Publican and Pharisee

Like a wave, the Triodion breaks upon us. Lent is nearly here. The Choir Director, the Cantors, the Readers and the Psaltiks all take down a big book of music only used for these few weeks of intensity.

Et incipiit...

Let us flee from the pride of the Pharisee!
And learn humility from the Publican's tears!
Let us cry to our Savior,
have mercy on us,
only merciful One!

Open to me the gates of repentance, 0 Giver of life, for my spirit riseth early to pray towards Thy holy temple, bearing the temple of my body all-defiled. But in Thy compassion, purify me by the loving kindness of Thy mercy.

Lead me on the paths of salvation, 0 Theotokos, for I have profaned my soul with shameful sins, and have wasted my life in laziness. But by thine intercessions, deliver me from all impurity.

Have mercy on me O God, according to Thy great mercy and according to the miltitude of Thy compassions, blot out my transgression.

When I think of the many evil things I have done, wretch that I am, I tremble at the fearful day of judgment. But trusting in Thy loving kindness, like David I cry to Thee: Have mercy on me, 0 God, according to Thy great mercy.

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Double PLus \\`00+

Back online here. *whew*. I was thinking I'd have to go sponge wireless internet off my friends in Fletcher.

But, instead, we have all kinds of netage here at the boarding house. I also came home to a tonne of good news, most of it not at-this-time blogable, I'm sorry to say. But it is ALL KINDS of GOOD. Color me happy and blessing God.

Also I just learned that the landlord is putting two apartments into the basement - the non-flooded part. If it comes with the free internet and what all, it may be the best bargain this side of the Mississippi.

Anyway... I've got something more edifying to write about, just thought I'd \\`00+ a bit.

Peace. Out.

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update

All the network hardware in the basement is fried - the router the hubs, the cable modem, etc. Birdsong, the server, at least, survived. But she doesn't point anywhere... or, rather, she does point somewhere, but can not share her connexion with the rest of us.

So... I'm limited to a few sparse emails between all the calls at work. I can *read* your emails, but replying is hard. I will try however! Obviously there is no "chat" in my life. I don't know how long John will take to fix all this stuff. It may be tonight... or next month. C'est la guerre.

Btw, if you think you should have my cell phone #... or just wanted to have it... or had the old one but don't know the new one... let me know.

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Floods have lifted up.

Feeling a little congested this AM: I know the symptoms well, though. I have a radiator in the room and the air outside is cold and dry now. My lungs are desperately trying to moisturize. Hack. Cough. Phlegm. Spit. (ta-ping!)

The flood yesterday took out the network. That's it. So I have no internet at home for a time - but I have a home. For this, I can suffer. Thank you all for your prayers and good thoughts.

It does, however, mean a serious decrease in posting and email access for the time being. If you've got my cell# use it. If you're worried about what time it may be, just know I won't answer the phone if I don't want to!

I noted a major synchronicity last evening.

When I awoke yesterday... I reached in the darkness to turn on the coffee pot. I heard something go "clunk" and I felt there. It was my bottle of holy water with the twist cap. Oddly, in the dark, the cap had popped off and there was water everywhere. Turn on the lights. Mop it all up. Then we discovered the basement issue. What we didn't know was the new water pipes in the basement were not yet connected to the house. A cap had popped off the new pipe in the night and so, there was water everywhere.

Can't say coincidence any more. "All things come of Thee, O Lord." But sometimes, to us, you know, it looks odd.

It's been slow at work for the last couple of days. Been reading John Romanides and Mtr. HIEROTHEOS. I've also been reading The Soul After Death by Bl Seraphim Rose. (May he pray for us!) It has been an interesting week in reading.

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Morning...

The morning was crisp, but not too cold: I decided to take the scooter to work. Sadly, there seemed to be no internet at the house: the network was up... but the net-gateway was MIA. "Birdsong" was down. Note to self: remind John again that I'll serve as net-tech for things such as this if he'll give me a key to the basement.

Plugged through the morning rites.

Stood in the lobby listening to the loudest, oddest noise I'd ever heard. Decided it might be coming from #2. Wondered how #4 and 5, let alone #1 (the landlord's son) were sleeping though it. Ran into my neighbor (#12) on the stairs. "Did you see the water?" He asked. What water? "The water that's been pouring out of the back of the house since 11 PM?"

DOH!

Indeed, the back of the house looked rather like Lourdes. A quick phonecall to John, and a pounding on the door of the building manager (who, had #12 only known, could stop it and get others to fix it...) Pour Birdsong the Server was probably treading water in the four feet of water that filled the basement - or else she's electrocuted herself in the excitement of it all.

Your prayers are coveted: a place to live, even without free interent, is a good thing to have.

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Church School Conference...

