Eastern Orthodoxy, Schoolyard Fights, & Exodus 90 w/ Derek Cummins 

Was raised Baptist, became Orthodox. I am leaving Orthodoxy to become Roman Catholic, and it is mostly for cultural heritage. I am disilusioned by the anti western venom of the Orthodox. All the reasons about what my family did and the way they worshipped and prayed is exactly how I feel. I love the Mass, me and my wife got rosaries and started praying together. I am a Cajun descended from French Settlers and Acadians with a very long line of devout Catholics. I can't turn my back on that anymore. God bless Mr Derek.

As a former Lutheran convert to Orthodoxy, then to Catholicism, who feels constantly pulled between the two, I identify significantly with this gentleman. The paralysis can be destructive and lead you to practice nothing out of indecision, which I've struggled with especially in light of the current papacy.

17:37 the Maronites have always been in communion with Rome. There was no communication between the 8th century and the 11th century, but we on our end were always faithful to the Church Catholic. @Matt when are you going to have a Maronite priest on the show?

Thanks for the admissions of real men doing real life with work, marriage, parenting, melancholic natures, shortcomings. Life as a modern day man seems so lonely and unique as if I am the only one going through things.

Seeing Matt so happy for his wife’s health is so beautiful!

This was HILARIOUS. The little sounds and giggles Matt and Derek make were killing me!

It's so great to see Matt's guest talk about Fr. Roman Galadza. He was such a great priest and was very welcoming to me and my family when we moved to Mississauga in 2010. What he accomplished at St. Elias is nothing short of astonishing, and anyone who has visited knows that it can't be put into words. I have known people that have straight up been moved to tears during services.

Fr. Patrick Cardine's church in VA is a fantastic parish. Great to hear it referenced.

Thanks for this conversation. Hearing that people struggle in parishes and that the personalities of our parish members can have an impact on our faith

23:49 I recently was Chrismated into the Orthodox Church from a E-Free Church background. There was definitely a period up to that in which I had a triumphant feeling. And perhaps this was fueled even more by certain online figures who perhaps are not so great to listen to. I started buying into their self righteous view of "no church but the Orthodox Church". But i recently reread part of Metropolitan Hillarion Alfeyev's book Mystery of Faith (Met. Hilarion was very influencal in my conversion) in which he denounces this type of behavior. It was very humbling and reminded me of why I was interested in becoming Orthodox in the first place. To borrow the quote from St. Augustine as used in the book, "Many of those who on earth considered themselves to be alien to the Church will find on the day of judgement that they are her citizens; and many of those who thought themselves to be members of the Church will, alas, be found alien to her"

This is everything I have needed. Praise God for this interview. Ever since I watched the first one (Which was only 2months ago thank God) I have wondered how Derek had been going. This is affirming my belief in The Catholic Church more than ever. Amen.

I love you guys together. The serious is great and silliness is even better 😂

So I listened to this over quite a few settings to make sure I had a real handle and then read some comments which in turn leads me to write My background is convoluted- Australian , raised by Pentecostal mother and non practising orthodox father in a high Anglican Church , dabbled in pentecostalsim( lots of cousins who are pastors), married a Baptist girl, have four children& converted to Eastern Orthodoxy 24 years ago after being convinced of the truth claims of EO in 95 but feeling it was too Greek for us. Made the decision to convert because we walked into a normal Sunday liturgy and couldn’t go back to the dogs vomit .Growing in faith to this day despite having half the liturgy in a foreign language for 22 years and all four children faithfully following Christ in EO( 3 Greek one Russian because of the current fracas)& NEVER ever entertained going back to Protestantism and even less RC. TBH, 20+ years later I feel more than ever that Protestantism and Roman Catholicism are flip sides of the same coin and EO is different, very different. Neither of the speakers seem to get this and to be fair I have grown to be aware of this over decades. Our Trinitarian theology and anthropology and soteriology and ecclesiology and and and…. What I didn’t realise was that we in the west are immersed in enlightenment philosophy and materialist dialectics and bring this to our spirituality . The east doesn’t - it is distinctly premodern. And that is where the west fails. The craziness of this current era and decline in the west is an inevitable result of the cult of the self which is epitomised in sola scriptura and in all humility the papal claim of infallibility . Life in Christ is organic and rooted in communion as epitomised by a conciliar ecclesiology . Those that flit between east and west as if they’re eating out Chinese one day and Italian the next but the diet is nutritionally equivalent have not apprehended either properly . Which is why I wrote this- to those who are vacillating. I’m old now , and have not been disappointed. My 2yo grand daughter can chant Agni Parthene and I am humbled beyond belief that my saviour has used such a filthy vessel to create life that worships Him. There is One Holy Apostolic and Catholic Church , One

Fr Patrick Cardine would be a great guest for the podcast.

