Something delightful in your own back yard besides snow!

We're jealous , btw-- Victoria remains a sodden, rain-saturated, mushroom-infested bog. The city of Victoria that is -- ha ha!

My children have seen just about as much snow as a couple of African pygmies.

But anyway! Please do yourselves a favour and discover "Ukulele" James Hill! He is right there in Langley and is a COOL guy! I stumbled on his terrific website, ukulelejames.com, where you can listen to samples of his cd tracks. He is a 20 something uke whiz and judging by the look of him and the overall feel of his site, he is a friend we haven't met yet.

Plus his site answered a longstanding puzzlement of mine: why the heck was I taught ukulele in Grade 4 anyway? Answer: it has been mandatory in Langley since the late 70s (for reasons I can't quite fathom, but I'm not complaining), and guess who lived in Langley in the late 70s!? Yes! Me! (Okay, no sniggers from you whippersnappers about not having been thought of yet in the late 70's. . .I'm not interested)

Anyway, a Starbucks drink of hizzerher choice (mmm, let's say grande) to the first person who visits James' site and reports back here about it -- be specific -- redeemable next time I'm in God-and-ukulele-playing-children-blessed Langley! Or if you're in the mud-slopped, Campbell- cursed waterworld that is our provincial capital, you can have it here. . .

our backyard 15 minutes ago

let it snow ~ let it snow ~ let it snow!

Welcome to Sprucies in the Kitchen, where we all can wander when hungry. Go ahead, open the fridge. Hop onto the counter for a chat. Climb into a cupboard when o'erwhelmed. Peer into the cupboards when curious. Lay on the table when tired. This is your home, and you are welcome here.

spruciesinthekitchen.blogspot.com

This is a blog for recipe sharing within the community. I am still working on it, so please bear with me as I figure out the best way for us to post recipes in specific sections, so that when we want a vegan recipe we do not have to sift through hoards of recipes including meat and cheese, and vice versa, and so on and so forth. I really hope that we will be able to share our recipes and then add comments as we try them out (eg. "Yum, this is so good!" or "Ummm...why did the spinach taste like styrofoam-coated wicker?") to aid and be aided in our culinary adventures.

Father Justin and Phil have both given me some insightful advice on how to go about this. However, most of what both have said is completely Greek to me (incidentally, I love Greek food more than any other type, so please post Greek recipes.....SIMEON TAKE NOTE...). At some point, I'll convince Phil to do it for me (oh, I'm a helpless damsel in distress!).

I will try to invite you ASAP. Please let me know your email addresses so I can invite you (Dave...send me addresses!)

But for now, please peruse the pantry....

the world needs another blog

in an attempt to contain my sanity and sort myself out, i've started a blog. it is called:

"The Man Who Mistook His Mind for a Nous."

it can be found at whereismynous.blogspot.com

As Gabe says, so many blogs...

Or, as Peter once said to me, "Of the making of many blogs and websites, there is no end!" I'm pleased to announce that St. John the Theologian Orthodox Mission in Vancouver now has its own website: stjohn.orthodoxmission.org. I've also created an e-mail list for friends and members of the new mission - e-mail me if you'd like to join, if only to keep up-to-date with what is going on in Vancouver's newest English-language Orthodox mission. Or, if you're like me, and your e-mail Inbox is overflowing already, check out the new website to see what is happening with the mission. We could certainly use your prayers!

Love in Christ,

Fr. Justin.

So many blogs so little time

I have decided to start posting on my blogger blog as well as my xanga blog.
So here is the new one:
http://nobloging.blogspot.com
not sure how to create a link so i'll just pretend that did somthing.

God Bless!
Later days.

Flickr.

