[AnAmericanMother]

No, we DON'T eat breakfast before we go. I have a cup of tea because I sing in the choir and it won't do to fall out in a faint. And we don't have Mass until 11:30 a.m. I believe the official requirement is one hour before Mass, but most people I know don't eat a big breakfast.

We know that catechesis has been faulty and in some cases absent since the 70s, and many dedicated people are working hard to fix it. But you don't undo 30 years of laxity overnight, especially when the idea that making it 'easy' doesn't make it attractive hasn't really sunk in yet.

But nobody's church is perfect. If our Orthodox here in town had been more welcoming of those who were not born Greek, perhaps they could have served as a more effective good example over the last 30 years.

[Kolokotronis]

“I believe the official requirement is one hour before Mass, but most people I know don’t eat a big breakfast.”

But you see, the official requirement is the source of the problem, AAM. Officially, there’s nothing wrong with that big breakfast.

“If our Orthodox here in town had been more welcoming of those who were not born Greek, perhaps they could have served as a more effective good example over the last 30 years.”

The only part of that statement I disagree with is that the Greeks might otherwise have been a good example over the past 30 years! :)