3rd Hour of Monday Uploaded!

Apologizes to the recent lull in uploads. There are a few reasons for both being unable to translate and upload as of late. But anyway, Monday's 3rd Hour has been uploaded! Although the mercy of God is not nearly a mundane or tired topic to discuss, I cannot eloquently reflect on another office that grasps at the infiniteness of divine love. Another office centered around divine mercy, however, should be indicative of the focus of the Syriac tradition. However, I'd like to give a little "liturgical" (I guess) reflection.



The Syriac tradition focuses very intensely on the Day of Judgment and the mercy that God grants us without compulsion; as this office puts it, "The miserable will glorify You when, unworthy of Your mercy, You have compassion upon him and Your compassion will make him something great from nothing. " God, without compulsion, "by [His] grace [He] created him [the miserable]." In God's mercy, He did not create us miserable. Instead, He created us in a paradisal state - however, by our own choice, we choose to be miserable by estranging ourselves from Him through sin. Despite the rejection of God by the miserable, if we are penitent, the bo'oto continues that "by Your mercy You saved him and by Your love You have mercy upon him." There is always the option for redemption.

Now, where's the liturgical reflection? The above is a very clear sense of divine mercy. This type of prayer is very abundant in our liturgy. We do not need to supplement our idea of divine mercy as our Church has taught us well. That is why the importation of Latin devotions, such as the Divine Mercy chaplet, and their public imposition are destructive to our patrimony. While Latin devotions approved by the Latin Church are good in their own context, since they are meant to supplement their own practices, they are not in proper context in our Church. The arbitrary importation of Latin devotions has damaged our theological consistency in the last few decades and has almost annihilated our tradition. This runs contrary to the instructions of every pope since Paul VI for the sui iuris Churches to restore their own patrimonies. Sadly, we are in a very bad situation catechismally. We must do what each of us can.

To view the 3rd Hour of Monday, click here.

Our Lord, accept our service, our prayers, come to our aid and have mercy on us!