Okay, so I have some pictures of the cathedral in Ottawa on my newly updated flickr site, so...

www.flickr.com/photos/pasivirta

if you are so inclined,
and...I will be coming home in a few weeks, I thought it appropriate to announce to my pipe smoking brethren that recently bestowed upon myself was a gift of sorts, a rack, containing six places for six pipes, all of which are SO cool, and fairly old, but most of them made out of great wood. anyways. A friend from the antiochian church here was moving, and I helped him move yesterday, and I exclaimed something about the pipes, he had them in his 'to get rid of' pile, and I asked him if he really was going to get rid of them? and he asked if I wanted them. so, they are on their way to st. herman's. I will be saving the christening of them until the 12 days of Christmas, as their is a need for this fast to include tobacco. this semester has been good in many ways, though my lungs may not be in such agreement.

So, this antiochian church is really cool, I have already had a few odd jobs, moving, helping fix a light (future tense) and made a few bucks to help me home, so thank God for the orthodox church. it is so great.
you know, Bishop Seraphim told me that he was once the priest here. its a cool church, sort of small, like us, and they need a new building too.

I wore my flip-flops today, and I post that knowing that in chilliwack there is snow, and maybe vancouver...? its 15 above here. sweet.


can't wait to see you all.

Hello???

Wow...

I can't believe a whole day went by and no one posted anything.

Hmmm... is everyone feeling okay?

Back (from the funeral) in Ottawa

I wanted to officially state that I am back and that I really have appreciated all of you and your prayers as I went to my Grandfather’s funeral. It was hard—not only the 2 days of traveling each way—but the business, the lack of all things Orthodox (I did go to my church on Sunday morning though) and of course the loss of my Grandfather. It was not until I saw my Grandfather in a private viewing before the funeral that it really seemed real; not that I had not cried before this but that seeing my Grandfather’s hands—big and used to using tools—that I realized the depth of shock and disbelief that grief brings.

I have printed out the two entries I made about my Grandfather on this blog and the comments; my cousin Bryan, who is like a brother to me through his friendship, is in the peace corps and is on the other side of the world and could not be there for the funeral. I will be sending a copy of your care and prayers to him. (When we both lived in Michigan two years ago both of us made St. Nicholas our church home). I am really comforted by Victoria’s comment about still missing her Grandfather—that it is acknowledged that the loss does not somehow disappear after time—and the hugs from many—and Neo telling me that at vespers my Grandfather was prayed for in a prayer to the Theotokos.

When I am in the quiet of my house (studio apartment) is when I realize how much I miss my Grandfather and that I am in mourning. Even so, this is verse that I read this morning from my more Protestant-based daily flip calendar, from the paraphrase “The Message”…

“[Jesus] comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us” (2 Corinthians 1:4).

I talked with a good friend of mine from library school yesterday who lost someone who was like a mother to her and one of her best friends. The grief she is going through is deep…and that we could talk about it, and about what Phil told me, that we were not made for death or to experience the death of others.

I think this should become one of my prayers—that as I mourn that I can be used to comfort others as they go through the deep waters of grief and loss.

Thank you all again for your prayers, how blessed I am to belong to communities like this one.

the truth about Santa Claus

http://www.stnicholascenter.org/
There's some really good stuff on this site, stuff we could even use for our open house. Some good handouts for the kids, about St.Nicholas, Bishop of Myrna. And lots of recipes, crafts, etc.
mmmm...mulled wine. that's what I feel like. snuggled down under a big puffy comforter, with a mug of mulled wine, and Anne playing on the tele.
my favourite Christmas tradition is watching the whole Anne of Green Gables series, on a lazy afternoon, after Christmas day is passed, and there's nothing to rush and hurry and worry about anymore.
"But I'll have to ask you to wait a long time, Anne," said Gilbert sadly. "It will be three years before I'll finish my medical course. And even then there will be no diamond sunbursts and marble halls."
"oh Gil, I don't want sunbursts and marble halls. I just want you... Sunbursts and marble halls may be all very well, but there is more `scope for imagination' without them. And as for the waiting, that doesn't matter. We'll just be happy, waiting and working for each other -- and dreaming. Oh, dreams will be very sweet now."

(what's your favourite Christmas tradition?)

Recommendations Please...