First Annual Pan-Orthodox Southern Christian Education Conference
Building a Stronger Church School

Friday, April 23 - Sunday, 25, 2004
Lutheridge Conference Center
Arden (Asheville), North Carolina
Hosted by:
St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Church

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70s Jesus Music...

Having an André Crouch moment.

Praise the Lord

When you're up against a struggle
that shatters all your dreams
and your hopes have been cruelly crushed
by satan's manifested schemes
don't let the faith you're standing in
seem to disappear

Praise the Lord
He can work through those who praise Him
Praise the Lord
for our God in habits praise
Praise the Lord
for the chains that seem to bind you
serve only to remind you
that they drop powerless behind you
when you praise Him.


More...

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more...

Phil Keagy...

Like waking' up from the longest dream
how real it seamed
until Your love broke through
I was lost in a fantasy
that blinded me
until Your love broke through

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Keep on truckin...

For those of you wondering how insane the Rabbit is: it was 19 this morning. There was snow and ice on the roads. Heck, there was snow convering the ice. There are predicted wind gusts of well... gusty speed.

I took the bus to work.

(Priase God for new work schedules.)

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Q and A...

Orthodox Worship vs. Contemporary Worship

I get in arguments all the time with my boyfriend about churches. He is Lutheran and I am Orthodox and all the time I tell him about how the Orthodox church is the original, whole and unchanged. He does not like "formal" type of worship and prefers contemporary worship with drums, guitar, etc. He asks me, "Does God care how you praise him?"

Read the reply from Fr. John Matusiak on the OCA website.

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Axioma-Tech

There are no simple problems, only simple users.

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2001.X.18

One good thing about a journal is you can keep track of things. I needed to find some dates from my "past life" here... was snooping through my old journals, looking at pictures of my going away party at Gay.com where I used to work (it was aptly named "Hawaiian Shirt Day" after my favorite item of clothing). Anyway... snooping through these pages looking for dates, I found the following, written about my vocational calling. I don't know if I'm called to be a priest, but here's my fullest statement of faith up to that point. I think I might only change one or two words now... It opens with me quoting myself. I hereby quote me quoting myself quoting myself...


More...

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What I saw last week...

I'm reposting this from last week b/c I really like this photo. It's got the sunset, the moon and the evening star. If you ignore the obvious lamp post, it looks like it's got the Sun too. Anyway, it's clickable now for a desk top sized image - which wasn't available last time.

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Yes, Primeminister.

This makes my day. (Props to the Redwood Dragon

SHE WAS at Winston Churchill's side during Britain's darkest hour. And now Charlie the parrot is 104 years old...and still cursing the Nazis.

Her favourite sayings were "F*** Hitler" and "F*** the Nazis". And even today, 39 years after the great man's death, she can still be coaxed into repeating them with that unmistakable Churchillian inflection.

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A Reading Project for Lent...

Dear Orthodox Bloggers:

What shall we read for Lent? Can we decide in a week or so? :-)

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Zacchaeus Sunday II...

It dawned on me today, listening to Father's sermon that we miss and important part of the story of Zacchaeus if we only focus on him or on him and Jesus. There are other folks in that story: "And he sought to see Jesus, who He was, but could not for the press of the crowd... And when they saw it, they all murmured"

More...

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Time passes...

Zacchaeus Sunday... The Triodion is nearly upon us. I feel like a homesick child who can see, just over the hill, the house of the Old Folks at Home. Lent is coming.

Who will climb a tree in these days? This Sunday's Gospel is the theme for all of Lent. Make an effort, climb up the tree, God will come to your house for dinner today. But you have to invite Him in, not so much by your words as by your actions.

I am painfully aware of how little my actions equal my words, of how little my life refects even that I have heard of this Man and desire to meet Him - let alone that I claim to follow Him.

God is here, and rather unlike Zacchaeus, I'm only too willing to late others keep me out of the picture. When the invite comes, who will be the one who has "made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully."

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That blog across the pond.

I greatly enjoy reading David's daily posts, and he and I disagree at some points - which is very good for me - but this one got me. Don't know why. Per haps it's where I began my day, or because of how long ago that beginning was, perhaps it is because I am often painfully aware that I'll not have my own children. But this post got me.

And this one fragment about his son, "While I have been jealous of any of his contemporaries who can speak fluently (though Mrs H has tried to console me my suggesting that this is because they are abnormal)..." That made me want to do the California thing and get all huggy with everyone.

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Meme!!!!

Still got a few to go... but this was a decidedly satisfactory meme.



create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Mmm. Is that more states than Dean?

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Unexpected findings...

Tomorrow I'll go to a Pro-Life prayer service. No. Let me rephrase that. Tomorrow I'll be doing some prayers at a vigil being held in front of an abortion clinic. Wait. I don't think I'm clear yet. I've never done anything like it before.

