My first Divine Liturgy experience.

[heavenlyboy34]

Fr Chris' homily from this week-

 

[fisharmor]

Fr Chris' homily from this week-

So, when is Fr. Chris going to have all that furniture removed?

This is our chapel - pretty much all of it. The festal icon stand is in the center.
On occasion we pack 80 people in here. During the sermon, I love to sit on the floor with the kids.
It's a completely different dynamic and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

2/26
Romans 13:11-14:4 Gospel Matthew 6:14-21
Forgiveness Sunday
One of my favorite days. Beginning the Lenten fast by forgiving and asking forgiveness of everyone. Kiss of peace for everyone in the parish. OMG, the little kids are SO CUTE.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

So, when is Fr. Chris going to have all that furniture removed?

This is our chapel - pretty much all of it. The festal icon stand is in the center.
On occasion we pack 80 people in here. During the sermon, I love to sit on the floor with the kids.
It's a completely different dynamic and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

LOL IDK, I honestly wish the pews were gone myself and have for a really long time. They get in the way of prostrations. Sitting in church is for wimps and oldsters. (which is what the seats on the sides are generally for)

 

[heavenlyboy34]

A friend shared this on FB and I just want to put it here to remember it....
If a person is not seeking spirituality, he does not partake in the Kingdom of Heaven, he is still not a Christian, no matter what label he were to have - monk or layman. Exterior Christianity is not Christianity. It is secularization, the most dangerous substitution of Christianity, the cancelling of the Lord's words, that "His Kingdom is not from this world". A person and a historically separate Church betray Christianity, when they accept the exterior Christianity, without knocking on the doors of the spiritual Kingdom.
Sergei Fudel - a figther against modernism and confessor of faith

 

[heavenlyboy34]

3/5
Had difficulty getting the cam working because of lack of memory, so only a fragment of homily toady:
Sunday Of Orthdoxy Very long service because we do the procession of icons and whatnot. And Lenten liturgy is always long.

Hieromartyr Konon of Isauria; martyrs Archelaos and his 152 companions in Egypt; New-martyr John the Bulgarian. Gospel: John 1:43-51 Epistle Hebrews 11:24-26; 32-40

ETA:
Whole homily here:

 

[fisharmor]

For those of you who don't know, the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy is the first Sunday in Lent. It is specifically to commemorate the final victory of Orthodoxy over the iconoclasts at the seventh ecumenical council, the Second Council of Nicaea in 787.

Orthodoxy does not accept any later councils. As we were taught in my parish during today's sermon, we don't have to. There is nothing that isn't covered in those seven councils.

We also got a run-down of every heresy decried in council in the sermon today. Including a modern-day application: how the push for female clergy is either an embracing of Nestorianism, ie, Christ has two completely distinct natures and the human is separated from the Son, or it embraces Monophysitism, ie, Christ's human nature was swallowed up in the divine nature.
Either way, the de-emphasis on Christ's human nature and/or his incarnation as a male are at the root of female ordination.

That right there is why I became Orthodox: it seems like every week I get something I couldn't answer while a protestant casually tossed in as a side note to something else that Orthodox teachers consider either more important, or simply advanced to a point where a 40-something actually should be in his faith.

Today my oldest processed with an icon for the first time. She has a thing about being in front of crowds so it was another sort of victory for us.
Though we did get reminded by her that the only icon she has is of Anna the Forebear, and her saint is Anna the Prophetess.

Incidentally yesterday was the monthly icon guild meeting. She is working on writing an icon of Archangel Michael, which is the first one everyone starts with in the Prosopon school. I finally started one yesterday too. Trouble is that we need to get that practice icon totally done, then start a real icon of Michael, and then diverge into other icons.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

Procession of the icons and celebration of triumph of Orthodoxy.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

homily from the other day...

Epistle Hebrews 6:13-20 Gospel Mark 9:16-30
Fourth Sunday of Lent and Leave-taking of the Annunciation to the Theotokos
The synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel, Stephen the Confessor, Abbot of Triglia

 

[heavenlyboy34]

Fortunate to have the opportunity to go to Great Compline this year (St Andrew Canon) toady.