I have a non-Orthodox (Presbyterian) poet friend who is working on a piece about icons and iconoclasts. He is trying to portray both the perspective of the iconoclasts and those who like icons...I think from the time period in which that was a raging debate. He has asked that I recommend some books that will help him to gain a better view of the Orthodox understanding of icons....why and how we use them, what they mean, et cetera. He is a researcher, and so he wants sources. Can anyone recommend for me books or excerpts from books, or possibly stories of saints, that will help him out (and that will also explain a bit of Othodox theology in a way he hasn't ever before)? I would be much obliged.

the new face of St.Arseny Orthodox Youth Camp

http://www.allsaintsofalaska.ca/newcamp/index.html

It's beginnning to look a lot like...

Thanksgiving?!?
Looooong over up here. We're looking at Christmas already. Tell me, my fellow north americans south of the 49th, isn't it a hassle making 2 turkey dinners in 2 months? Or do you do ham or wild boar for Christmas?
Is Thanksgiving really bigger than Christmas down there?
Say, st.hermanites, can we get a crew together to go and get a Christmas tree for St.Hermans? We have a stand already. It should go up this sunday, before the St.Nicholas Day thing, eh?

ps: this tapestry is on my wishlist, if any of you were confounded about what to get me...;)

coffee house audio clips and such

I hear it was a raging success.
Hey Ramona, this is something we could do once or twice throughout the year. We certainly have enough talent within our community.
There's a hilarious clip of Seraphim singing a song about Abba Pambo.
Achilles does some rap. Mira's dad sings a Romanian folk song. It's wonderful, and just so inspired!
Let's organize something like this for February, just before Lent.
Fr. John says they advertised all over the city and they had a lot of people come, many of whom they had never seen before.
What a great way to draw people in from the community!

http://www.allsaintsofalaska.ca/coffeehouse.html

Some thoughts on unity.

Keep these thoughts in mind as we strive to embrace and live in unity with our Orthodox siblings, fellow Christians, Buddhists, friends and enemies.

The Coptic monk Matthew the Poor says this about unity:
"If we are not together it is a.) because we are seeking it before we have surrendered our whole heart and whole soul and our whole mind to God, and b) because we are seeking it outside ourselves; that is to say, we are trying to realize it as a matter for discussion and not within ourselves."

"The unity of men is an ideal that surpasses human strength if it is sought at a divine level. It flows, as a necessity, as an inevitable and direct consequence from the union of God with man."

"Unity is truth and truth inspires and inspiration first lodges itself in the heart and only htne in the understanding."

Evangelical?

I ran into someone today and we talked about what being evangelical means. I have this sense that God is calling St. Hermans -the parish - to step outside of itself. There are many people who have come to St. Hermans on their own.... they were searching and found their way to us. But, as a parish we have done very little to invite people to "come and see". Admittedly, there are individuals in the parish who do this by their very nature, but as a parish we have not devoted much time or energy in this area.

I am very excited about our Open House on Sat. Dec. 3rd. I hope and pray that it will inspire us all to think of some other ways we can share our faith with all our new neighbours. Literally.

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions. Let me or someone else on parish council know.

You can't find me here 

Bishop BASIL's Last Message to St. John Parish

1. Live simply.
2. Pray often.
3. Don't hold grudges. Be nice to each other. (This point was rather comical when he said, "Husbands and wives how hard can this be? But it is hard. We get so nit-picky with each other. Remeber husbands, you asked her to marry you. [Everyone laughed] And wives, you said yes. [More laughter] Or vice versa... whatever the case may be." [Stunned silence with smirks and small giggles hidden in pockets.]
4. Confess often.
5. Commune often.
6. LIVE SIMPLY.

************************

I went up and spoke to Fr. John and said, "Hmmm... that message sounds familiar." (It's the same message he gives us repeatedly.) He smiled and hugged me and squeezed my hand.

It's a peaceful sight to see the beauty our beloved Bishop reflected in our priest.

