Posts
On Those Who Accepted the Florentine Union
"These people admit with the Latins that the Holy Spirit proceeds and derives His existence from the Son. Yet, with us, they say the Spirit proceeds from the Father. The Latins imagine that this addition to the Creed is lawful and just, but we will not so much as pronounce it. They state that unleavened bread is the body of Christ, but we dare not communicate it. Is this not sufficient to exhibit that they came to the Latin council not to investigate the truth, which they once possessed and then betrayed, but simply to earn some gold and attain a false union? Behold, they read two Creeds as they did before. They perform two different liturgies - one on leavened and the other on unleavened bread. They perform two baptisms - one by triple immersion and the other by aspersion; one with Holy Chrism and the other without it. All our Orthodox customs are different from those of the Latins, including our fasts, Church rites, icons, and many other things. What sort of union is this then, when it has no external sign? How could they come together, each retaining his own?"
On Communion With the Latin Church
"Flee brethren! Flee communion with the incommunicable and the commemoration of the uncommemorative. Behold, I, Mark, the sinner, tell you that whoever commemorates the Pope as an Orthodox prelate is guilty. Moreover, one who minds the dogmas of the Latins will be judged with the Latins, and will be deemed a betrayer of the Faith."
On Latin Theology
"They desire also to preserve their own...and at the same time do not follow the traditions of the Fathers."
"If the Latins have not departed from the correct Faith, then we have cut them off unjustly. However, if they have departed from the Faith, regarding the theology of the Holy Spirit, to Whom to blaspheme is the greatest of all perils, clearly, they are heretics, and we have cut them off as heretics."
On Accepting Latin Converts to Orthodoxy
"We must not sanctify one of the Latin race through the divine and most pure gifts given by priestly hands, unless that one shall first resolve to depart from Latin dogmas and customs and shall be catechized and joined to the Orthodox."
On Essence and Energies of God in the Fathers
"We must not be surprised if we do not find among the ancients any clear and defined distinction between the essence of God and His energies. If, in our time, after the solemn confirmation of this truth, the partisans of profane wisdom have created so much trouble in the Church over this question - and have accused Her of polytheism - what mischief would not have been perpetrated in earlier times against this truth by those puffed up with vain learning. This is why our theologians always insisted in the simplicity of God more than the distinctions which exist in Him. It would have been inopportune to exhibit the teaching concerning the essence and energies before those who had enough trouble admitting the distinction of hypostases. Thus, by a wise economy this sacred teaching has become clarified in the course of time, God using for this purpose the foolish attacks of heretics."
On the Pope
"For us, the Pope is as one of the Patriarchs - and only if he is Orthodox; whereas, they proclaim him Vicar of Christ, Father and Teacher of all Christians. Flee from them, O brethren, and from communion with them. 'For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if even his ministers transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works'" (2 Cor. 11:13-15).
Source: P.G. 160 and translated by Holy Apostles Convent in The Lives of the Pillars of Orthodoxy.
Anathema be upon Mark of Ephesus
ReplyDeleteMark of Ephesus is the light of the true church while the popes are a blasphemy. Mark of Ephesus is not only a great Saint and pillar of the True Church but he is a national hero to all peoples who wish to follow their sacred traditions handed down by the Fathers and not dictated by the Vatican. The Latin church is a distorted image of the True Orthodox Church and Mark of Ephesus showed this at that phony phony council. The Fathers of the Church were Greek and wrote in Greek not Latin. The Latins were the pupils of Christian theology; the Greeks the masters.
DeleteHe is a schismatic, nothing more, and the Saint Apostle Paul said that schismatics are condemned, There is plenty of evidence in the Church Fathers either Latins or Greeks that they all believed in a single church, and even more, They all recognized the Authority of Roman Pope over the Whole Church, Do you know who never wanted to recognize such? The local presbiters,due to nationalistic principles, as you just said, You put the greek culture over the Word of God, If peter wente ruled and died in the church of Rome it was God Will. The same with Paul.
DeleteJulius Pope of Rome, was the only one to whom many eastern patriarchs went to ask him for their restauration to their sees, after they were expeled from them by their Arian Presbiters, The pope restored them and they went to their churches bringing forward the letters of the Roman Pope as evidence of their legitimacy, Do you know who opposed the Pope first? the heretics. They claimed for a Synod. Among the deposed patriarch was Saitn Athanasius himself.
Do you know that About Filioque, There is a strange contradiction in the orthodox Church?, Yes, lets talk about Saint Isidore of Seville, He is venerated in both: Catholic and Eastern Orthodox. Do you know that he presided the Council of Seville when the Filioque was introduced in the Creed?
Mark of Ephesus was a man who rejected the teching of Saint Isidore, And Saint isidore just confirmed the teaching of the first council of Toledo were filioque first apeared in 400 AD.