Catchup from Sunday:
The homily:

Gospel: Mark 10:32-45 Epistle Hebrews 9:11-14
Commemoration of our righteous mother Mary of Egypt
Venerable Titus the wonderworker; Virgin-martyr Theodora of Palestine; Martyrs Amphianos and Aidesios of Lydia

 

[heavenlyboy34]

Hope y'all had a blessed Palm Sunday as I did. Homily from this week:

Pretty cool-I had trouble tying my palm fraun into a cross and this sweet little girl next to me did it for me. <3 Also, Palm Sunday procession. Epistle Philippians. (4:4-9) Gospel John. (12:1-18)

 

[heavenlyboy34]

Holy and Good Friday awesomeness toady. So many gospel, epistle, and OT readings I can't list them all. I wanted to join the procession but the crowd was so ginormous (Christmas and Easter people ) I and a lobby full of others missed it. I appreciate Holy Week more every year.

 

[TER]

Holy and Good Friday awesomeness toady. So many gospel, epistle, and OT readings I can't list them all. I wanted to join the procession but the crowd was so ginormous (Christmas and Easter people ) I and a lobby full of others missed it. I appreciate Holy Week more every year.

One year, we must go to Jerusalem for Holy Week.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

One year, we must go to Jerusalem for Holy Week.

I would love that! Mt Athos, Russia, and of course St Anthony's monastery are on my dream list as well. I have heard good things about the Holy Land in Syria as well.

 

[TER]

I would love that! Mt Athos, Russia, and of course St Anthony's monastery are on my dream list as well. I have heard good things about the Holy Land in Syria as well.

Those are all on my dream list, with the addition of St. John's Monastery on Patmos and St. Catherine's Monastery at the foot of Mt. Sinai.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

Last night-my first Holy Saturday Pascha Vespers, which carried into this morning. Loved it! Epistle: Acts of the Apostles. (1:1-8) Gospel: John. (1:1-17) Fr Chris delivered a homily by St John Chrysostom as well as his own. I read the morning's gospel in Russian during Agape vespers.

 

[fisharmor]

Last night-my first Holy Saturday Pascha Vespers, which carried into this morning. Loved it! Epistle: Acts of the Apostles. (1:1-8) Gospel: John. (1:1-17) Fr Chris delivered a homily by St John Chrysostom as well as his own. I read the morning's gospel in Russian during Agape vespers.

Really it was your first? Wow! A Pascha service was my introduction to Orthodoxy.

We did not have service on Tuesday because our priest is technically retired and he had a teaching obligation. But I have been singing every other day this week.

Christ is risen! Indeed he is risen!

 

[fisharmor]

I didn't get a pic of it in the parish hall but I got this childrens icon stand done just in time for Pascha. It stands 3'tall total and we verified that a 2' tall child can use the built-in step to kiss the icon.

Just another thing I can't do if i am teaching theology....

 

[heavenlyboy34]

CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN! CHRISTOS ANESTI! ALTHIOS ANESTI! ХРИСТОС ВОСКРЕСЬ! ВОИСТИНУ ВОСКРЕСЬ! Hope everyone else had a blessed Pascha too. Had a nice Paschal dinner/late lunch/fellowship hour at Fr Chris' home with a whole host of folks from the Parish.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

Really it was your first? Wow! A Pascha service was my introduction to Orthodoxy.

We did not have service on Tuesday because our priest is technically retired and he had a teaching obligation. But I have been singing every other day this week.

Christ is risen! Indeed he is risen!

Si! Heretofore I simply haven't had the opportunity to attend for one reason or another. I was actually expecting more than showed up, but it was still quite a crowd-the "Easter and Christmas" bunch you can count on to gum up the works more than the rest of the year.

btw, do you not have other parishes in your area you can attend when your priest is gone? There are a number scattered about my area-enough to represent all the orthodox in the world, I think-Russian, Greek, etc, etc. When mine is closed, I attend the Romanian church. Not as nice, but it works.