Great show 🙏pray for Christian unity and our country 🙏✝️☦️⛪️🇻🇦🇺🇸 Jesus I trust in you

This conversation is everything I 🎉 being sandwich led between both Eastern Orthodox and Catholicism and remaining Lutheran. I have to pick something. The church is one how they conclude, and I have to conclude that the Church is one in a way we don't realize. This video has been more helpful then y'all realize

I would reach unhealthy fangirl levels if Matt gets Fr. Andrew Damick or Fr. Stephen de Young on the show!

Amazingly relatable conversation, I wonder about what church to be apart of to serve God and found myself at a Pentecostal church on account of being open during covid and there being needs there I could serve. Been fruitful for 3 years so far

So many beauitul Eastern Catholic Churches. If youre somewhere in the middle I encourage you to check out a local Eastern Catholic Church. The Syriac tradition is very beautiful (Antiochian Churchs) 🙏

I think the most important thing should be humility, right? That should be the value of every Christian. I'm Catholic

This was hands down the funniest Pints I've listened to! You 2 are great together. I was laughing out loud while driving and have to go back and find the 'frito chip' pic. Thanks. BTW, i grew up in Zelienople, not far from Ambridge

Can’t wait to hear the Carnivore podcast/video! I started it last week.

Something more is going on with Derek.Yes, to the Latin Mass.❤

Please make that family life segment a clip so I can share it everywhere ❤️

Fr Patrick would be a fantastic guest to have on!!

Delightful interview. I had to wait for my teen years before I could match Matt's 'tween leg incident.' I was riding my old motorcycle when I spotted two attractive girls nearby, so I concocted a plan to get the 'dog' to manage a wheely. Down I went into a small trough, then pulled and gassed like mad up the other side. The chain prompty jumped off, lock the rear wheel, and threw me into the tank. After their laughter died out at my rolling on the ground, I picked up the bike and studied the new dent. Please have this guest back.

I think the TLM people and the converts to Orthodoxy in the West have one thing in common: they are doing it by conviction and are a minority. Thus, they tend to judge their preference by their experience - and the "normal rest" (read as "Novus Ordo parishes") by their experience as well. But this logically doesn't follow, because the groups of people are fundamentally different. Basically all just "cultural Catholics" do not go to a TLM but stick to their normal parish (or don't show up at all). In order to fairly judge Orthodoxy (not theologically, but as a lived faith), one has to experience it a longer time in a predominantly orthodox country, where all the just "cultural Orthodox" got to their respective parish, or, just like their Catholic counterparts, don't show up at all. My wife is Orthodox (originally from Romania) - and I've experienced horrible divine liturgies in her homecountry, unfortunately the worst kinds were in monasteries. My brother-in-law has read Dumitru Stăniloae's multi-volume Dogmatic Theology (where Fr. Staniloae does not represent some Catholic teachings correctly, I think), but that doesn't mean that he attends Church services. People over there fast much more than Catholics do, but that does not necessarily mean that they are more believing Christians. Orthodoxy still has deep roots in their dominant countries, Catholicism has lost most of it. Both sister Churches share in glory and misery, if you look at it without prejudices and without false premises. Their repsective problems may not be the same, but each has no fewer than the other. Or, as a tradition goes: St. Seraphim of Sarov and St. Francis of Assisi get along really well in heaven, regardless of what either side of their Churches might say on Earth...

I love this show Matt. You guys have done incredible things for the worldwide Catholic community. This is not to be tongue-in-cheek, but now that you’ve had on an Orthodox (thus, a schismatic), would you now be willing to have a SSPX priest on the show? I am not a SSPX parishioner, but it seems fair that we should listen to their side after the admittedly bad Salza interview. God bless!

The mustache was glorious.

