He only said two words to me in his entire apostolic life, but they were the two most meaningful words I have ever heard a bishop utter. They were the same words he used to greet every wayward American pilgrim that had somehow found themselves at the doorstep of the ancient, apostolic Church. And they are the same words that we who love him the most now use to usher him in benediction on to his true and heavenly abode: WELCOME HOME. Continue reading
My boss has done it again with a rock solid sermon for Lent. Incidentally, he also shows us Orthodox what we should be doing with our own icons: exegesis of both text AND image. It’s absolutely stunning work from a man who is currently besieged with the difficulties of growing a lively suburban parish. Enjoy!
Sermon for Sunday, March 30, 2014
Lent 3A
“The Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” — I Samuel 16:7
For this morning’ sermon, I’m going to let you in on one of the secrets of the priesthood. No, it’s not some “hocus pocus” about the Eucharist; nor is it a secret handshake we all learned in seminary; and neither is it some Dan Brown-style secret that each of us has been sworn to guard. The secret is at once more closely guarded than that and yet at the same time an “open” secret. The secret is this: most clergy feel – at least some of the time – inadequate and unworthy of our calling. This sense of inadequacy and unworthiness may appear for some of us as we are chairing a meeting. For others it may…
View original post 1,100 more words
For those who might not have been close to the concert we did in New York/New Jersey, the Boston Byzantine Choir is doing the same program right here in the Boston area, and for the first time, in a non-Orthodox Church! Please join us at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Dedham on Saturday, April 5 at 4pm in the afternoon for a time of spiritual enlightenment and refreshment.
My children first heard about The Little Chapel that Stood in our homeschool study of the last 500 years. Beginning with the present century, Ground Zero and St. Paul’s Chapel stands as one of the most significant places of modern pilgrimage and remembrance. So when my girls heard that we were going to the New York City area for a concert trip, they begged me to visit the chapel they had read about which had captured their hearts.
Continue readingLove this post about the importance of healing from the trauma of sin written by my boss. It is a very Orthodox reflection emphasizing sin’s destructiveness to God’s likeness within us; how it isn’t just about disobeying the rules. Very good for Lent!
;
;
;
Listen here online:
This morning I’m not going to talk so much about sin as I am going to talk about talking about sin. So often, sin is something we don’t talk about – at least not much – which is a loss because the “grammar” and “vocabulary” surrounding sin contain great capacity for healing.
But I don’t want to begin there. First, I want to go back to November 11, last Veterans’ Day. Last Veterans’ Day, NPR told the stories of several different veterans from several different wars. Though all the stories moved me, the one that touched me most was the story of Coast Guard veteran Joe Williams, who was part of “Operation Tiger,” a dress rehearsal off the coast of England for the Normandy…
View original post 1,290 more words
Forgiveness Sunday- The Beginning of Great Lent
“O, sweety, there is nothing to forgive.” How many times has our attempt to make amends with another we have offended end in this kind of dismissive, shrugging off of responsibility which is supposed to help the offended party feel better? Yet, when any of us takes a deeper look at ourselves, what the twelve steppers call making a “searching and fearless moral inventory”, we find that not only are we filled with sinful thoughts, inclinations, motives and actions, but ignoring and sweeping them under the rug of forgetfulness will only make matters worse, not better. Those not practiced in the Christian art and divine gift of forgiveness may be tempted to dispense with it as a necessary step to restoring peace in human relationships, but this morning’s Gospel lesson makes it clear that it is a non-negotiable. Continue reading
To all our readers in the New York area, please come to a free Byzantine Lenten music concert that our family will be singing in. The flyer is on the left for those who wish to promote it. Saturday, March 15, 2014 at St. Anthony’s Orthodox Church in Bergenfield, NJ. It’s our choir director’s home parish before he went off to school and became a famous choir director, so it is going to be a bit of a homecoming, featuring many pieces from our Lenten CD released just last year. Also, for those interested in a deeper look at Byzantine chant, a master class will be offered for a small fee. Hope to see you all there. Stay tuned for more information about a concert upcoming in April in the Boston area. It will be our first time ever singing in a non-Orthodox Church!
Just getting ready to sit down as a family and watch the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony tonight in Sochi, Russia on the Black Sea. It is a long and often difficult road for any city to host a worldwide event like the Olympics, and we have personally traveled that road with Sochi. Went there several times as a family and blogged about it as well, for those interested in reading something else about this resort, seaside beauty besides Russia’s stance on homosexuality or difficulty with security. We can’t wait ourselves to see on TV how much they have built since we visited a few years ago.
I have been trying to think of something clever to say about a great little television series on PBS, but I don’t want time to run out of time for my readers being able to watch it. So just take my advice, and follow this link to see all the latest episodes online before they disappear, or watch it every Sunday on your local PBS station. You will find the relationships and decorum between the characters refreshing, meaningful, and even at times, Christian. Oh, would that those who take it upon themselves to make “Christian drama” would learn a lesson from this true masterpiece of storytelling.
The secret is out or at least it should be. Those of us celebrating Christmas on the Old Calendar (O.C. January 7) are still very much within the season, the 12 appointed days of celebration after the event, which makes it a total of 24 if you count somewhat the 12 days celebrated after December 25. So if you are the type that thinks Christmas comes and goes too quickly, think about visiting a Russian, Serbian, or even a Bulgarian Orthodox Church on the Julian Calendar. Then hold on to your tree, keep up those decorations, and don’t throw away that fruit cake because the O.C. gives us another 12 days to party! Continue reading
Like Mendicant Monks... 