***********************

On a side note: Have you ever heard Southerners sing in Arabic? The Arabs at St. John have to listen closely to recognize it -- it has a drawl to it. Thankfully we don't sing in Arabic often. It's kind of cool when we do, though, because all the Arabs start singing very loudly and robustly. Makes me smile.

Victoria -- for some reason this reminds me of you teasing me for the official "y'all" I promised. My priest says that in Mississippi the Liturgy lasts an extra 20 minutes just to compensate for the Southern accent.

From Shannon Parker

just wanted to respond with thanks to the invite to join spruce island, and to say hello to friends that i may not have spoken to for awhile (since biss & phil's wedding, most likely). I have sort of boycotted blogs up to this point but because this is a chance to carry on conversations with many of you whom i know, all at once, and because it is an extension of community, i'm giving in. i'm ottawa visiting cheryl and zeke, right now, and elizabeth yesterday but she's gone home for her grandfather's funeral. we are at st. paul's but we have to go now to get a bagel before vespers.

love to many of you whom i miss, and peace be to all,

shannon parker

Biship BASIL is here!

Wow

Glory be to Jesus Christ!

I found this article extreamly interesting, I pray that all of you do too. Enjoy the hymns also :)

May the Peace and Blessing of the Lord our God be with all of us always :)

your brother in Christ,
"Neo"

==========================================

The Living Temple

Written by the Very Rev. John Breck

"Three Generations" By the hand of Fr. Luke Dingman

Hymns(audio, right click and open in a new window or tab):
Let My Prayer Arise In Your Sight As Incense
Awed By The Beauty

At rare and privileged moments we find ourselves overcome by a burning desire for God. Something from beyond presses us to venture into a mystery that both reveals and conceals God’s very being. That Something or Someone leads us on a sacred quest that attains its end not by reason, but by way of the heart. Consequently, the language we use to understand and convey that mystery, even to a limited extent, is necessarily the symbolic, poetic language of Liturgy. It is through the prayer of the Church that we come closest to perceiving, experiencing and celebrating God as the object of our most fervent longing.

If we can know anything of the divine mystery, it is because God, from His “infinite otherness,” has disclosed Himself to us. He has revealed His face to us in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth. The Church, however, confesses and celebrates the truth that this Jesus is Himself the eternal Son of God, “consubstantial” with the Father and the Spirit, thus One of the Holy Trinity. Yet He is also one of us, having taken upon Himself our humanity, including suffering and death. He became “incarnate,” not only entering into our life, but assuming it in its fallen state, restoring it to the original perfection for which it was intended, then rising and ascending with that life – our life – so that we might share fully in the glory He shared with the Father from before the foundation of the world.

This language we use to speak of God made known to us in Christ is ontological language. It expresses the divine mystery in categories of being. In order to reveal that mystery to us and at the same time enable us to participate in it, Jesus had to be in all reality both God and man. God in His eternal essence, He had to “assume” our human nature, thereby becoming the God-man. In the perspective of the a-symmetrical Christology characteristic of Orthodox Christianity, the Subject of the incarnation remains the eternal Son; yet He takes upon Himself all the conditions of human existence, in order to work out our salvation by His own death and resurrection. Without that ontological participation in human life, there could be no salvation. If Jesus were simply a man in whom God’s Word came to expression, He could not save us. He could speak to us about God, but He could not provide us with direct and personal access to God. To be both Revealer and Savior, Jesus must Himself be “God in the flesh.”

This aspect of divine mystery, on which our life and salvation depend, explains the Church’s traditional veneration of the Virgin Mary, celebrated liturgically and in personal devotions as the Mother of God. The eternal Son of God became Jesus, the Son of Man, in the womb of the Holy Theotokos, “the God-bearer.”