I understand completely, I love things about both churches as well as so many evangelical groups, this speaks to 2 things, one the horrible results of the great schism and 2 finding peace in the simplicity that is Christ, remember that John 3:16 or even better John 3:14-21 is still in affect as taught by Jesus. I pray the Jesus prayer all the time , the Orthodox prayer book, Catholic litanies, Catholic deliverance prayers and the Rosary for 25 years and speak in tongues for 35 years, remember brothers where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty, 2 corinthians 3:17. I love Jesus Christ and his holy family and this gives me Joy unspeakable, I ended up becoming Orthodox so I could be baptised the ancient way, go to confession and receive the body and blood of Christ which I understood was so very important, but so I could attend and receive at both Churches until the Lord heals us. God bless you.

I have never laughed so much 😂 thanks for the childhood stories!

great episode so far, only 30 min in

I really think the Orthodox and Catholics are two lungs of the same church (a priest said that, but I can’t remember who…) and pray they will come together again in the right way. As an OC convert, I am constantly following Catholic RU-vidrs and love their prayers too. I am saddened we are split. I would definitely attend a Western Rite Orthodox Church if one was in my area bc I am drawn to my Western Heritage and feel that sometimes converts to Orthodoxy just throw the baby out with the bath water so to speak. FYI: Many cradle Orthodox recognize the cultural problems with Orthodoxy more than converts do and are sensitive to this issue within their own Church.

"I just don't see it." I very much find myself in that position. Currently an unbaptized Orthodox catechumen, and the more I read about church history the more clearly the papacy just seems misguided bordering on idolatry to me. I believe that the bishop of Rome is the successor to the seat of Peter, and in Orthodoxy pre-schism he would have been recognized as the first-among equals, but his claims of supremacy (as opposed to mere primacy) and infallibility seem to be nakedly deifying him, far overstepping what would have been considered the boundaries of that office in the early church. And I can't help but feel this idolatrous ecclesiology goes a long way to explaining the current state of the Catholic church. By their fruits you shall know them.

Is it possible to have a link to St. Alias Church in Canada, please? Is it in Ottawa? Thank you

Search for this. There is a Amish man, who was searching for the roots of Christian Faith, he would search in a library, he left the Amish and became a Orthodox Priest, fascinating story.

About the Eastern Catholic Churches, the Melkite and Maronite Churches are in full communion with the Holy See.

1:55:39 can we go back to childhood stories?!? It was making me feel so much better about my childhood… 😂😂😂

Awesome 👏

I met Derek once. Just sayin. Guess I'm just built different.

This was the most chaotic 3 hours of my life 😂

In refrence to the woman analogy of leaving protestsntism and having to choose between catholicism and orthodoxy, its kind of like dating a girl and getting into a love triangle with her mother and her aunt

As a former Protestant, now EO catechumen, I cannot see how someone can leave Prot, like both EO & Cath, and lean Catholic aside from Scholasticism. I say this humbly, but if our view is truly on Christ and his church, I see no other option than Orthodoxy.

As a new convert from Evangelical to Orthodoxy I see Catholics as brothers. Two lungs East and West 🫁 🙏

What a fun stream! 😂

This came at a Time when I am struggling greatly between the 2. Thank you for having this discussion. I am not a Scholar, I've read quite a few books, but I know my mind is not as Capable as the Apologists I see argue. So, I've fallen back on Christ and the Experience of the Holy Spirit. He has taught me prayers I've never heard of, Catholic ones, encouraged me to Attend Adoration. And, he's even asked me to offer the Sacrifice of the Mass as a Priest. Can all these be found in Orthodoxy? Yes, but should I discount that these all occurred while practicing Catholicism?

Has Fradd dropped Hallow due to the Liam N. controversy? Haven’t heard him do an ad for them recently, and there’s something sly about the way he says “my NEW favorite app” leads me to think that he’s OUT on Hallow. Thoughts?

Love it

Matt should definitely have Paul VanderKlay on the show some day

I’m so glad my family has been Roman Catholic for generations upon generations. I love the Holy Father and I adore our Holy Mass. I would NEVER even consider for a millisecond ANY other “religion”.

as a Scotsman, I can confirm at the very start that was a Scotsman saying "purple burglar alarm", seemingly we can't say it.

