Welcome to Jonathan's Corner:
Orthodox Books and More
What this site is all about:
A showcase of creative works
This site is a showcase of creative works and writing by Christos Jonathan Seth Hayward that have been collected for well over a decade. The sections of the site About (includes What's New?), the Book Store, Et Cetera, The Minstrel's Song, an online library featuring Orthodox Books and More, and the Sitemap.
As over a decade has gone by, Orthodox Books and More has grown to be much more than one section of the website among others. It has several sections of its own, and the Orthodox mystical theology section has become the crowning jewel of the site, with a great many of its author's favorite works:
Why not explore the "Orthodox Books and More" library now?
What's New? A Quote:
A Roman Catholic take on an authentic Byzantine style icon—complete with not just stigmata but the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
What might be called "the Orthodox question"
I expect ecumenical outreach to Orthodox has been quite a trying experience for Catholics. It must seem to Catholics like they have made Orthodoxy their top ecumenical priority, and after they have done their best and bent over backwards, many Orthodox have shrugged and said, "That makes one of us!" or else made a nastier response. And I wonder if Catholics have felt a twinge of the Lord's frustration in saying, "All day long I have held out my hands to a rebellious and stubborn people." (Rom 10:21)
In my experience, most Catholic priests have been hospitable: warm to the point of being warmer to me than my own priests. It almost seems as if the recipe for handling Orthodox is to express a great deal of warmth and warmly express hope for Catholics and Orthodox to be united. And that, in a nutshell, is how Catholics seem to conceive what might be called "the Orthodox question."
And I'm afraid I have something painful to say. Catholics think Orthodox are basically the same, and that they understand us. And I'm asking you to take a tough pill to swallow: Catholics do not understand Orthodox. You think you do, but you don't.
I'd like to talk about an elephant in the room. This elephant, however painfully obvious to Orthodox, seems something Catholics are strikingly oblivious to.
Read more of An Open Letter to Catholics on Orthodoxy and Ecumenism, updated Saturday 21 August, 2010, the Glorification of St. Herman of Alaska, Wonderworker of All America.