Today we celebrate simultaneously the birthday of my father-in-law and the anniversary of the day he first met his future wife and our baba so many years ago. I hear a toast this evening at dinner that I have never heard before: “Here’s to finding or discovering a path/road for our life.” (za zheezin na darogu in Russian) Continue reading
Redeeming the times for the days are evil…
Such a redemption is the basis for our whole church life with its organization of time around the liturgical cycles of feasts and fasts, of saints and holy events, of celebrations and commemorations of deliverance by the hand of almighty God. While these liturgical cycles are more than adequate to feed and order the spiritual life, it is important similarly to feed the soul with an equally rich and diverse sustenance of cultural and seasonal celebrations. Continue reading
From foreverdigital on flickr.com
“Mr. Friar, what does paradox mean?” In my many years of teaching, I have fielded a variety of questions from students with a relative thirst for knowledge. Some ask with a genuine desire to know; others out of an attempt to trick the teacher into an interesting but irrelevant tangent from the lesson at hand. But I sensed that today’s query into the meaning of a difficult theological word was coming from a need deeper than idle curiosity or a mere thirst to know. And as the day progressed and my second assignment as a 5th grade substitute for a local Catholic elementary school concluded, the need of this particular student for meaning was revealed. Continue reading
I went on a quick trip to New York City and back to meet with our bishops who reside at the Cathedral in Midtown Manhattan, southwest of Central Park. Is a quick trip to New York City really possible? The phrase “New York Minute” implies a shrinking of time in which one of chronology’s smallest measurements is made even smaller by a large community of urban dwellers seeking to speed it up. Faster… and yet it always takes me longer than expected to get to my destination. Continue reading
Yeah! Had my first official PAID tour of Boston’s Religious Heritage today. I am excited for what the future may bring with this blog and my tour company which I hope to found. For now, I just want to promote myself and get some more paying customers. May God grant the increase!
Our first family camping trip brings us to Cape Cod at a state park near Brewster. Everything here on this 65 mile long sand bar is measured by relative distance to exit numbers off of the one highway that runs end to end. “Oh, it’s near exit 10, but I live near exit 7.” This miniature paradise feels cozy and at the same time expansive. With ocean on either side of the arm, it does not take long to drive or even walk to the nearest stretch of sand and salt water. At low tide, a person can disappear on the horizon, walking out onto the wet sand and wading into shallow tidal pools. Continue reading
I listened today to an encouraging podcast on Ancient Faith Radio about Wheaton College’s inauguration of an Early Christian Studies program. I realize this is somewhat old news to some of you, but this podcast really made me think anew of the significance of this and how it points to a general trend among Evangelicals of turning to the Fathers to help them interpret the Bible.
This is how I and many others became Orthodox. I am so pleased to hear of this movement on an institutional level. Personally, I think it is through the prayers of C.S. Lewis, the patron saint of Evangelicals. May it continue…
Funny on the day before taking a trip across the ocean, we already feel like we are in Boston even though physically we are still in Moscow. One really gets that feeling in the airport.
I personally spend the beginning of the day with a couple of friends walking in a large city park then having another tea with a very warm and lovely priest who speaks English like Charles Dickens. No, really, you wouldn’t believe how refined his speech is and how much he delights in our Mother tongue. He actually taught himself English by reading the Pickwick Papers by Dickens when he was a boy.
A very full and lovely way to say goodbye to Mother Russia!
Saturday, July 22/August 4, 2012, St. Mary Magdalene
As our time in Russia nears its end, every moment becomes more and more precious. In the morning, we all attend Liturgy at St. Nicholas of Ugresha Monastery just outside of Moscow. It has all the elements of a quintessential spiritual fortress: very tall and slender bell tower, large and substantial cathedral with ample relics for veneration (including one small one of our own St. Herman of Alaska!), plenty of smaller satellite churches for weekday services, and to top it all off, a quiet nearby pond to reflect the brilliance. After lunch, I embark on my adventure of the evening: following directions on the metro to a church that has an English-speaking priest to hear my confession. Continue reading
July 19/August 1, 2012, Uncovering of the Relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov
We travel to our friends’ house today in the afternoon and evening to celebrate the Baptism of their son and my new godson. That’s right. I became a godfather of a child in Russia! Another reason to keep coming back: heavenly family added to my earthly family here.
I was talking with our friend at the Baptism on Sunday, and she pressed me for the answer to the question I posed earlier in the blog about why Russians love St. Seraphim so much. I confessed to her that I had been working on the answer and had come to some conclusions, but I was pretty sure they were not correct or merely one-sided. Then I asked her what she thought. Continue reading
Like Mendicant Monks... 