I REMEMBER BIKER MICE FROM MARS.

1:18:08 Hey, I liked Biker Mice from Mars a lot!

Magnify 90 was made for women by a woman taking all the different circumstances of a woman into consideration. Definitely worth a try!

I like Derek a lot. My heart goes out to him and others like him on a journey in good faith. I pray the Catholic and Orthodox churches will reunite someday soon. That being said, the Filioque in the Catholic sense is scriptural, patristic, and true. Come home to Rome the pillar of orthodoxy.

Now that Matt has talked about the carnivore diet he is officially the Catholic Joe Rogan

I went Carnivore on 9-30-23. It has changed my life in only 2.5 months. I am 75. You should interview youtube"ers. Dr Sean O'mara, Dr Chaffee, Dr Ken Berry, Laura Spath, Steak and Butter Gal.

This made me laugh so hard. I think God is definitely moving Derek towards Catholicism…he just doesn’t know it yet.

I wonder how often the guest goes to confession. As a Christian Orthodox i know confession is paramount. If you don't have spiritual guidance you get lost fast....it is hard to be an orthodox in US.....as a Romanian Orthodox i don't have the luxury to look for a priest of my choice to guide me. That is why i have 2 priests i go to. One is in my church and the other one is at a Greek monastery where this priest has a real discussion about my struggles before the actual confession is done. We need spiritual guidance to grow in our faith.

Step 1 to reconciliation between east and west needs to be celebrating Christmas and Easter on the same day as each other.

Ahh, we are the Bride of Christ, alone. I wish you could listen to this Russian Orthodox monk and a priest named Father Peter Mesherin. (He is a theologian, a writer, and a translator). Since I come from evangelical background, many clarifications about Orthodox church were necessary, and he is a courageous cleric who is able to articulate Orthodox strong sides, as well as deficiencies.

1:33:43 😂this episode got so out of hand in the best way.

1:33:27 this is turning out to be the his top 5 videos! 😍😍🤣🤣🤣

I feel like the mustache weirdly works with Matt's hair

Biker Mice from Mars! Yes! One of my favorite childhood memories is having chicken pox with my cousin and watching ttoonnss of Biker Mice from Mars

What Derek said explains exactly how I feel : An Apostolic Indifferentism 💯

So if I had to guess, this person became orthodox because they were generally convinced of Catholicism contra Protestantism but couldn't except the papal claims. Then finds out orthodoxy is just an entirely different animal and this leads to massive cognitive dissonance. I say this because I was this person. Perfect example of this confusion is the idea there is "western" and "eastern" and "coptic" spirituality that are equally apostolic. There is only one spirt and one faith! From our perspective the east and the west had basically the same spirituality and tradition before the schism. Even liturgically the roman rite of the 900s was very byzantine, that is the true western patrimony. This is why I honestly respect tradcaths who are skeptical of eastern practices. Even though we disagree about whose right, we still believe what scripture says about there being one catholic faith and spirt. And this one faith is a universal rational icon to transport the mind to god. Without a real spiritual father this stuff is incredibly difficult

You're getting Shane Smith?! He's my favorite comedian!

27:00 Re: Fr Patrick-Where in VA?

Shayne Smith is very funny. He’s tatted like an MS-13 prison boss, which belies how witty he is

Miss the beard but besides that, respect.

Who is the Cardinal in portrait?

3:02:04 Matt should most definitely grow an Abe Lincoln beard… 😜👍💕💕💕💕

Many of the people at Jim Jones people’s temple were there for the kindness they saw in the people and Jim Jones. Right up until the murders and mass suicide 😳

Lol, whenever the Uniate question comes up St. Elias, Brampton is invariably mentioned. Mitred Archpriest Roman is a saint, and showed kindness to me personally, but we definitely did not agree on every point of praxis. This is what it means to be Eastern Catholic. Bishop Malachowski's and St. Josaphat's, Blessed Charnetsky's and Blessed Khomyshyn's will always exist. Edit: I 100% agree with Matt's gut-feeling about "Orthodox in Union with Rome." I personally, use Uniate, because it LITERALLY means "Eastern Christian United to Rome." Just because Orthobros use it as a slur doesn't mean it needs to be avoided. I am no longer a subject of the Hapsburgs who legally changed its usage under Maria-Theresa.