But that life there. That's God too: just as you are, just as I pray, one day, to be. Just because you imagine it not to be doesn't make it so. Just because someone teaches it's not murder doesn't mean it isn't.

18 mos ago, I wouldn't have cared.

And for a number of years I was on the other side of this: the Atlanta Journal Constitution interviewed me at an anti-life rally in 1985 or so, the "March for Women's Lives". Modern ethics tell us to demand rights, to fight others for our justly due place. The weak, the unable to defend themselves? They don't count. A woman might be poor if she has that child, a woman might be unwed and so stigmatized in her culture... So she kills her baby. Her life is more important than the life within her.

It has nothing, in my head, to do with making her stop doing it. It has everything, in my head, to do with creating a world where she wouldn't have imagined doing it at all in the first place.

But, it also has everything to do with knowing that world won't happen very easily - because the world won't get better, only worse as we preapre for Apocalypse.

We pray. We witness. That's it.

And I've come very late to the realization that I've never been Pro-Life before, unless that life was mine. Which is, sadly and ironically, the most selfish and unliving thing to be.

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What I saw today...

Some pics of Sunset Beyond Mt Pisgah and the Scary Trees outside my house. The two larger pictures at the end of the post can be clicked on and seen in their full size and used, maybe, for a desk top.

More...

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House Blessings

After the feast of Theophany (6 January) is the time of the House Blessings - every house in the parish is visited by the Priest and blessed. It's sort of a "progressive liturgy" if you remember that particular 70s dinner fad. I see James as a post on this too - it's an Orthodox thing.

Had the room blessed last night. One room in the boarding house. Fr J and Dcn M over here praying and singing - and throwing holy water every which way. CLouds of smoke, and the sound of one of my favorite hymns, "O Lord, save Thy people, and bless Thine inheritance. Grant victories to Orthodox Christians and by virtue of Thy Cross, preserve Thy habitation."

Church happened right here in this little room. Saints and Angels. The Household is the little church - even this household of one.

God is good.

And there was the odd sign of two clergy in their cassocks and hats coming in the boarding house. I'm sure N (in #7), standing at the front door as the odd procession entered, must have thought about scenes from the Amityville Horror.

Fr and Dcn sat a spell and chatted. Now I know I can host two people at one time in my room!

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ObjectDesktop

I am once again thinking about "Customizing my windows" using Stardock's ObjectDesktop. It's a fun thing and I like the features, but many - if not all - of the available "skins" are about as hyper modern as STNG. I think a fun project would be the creation of an Orthodox Skin for windows - icons for icons, you know, and the like.

Don't know. But it might be fun.

I could also just finish my other projects.... nah

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Days and Hours

Work days fall into two basic patterns now. Either I start at 8, which feels painfully early and get out at 5 pm - a reasonably normal time. Or else I start at 8:30 which oddly feels quite late to me - and get out at 6. Somehow they have me schedule for 47 work hours this week (4 more than in the past), which, if you do your pseudo-commie math comes out to 50.5 hours of pay. What that means is this week (at least) I'm earning $4 less than I earned when I had two jobs.

Don't ask me how God managed that math: and we thank Him.

I am living on a sort of monastic schedule again - as I was, to a lesser degree, in San Francisco: get up at a set time almost every day a week, doing the same things (replace work on some days with Church on other days) etc. It's only day two of the new schedule, but it already feels a bit better than the "old" way - three months of irregular schedules when I might stay up til four AM a couple of nights without praying and then sleep til noon only to have to rush back to work - again without praying, usually.

As with study (if you were one of those students who took all the hints) a regular schedule helps prayer. I never took those hints, however. Perhaps I should have: I might have learned something in real college (rather than having a BA from here) and thus be really dangerous by now. Lets see if I can be dangerous in prayer.

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A Catechumen's Wash....

From my sister, Erica

For a second, I saw the Church, standing against the onslaughts of the world. Why were we at the ocean today? To bless the waters. What was the ocean doing? Trying to stop us. Sure, we could play the “nice” game of politely dodging, moving forward, stepping back, and playing with it. We were doing that for a while at the beginning, being tired and lazy. Then the wave came, and instead of running, we stood there and got wet. For a second, I glanced up at Fr. Michael (whom I could see best). His face showed that he knew he was about to get drenched and cold and wet; he braced himself for it, and stood with resolution. I saw Christ standing against the world. That courage came down through our ranks, until it got to the Church, the people. We weren’t playing a game anymore. It became real; to back down would have been wrong. We were Christ’s disciples standing with him against the world that seeks our destruction. He stood there first; he got the brunt of the wave, although there’s plenty to go around. We’ll get wet; but if we look up, there is an example to follow.

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Building

In 8th grade I built a church up on the hill. I tied some sticks together... stuck 'em in the ground.

