[Quix]

this is one of the devotions of The Church which simply isn't for those who are outside.

= = =

Thanks for your kind reply . . . however, from my perspective, the above is not a kind part.

I and those of my perspective are no more outside THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL, than you are.

[Kolokotronis]

"Thanks for your kind reply . . . however, from my perspective, the above is not a kind part.

I and those of my perspective are no more outside THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL, than you are."

I meant no offense. I was using the term The Church in the way it has been traditionally used since +Ignatius of Antioch to mean what are now collectively the Latin, Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches.

As for The Church as it is finally determined at the Final Judgment, well you may be absolutely right. On another thread, I posted this comment from +Symeon the New Theologian (11th century), one of my favorite saints:

"The Church is the body of Christ, His bride, the world to come, and the temple of God. The members of His body are all the saints. However, not all of the saints who will please God have yet appeared, nor yet is the whole body of Christ thus complete, nor the world to come yet filled. I say this about God's Church. There are, though, many unbelievers in the world today who will believe in Christ; many sinners and debauched who will repent and change their lives; many undecided who will be persuaded. There are many, a great many, up to the sound of the last trumpet, who will prove well-pleasing to God and who have not yet been born. All those who are foreknown by God must be born, come into being, before the world beyond our world, the world of the Church, of the first-born, of the heavenly Jerusalem, is filled up. Then shall the end come and the fullness of the body of Christ be complete."