Went to opening night of the new Hobbit movie. There is only one other movie I have seen on opening night in my life, and that was the second installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Can’t say much now because I am exhausted, but oh it was worth every minute and penny spent on the experience. Continue reading
When I first came to Boston several decades ago, I was a newly minted college grad sent on a mission to enlighten the world with my presumed wisdom. In fact, one of the ways I hoped to make my living teaching others with something I thought I knew well was through tap dancing. Growing up in a podunk town in the Midwest, I nevertheless somehow managed to receive instruction in the modern art and rose to a level I felt was proficient enough to make me a teacher. Do not presume to be teachers, my brethren, for the man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. Continue reading
I’ve been sitting on this post idea for a while, waiting for time that I could hole away, make my usual draft on paper, and then come to the computer for the final version. But this time of the year conspires to rob every available moment for preparations both real and imagined.
I have blogged before about redeeming the time and finding the reason for any season. Now that we are upon what Christians consider one of the holiest seasons of all, the preparation for the birth of the Savior of the world into our frail human flesh, it is a good time to take at least a few moments to reflect, lest the rush of our many to-do lists keep us from the one thing needful. Continue reading
We celebrated Thanksgiving today in our usual way of traveling to Nativity of the Virgin Mary Orthodox Church (OCA) in Chelsea, MA for their annual inter-Orthodox Thanksgiving Liturgy. What a tremendous occasion for inter-Orthodox activity, especially the celebration of the Eucharist which in Greek actually means “Thank You” or “Thanksgiving”. The Orthodox Church in America has written a wonderful service designed especially to honor this great American holiday. Continue reading
T
o celebrate Veteran’s Day, I chaperoned an annual field trip that my children’s school takes to Plimoth Plantation, in Plymouth, MA, a living history museum which seeks to recreate the atmosphere of the first permanent English settlement in the New World on a site very close to that of the original settlement. The school staff and I have an ongoing joke that we almost prefer to have real and deep conversations with these folks faking the seventeenth century over the usual trite and sometimes fake conversations we find ourselves having with the real (or at least living) people of the 21st century. What is it about our own sense of history which is so lacking that we have to pay actors to help us re-imagine the past? Continue reading
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!
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