I did the same thing a couple of years later in Gerogia - and then again in NY just before leaving High School. Then we hit paydirt: a house up on Wilsey Valley Rd where the garage had an upstairs: I built an altar (against the wall) and added rails and a retable.

This all comes in the Protestant anyone-can-lead-church mode, but I did use some of Mom's curtains to make mass vestments for the garage, and we used a cut-glass vase for a chalice.

Lest you think that these crazy ideas departed when I left the church - I kept right on building. I designed altars for pagan folks and built 'em. I made my own out of maple...

And I got my BA for presenting a project that included the how-to (and a foam-core model) for erecting this structure...



A two-story octagonal tower built on a cinder-block base, erected by volunteers (on an 18 month timeline) and containing all the things needed to house Orthodox worship.

There is a pattern here. I feel this has all been leading up to something...

But BOY! am I excited.

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Ecco Ecclesio

Karl's Comment on his own post about Rhetoric got me to thinking...

However, I am grateful for the ESOB (Ecumenical Synod of Orthodox Bloggers) and things such as that. One interesting strength of the blog conversations is that for those who follow them over time, you get a much better grasp of the person and their thoughts than you would in other forums. There is a dynamic here that isn't found in books, articles, or even e-lists.

There is a conversion as well as conversation we're having. The Orthodox Bloggers I've met online are part of my life - my reading and my praying and my thinking - and I wish tere were more face-to-face. I've even stood in the same Church at the same time as Erica and didn't realize it. I failed to make contact with anyone on the trip across country, and this past Christmas an Ortho-blogger trip to these parts got canceled because of the 'flu. Yet... I feel connected.

On the Net of days-gone-by (with my 2400 baud modem and a few BBS) my big thing, apart from DLing adult content, was the various rooms and servers of Internet Relay Chat. In all my time of chatting and meeting people from such place, I don't think I ever knew as much about - or formed such a near valid image - of someone from cyberspace as I do from reading blogs. I confess I've focused greatly. I rarely ever read non-Orthodox Christian blogs. I only read a few non-Christian or non-religious blogs, and of them I think all but one or two could sit down to dinner with the President and never bat an eye.

But I begin to feel I know these folks. They write to me - and to each other - in ways that are open to each other. When Clifton talks to Karl, we all hear it and get a better picture of them both. I'm very thankful for the presence of the Church, here in cyberspace. I know it could never replace the Sunday-to-Sunday fellowship with my sisters and brothers in meat-space, but when we turn to each other in eucharist, we are the Church and it is wonderful.

Our blogs may, in a way, be icons of ourselves, holding forth not only the good but also the bad of what we really are: a reader may know more about me than I wish to reveal here. May, one day, all the image be Christ.

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Dang.

It starts out slow, but then the author wrote the second word. You can disagree with it if you want (and I do in a couple of places), but Evan's rant on politics is one of the most enjoyable I've read recently.

Bite me. A thousand times bite me. I don't think boycotting airlines begins to approach the proper response to this kind of system; I would suggest a boycott of every company in America that doesn't categorically rule out compliance with the "trusted flyer" program for its management. If they won't stand in the long lines, we don't need to buy their stuff.

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A wee ramble...

A tech agent (ie, one of my supes) stopped me mid sentence tonight and said, "What's the matter? You don't sound right." Shifted my whole evening. I was whistlin' Dixie about ten mins later and kept quite bubbly the rest of the night.

More...

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Miss Manners?

I intended this as a comment to Karl's post on Orthodoxy and Salvation. But I realized it's not so much a comment as a meditation and either sarcastic, or else satire... not sure which. But I post it here, instead.

Dear Miss Manners,

I have a dear friend who constantly invites me over for dinner. But every meal is bacon and cheese sandwiches. You see, I'm an Orthodox Jew and such a meal is, well... a strain. I did tell him once, and, of course - and he is Jewish, although non-religious so he should know better. When I'm cooking the meal is ok for both of us.

Lately we have been seeing more of each other, and I've noted that my friend serves bacon and cheese at every meal. He never seems to ask why I don't eat, but if we spend the entire day together, it seems he gets to eat three square meals of bacon and cheese and I'm left to wonder around on low blood sugar until the date is over.

Last night he asked me to marry him and I don't know what to say. Condemn myself to hunger for ever? I know how much I love him, but all he offers me is bacon and cheese. I could offer him chicken soup and kreplach, tzimies and challa if he'd only come home.

Awaiting Advice in Athens

Dear Athens,

At this point on her radio show, Dr Ruth would play I'm Gonna (sic) Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair but since Miss Manners hasn't a radio show one can only reiterate the advice in a simple, but honest text-based way: Ditch him.

Yours,

Miss Manners

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"Accidental Celibacy"

Seems it's not just a gay thing... from Sed Contra

Most recently, [Details Magazine] had a very brief piece on what it called "Accidental Celibacy." Accidental Celibates in this admittedly non-academic, non-researched take on the topic, were those men who for a variety of reasons, including jadedness and cynicism (not their terms) have been effectively living without sex.
Warning: Language in the rest of this piece is a little frank and the easily offended or very young should not proceed.