On November 21, we join with Orthodox Christians throughout the world to celebrate the second great Marian feast of the liturgical year: the “Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple.” This feast has as its textual foundation the mid-second century document known as the “Book of James” (thus Origen) or, more commonly as “The Protoevangelium of James” (implying that its tradition is older than that of the canonical Gospels). The work is an apocryphal panegyric, written to honor Mary by depicting her birth, her presentation in the Temple, her betrothal to Joseph, and the miraculous birth of Jesus (the later chapters 22-25, concerning John the Baptist, are secondary). Although it was formally condemned in the West, the Eastern Churches have drawn heavily upon it in formulating the liturgical traditions for the great feasts of Mary’s birth and her reception into the Temple, where, it is held, she was introduced into the Holy of Holies by the (high?) priest and there, was “fed by the angels.”

A great deal of fruitless discussion has focused on the historical unlikelihood that Mary could in fact have been raised in the Temple and particularly in its most sacred space, into which the Jewish high priest entered only once a year, on the Day of Atonement. Such discussion totally misses the point of the traditional account and, in the process, obscures the truth that underlies it.

Every affirmation the Church makes concerning Mary is, once again, an affirmation of our faith in the Person of her Son, Jesus Christ. Mariology, in other words, is necessarily a function of Christology. To exalt the Holy Virgin with liturgical images of her presence in the earthly Temple, and especially in the sacred altar area, is to recognize and proclaim that she has been elevated to the true Holy of Holies, where she is perpetually nourished by her Son, the Word of God, and where she makes her ceaseless intercession on behalf of us all.

The images of the Protoevangelium of James, then, are not simply the product of pious speculation. Although the work is apocryphal, it enshrines and declares truth about the Holy Virgin that the Church has always known. Through her miraculous conception in the womb of Anna, through her presentation in the Temple at the age of three years, where she was “nurtured like a dove and received food from the hand of an angel,” through her perpetual virginity throughout her marriage to Joseph, and through her bringing forth of the child Jesus, she fulfills the blessing uttered by the priest at her presentation: “The Lord has magnified your name among all generations; because of you the Lord at the end of the days will manifest His redemption to the children of Israel.”

God has manifested His redemption through the birth of His eternal Son from the womb of the Holy Theotokos. The hymnography of the feast expresses it well: “Fed in faith by heavenly bread in the Temple of the Lord, you have brought forth to the world the Bread of Life that is the Word.” As His Holy Mother, and as our perpetual Intercessor who offers her prayer for the world’s salvation, this woman, whom we celebrate in the Church today and every day, has truly become “the most pure Temple of the Savior, the sacred treasure of the glory of God, … the abode of Heaven.”

http://www.ancientfaithradio.com/

just found this through the blog of a blog of a friend of mine.
just in time for advent.
time to put away my eminem cd's. (am i joking? wouldn't you like to know)

The Man Who Orders Three Beers

In a small village in Ireland just south-west of Dublin, an old man who, recently moved there, started ordering three beers each and every time he visited the pub.

Finally, a week later, the bartender broaches the subject on behalf of the town. “I don't mean to pry, but folks around here are wondering why you always order three beers?”

“Tis odd, isn't it?” the man replies, “You see, I have two brothers, and one went to America, and the other to Australia. We promised each other that we would always order an extra two beers whenever we drank as a way of keeping up the family bond.”

The bartender and the whole town was pleased with this answer, and soon the Man Who Orders Three Beers became a local celebrity and source of pride to the village, even to the extent that out-of-towners from elsewhere in Ireland would come to watch him drink. Then, one day, the man comes in and orders only two beers. The bartender pours them with a heavy heart. This continues for the rest of the evening-- he orders only two beers. The word flies around the small village. Prayers are offered for the soul of one of the brothers.

The next day, the bartender says to the man, “Folks around here, me first of all, want to offer condolences to you for the death of your brother. You know-the two beers and all...”

The man ponders this for a moment, then replies, “You'll be happy to hear that my two brothers are alive and well. It's just that I, meself, have decided to give up drinking for the Advent Fast.”

is it just me, or is this going to be a looong fast?

"It is necessary most of all for one who is fasting to curb anger, to accustom oneself to meekness and condescension, to have a contrite heart, to repulse impure thoughts and desires, to examine the conscience, to put one's mind to the test and to verify what good has been done by us in this or any other week, and which deficiency we have corrected in ourself in the present week.
This is true fasting."

