4 things about me

A) FOUR PLACES I GO OVER AND OVER:  Church, Work, College, Store(s)

 

B) FOUR PEOPLE WHO ENCOURAGED MY FAITH ALONG THE WAY:  Aunt Bobby, Sister Brigit my first grade teacher at St. Donato’s Roman Catholic Elementary School, the Hubster, Greatschemamonk Seraphim.

 

C) FOUR OF MY FAVORITE FOODS:  Pasta, Chocolate, Chicken w/Gravy, Good ‘n Plenty candies

 

D) FOUR PLACES I WOULD RATHER BE RIGHT NOW:  The Beach, Somewhere warm, in the Garden, rocking a baby.

 

E) FOUR MOVIES I WOULD WATCH OVER AND OVER:  Gone With The Wind, Little Women, The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, Spartacus

 

F) FOUR THINGS I LIKE ABOUT THE ORTHODOX CHURCH:  Spiritual paternity, the smell (reminds me of praying & the feel of holiness), The Theotokos, The Prayers.

 

G) FOUR OF MY FAVORITE HOBBIES:  Reading, needlework, fiddling in the garden, crochet

 

“Let Us Love the Church Fervently”

“Let us feel for the Church.  Let us love her fervently.  We should not accept to hear her representatives being criticised and accused.  On the Holy Mountain the spirit in which I was nurtured was orthodox, profound, holy and silent - without conflicts, without disputes and witout censurings.  We should not give credence to those hwo make accusations against the clergy.  Even if with our own eyes we see apriest doing something we judge negatively, we should not blieve it, nor think about it, nor talk about it toothers.  The same is true for the lay members of the Church and for every person.  We are all the Church.  Those who censure the Church for the errors of her representatives with the alleged aim of helping to correct her make a great mistake.  They do not love the church.  Neither, needless to say, do they love Christ.  We love the Church when we embrace with our prayer each of her members and do what Christ did - when we sacrifice ourselves, remain ever vigilant, and do everything in the manner of Him who when he was abused did not return abuse, and when He suffered did not threaten (1 Pet 2:23).”

Wounded by Love:  The Life & the Wisdom of Elder Prophyrios (p91-92)

This note was posted on the discussion forum, Monachos.net, during Pascha 2007.  I repost it here because it is full of excellent thoughts, especially as we approach Pascha 2008.

Dear friends,

Last night I went to Matins to find my priest looking tired and overwhelmed, and even heard him say, “I feel old.” This made me sad and brought me to the realization that if he is pained to see his flock wandering away, how much more does it pain our Heavenly Father when we wander straight into harms way by walking into the lion’s den?

My friends – we have a lot to be accountable for. This Church is OUR church. WE are the next generation – but where is everybody? Last night, not including our priest, the choir made up about 9, and the parishioners made up about 5. If there were no choir, there’d be hardly anyone left in Church. Again, where is everybody?

We spoke to an older lady who tends the lampadas faithfully from day to day, week to week. She mentioned last year during Holy Week, she had no one to help her, so was there until midnight tending and changing the lampadas in order for us to feast.

Some of my fondest memories as a child were when I would help my Aunty in the small Church the family used to attend, to “change everything from black to white” on Good Friday evening. I remember the smiles and the smell of silver spray paint outside, as the boys tended to their candlesticks, shining them and making them look as new as possible for the upcoming feast. The women inside would be cleaning, sweeping the floors, dusting the icons, and arranging big, fragrant white flowers. The men would be behind the iconostasis putting up the XB sign, making sure the light bulbs and electricity worked. Others would be ironing the vestments, but most importantly everything would be changed from the deathly black, to silvery clean white. And every year, my Aunty would faithfully tie the floral embroidered white cloth around Christ’s waist on the Cross, in devotion almost as if she were standing before the real Christ Jesus’ body Himself. All this was done with such love, fervency, and mostly with such sweet anticipation of the coming feast of victory over death, and the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

My friends, the old ones who do these jobs are not going to be around forever. Plus with people leaving due to the political nature of the Russian Church’s reunification and the discomfort with that (which is entirely another matter all together), I now realize it is time for us young ones to step up and help. If we don’t, do you think the generation coming behind us – our children, and our children’s children – will follow? Unlikely. If we don’t take action now, the Church will become an empty morgue, and the Saints who so faithfully and lovingly stare down at us from the walls above, will shake their heads in shame and sadness at having no one to serve Christ Jesus with them.

Please, please if you can, stay and help tend the Church – yes during Holy Week (and I know we’re always tired after such long services, but …) – and carry this on throughout the rest of the year as well. It may not seem like much, but every little bit helps. And God will greatly bless you for your faithfulness in serving Him.

In many ways I could have authored this letter.  Many a Saturday I, too, spent at church with my aunt.  She and other ladies would dust and clean the altar area (she was Roman Catholic), change the altar linens, and put away all the cleaned linens in the closets and drawers.  I was given a dust rag and the direction to “dust the pews”.  Let me assure you, there were a LOT of them to dust!  And dust I did!