[1] comments (424 views) |  link

Anonymous — An Orthodox Christian's Struggle

From Orthodoxy Today

Instead of focusing on changing sexual orientation, I think the focus for Christians—particularly Orthodox Christians—who struggle with same-sex attraction should be purity. Instead of praying, “Lord, please make me straight,” they should be praying, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
I am thankful to belong to a Church that is not afraid to stand up for biblical morality. I am also thankful that my Church condemns the cruel treatment of homosexuals that unfortunately occurs in the name of “Christianity.” My Church treats me as it does all other people, as one made in God’s image, one who needs to repent and turn to Christ, and struggle for my salvation.

[0] comments (318 views) |  link

OCA - News Headlines

Metropolitan Herman to Address DC Marchers

SYOSSET, NY [OCA Communications] -- His Beatitude, Metropolitan Herman, Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, will once again lead Orthodox Christian pro-life marchers at the annual March for Life in Washington, DC on January 22, 2004.
"For years, Metropolitan Herman has been a visible and vocal champion for the rights of the unborn," said the Very Rev. John Matusiak, OCA Communications Director. "His presence and speeches at the annual March for Life have provided a profound witness of the Orthodox Church's fundamental belief that all life, created by God, is sacred."

[8] comments (337 views) |  link

AWESOME!

Catholic Bishop Refuses Communion to Pro-Abortion Politicians

Bishop Raymond Burke of La Crosse, Wis., has issued a formal decree barring pro-abortion Catholic politicians from receiving Holy Communion.

According to Bishop Burke, "A Catholic legislator who supports procured abortion or euthanasia, after knowing the teaching of the Church, commits a manifestly grave sin which is a cause of most serious scandal for others."

Props to Jonathan David, who rightfully notes, These [political] representatives have a right to believe and vote the way they want. What they don't have a right to is to claim to be "good Catholics" (or "good Orthodox" or "good Christians" of any stripe) while publically and defiantly refusing to live the faith, and they don't have a "right" to the Body and Blood of the Lord.

Now if only some of our Bishops and Patriarchs would get a ticket on the clue train as well, and stop sucking up to the politicos.

[1] comments (302 views) |  link

Anglicans Online - Letters to the Editor...

One doesn't know if one should laugh or cry. It's so true to form and yet so wrong. From the Anglicans Online website, a letter from one H.E. Baber of the (Roman Catholic) University of San Diego.

I joined the Episcopal Church because I was a romantic and wanted to be part of that grand historical tradition of high art, music, architecture and literature. Over the years, in misguided attempts to be 'relevant' and appeal to a wider constituency the Church jettisoned the liturgy I loved and effectively killed to romance that drew me in.
I didn't belong to the Church to receive its teachings on sexual ethics or any other matters, to work for a better society or to participate in the 'community' of a "parish family." I have my husband, children, friends and colleagues; I work for a better society by volunteering for the Democratic Party and contributing to civil rights organizations. I can figure out how to deal with ethical issues on my own, I teach students to do the same, and I have no interest in the half-baked views of clergy.

[2] comments (354 views) |  link

Weekend Report

An awesome weekend with the Church.

Saturday i woke up and cooked pancakes and sausage in the kitchen. This drew in a couple of folks who went out and got their own food to share. We had yummie southern food - although not all very breakfasty: cornbread and beans and macaroni and cheese, and pancakes and sausage, Life in the boarding house continues apace. I have a young woman with a child living next door to me right now. That's freaky. I have no problem with it, if I see her as much as I see the rest of my fellow tenants I'll most likely *never* see the kid. But it is odd: this is not a place to raise kids!
More...

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Ortho-Meme

OK, all you Orthodox Bloggers out there: Do you teach Sunday School? Do you know someone who does?

My Parish has a conference coming up this spring for about and by Christian Educators. We' hosting it at the lovely Lutheridge conference center

More information (like dates and whatall) forthcoming. But I wanted to alert you all so you could alert others.

[3] comments (451 views) |  link

St. Stephen's Salon and Musing Parlor

The Grand Pooh-Bah of the Ecumenical (but not Ecumenist or modernist) Synod of Really Orthodox but still Outside of Russia (and not abroad in the bunch) Bloggers is growing a beard again. But what's the problem with calling a genXer from the Northwest, "Metrosexual"?

[8] comments (386 views) |  link

WHat I saw...

Asheville by Day
More...