St. John Chrysostom

I might as well.

Signed up recently to this comm-blog. But here is my first post. I just read my lovely wife's comment about what it is like living in the midwest and the lovely and striking thing that our son said. He breaks our heart every day (at least once).

In order to keep with the theme of contributing something of uplifting spiritual value, I offer this quote from Schmemann (a favorite of us all):

"All that exists is God's gift to man, and it all exists to make God known to man, to make man's life communion with God. It is divine love made food, made life for man."

These words were take from the opening pages of For the Life of the World. I like being reminded of this. The world God made is good, very good. All of life, all that exists as our world, is sacramental since it is imbued with His very life and presence. A simple and beautiful fact that I will not expound here, but let us never forget.

Precious in the eyes of the Lord are the deaths of his saints

Thank you all for praying. My Grandfather died this morning about 3 AM EST. My Grandmother was there, holding his hand and heard his breathing change. My Mom called to tell me before work at 7 AM my time. I will be trying to go to London ON tomorrow and then the rest of the way home on Saturday; visitation will probably be Saturday and Sunday night, with the funeral on Monday.

I am very comforted by all of your comments and prayers. My family are Christians but not Orthodox Christians so at times that is a bit difficult for me in situations like this. Praise God that as an Orthodox Christian I can still freely pray for the soul of my Grandfather, whose last words to me were that prayer is the best thing we can ever do.

Now I have to get ready for work--of course this would be a day with 2 meetings at work, the first at 9 am. Thank you so much for praying. I really appreciate it and hope to return the honour when ever my prayers are needed for any of you.

Prayer

My Grandfather John’s body appears to be shutting down; he is still in the hospital and was not responsive. Most likely he is dying. Please pray if you can. I am 980 miles from home right now and may be going home for my Grandfather’s funeral. Thank you so much for reading this. I really do appreciate it. May I in time also be able to pray for all of you, my sisters and brothers in Christ who inhabit this blog space.

a whimsical time up a tree

"The world is charged with the grandeur of God" - G.M. Hopkins
It is good to be home, although I couldhave stayed at the youth retreat for a long long time. It was amazing to see everyone, and to hear Fr John speak on such a relevant topic. God is soooo good. What more can be said? words are not enough.

I feel like I'm becoming more of an integrated person. I feel like God is uniting me with my past and my future...sometimes I've felt disunited from the past because I had such a different lifestyle for some time, and from the future because I don't really know what my vocation should be and where I should be stepping. But more and more these things are being revealed, and it is incredible to be in the midst of God's grace and mercy as He re-unites me. Glory to God!

Here are some of my favourite quotes from Fr John's talks at the Youth Retreat, on the topic of Singleness and the Married Life:

"We need to understand who we are, what this world that we live in is about, and who God is and what He has accomplished for us on the Cross, before we can have healthy single or married relationships. " - Fr John
"Lust is wanting something right now."
"Modesty is a quality inherent in women. In the past, modesty gave women the right to withold themselves from dishonourable men. Modest women live in a way that makes the quality of womanliness transparent, trascendant, and implicit. Modesty induces men to be true gentlemen. Modesty is the proof that morality is sexy." (Fr John's paraphrasing of Wendy Shalit's "Return to Modesty").
"This is how I die best." (quote from Fr Gregory)
"Mummies and daddies are God's way of showing us that we must be loved into being." - Fr John

And now, I want to get your opinions: how would you define dating, in an Orthodox Christian setting?

One other thought

Cavorting orcas -- cavorcas?

