it to Google Video at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2718382783437944078.

I got a lot out of the talk, and thought this could be a useful way to share the talks with those who weren’t there. Thank you for taking the time to make such a great presentation to the young adults of Boston!

By: John Chrysostom

John Chrysostom — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 01:45:10 +0000

Dear Rev. Cardinal,

Peace.

I am a Chinese seminary, and I like to know more about the liturgy of the Eastern Church, so I like your personal website very much.

I hope you may give me some suggestions and let me know how to study the Eastern Liturgy, thank you very much.

Br. JC

By: Thom

Thom — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 02:54:51 +0000

The spectacular photographs of Orthodox churches are wonderful but they stand in sharp contrast to the shocking, almost Protestant-simplicity of the RC church, Saint Catherine’s. St. Catherine’s looks like a Methodist church. Not a statue or an icon on the walls, much too Protestant. It makes one want to become Orthodox!!!!

By: serge maraite

serge maraite — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 06:40:53 +0000

wonderful !
many thanks.
May be you know the benedictin monastery of Chevetogne in Belgium, whose mission in to pray and to work for unity of Christians. Look here http://www.monasterechevetogne.com

serge, orthodox of Liège (Belgium,Europe)

By: Albocicade

Albocicade — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 21:52:16 +0000

Your Emminence,
I have heard of your blog, in France, because a roman catholic wrote about it on the blog of a french orthodox “little monk” whose monastery is in Germany. Not so simple, is it ?
Thank you very much to make us travel with you.
Sincerely, in Christ
Albocicade

By: Matt Matta

Matt Matta — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 12:45:58 +0000

Your Eminence, what an awsome trip! The photos of your trip are spectaclular, especially those of the churches. I hope that one day I can visit Europe and see the chuches that you have shown us for myself. Thank you, people like you are helping to unite the Eastern and Western churches. That is a goal worth striving for. Thank you for your pictures and the work that you are striving for.

By: Barbara Neem

Barbara Neem — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 15:31:02 +0000

Your Eminence,
What a wonderful journey both spiritual and literally speaking you have shown to all, through these photos.
I continue to praise the Lord for all the work that you do.
quite frankly, there is alot of good work being done that the country hasn’t the slightest idea about.
We were living in the Middle East when i discovered your blog. it’s the only one for us. What a life line!
I send you greetings from Bishop Paul Hinder, in the Vicariate of Arabia. He told us that you sent him greetings when he was installed as Bishop in Abu Dhabi.
and i send you greetings from several other of your Fransiscan brothers, who remembered you kindly and admirably when we mentioned to them at Fr. Eugene’s Golden Jubilee celebration that we were returning home to Boston. Fr. Eugene is/was our parish priest in St. Francis of Assisi Church, in Jebel Ali-Dubai.
We had the opportunity to meet Fr. Stephano the Provincial as well as 3 other lovely priests from Toscany.
But really, the one thing i remember from our years living in Cairo about the orthodox rite and our brothers and sisters of the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic churches is the reverance for the Mass and the whole celebration. the reverance in one’s demeanor and gestures, in the singing and the worship. The reverance and awe of being in God’s presence. What a reality. What beauty.
time does not exist during these celebrations as we were caught up in the beauty of God’s love.
With all our heartfelt good wishes and Happy Feast Day, yesterday being the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi.
We continue to pray for the rejuvenation and rekindling of the church here in Boston as we go through this purification. God bless,
Barbara and Mark

By: Kelly Clark

Kelly Clark — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 01:55:24 +0000

Happy Birthday, Lucky!

Now for the big question (other than “why is the lady in one of these terrific pictures wearing sandals while our Cardinal Friar Sean is wearing shoes, sheesh” )

When will the East and West — all of us — share the same buggy, so to speak?

By: John Riley,M.A.,M.Div.

John Riley,M.A.,M.Div. — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 08:16:10 +0000

Cardinal O’Malley,
I have enjoyed your trip. I woke up early
this morning (my 75th birthday-Oct.3,07-by the way) and
was working on my computer and decided to check your
log. You and Metropolitan Methodius and the others on the
trip are definitely helping unity along. St.Peter and St.Andrew
were brothers and you and Metropolitan Methodius are also
in a spiritual sense. God bless you both.

John Riley,M.A.,M.Div.

By: Mike A.

Mike A. — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 02:41:11 +0000

Cardinal Sean;

You have a photo in your blog with the caption “the pillar of the scourging”. I didn’t see any context for this photo. I’m assuming it was the pillar of Christ’s scourging, but what was the history behind that church coming to posses it?

Your blog is one of the best on the internet by the way. You should have it nominated for Catholic Blog Awards!!

God Bless.

By: Marcus Sgro

Marcus Sgro — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 01:33:52 +0000

Your Eminence-

Thank you very much for sharing your photos and writing about your trip! I wish I could have gone.

Marcus Sgro

By: Susan Peterson

Susan Peterson — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 21:48:50 +0000

Wonderful acount, beautiful pictures.