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not enough Gilbert and Sullivan

http://www.privatehand.com/flash/elements.html

[0] comments (350 views) |  link

Cheating on Solitaire

The fraternity house at NYU was located at 3-5 Washington Place. My fraternity was on the 5th floor. Late at night, sitting with my buddy, A.S. in room two, we were smoking and drinking, we got up and moved to the window ledge. The ledge from room two forward, to room one and around the front of the building was three feet wide. A.S. got up and walked around the corner of the building and came back. The view of the World Trade Center from right on the corner was amazing (we'd sit and watch the lightening strike repeatedly).

But further up the floor - rooms three to nine - the ledge was about an inch wide. One could walk on it by hanging on the windows and carefully walking along, moving from room to room on the outside. I came in my own bedroom that way once, when I was locked out: only to discover my roomie's significant other locked in a gossip-worthy embrace with another fraternity brother. Ledgewalking, as we called it, was a danger not only to oneself but to others.

More...

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Soon and very soon..

It was said at my former (ECUSAn) parish that there are only two seasons: Easter and Easter-is-Coming.

Zacchaeus Sunday is in Three weeks!!!!!

I put in, today, for time off during Great Week.

Why does The Fast look like a warm, comfortable and inviting wading pool into which I long to caper? I used to look this forward to Christmas.

[3] comments (295 views) |  link

Left hand, meet Right hand.

Recent comments on the post about Dhimmitude leave me wondering; what's the better option: (1) a "man of faith" who lets his politics dictate what he says in public (so he can at least keep his faith solid in private); or (2) a man who says he keeps his own, solid faith in private, but lets his politics dictate when he should pull out the "faith card"?

Is it better to pretend you let your faith dictate your policy - and have it not be so - or to say your faith has nothing to do with your policies, unless your campaigning among those "religious types"? Is it kinder to imagine voters of faith won't pay any attention to your obvious lack of faith after you let it slip out in public, or to imagine that voters of faith will ignore your constant barrage of faithlessness if you just keep your "religious mask" handy as needed on the schedule?

Is it better to "say yes, and then walk away" or to "say no and then do it anyway"?

Is it better to say yes or no knowing neither is true?

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Blessings

Have to quit the day job. The night job is taking over. This is a good thing: we've lost a shift at work, so all of us who get scheduled after midnight have to move our hours. What that means for me is that my carefully crafted schedule, which wrapped a 44+ hour tech support week around a a 12+ hour fur-selling week is now kaput. The Night Job has now become the day job.

Those of you who know I was praying about this - and those of you who joined - may now be amused to find that my answer wasn't left up to me!

More...

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Hustle-Bustle

Across the street from Timmy lived the Browns, Mike Brown was two, Peter was almost sic, Mary Lou was nine, and Hustle-Bustle was thirteen. Hustle-Bustle was a parrot.
First thing every morning Hustle-Bustle opened his cage door with his strong curved beak, and climbed to the top of his cage. His long feet held the wires tightly, and his head bobbed this way and that as he looked for company. "Hello? Hello?" he shouted.
If the children weren't up to answer him, he called them just as their mother did at eight o'clock.
"Mareeeee! Get up now! Peeeeter! Mary Looooo!"
Sometimes it fooled the children, and they got sleepily out of bed and started to dress way ahead of time.
Hustle-Bustle liked to pretend he was talking over the telephone. From listening to Mrs. Brow, he had learned a whole string of sounds almost like words.
"Well, well, gab-goo-pilly-bow-biggildy-guck!" he would say whenever Mrs. Brown sat down at the phone. "Fuddy-fop-goopity-wum-wa-ferty-fay!"
He always finished very loudly, "Well, good-by now! Good-by! Good-by!" Sometimes the person talking to Mrs. Brown thought Mrs. Brown was saying good-by, and hung up.
"That parrot!" Mrs. Brown would complain.
"That parrot!" Peter and Mary Lou would frown when Hustle-Bustle got them up early.
"Maybe we ought to sell him," Mr. Brown would twinkle.
Mrs. Brown and Mary Lou and Peter and little Mike would stare at him round-eyed. "Sell Hustle-Bustle? Oh, no!"
Then Hustle-Bustle would chatter happily, "Well, well, hello!"

From 365 Bedtime Stories by Nan Gilbert (©1955 Whitman Publishing Co, Racine, WI) Illus by Jill Elgin

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Editing

Please note the blog roll and links to the right are being edited. Some folks are going away (for inactivity, or for my own no longer reading them) and some folks are being added. If I've recently discovered your blog or found it in my referal logs, I'm working on it... If you've vanished and wonder why, ask me. It may very well be a mistake or you may have moved to a new URL and I missed it!!!

And, near as I can tell, no one should take it personally OK?

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Orthodox Saints and Feasts

I don't know how new or old this site is, but it seems rather wonderful as a listing of Saints, etc.

http://www.abbamoses.com/

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Practical Jesus

Erica has struck on something that, I think, marks the difference between the Jesus I see in Orthodoxy and the Jesus I've always expected to see (having been raise a Protestant and having been, for a time, a Neo-Pagan).

