Conversation With An Orthodox Priest! (EP 180)

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The Bryce Crawford Podcast 1h 9m 3 speakers 8 chapters transcribed

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What is the significance of the Eucharist in Orthodox Christianity?

Father Lazarus 0:00

We consider the Eucharist truly one of those mysteries that we can't explain but truly becomes his body and blood and it's necessary for our salvation.

Bryce Crawford 0:07

I am so logically hardwired and that has been one of the hardest things for me to accept with all the sacraments, which is why I wanted to talk to you particularly about the Eucharist today. If you wanted to watch this episode early, exclusive content and more, check out our Patreon. Our Patreon is the best place for you guys to support us. Keep us producing the podcast. Keep producing the evangelism videos, sending us out on the street. And in return, you get exclusive content that will only be available on Patreon. Early access to all podcast evangelism videos, our inner circle group chat and more. So if you want to support us, go to patreon.com slash Bryce Crawford today. Join the Patreon, support the mission, get early access to podcast videos, exclusive content and more.

Bryce Crawford 0:45

What's going on, guys? Welcome back to another episode of the Bryce Carver Podcast. I'm Bryce, and today I'm sitting down with Father Lazarus of the Coptic Orthodox Church. Thank you for sitting down. Thank you. I'm excited. There's a lot of things I want to talk to you about. I never prepare notes to not only read, but also to learn. I think one of the hardest things that's been for me is to be able to sit down, process, verbally kind of understand certain things, particularly sacraments, particularly tradition. Something that has been on my heart is tradition and sacraments. I am very... I love and respect deeply how you hold tradition. And from the moment we've walked in, the fear of the Lord that you have, the weight and reverence you have for the sacraments, for the murals, for the saints, it's deeply respectful, and it's something that I long for and want a better understanding on.

Bryce Crawford 1:52

So thank you for sitting down with me.

Father Lazarus 1:53

Yeah, it's a blessing for me. Thank you.

Bryce Crawford 1:55

To kind of open up a little bit, I mainly wanted to ask a little bit about how did you start following Jesus? Where did that start from?

Father Lazarus 2:04

Yeah, I was born and raised in the Coptic Orthodox Church and had loving parents. And they did all they could to kind of show me who Jesus is. Actually, what's interesting is my dad would sometimes go to the evangelical church, even though he was a baptized Coptic. And once in a while, we'd go to the evangelical church, but mostly in the Coptic Orthodox Church. And they put me in Christian school. So they did all they could. I would say in my late teenage, early college years, I kind of strayed away and, you know, wasn't the worst guy in the world, wasn't doing the worst things, but definitely wasn't having a relationship with our Lord. And I remember one day that I looked and I sat and I looked at myself in the mirror and I said, if you die today, you know where you're going.

Father Lazarus 2:59

Because I wasn't really living with Christ, even though I knew of Christ. And I would say I loved Christ, but I wasn't living with Christ. And so I didn't know what to do at that point. And at the time, there was our patriarch. His name was Pope Shenouda III, a very amazing, amazing teacher and blessed father. So we have our own pope, but we don't consider the pope as the Catholics consider the pope. We don't consider him infallible. We don't have those kind of doctrines with the pope. And even though we're part of the Oriental Orthodox tradition, so there's the Eastern Orthodox, we're the Oriental Orthodox, the patriarch of Alexandria was historically, throughout the first centuries, was revered as one of the highest patriarchs.

Father Lazarus 3:47

Some of the greatest church fathers came out of Alexandria. But we never exercised our authority over the other jurisdictions ever, even after we split off in 451. So that's just an aside. But he was coming to visit our church, Pope Shenouda, and My mom said, you have to go to church. The Pope is coming to our church. My local parish where I was, where I grew up. And I was like, okay, fine. You know, what am I going to lose? So I ended up going and we had one of the bishops who was part of the entourage.