I have a son who became Orthodox, went to Orthodox Divine Liturgy with him, was so moved I have joined a Ruthenian rite Catholic parish. (I couldn’t not be Catholic.)
Can we Catholics, western as well as eastern, try to have churches whose beauty and style would make the Orthodox recognize them as holy places? Can we try to have a liturgy the Orthodox would recognize as reverent and transcendent? It would make me happy to think that a bishop had that as his goal as the “chief liturgist” of his diocese.
Susan Peterson

By: Paul Snatchko

Paul Snatchko — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 17:03:16 +0000

The photos and stories from this pilgrimage are outstanding. What a Spirit-filled journey!

By: Fr. Gilbert Medina

Fr. Gilbert Medina — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 18:02:51 +0000

Your Eminence,

I was impressed with the photos from your latest visit to Turkey and Russia! I spent 4 years in Ukraine and 1 year in Moscow. While there, I had the opportunity to travel extensively and have a deep appreciation for your experience in both Turkey and Russia.

I plan to visit the Republic of Georgia next summer and have hopes of visiting Istanbul, Turkey as well. I am very intersted in the ongoing dialogue between East and West. My prayers are for unity and brotherhood between the two!

God Bless you and thank you for the beautiful pictures. They brought back great memories!

Fr. Gilbert Medina
St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church
Altamonte Springs, Florida

By: Rev. Richard C. Lobert

Rev. Richard C. Lobert — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 15:44:07 +0000

Your Eminence:

Thanks for doing a blog. Thanks for sharing your trip with us. I made the trip to “Constantinople” and the Patriarchate about four years ago—just because I wanted to experience it. I was alone. It saddened me so very much to see how small it was and how few people (comparatively) there were in St. George’s. I thought: “How the greatness of Orthodoxy in this place has fallen/diminished!”

As I was reading your blog and thinking about it, I wondered if the same thing could happen to Rome! Could it, one day, become just a shadow of its former self? I hope not.

Let’s work together for the upbuilding of the Church in this day.

Fraternally,
(Fr.) Richard Lobert

By: William A. Thomas

William A. Thomas — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 09:35:05 +0000

Your Eminence and Dear Cardinal Sean
That is some blog! I think you need to publish a small book, ” Fraternal pilgrimage to the East”. The story is wonderful, the intention you have is inspiring and the photo’s are heavenly.
Please include me in your next trip to where ever that may be.
Secondly I thought you and Methodios were twins in some of the pictures, you both look so alike!

With every prayerful wish from Ireland
William A. Thomas STL
Founder, Catholic Networking (missions to Africa)
Strongfort
Craughwell
County Galway
Ireland

By: paul leblanc

paul leblanc — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 23:48:59 +0000

Once again, I have to cede to and echo the

other comentators. Many, many thanks for

including us in your trip, via your excellent

blog. Double thanks for the photos.

Respectfully, Paul LeBlanc

By: John W. Briggs

John W. Briggs — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 17:06:55 +0000

The insightful text and beautiful photos are deeply inspirational and make clear that this pilgrimage was the opportunity of a lifetime! They were an education to me and my family. Thank you so very much for sharing them!

–John W. Briggs,
Brookline, MA

By: Sean

Sean — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 16:21:42 +0000

Eminence, I feel grateful for your work with the Orthodox on unity. As a Roman Catholic who is strongly interested in Orthodox theology (particularly iconography) I sometimes feel anquish (drawn in opposite directions) at the separation, but reading about the cooperation between you and Met. Methodius, the warm reception you received from the Ecumenical Patriarch and others I feel the sense of separation lessened.

By the way, how do you get the diacritical mark (the síneadh fada) on your “a?” Is there a key combination for that?

By: Caitlin

Caitlin — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 12:16:00 +0000

Wow, your journey is amazing. You are all in my prayers.

I was wondering who takes the photos that you put on the site. They’re amazing!!

God bless you!

By: Alicia Ortiz Sarceno

Alicia Ortiz Sarceno — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 03:41:44 +0000

Querido y siempre recordado padre Sean, Gracias por compartir todo lo de su peregrinacion. Dios lo bendiga.

By: MATT

MATT — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 01:35:40 +0000

GREAT PICS OF HAGIA SOPHIA ESPECIALLY INSIDE. MY LATE PROF HENRY FAIRBANKS WAS DEVOTED TO THAT PLACE AND PASSED HIS GREAT ENTHUSIASM TO US.MATT

By: Chuck Antony

Chuck Antony — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 19:03:24 +0000

Eminence: Words fail me! You’re a lucky dog! What a marvelous trip — and special thanks to the photographers for the fab photos.

By: Nicolai Mojica

Nicolai Mojica — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 06:31:52 +0000

hey padre, we met a couple of years back for the baptism of of my cousin Jack Volpe, Matt and Jackie’s son. I was impressed with our meeting and found your blog after looking over Catholic history in Wikipedia. I see you are a busy and fortunate servant being able to visit many beautiful and colorful sites. The pictures are great and I hope to see more of your trip.
sincerely
Nicolai