Hey guys

Yeaaahhhh! Thanks for the invite, oh Sprucies -- I feel so special!
My brain is scrambled tofu after a loooong journey from Vancouver to Victoria (only those who perform this five hour extravaganza regularly know just how gruelling it can be -- fabulous scenery and the odd group of cavorting orcas notwithstanding) (yes I know it's called a 'pod' but I have an unreasonable hatred of those cutesy whimsical words that connote groups of animals: "murder of crows", etc -- don't get me started) (not that you were) with two sugared-up overtired short people. So I have even less to contribute right now than perhaps at other times. I need to just go collapse in a heap. I'm glad the retreat went well; I know my husband was very blessed by it. Before long Ella will be going to these things: aieeeeeee!

Just wanted to say hi, anyway -- I long forward to long hours of screen time reading and posting with y'all.

MJ

Read this quotation today…

The lives of men are subject to drastic changes. These changes are gradual at times; at others, lightening quick. But even those of us who enjoy long years of opulence and fame can find no consolation, no gladness, unless our heart is illumined by the steady light of peace. It is this peace that we must seek, it is for this peace that we should pray—the peace that our Lord gave to His disciples and to all those who really have faith in him.

Macarius of Optina

My priest told me the other day that the goal for me as a Christian is for God to unite His mind with my mind, His heart with my heart and His soul with my soul. It suddenly became a little clearer, what it means to be transfigured into being like Christ. Somehow the quote above reminded me of what my priest said; this seeking for Christ’s illumination.

I love Rilke

"What is required of us is that we love the difficult and learn to deal with it. In the difficult are the friendly forces, the hands that work on us. Right in the difficult we must have our joys, our happiness, our dreams: there against the depth of this background, they stand out, there for the first time we see how beautiful they are."

David B Hart

So, I just received a book in the mail, Stacy sent it to me because she thought it would be relevant to my thesis. I think that it will probably be relevant to just about all of my existence. I have only looked briefly at it, but it was shocking and overwhelming to just read the chapters and subchapter headings. I am so excited, but in the meantime, check out this link. This guy is amazing. He is an orthodox theologian, and he is praised in First Things as promising to become one of the most influential theologians in the world. I believe it.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110006097

Home on Spruce Island/ The retreat was awesome!

Glory to Jesus Christ!
Greetings all! those of you not at the retreat, i missed you and i wish you could have been to this. those of you at the retreat, i miss you already. oh the memories. the late nights. sigh.

Well i think i will fill some of you in. i arrived at about ten o'clock. i greeted phil and mira, and others, which was such a reunion filled with joy. i also met biss, for the first time after meeting her on this bloging network. which was so awesome( i am now adopted by biss. another one of her boys). im smiling again. when i arrived there, and all that night until 2:00 am when me and mira and phil finally went to sleep, i was smiling with such joy. i could not stop. and it wasn't just a grin, my face muscles were starting to hurt. i was so happy to be there with those people. i also met jesse and dan. i wish i could be at their baptisms. but i don't think that will be able to work out. also i met another jordan, which was very cool. the jordans. muryn was a very cool person to meet. i was greeted by kim and fr john and matt and krista the next morning which was another blessing. ( Fr John was amazed by our bloging community by the way). For those of you who don't know the topic was marriage and singleness in Christ. and i had set up a bunch of questions for Fr John, of which, all he answered before i ask him. he made things so clear it was an amazing weekend. if anyone would want a tape of his sessions, i did tape it and you may have a copy if you wish just talk to me if you want one. a great time, so full of peace and calmness for me. the ride home seemed lonely at first but i was very comforted toward the end. i did not get to say goodbye to mira which made me sad at first, but then i realized something on the way home, kind of cheesy yet very, very true. she did not actually leave me spiritually, she is still here with me, as you all are, glorifying and giving thanks to God. this is how the weekend was. i was so spiritually connected with these people. they are family, just as they should be. i cannot wait to be on the coast again. biss was ordering me to put all my stuff in their car and told me that i was going home with them. i wanted to so badly. i miss you all so much. an amazing weekend.

God Bless!
Later days.

p.s. thames mortimore. good laughs! and Kurt's " why don't ya shut up ya Jehovah's witness." i can't believe he said that. oh i was crying with laughter.

