Episode 111: Insights from the East (Part One), w/ Mother Natalia & Her Parents

Joining Dr. Greg to discuss the differences and complementarity of the traditions of the East and the West is Byzantine Catholic nun, Mother Natalia (and her parents)! In this first of a two-part episode, Mother Natalia reveals fascinating and surprising differences she’s experienced between the two traditions, and shares her journey from the Roman Rite to falling in love with the Eastern liturgy and eventually joining a Byzantine Catholic monastic community of women.

Discussed in this episode:

Meet Mother Natalia and her parents, David and Barbara Olsen;
Mother’s struggle with scrupulosity and its impact on discernment;
How the diversity of rites that exist within the Catholic Church can all be in communion with Rome;
Differences between the East and West despite the fact that there is no actual East/West split in the body of Christ;
The lack of Eucharstic adoration in the Eastern tradition;
How “the cure fits the disease” and the specific traditions that developed in each rite as ways to counteract particular heresies;
The East as a more feminine counterpart to the more masculine West, and how we can look to both to learn more about complementarity;
The particular ways that all five senses are engaged during celebration of the Eastern liturgy;
Differences between the East and West as impacting spirituality but not what is fundamentally Catholic;
Making room for the cultural differences that impact the liturgy;
Our call as Catholics to “breathe with both lungs” of the Church and grow through complementarity as manifested in the Eastern and Western traditions.

Resources mentioned or relevant:

Check out Mother Natalia’s podcast: What God is Not;
Support Mother Natalia’s non-profit ministry, Photina;
Breathing with Both Lungs - podcast episode on the differences between Eastern and Western rites;
Learn more about Christ the Bridegroom Monastery;
Flight From Woman by Karl Stern;
Read Orientale Lumen (The Light of the East), Pope St. John Paul II’s apostolic letter;
Listen to Episode #99: Diversity, Gender, and the Genius of Women, w/ Simone Rizkallah;
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