On being Catholic Eastern Orthodox

https://mandikaye.com/blog/jrmrwtc

Buying Alprazolam In India I can remember being taught in seminary that the word Catholic was never used in the New Testament. That is true. The word itself is first found in writing in a letter that St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote to the Smyrnans around the year 107 AD. It referred to ? h kaqoliki ekklesia (i katholiki ekklesia) or the Catholic Church. Note that the word ecclesia may have originally meant gathering, but as with any word in any language, words tend to acquire additional meanings with time. But the word h kaqoliki (i katholiki) did not spring out of nothing. As with most words, it came out of the need for a concept to say something bigger than previous words have.

https://inteligencialimite.org/2024/08/07/eob8pn7g8hb In Acts 9:31, one can just see the beginnings of a concept that lead to the development of the word Catholic. There it speaks of the ekklesia kaq olhs (ekklesia kath olis) or the “Church throughout.” Catch the use of the phrase kaq olhs (kath olis). In Acts 9:31, it says, “Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified.” This is the sense in which it is used later, but it becomes one word rather than two. It is the Church-throughout, or the Catholic Church. In the New Testament, the phrase is not used solely about a Church. The two words had not yet become one. Thus Jesus returns in the power of the Spirit in Luke 4:14, and his fame is heard, kath olis, throughout the surrounding region. At his trial, Jesus was accused of stirring people up, kath olis, throughout all Judea. In Acts 10:37, while preaching to Cornelius, Saint Peter exclaims that the faith has been heard, kath olis, throughout all Judea. There are several more uses of the phrase, but all of them speak to the idea that the preaching of the faith or the presence of the Church had gone throughout a certain area.

https://aiohealthpro.com/gtnhpl2htx3 Remember that the Gospels were written several decades after the death and resurrection of Jesus. By then, they already had evidence of the faith beginning to spread, kath olis, throughout the Roman Empire. I would argue that the repetition of that phrase in the Gospels and in Acts shows a consciousness of the importance of the idea of the Church permeating throughout the Empire, as leaven does through bread. It is no surprise, then, that St. Ignatius of Antioch uses that phrase but converts it to one word, Catholic. It is the Church throughout. Both in St. Ignatius of Antioch and in the later Muratorian fragment, that word becomes the argument against the heretics. The Church Throughout, the Catholic Church, never taught what these heretics are teaching. One of the hallmarks of orthodoxy became what the Church Throughout, the Catholic Church taught.

Thus, St. Vincent of Lerins defined true belief as, “Hold fast that faith which has been believed everywhere, always and by all.” It became known as the Vincentian Canon. And, it perfectly defines the effect of the words, kath olis, that which has been believed throughout, both throughout space and throughout time.

https://sugandhmalhotra.com/2024/08/07/udn5u1wvry The word Catholic begins as two words, as the Early Church is writing down its experiences, and its memories of Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Christ, Jesus the Lord. It found itself using the words, kath olis, over and over again. It saw itself and the preaching of the Gospel spreading throughout, kath olis, the Empire. It must begin to defend itself against the heretics after the death of the last of the Twelve Apostles. It is no surprise that the two words merged into a one-word description of who we are. We are the h kaqoliki ekklesia, the Catholic Church. We are that Church which is throughout, as over against the heretics who are only in specific places. We are the Church which is throughout in an apocalyptic sense as well, but that is another posting. We are also the Church throughout in the sense that we are the Church which believes what has been believed throughout space and time.

As an Eastern Orthodox believer, I am proud to say that I am a Catholic-Orthodox.