Liturgy: Common Work, Common Worship

I've been told that the word Liturgy translates into "common work" or "common worship." Some mornings it definately feels like work more than worship. My friend Nathan once shared this maxim with me: Sometimes your head takes your feet to Church and sometimes your feet take your head. I can appreciate that.

When I was working on my dissertation I was studying the etymology of the verb "to heal." Working on a doctorate in counseling "to heal" is at the heart of the matter. I was searching word roots in the Old and New Testaments and doing some other research to that end. I was intrigued to find one day that "to heal" shared some ancestry with "to work" in the Old Testament and "to worship" in the New Testament. Being that I was still Protestant at the time this all made sense to me inherently but I had trouble putting it together with the theology. That word "work" was particularly pesky at the time.

I remember working on one particular piece of my paper and I must have rewritten it 3 or 4 times. I'd write 12-15 pages and then just scrap the whole thing. I was so frustrated with it. I kept wrestling with this relationship between healing, working, and worshipping. (It seems so easy now. It's hard for me to remember what a surprise it all was to me then). Finally, I sat down with the book of Jeremiah (one of my favorites) and I prayed. Jeremiah 6:16 says this,

This is what the LORD says:
"Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls...."

I stopped. I was arrested by this passage. I began to research the book of Jeremiah more fully. I called my friend who was a seminarian at the time and I said, "What's the ancient path?" (Little did I know at the time that that friend was wrestling with the decision to become Orthodox. He later told me that it was that passage that confirmed his heart's desire and he became a catechumen shortly thereafter.)

Once a passage like that gets into you it just won't go away. So as my search continued you can simply imagine my surprise and sense of home when I met Father Paul for the first time on a tour of an Orthodox Church nave. He said, "This is where we do Liturgy. The word litrugy means 'common work' or 'common worship.'" I don't know if he saw me staring at him at the time or if he saw my jaw drop... pages and pages and hours and hours of dissertation work... I was standing in the middle of my dissertation. I was looking at the Ancient Path.

I didn't finish my doctorate. I became Orthodox instead.

****************

I'm getting out of bed now. Liturgy awaits. : )

St. Nicholas Day

A small reminder to all about the St. Nicholas Day open house at St. Hermans.

Saturday December 3rd
10 am 2pm

We will be having a bake/ craft sale - some cookie decorating for the younger folk. The church will be open from 10am to 2pm - we will serve hot apple cider and invite the neighbouring community. So come and join us for some fellowship. Or if you are unable to physically be there.. pray for us that day.

the arrogant worms

Thoughts for the day

This is a quotation from the first page of Met. Anthony Bloom’s Courage to Pray:

“Prayer is the search for God, encounter with God, and going beyond this encounter in communion. Thus it is an activity, a state and also a situation; a situation both with respect to God and the created world. It arises from the awareness that the world in which we live is not simply two dimensional, imprisoned in the categories of time and space, a flat world in which we meet only the surface of things, an opaque surface covering emptiness. Prayer is born of the discovery that the world has depths; that we are not only surrounded by visible things but that we are also immersed in and penetrated by invisible things. And this invisible world is both the presence of God, the supreme, sublime reality, and our own deepest truth. Visible and invisible are not in opposition neither can they be juxtaposed like in an addition sum. They are present simultaneously, as fire is present in red hot iron.”

Retreat

All those who are who are bouncing in their seat, while they type, because of the retreat tomorrow, raise your hand. (two hands for Gabe!!)

p.s. i wont arrive until like 10:00p.m. so that delays our meeting for like 5 hours but i still will be there. can't wait!!!!!!!!

God Bless!
Later days.

St. Xenia Akathist

GABE:

This is specifically for you.

EVERYONE ELSE:

Help yourself.

*****************

The St. Xenia Akathist scan that I did made the file way too large to e-mail, so instead I've posted the 8 pages to my university account. Go here:

St. Xenia Akathist

and then click on the folder marked: St. Xenia Akathist

After that you can open each page and print or download it or whatever.

(I never use the university account for anything so I'm glad it's being put to use.)