Icons in bathroom?

[daher]

Two brothers were on retreat at a Trappist monastery.  The first brother,  a Friar Minor (Franciscan)  came to ask Father Guardian a question about the rules.  He said, "Father, may I drink coffee while I pray?"  Father Guardian answered him,  "No my son.  It is better to finish your coffee and then go into pray."  Obediently, the friar set his coffee down and went to pray.

Now the other brother, a Jesuit novice had over heard  this conversation and he too had a question for the Guardian.  "Father,"  he began,  "Is it permitted for me to pray, while I drink my coffee?"  Father Guardian replied,  "Of course my son, we must pray without ceasing."

Father? And the Roman Catholic Church have "fathers"? They have people vested in clerical dress. The papist church don't have priesthood. 

But this example is very good. Before i think that the jesuits dont say good things, because they have much time killing orthodox people, like St. Athanasios of Brest.

[Anastasios]

Rafael,

Mother Anastasia is not Orthodox, she is Western Rite American Orthodox Catholic, an independent group.

While the Orthodox Church as a whole does not recognize RC orders, it is only polite to refer to people with their title. This does not mean we approve of their status, but it is impolite to constantly put "Church" and "Father" in quotation marks.  All Orthodox priests I know--traditionalist, ecumenist, the whole gamut--refer to RC priests by their titles.

Anastasios

[daher]

Rafael,

Mother Anastasia is not Orthodox, she is Western Rite American Orthodox Catholic, an independent group.

While the Orthodox Church as a whole does not recognize RC orders, it is only polite to refer to people with their title. This does not mean we approve of their status, but it is impolite to constantly put "Church" and "Father" in quotation marks.ÂÂ  All Orthodox priests I know--traditionalist, ecumenist, the whole gamut--refer to RC priests by their titles.

Anastasios

Thank you brother. Question of education. But, is allways proper remind that.

[Salpy]

I hate to prolong a tangent, but I have a question about all those little printed icons we get in church bulletins, icon catalogues, etc., which one is tempted to just throw away...

I recall reading about a woman who would collect those, mount them and make them into real mounted icons to give to people.  She, like some others responding to this thread, did not like the idea of people just throwing those icons away.  She was even taking and mounting church bulletin icons, etc., which strangers sent her in the mail.  I seem to recall that she lived somewhere in the U.S.

Does anyone know who this woman is?  I've often thought of her and how I would love to send her some of those church bulletin icons I get.  This sounds like a silly thing, but I think that what she does is a wonderful service to God.

[KATHXOYMENOC]

The priest at the church we attend has misgivings about people sending/receiving icon Nativity cards for the same reason - i.e., one can't throw them away, or at least one shouldn't, yet that is often what many probably unthinkingly do. So he ends up having to burn the cards after the season to dispose of them properly. I had never thought about it before, but we will likely not buy/send such cards for that reason.

[Thomas]

This of course could easily become another topic. The use of Paper Icons etc, but hopefully it won't.

Since industrialization occurred in Orthodox Countries, printed or published Icons have made their way into Orthodox Homes. During the Turkish occupation of Greece and Byzantium, often western prints of icons were the olnly source of religous images possible for people to bring into their homes. Likewise, today, I know few who can actually afford a full hand written icon or in any number several icons one for each family member.

Thus the Fathers allow for Icons and prints to be blessed. Many monasteries who publish and mount icons say the Prayer of the Heart continuously while creating them just as the iconographer prays continuously as he writes the icon.

The key is that if an icon, a print or a handwritten icon works as a window to heaven , it is a blessing to those who use it. enuf said.

Thomas

[EkhristosAnesti]

ozgeorge,

Sorry for the delayed response; I am in the middle of end-of-semester exams. A response to your last reply has been produced in the new thread that I have created here: http://www.orthodoxchristianity.net/forum/index.php?topic=9351.msg125558#msg125558

[Psalti Boy]

I think we've flushed out just about every argument for and against Icons in the bathroom.  Can we get off the throne and please move into another room??

[Fr. George]

I wish we (as mods) were allowed to give warnings just for terribly bad puns...

Alas, this is not hte case... may God have mercy on your sense of humor (or lack thereof)...
(Not like I should talk - you should hear the bad puns I make in the day-to-day).

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