Then we would truck home to Aunty’s house, wash the soiled linens, hang them to dry, starch and iron them, then repair holes or torn hems as needed.  When new ones were needed, Aunty made them and I embroidered the little red crosses in the center.  I have wonderful memories of these days of service.

Now I find myself doing much the same in my own parish.  Just today I cleaned off spots, ironed off wax and pressed the white altar vestments in preparation for their use for Pascha.  The gold altar vestments have been dry cleaned at home (with the awesome Dryel product - try it out!), pressed, hung on hangars and taken to church in preparation for after Pentecost. 

Certain times I find myself on hands and knees wiping up wine droplets from some dear one’s shakey hand when they receive it after Communion or plucking up antidoron crumbs and tucking it in my pocket in order to toss it to the birds outside or even picking out the melted wax from the candle holders. 

Too often the only bodies in the church for Vespers are those 3 or 4 of us in the choir and Father.  Too often I see Father’s eyes filled with sorrow when he opens the Royal Doors for Liturgy and finds the Nave half full.  Perhaps a dozen or less come Friday nights through out Lent for the Akathists.  Where is everyone?  Where is the struggle?  How can one experience the joy and fullness of Pascha without the struggle of Lent?  Without the service?  I don’t know.

As Father said today in his sermon, it is not too late to join those on the road to Pascha.  There are two weeks remaining.  God accepts us at any hour.  Two make the hard journey easier to bear.  Won’t you come along and link arms with me or another pilgrim and journey to Jerusalem together?

 

Sharing new finds

Some new blogs I’ve added to my list of “check frequently!”

Veni Vidi Credidi:  I love this guy, jamesthethickheaded.  He has some very poignant thoughts.

Orthodox Christian Thoughts by Fr. Athanasios Haros:  Elizabeth at “The Garden Window” found this one.  Fr. Athanasaios is at seminary.  Today’s post is excellent and reminiscent of a recent conversation I had with my spiritual father.

The Forest Philosopher:  Bill visited my blog today and left a very nice comment.  He’s been blogging about a month I think he said.  Check him out.

Saving Face

Everyone needs to save face at one point in their life.  And really, it is only God who knows Gorbachev’s heart.  Let’s leave it up to Him to decide.  However, one must ask the obvious….if Gorbachev knelt in prayer…who was he praying to…and why?!  What is the point?!

 

Read about it here:  

 

 

Former Soviet boss Gorbachev denies conversion to Christianity

 

 

Hell & its creation

Interview

28 March 2008, 12:50

God didn’t create the hell for sinners, they did it themselves

The Russian Orthodox Church’s representative to the European International Institutions Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria, on Interfax-Religion’s request, commented on the recent suggestion of Danish Lutheran theologians to consider the hell and the devil a metaphor and to accept only existence of the paradise.

- This theology should be considered in general context of liberalized Christian dogmatic and moral teaching developed in depth of many Protestant communities in several recent decades. Everything that makes Christianity is “inconvenient”, “uncomfortable” is being omitted, “the dark Middle Ages” heritage is cleared up. Christianity in light version is under construction and the hell and devil don’t match it.

A tragedy of Protestantism has originally been the following. Seeking to get rid of medieval stratification of Catholicism, Protestants didn’t properly study the heritage of the Eastern fathers. And today when arguing with the Middle Age hell and devil, liberal Protestants don’t trouble themselves with reviewing the Holy Fathers and their conception of afterlife retaliation.

Meanwhile, the Eastern Christian tradition has never considered the hell as created by God to punish sinners. God didn’t create the hell, free will of people has created it. It exists not because God wants it, but because people keep it existing. They first create the hell on Earth and then carry it on to the afterworld.

-What do you mean by the hell on Earth?

- When a man using his power over others makes Earth the hell for them. Didn’t Hitler turn Earth to hell for millions of people tried and tortured in concentration camps, perished in gas cameras and battlefields? Didn’t Lenin and Stalin make hell for thousands and millions of people who died in camps or were shot on false denunciations or sentenced by Stalin’s “troika”? Don’t today’s terrorists, who kill peaceful citizens, take them hostage and cut off their heads, turn Earth to the hell?

And is it believable that malefactors and monsters, who kill other people and revolt against God and all-hallows will share the paradise with righteous and saints? Is it believable that the paradise will welcome both John the Baptist and Herod, St. Veniamin of Petrograd and Lenin, thousands of the murdered new Russia’s martyrs and confessors and their torturers? It removes division between the good and the evil. Then there’s no difference if you are a saint or a villain, if you do the good or the evil, if you save people from death or kill them.

-So sins will be inevitably recompensed?

-Any person bears moral responsibility for his actions. And he will answer for the sins of his earthly life in the eternity. St. Isaac the Syrian writes that sinners in the hell are not deprived of God’s love. On the contrary, love is given equally to everyone: to the righteous in the Heavenly Kingdom and to the sinners in Gehenna. But for the righteous it becomes the source of joy and bliss while for sinners it is the source of torture.

