We thank thee, that we see the glory of thy name written in neon in the skies and in piles of unrecyclable plastics and nuclear waste. We thank thee that we have been able to blot out the stars with halogens, the rolling hills with pavement, the hillsides with McMansions and the lakes with oil. We thank thee for this, our economy, based on thy commands of consumption and waste, help us to find new things to throw away, especially tomorrow, as we shop in thy temples, and later when we celebrate thy birth by bestowing in our love useless, expensive trinkets made by heathens at low cost in foreign lands.

We thank thee for the miracle of travel, whereby thou dist bring us here, and whereby these foods, here gathered, have been grown on the backs of heathens around the world and transported in wagons and carts, ships, trains and eighteen wheelers burning more oil (and pumping more carbon into the atmosphere) than one plow in one backyard garden might have. In an entire summer. And we thank thee that this tasteless, long-time frozen bounty hast been fed to us for so long that we know not what to do with a real pumpkin.

Grant us to continue in thy bold gesture, whereby heathens darker than us in the furthest regions of thy world mightest also be contained and shipped off in boxes whilst we dominate their lands as well. Help us to write mythologies that will make this all seem rather fated, idyllic and peacable. Grant us clergy and politicians that will not make us see our ego, greed and lust as to blame for what we do, but rather allow them to bestow upon us thy blessings. Give us the grace to confuse thy gospel with our national interests (left or right), and the benefits of consumption with thy grace. And help us pretend to make thanksgiving for our benefits without sharing any of our wealth with the poor (in their boxes) and ignoring the fact that our consumption is a cancer on the earth and for which people rightly hate us – even if they can not understand why. For even when we bring them the blessings of consumption, we only enslave them in the chains of our own sins.

Grant us salvation at the pages of a gospel purged of all responsibility for these sins: for we know you want nothing more than to love us as we are, where we are. Save us from those who would preach that there is something we have to do for thee or for others. Let us live as thy Gospel proclaims, “do nothing, feign thanks, and sit humbly on thy ass on Sundays whilst we entertain thee with a praise band.”

Please keep the heathens from bombing us or from rising up in revolt in our own countries and help us to have righteous indignation whenever they open casinos in our backyards, as we did to them, at thy command, centuries ago. And help us to see that when our wallets are empty it is the fault of the heathens in our midst, stealing from thy children, the shittiest of thy labours for which we’d pay white people top dollar.

Oh, and we’d like a vacation someplace warm this winter.

We ask this in the name of all that is holy.

Thanks a lot. Amen. America. Amen.

Grant, O Lord, remission of all sins to all our Fathers, Mothers, Brothers and Sisters departed in the faith and hope of resurrection, and make their memory eternal.

Try crossing the streams and think, holistically, of the period between ER Soul Saturday on the New Calendar (the Saturday before 26 October) and WR All Souls Day on the the Old Calendar (15 November, NS) as an extended time of prayer for the departed.

It dawns on me that I use my work as a schedule for my life. Since I am unemployed just now, I have no schedule.

What makes this an odd realization: I try to say Matins and Vespers on somewhat of a schedule. Wednesday, Vespers is the service. But if I’m awake until 2 or 3 in the AM, will I ever get around to Matins again? I could have seen this coming: the easiest way for me to carve a bit of time out of the day for prayer is to get up an hour or so earlier and take an office before going to the office. But on days when there is no work, no prayer follows naturally. Especially as the Eastern Rite community begins to explore things like daily prayer… isn’t it odd that the priest has never explored using prayer as a benchmark instead of work?

After the Litany of Peace, there is the priestly exclamation then as follows:

PRIEST. For to Three are due ll glory, honour and worship, to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages.
CHOIR. Amen. By the intercession of the Theotokos, Saviour, save us. (twice) O Son of God, Who didst rise from the dead, save us who sing to Thee: Alleluia.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. Both now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
O Only-begotten Son and Word of God… (etc)
Then a little litany followed by the Little Entrance.

Because of the processional nature (historically) of the Antiphons the New Skete liturgy turns them into actual processions outside or, if that is not possible, does away with them, starting the liturgy after the Little Entrance with the hymnody of the day. 

Almost all modern texts of the liturgies make optional the extra litanies in the middle. This shortens things nicely although leaves off some things that I think are very important (prayer for the catechumens, etc).

The best example of liturgical abbreviation comes from the Antiochians, of course, with their “Vesperal Liturgy“.

I’ve got two posted on my mobile prayer site, a “Shorter” and a “Super-Abbreviated”, this last from my friends at Grace Catholic. I’ve also got a Vesperal liturgy using the shortened texts of New Skete. (Don’t worry about how they are formatted on the blog, the whole set up is for the iPod/iPhon and looks better when viewed on one or the other).

So what say you? Abbreviation is the pastoral call to make in this day and age or liturgy is going to hell in a hand basket?

A prelate of a California group known as the “Orthodox Catholic Church” was shot and wounded during an apparent robbery attempt on Tuesday night, September 15. Bishop Antonio Garduno was reportedly shot when he confronted a group of teenagers outside his office; police suspect he interrupted a robbery in progress. Bishop Garduno underwent surgery for his gunshot wounds and is expected to make a satisfactory recovery.