More...

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Monday Was...

A wonderful day and evening... My first day in Asheville "Hanging Out". I mean that: after three months of running around, of doing errands or looking for work, after three months of wedging social life between events (like after Church before work, I finally found a whole day to just walk around town and chat, eat and pray.

Thank you God for the blessings of friendship!

Hanging out with H from Church, we walked around, looked in empty store fronts, talked about books (publishing and selling them) and talked about Church, of course. I found out that one can get a scholarship to Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, especially interesting to me was the School of Theology. I mean, to go for free... a year's language study and then Greek Theology so near to Mt Athos...

I've never, since becoming Orthodox, had someone over and prayed with them. That was a nice experience. We read the Hours and what all for the eve of the Theophany. It was very different from "fellowship night" with the Methodist Youth. Not sure if it's a good thing or not: we both seemed a little surprised when we found out our respective ages. I guess I come off as not being nearly 40. I'm entering that part of life where we expect a man to not have an $8 hr job, or not to be living in a rooming house. Nor do we expect him to still be living in his college dorm room.

It was slightly cold and drizzly yesterday, but today it is COLD: they expect temps down around 12 tonight (low temps may get as high as 24 this week). Please keep people who travel on scooters in your prayers!

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Dhimmitude

Dhimmitude is the way non-Muslims are treated in Muslim societies.

Dhimmitude is the status that Islamic law, the Sharia, mandates for non-Muslims, primarily Jews and Christians. Dhimmis, "protected people," are free to practice their religion in a Sharia regime, but are made subject to a number of humiliating regulations designed to enforce the Qur'an's command that they "feel themselves subdued" (Sura 9:29).
Source

The more I think about it, the more I realize that this is the way Traditionalist Chrisitians are made to feel in otherwise theologically revisionist yet-illiberal bodies. The orthodox are made to feel like the heretics - "subdued" would be a kind word. Mostly they are disempowered and, at times, subjected to an odd passive/aggressive barter system. You can have your Bible, but you have to get women clergy in place... Can we still have your money?

I venture so far as to offer that the dhimmitude also goes for traditional Christians who don't fit in to the media's - and/or the left wing's - image of "right wing looney". If you're not out stomping around like someone we hate, we're going to imagine you are one of those folks anyway.

The President's unitarian theology, like Bishop Chane's, removes from the picture those who reject such a theology - yet Rat Robertson has to back up the President: a Democrat might get into office otherwise. So those politically active folks have to ally themselves with someone who, in the name of politics, rejects them.

The same goes for the left's (and the media's) annointed head, Howard Dean. He's decided he has to talk about theology because he's stumping in the South. But he's not yet mentioned a god I recognize: a Jesus who is all about liberation and not about sin, a deity who seems to be the same, no matter who you say you worship, etc. And the leftie folks-of-faith, even ones I know are devout and faithful to their religions, have to cowtow to Dean - because otherwise Bush might win.

Dhimmitude.

Seems to be catching on, even without a revolution.

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Keep Searching...

questioner of christ in the brothers karamazov

This is the current #1 search string for Doxos. But it's only coming in from GoogleUK.

So, ok, you UK folks... WHY are you looking for this?

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unconditional

AFter the bread, I cooked dinner down stairs today. As in past cases: people just showed up to eat and contribute. B the end of it all we had some leftover veggies from New Years, biscuits, shredded BBQ chicken, bacon gravy and, of course, sweet tea. I also baked chocolate chip cookies for dessert and then left them in the kitchen. That last was really RJ's idea: I'd subjected everyone to the smell of bread baking, so it seemed a good idea to leave some baked products.

The odd thing was, over dinner, that people showed up and ate and started to talk. Seems the landlord has asked my neighbor in #12 to leave. Evidently people complained about #12 rather a lot: he was "Making waves in the house" what ever that means. Although I got a sample of it over dinner: he sat down and ate a biscuit and, in the course of that short time, he had an argument with one of his friends about something... To be honest, the Landlord is really, in no way, at fault. John is known for letting people slide for weeks on the rent. John doesn't care as long as you contribute to the house in some way. So being kicked out for disrupting the house seems about the only *right* way to get kicked out.

I don't know. I have to be honest, he's the one person here I didn't like. I tried, but I couldn't make it happen. I offered food - I ate Thanksgiving with him. But I couldn't actually make it really be like... um. Well, so now he's leaving on Friday. I'm sure this house is filled with hard luck stories, but it seems sad that a divorced, 52 year old man has no place to go. But it made me cringe to seem him on the street (O, don't let him come over here to talk!!). It annoyed me if I opened my door and he opened his - like he was just standing there waiting for me to come out. It bothered me to come home at 1 AM and find him sitting on his bed, drunk, looking though his open door at me. He always wanted to talk, and I was exhausted - and never wanted to talk to him.

People come and go, but... I don't know. Do I ever learn to love?

Times like this I usually make some comment about the word "Agape" (God's love for us) being related to the word "Agapao" (hospitality). To show agape, have agapao. But it seems to me tonight, as I evaluate the times I've offered him food or lent him money, that I need to learn that lesson in reverse: one can not show hospitality without agape.

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Chane Chane Chane

More on Bishop Chane

Angel Tells Bishop Atheists Worship Same God
(2003-12-29) -- The Right Reverend John Bryson Chane, Episcopal bishop of Washington, today announced that the "angel Gabriel" told him that Christians worship the same God as atheists do.

"Gabriel said we're all God's children," said Mr. Chane, "and any distinctions in belief are not meaningful. Faith in God is the same thing as non-belief and we should unite with our atheist brothers in this revelation from Gabriel -- who either exists or does not."

The announcement of his angelic visitation follows the bishop's Christmas sermon at the National Cathedral in Washington, during which he said that the angel Gabriel "was sent by God to reveal the sacred Quran to the prophet Muhammad".

Mr. Chane urged all Christians and atheists to unite behind this "newly-revealed doctrine."

"This revelation should bring together people of all religions with those who think that so-called 'god' is merely a clever fiction invented by men to control others," he said.

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The Traditions of Our Fathers...

New Years Day - Lunch: Black Eyed Peas, Ham Hocks, Cornbread, Greens.

I started the peas and ham nearly two days ago with some soaking and then the slow cooker. My friend Aunt Jemima and I started this AM on the cornbread. The greens equally took up the AM.

Then suddenly there was a congregation.

More...

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR

An open letter to His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios

Master Bless.

It deeply saddens me to read on our archdiocesan website about your recent "cordial and friendly" visit with Senator Paul Sarbanes. As you well know, Senator Sarbanes is one of the leading voices for abortion in the Senate. You know that our Church considers abortion to be murder of innocents. The Senator does everything in his political power to assist the continuance of these murders.
As spiritual leader of our archdiocese, why, your Eminence, do you not call him to account? Why is this man continually held up as a role model for the Greek Orthodox when in fact he is complicit in the murder of millions? Why do you not exercise the authoritative voice God has given you as our Archbishop and call this man to repentance and declare his actions to be anti-Christian?

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Cowma

When I was a kid, I confess that I was one of those people who leaned out of car windows and yelled "MOO!" at cows in their fields. I did it rather often, as I recall. The Rural South is a great place to practice such habits. One is driving on a dirt road at, say, 20 miles an hour, and lo, a cow: roll down the window, and yell, "Moo!" None of the cows look up - don't worry. I forget what comedian said it, but I believe the response of the cows was supposed to be, "Who is that bossey in the car? And HOW did she get a car anyway?"

What goes around Mooves around until it comes back like a day-old patty.

Seems that in the non-rural South (I mean Asheville) there are not enough cows to yell at. I've only seen two - and it is refreshing to yell at them from a Moo-ped.

Drivers here, when they have the urge, would rather yell "Zoom!" at a passing scooter. I can't figure it out, but somehow, a Wabbit on a Scooter has replaced the cow. Zoom seems to be the universal greeting. And not just on New Years. I guess I'm supposed to wonder how a scooter got in that passing car. I must have annoyed the Eternal Cow Guardians somehow.

We won't mention the cow tipping.

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This day

A happy Nameday to all the Basils and Vasilis and Vasilioses out there and a blessed St Basil's Day to all y'all.

As I begin to drink in this Life, the stories of the Saints take on a real and present meaning for me. Sermons at Church which draw more on the lives of the saints than on current events give me more of a handle on real life. Learning how the Saints of the Church apply the gospel shows me how to apply it as well.

Today, the Story of St Basil offers me new hope in ways that are hard to express. Basil dedicated himself to a life of holiness and drew others to him who also wanted that life. Likewise his family did the same - most of his relatives are St So-and-So or Blessed Whosits. They all, it seemed, sought to find a way to live the life of the Gospel in community: the community of the family, the community of the Church, the community of the monastery. And, most importantly, they found ways to blend all three communities into a Holy Life of Faith.

It speaks to me in many ways that this day is, as well, the commemoration of the Circumcision of Our Lord. Like Judaism, Orthodoxy seeks a whole-life pattern, one laid down by the Fathers and Mothers along a path well trod by the righteous. We are not righteous because we do the same deeds as they, but rather we seek to grow in righteousness by following the same path - indeed the path before is the Way, that is Jesus Himself. We do not only follow Him along the way as we also pray to become like Him by our walking.

Resolutions fail, will power may stumble: but we get up and keep walking.

Happy St Basil's day. S'praznikum - a Happy Feast.

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