Thus, God didn’t create the hell for sinners, they did it themselves. God doesn’t send sinners to the hell, but people who oppose God’s will and revolt against God choose the hell themselves. And this choice is made in their earthly life rather than in some distant eschatological prospect. It is right here on Earth that infernal tortures and “the Kingdom of God come with power” begin.

- However, even the Orthodox divine service says that the hell is “abolished” by Christ after His Resurrection from the dead?

- The reality of the hell, its existence for sinners and even the possibility of its eternal existence don’t contradict the news of its abolition by Christ resurrected. The hell is really “abolished” in the resurrection of Christ, as it is not inevitable for people anymore and doesn’t have power over them. But those, who consciously oppose God’s will and commit crime and sin, restore destroyed and abolished hell as they don’t want to reconcile with God’s love.

I’d like to stress it again: God didn’t create the hell, people created it for themselves, God destroyed and abolished the hell, but people restore it again and again. The hell is re-created every time when the sin is consciously committed and isn’t repented.

Article taken from Interfax-Religion

Doesn’t everyone love Pooh? My fav is Eeyore…but I am Piglet!

Your Score: Piglet

You scored 10 Ego, 20 Anxiety, and 7 Agency!

“It’s a little Anxious,” he said to himself, “to be a Very Small Animal Entirely Surrounded by Water. Christopher Robin and Pooh could escape by Climbing Trees, and Kanga could escape by Jumping, and Rabbit could escape by Burrowing, and Owl could escape by Flying, and Eeyore could escape by — by Making a Loud Noise Until Rescued, and here am I, surrounded by water and I can’t do anything.”

You scored as Piglet!

ABOUT PIGLET: Piglet is a Very Small Animal, who used to live in his own house, a nice big tree. However, after Owl’s house was blown over by a storm, he “found” Piglet’s house, and Piglet didn’t want to tell him that the home was already lived in. So he went to live with Pooh.

WHAT THIS SAYS ABOUT YOU: You are a rather nervous person, and you tend to worry about The Worst happening. You don’t really feel capable of dealing with the things that life could throw at you, and so you tend to fret about it. You are one of those people who seems to think that worrying actually accomplishes something… and your friends can’t help but love you for it. Your humble manner and self-deprecating ways make your friends feel good about themselves. They want to help and protect you.

Your loving friends are always trying to encourage you to be more independent, and they are right. You need to develop a bit of self confidence and stand on your own two feet.

Link: The Deep and Meaningful Winnie-The-Pooh Character Test written by wolfcaroling on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test View My Profile(wolfcaroling)

She’s done just about everything!

For your reading pleasure Dear Readers, enjoy this article in our local newspaper.   Lona Farr was one of the women in the second class to enter Muhlenberg College which became a co-educational institution in 1957.  Lona is the co-owner of the company I have worked for, Farr Healey Consulting LLC.

Memory Eternal!

Archpriest Eugene Vansuch fell asleep in the Lord Sunday, March 23rd.  His wife Matushka Fran was at his side.

Fr. Eugene was a good, gentle, and kind priest.  He served as priest at St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in Bethlehem, PA for many years.  It was there that I met him.  He was the first priest I spoke to about Orthodoxy and gave me my first prayer book.

He also served as OCA Director of Fellowship of Orthodox Stewards for two years before being assigned to St. Vladimir Orthodox Church in Trenton, NJ.

He will be sorely missed by his family and many, many others who loved him very much.

May his memory be eternal!

Kitchen Time & Grandparent Visits

No doubt, dear Reader, you are wondering what in the world a kitchen timer has to do with a visit to the Grandparent’s house.  Would it help to tell you that it involves the Grandson?

Saturday the Hubster, 27-year-old Son and I visited the hubster’s parents for a short afternoon visit and dinner.  Hubster-mom (aka Grandmom) arrived home Friday after a long hospital stay for pneumonia and subsequent weakness.   We were thrilled to see how good she looked.  Her color was good.  She was perfectly coiffed, had matching earrings and necklace which complimented her outfit.  She was stylin’!  She ate a hearty meal which indicated her waning appetite was returning.  She was chatty and engaged in humor-filled bantering.

At the end of our visit and saying good-bye, we got in the car to head home.  Chuckling under his breath, Son said, “We have 10 minutes to get down the highway.”  The Hubster and I chuckled, knowing what Son was referring to.

Ten minutes down the highway, the Hubster’s cell phone rang.  Son laughed aloud saying, “That’s Auntie.  It went off as planned!”  True enough it was Auntie laughing away and telling us Grandmom said, “That Boy!  He remembered!”  Grandmom was mighty pleased.

You see Grandmom and Auntie each have a kitchen timer that is digital and in silence ticks off the minutes.  Since Son was 5 years old, he would set the kitchen timer to go off long after we departed from our visit.  Often times as much as 20 or 30 minutes.  And the Grandparent response was always, “Oh that Grandson!  There he goes AGAIN!”

Now it has become a tradition.  And it made Grandmom’s day!

We love you Grandmom and Grandpop!