Our Faith

Authentic Christian faith is always about the relationship we have with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. From the beginning local Churches have expressed that relationship differently in various liturgies, hymns, theologies, icons and more.

Melkites express their faith in the Byzantine tradition of the Greek Patriarchate of Antioch. Liturgically we follow the Byzantine rite. Our spirituality is that of the Christian East (healing, re-creation, theosis, etc.) in common with other Eastern Churches, Catholic and Orthodox.

In addition, our particular identity is as Greek Catholics: Eastern in faith, worship and spirituality but united to the Church of Rome with all the problems and opportunities that relationship affords.

Spirituality

A glance through any Catholic publisher’s catalog will find titles on different spiritualities for men or women, religious or laypeople — as many “spiritualities” as Starbucks has coffees. Eastern Churches recognize one spirituality to which we are all called, with different degrees of intensity.

We are invited to live the very life of God, to become intimately related to God — “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pt 1:4), to be physically united to Christ and to have the Holy Spirit dwell within us. Eastern Christian spirituality stresses:

• Awareness of our call to be divinized;
• The organic nature of our sacramental union with Christ;
• A “public life” of worship and communion;
• A “secret life” of prayer, fasting and almsgiving; and
• The need for “spiritual warfare.”

Read on below for a wealth of information all about the spirituality and history of the Melkite Church: