My first Divine Liturgy experience.

New Sunday/Anti-Pascha toady. Sunday of Thomas the Apostle. Another good long liturgy. :) Choir rehearsal was kind of a pain though, as the other basses and tenors skipped it for various reasons. :P Several showed up at the last minute, though. Some lolz-y moments during liturgy. :D At one point, Olivia thought the priest's verse of chant was done and began conducting the choir in the next tune. Then she realized the mistake and we all had some lolz. :D Got my blessing from Fr. Chris this week, which is new. :) He's usually so busy I just wait in another line. After liturgy the clergy and many parishoners went downtown for another hearts2hands event (feeding the poor). Nice day. :)

ETA: also got some hugz n' kissez from a variety of people. :)
 
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heavenlyboy34 said:
New Sunday/Anti-Pascha toady. Sunday of Thomas the Apostle. Another good long liturgy. :) Choir rehearsal was kind of a pain though, as the other basses and tenors skipped it for various reasons. :P Several showed up at the last minute, though. Some lolz-y moments during liturgy. :D At one point, Olivia thought the priest's verse of chant was done and began conducting the choir in the next tune. Then she realized the mistake and we all had some lolz. :D Got my blessing from Fr. Chris this week, which is new. :) He's usually so busy I just wait in another line. After liturgy the clergy and many parishoners went downtown for another hearts2hands event (feeding the poor). Nice day. :)

ETA: also got some hugz n' kissez from a variety of people. :)
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HB--are you addicted to hugs & kisses? Seems to be a good thing to become addicted to. :p

 
Just got the news that our director will be doing more chanter work and won't be able to run rehearsals on Sunday in the foreseeable future. I haz teh sad. :( Fortunately, the music will be quite straightforward.
 
After all the talk of incense last night I had to go to our Orthodox Church. As usual, I really enjoyed it. The Gospel reading talked of the paraplegic whom Jesus asked if he wanted healing. The food and fellowship afterwards was really good as well.

Another Roman Catholic who I regularly see there and at daily mass told me that a priest who does the Byzantine Rite may be coming to our area soon. :)

I hope you don't mind me posting this in your thread, HB. My thread got a bit trolled...
 
RJB said:
Another Roman Catholic who I regularly see there and at daily mass told me that a priest who does the Byzantine Rite may be coming to our area soon. :)
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I've always wanted to regularly attend a Byzantine Rite Church. Sadly, none near me, especially now that I just moved to a tiny island in the Caribbean for at least the next 8 months!! (actually just moved here last night)
 
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RJB said:
After all the talk of incense last night I had to go to our Orthodox Church. As usual, I really enjoyed it. The Gospel reading talked of the paraplegic whom Jesus asked if he wanted healing. The food and fellowship afterwards was really good as well.

Another Roman Catholic who I regularly see there and at daily mass told me that a priest who does the Byzantine Rite may be coming to our area soon. :)

I hope you don't mind me posting this in your thread, HB. My thread got a bit trolled...
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Nah, I don't mind positive/construvtive contributions. :)
 
Rather brief but beautiful liturgy today. :) "Mother's Day Special", I suppose you could call it. LOL :D We talked briefly about mothers, godmothers and godparents in Church history, which I thought interesting.

Most everyone left after liturgy to celebrate, so I just came back home.

ETA: Fr. Chris also discussed briefly the history of conversion into the Church, why it takes so long, etc. :cool:
 
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Another beautiful liturgy toady. :) 40 day trisagion in memory of someone IDK. Fr Chris talked quite a bit about how we as Christians should not be caught up in secular mainstream-ism because it is so anti-Christian, and I agree. He used that fellow from Duck Dynasty as an example. I don't have a TV, so I have to just take folks' word for it WRT specific things. No rehearsal this morning, so I got to sleep in late. :cool: The bulletin is available here: http://www.stgeorgeaz.org/assets/files/sunday_bulletin/index.html

ETA: Teh kids had a graduation from Sunday School and got little diplomas. It was an "awwww, cute" moment. :)

ETA2:

Fifth Sunday of Pascha - Sunday of the Samaritan WomanMartyrs Peter, Dionysios, Andrew, Paul, Christina, Heraklios, Paulinos and
Benedimos; Stephen the New, Patriarch of Constantinople
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heavenlyboy34 said:
Upper right hand corner-click "CLICK HERE FOR THIS WEEK'S BULLETIN".
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Very nice church HB, sounds very friendly and inviting. I haven't attended mine yet--I will get there, but my Sundays are hectic. I was going to attend the huge Cathedral downtown, but I've decided to go to the Greek Orthodox that's closer to home. I hate going downtown and fighting all of that traffic. I will let you know when I get there--LOL
 
Terry1 said:
Very nice church HB, sounds very friendly and inviting. I haven't attended mine yet--I will get there, but my Sundays are hectic. I was going to attend the huge Cathedral downtown, but I've decided to go to the Greek Orthodox that's closer to home. I hate going downtown and fighting all of that traffic. I will let you know when I get there--LOL
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I've never been to a Greek church, but have seen videos. Their liturgy seems to be similar to the Antiochian. Orthodoxy is pretty "standardized" for a number of reasons historical and cultural, so you'll find the big things like communion, service order, etc are the same save for idiomatic details in any parish you attend. :) ~hugs~
 
Three Basic Prerequisites to the Spiritual Life


christ.jpg

By Protopresbyter Fr. Gerasimangelos Stanitsas


1. The Salvific Work of Christ


The Incarnation of the Son of God is the fundamental prerequisite for the true life of man, to be united with God. Since man is the image of Christ who is the unchanging image of the Father, the "firstborn of all creation", the union of the two natures of Christ is the basic element of His existence. For man to become a true man he must become like Christ. The Incarnation negates the barrier of nature that separates man from God, while the Resurrection of Christ negates sin and death.


2. The Sacramental Life


The Body of the Incarnate and Risen Christ is the Church, the Body of Christ. The recreation and spiritual rebirth of man takes place in the Church through the Mysteries, especially Baptism, Chrismation and the Eucharist. In the Mystery of Baptism the reconstruction of man takes place and new spiritual functions are activated through Holy Chrismation. The Eucharist is the completion of the Mysteries. It is the source of the spiritual life and spiritually nourishes man. It is thus understood that the spiritual life is not personal or private, but ecclesiastical.


3. Human Cooperation


The Mysteries of the Church do not magically change man into a spiritual being. Man with his free cooperation needs to utilize the gifts given by God. Salvation is the fruit of divine and human synergy, which is why the Mysteries do not operate without our effort. This path requires spiritual asceticism and continuous repentance. The spiritual life is Christocentric, a life in Christ, because communion with Christ gives substance and life to man.


With this we understand the necessity for a spiritual life today. Christ did not come to teach or correct certain things in the world, but to become Himself the Life of the world, our Life. "I am Life". He did not come for the world to live better, but to actually save the world. Without God the world has no life, which is why the Church is not an ethical system of life, but transfuses the only true Life, who is Jesus Christ.
 
Toady-6th Sunday of Pascha: Sunday of the Blind Man & Third Discovery of the Forerunner's Honorable Head. No rehearsal toady because it was all pretty well-known stuff. I was 5 minutes late. :( Epistle-2 Corinthians 4:6-15; Gospel-John 9:1-38. My voice was better than usual, though. :D

Fr. Chris talked about some of the stuff that's been forum fodder lately...~Bad events happen to give us opportunity to do good and glorify God. ~God does not cause, but allows bad things to happen ("anti-karma", as Fr. Chris calls it)

Chatted with friends during fellowship hour. Corey insisted I eat something (because I'm "too thin"...lol), so I got myself some free donuts and fruits and such. Also got a bunch of ~hugs~ n' ~kissez~. :D :cool:
 
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