What Is More Important

[prose]

[quote name='desertwoman' post='1296981' date='Jun 16 2007, 07:52 PM']What is more important? To partake in the Eucharist for it is the body and blood of Christ and he says so in scripture that if we don't eat of his body and drink of his blood we have no life within us, or to become Catholic?

I ask this because the Church does recognize Orthodox communion, and it seems that partaking in the Lord's Supper is one of the most important things.[/quote]

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but don't you need to be Catholic to receive the Eucharist? So wouldn't both be essential?

[prose]

So it wouldn't be an either-or, but a both-and?

[Domine ut Videam]

[quote name='desertwoman' post='1388659' date='Sep 19 2007, 01:49 PM']I know! Since the Eucharist is important, and it is valid in the Orthodox Church, and they do practice penance and confession, I really don't see the difference and why I shouldn't become Orthodox.[/quote]

Because, if you think about all of Church History as one long line like this

_________________/________________________________________
_______

Catholicism is the long line, and even though it was because of arguments on both sides that cause the Great Schism, they were the ones who broke off the line. In the line (Catholicism) come things that Orthodoxs haven't gained, such as the papacy, Vatican I an II, and many more. By breaking off, they went off the main, and though they broke off early and carried the fundamentals with them, the rest of the history, what happened from the break and on, that is still Christ's Church that he founded...and for me at least, that is why i choose Catholicism.

[Domine ut Videam]

sorry double post.

Edited September 19, 2007 by Domine ut Videam

[Resurrexi]

[quote name='Era Might' post='1297082' date='Jun 16 2007, 09:53 PM']The Eucharist is called "communion" because it is intimately bound up in the communion of the universal Church. There cannot be a distinction between the Church and the Eucharist because Our Lord established only one Church, and the Eucharist is the sacrifice of that one Church.[/quote]

No, the Blessed Sacrament is called "Communion" because of the close unity it creates between Jesus Christ and the person receiving it.

[desertwoman]

[quote name='Domine ut Videam' post='1388761' date='Sep 19 2007, 06:29 PM']Because, if you think about all of Church History as one long line like this

_________________/________________________________________
_______

Catholicism is the long line, and even though it was because of arguments on both sides that cause the Great Schism, they were the ones who broke off the line. In the line (Catholicism) come things that Orthodoxs haven't gained, such as the papacy, Vatican I an II, and many more. By breaking off, they went off the main, and though they broke off early and carried the fundamentals with them, the rest of the history, what happened from the break and on, that is still Christ's Church that he founded...and for me at least, that is why i choose Catholicism.[/quote]


That's the thing. I do know that both sides had issues, but somebody was right. The orthodox church still says that they have beliefs that have been unchanged for centuries as well.

[LouisvilleFan]

[quote name='desertwoman' post='1389485' date='Sep 20 2007, 09:32 PM']That's the thing. I do know that both sides had issues, but somebody was right. The orthodox church still says that they have beliefs that have been unchanged for centuries as well.[/quote]

Concerning the question about who was right during the Great Schism, when it comes to the issues specific to that split, I would bet that both of us were wrong. Of course, hindsight is 50/50, so it's easy to judge our ancestors for their shortcomings instead of learning from them. The primary thing you gain (and the one thing that absolutlely needs to be settled to reunite Catholics and Orthodox) is the papacy.

In 1968, Pope Paul VI was able to authoritatively apply Church teaching to modern questions through [i]Humanae Vitae[/i], in spite of the fact that his own commission was nearly unanimous in deciding that Catholics could use oral contraceptives. While this teaching has been a source of debate among Catholics, there's been no question about the Church's official teaching. Yet, here we are nearly 40 years later, and the Orthodox have yet to deliver any official teaching on this matter.

While they have all the sacraments, Scripture, and Tradition, the greatest weakness with the Orthodox is the lack of an individual in whose communion they are united. I expect that the next generatioon will be faced with an onslaught of advances from technology, science, and medicine -- most of them good, but some evil -- and without a central, binding authority, the Orthodox will increasingly struggle to apply Tradition to the flood of moral questions to come.

While questions of the Filioque are important, this one is the "biggie," and facing the future without certain and divine guidance from the Church is a scary thing indeed. Hopefully, as the need for authority becomes ever more apparent, both sides will settle the other questions and reunite East and West for good. As for how that'll happen, I dunno, but God has performed far greater miracles.

Edited September 21, 2007 by LouisvilleFan

[Amos]

To answer the original question - What is more important, to partake in the Eucharist or to become Catholic? - I would have to say to become Catholic.

A more relevant question might be: what is most important to God? And the general answer to that is "to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your mind and all of your soul, and to love your neighbor as yourself." Part of loving our gracious God is to accept all of the gifts that He gives. The "source and summit" of these gifts is the Blessed Sacrament. You'll find this gift in the both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. But an infallible Magisterium is a really cool gift as well. You'll only find this only in the Catholic Church. If we want all of the gifts God has promised to give us, the glorious ones as well as the commonplace ones, we need to become Catholic.