Interviews DAVE RUBIN, Eastern schismatics, Anglican heretics, but when will he interview SSPX Fr. Robinson or Fr. MacGillivray?

1:23:43 hi mom better answer… 🤣🤣

Matthew, what have you done to your beautiful face?!

There is no way Matt actually knows who Jerome Bettis is 🤣

1:23:27 Matt dwarfs the hand of a nerd

Matt you seem so painfully biased 😂 i swear, when it comes to Orthodox guests, you let it show more than with other non-catholic guests lol

And one comment to Mr. Cummins: neither Romanians nor Hungarians are Slavic ....

But is it true? Just because we are convinced of something being true, that doesn't mean it is. The man in the cave thinks the flickering shadows of the flames of his fire is all the world has to offer, but the man outside the cave knows better.

2:15:33 ist't this what happened at the Council of Florence? And then it broke again after 50 years because of the muslim Khalif messing with the eastern patriarchate.

I think it's pretty simple. The church had a pope and he signed off on ecumenical councils to help develop and define doctrine for the whole Church. At some point the east said that's enough development, too much in fact, the popes gone off his rocker, that's a bridge too far. We think Christianity is developed and defined enough, we'll stay right here. Rome simply kept doing what it always did, rad trads today the German Bishops seem like they have the same and opposite spirits as the orthodox respectfully. The Germans want the church to progress too hard, to change dogma. The rad rads are about to break away because we developed too far, many have fostered a sense of rebellion towards the papacy, and it's obvious history is repeating itself. The pope is the lighthouse on the shore.... he will never bind the church to heresy. As soon as you start thinking he will, you've lost faith in the church's teaching on Christ's promise to Peter and the church. Without that, you're the one in charge and I couldn't think of anything more terrifying.

My wife will not let me shave my beard

I left the RCC for Orthodoxy. I don't want to go too much into why i did it because I'd be typing all day. But I felt called to it and too many coincidences occured over the last few years that fell in line with my conversion and thats enough for me. I hope for Salvation for all of us, i truly do. God bless

I think he would benefit from traditional therapy. He is already in spiritual direction and trained in theology. This appears to be rooted in some sort of OCD or something.

1:56:35 who daF can’t pronounce Ipanema?!? 🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨 As a Brazilian AND Catholic and I’m double offended… 😝😅😅

1:23:38 😂 please let it be made up for guilt

Is that Soyjack?

Derek is wrong, i don't think im a theologian, i *know* im a theologian 😂, but yeah i agree with what he's saying.

56:56 a few years ago in Poland there was a large number of those pop-cultural leftist catholic youtube influencers with a lot of following (often bigger than some of the channels in the anglo-saxon sphere). Most of them fell away from the church during covid and now are just regular pop-cultural opinion influencers. Some still remain. This channel f.e. is a Polish dominican friar with a following bigger than Bishop Barron ru-vid.com although most of the content is not directly voicing leftist agenda, but rather just ambigious on many subjects.

He uses the term “Orthobro”? Cringe

On the beard: Coming up on 50 years anniversary. Hubby was bearded from the day we met. Kissing made a beard burn for a week or two but after that was fine. Then he shaved for a year or two and the same issue all over again. Anyway, if she’s willing, the discomfort will fade😆👍🏻

Tchatges & schmatas

DC is not interesting enough to be a guest on PWA...not sure why MF is so taken with him.

No offense meant, but so much of this came across like cognitive dissonance. How can the Catholic Church be unified if the Eastern Catholics practice chrismation and communion for infants, and then have a Western half outright rejects and does not allow for it. How can such a Church be unified if they don't even recite the same Nicene Creed? These are just two examples, but we can't just pretend they are simply differences in practice/tradition, they are legitimate differences in theology and are not consistent/compatible.

There is no lie and pretending in Christian orthodoxy.

Sorry i just dont agree with your statements. Orthodox have been there always. Its not scattered its creed is out there for anyone to see. If your friend wants to be orthodox, do not confuse or leed him astray. However it seems like your friend is just having a crisis of faith in general. It wouldnt matter right now what church he joined at this moment because his faith is slowly crumbling its there to see. Comfort him talk to him there may be underlying conditions. But right now he needs support not jovial teasing which may leed to his doubts.