Sunday night, CBS aired a special on the Ecumenical Patriarch on 60 minutes. While there was some clear misunderstandings in the reporting (for the record, the Ecumenical Patriarch is NOT equivalent to an Orthodox pope!), there were some interesting facts that were shared. Personally, I am always ambivalent on seeing Orthodox in the news...while the publicity is definitely beneficial in one sense (people now know we exist), it can be harmful as the Truth of Orthodoxy is distorted by reporters and media with a violently anti-traditionalist agenda. I hope that the few clips shared below are more beneficial than not:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6001624n
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6001620n
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6001622n
To watch the entire 60 minutes clip on the Patriarch (it's actually only about 20 minutes long), see the link below; but again, there are numerous factual errors, so please take it with a grain of salt:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6001717n
Monday, December 21, 2009
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Good intentions
I know I promised to update this blog regularly, in the hopes of sharing new married life inspirations, as well as happenings and pictures. Well, I guess better late than never!
Married life has, at least for the first five months, been a blur of one fantastic (and sometimes, not so fantastic) revelations after another. Like the fact that I no longer have to walk to class in 12 inches of snow (thank you Tuesday night blizzard); or the fact that if you leave all the lights on in the apartment all day like I used to at school, it's gonna cost you $92 for your electric bill (yikes!!). Thankfully, experience is proving the fantastic revelations are increasing and the not so fantastic ones are decreasing (at least, I hope).
I must just say from the start that I have married the most amazing man in the world. Who else would drop me off at school, drive back home to pick up his lunch which his wife left on the kitchen table, and then drive back to work to start his day - all the while avoiding expressing the immense annoyance I'm sure he felt, but never told me about??
Anyway, enough random ponderings. To the good stuff - the wedding and the honeymoon! Sometimes it seems like so long ago, and other times like only yesterday. I just finished going through our 2000+ pictures (for the fourth time) to send to our photographer so he can begin work on our wedding album, so I feel like my memory is sufficiently refreshed. As I recall, nothing significant whatsoever went wrong on our wedding day. Great weather, fantastic choir, amazing family and friends who pulled together all day to simultaneously organize, cater, and usher our wedding. Thanks to a fantastic last minute wedding gift from my uncle, they were able to take the evening off as our cleaning service picked up the mess :)
If you are interested in pictures, you can find them here.
Following the wedding, Frank and I began our honeymoon. This was also a near-perfect experience, if you don't count the quick trip to the ER or the near 3rd degree sunburn. Pictures from that lovely week can be found here along with captions detailing our daily exploits.
Finally, as we continue moving forward through the season of Christ's Nativity, I am excited to say we have thoroughly decorated our house (picture here) and have been diligently (though not always as diligently as I would like) reading through Fr. Thomas Hopko's, "The Winter Pascha". Definitely worth the time/money if you REALLY want to get into the "Christmas season".
I hope I can be more faithful in my updates in the future. I know that my life has much more in store for me than I can foresee at this point, and I look forward to sharing my thoughts.
Married life has, at least for the first five months, been a blur of one fantastic (and sometimes, not so fantastic) revelations after another. Like the fact that I no longer have to walk to class in 12 inches of snow (thank you Tuesday night blizzard); or the fact that if you leave all the lights on in the apartment all day like I used to at school, it's gonna cost you $92 for your electric bill (yikes!!). Thankfully, experience is proving the fantastic revelations are increasing and the not so fantastic ones are decreasing (at least, I hope).
I must just say from the start that I have married the most amazing man in the world. Who else would drop me off at school, drive back home to pick up his lunch which his wife left on the kitchen table, and then drive back to work to start his day - all the while avoiding expressing the immense annoyance I'm sure he felt, but never told me about??
Anyway, enough random ponderings. To the good stuff - the wedding and the honeymoon! Sometimes it seems like so long ago, and other times like only yesterday. I just finished going through our 2000+ pictures (for the fourth time) to send to our photographer so he can begin work on our wedding album, so I feel like my memory is sufficiently refreshed. As I recall, nothing significant whatsoever went wrong on our wedding day. Great weather, fantastic choir, amazing family and friends who pulled together all day to simultaneously organize, cater, and usher our wedding. Thanks to a fantastic last minute wedding gift from my uncle, they were able to take the evening off as our cleaning service picked up the mess :)
If you are interested in pictures, you can find them here.
Following the wedding, Frank and I began our honeymoon. This was also a near-perfect experience, if you don't count the quick trip to the ER or the near 3rd degree sunburn. Pictures from that lovely week can be found here along with captions detailing our daily exploits.
Finally, as we continue moving forward through the season of Christ's Nativity, I am excited to say we have thoroughly decorated our house (picture here) and have been diligently (though not always as diligently as I would like) reading through Fr. Thomas Hopko's, "The Winter Pascha". Definitely worth the time/money if you REALLY want to get into the "Christmas season".
I hope I can be more faithful in my updates in the future. I know that my life has much more in store for me than I can foresee at this point, and I look forward to sharing my thoughts.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Reflection on my upcoming marriage
There are exactly 3 weeks until my marriage to Frank. I think back on our relationship, and am so thankful for the many blessings we have received. Frank is a zealous, God-fearing man who is able an willing to lovingly help me on my path towards the Kingdom of God. He is also humble enough to admit he is wrong, even when a majority of the blame actually falls on me. We share many interests in common, such as reading, history, classic film, healthy living, and science fiction (a bonus for me :) ) and both enjoy living simply. I am also greatly aware of the struggles that we have both been through these last four years - both of our familial upheavals, both of our academic pursuits, my study abroad in Chile, all on top of trying to discern the attitudes and behaviors appropriate in true Christian courtship have both strained and strengthened our relationship. I know the future holds many more joys and challenges for us. I am thankful that, as we will symbolize (in the Schmemmann sense of the word) at the service on July 12, we both have the Gospel of Christ's victory over death as the very center of our new life together. If we remind ourselves (and each other) where we are headed, I pray that we can avoid the petty disagreements and grudges that can eat away at a marriage. This sacrament (mystery) that we are bout to partake in will last much more than the 45 minutes we will stand in church that day. We are going to be ordained in the vocation of husband and wife, to bear each others' burdens, raise our children in God's holy Church, and help each other and those around us on our journey to the Kingdom of God. We will be renewing this ordination each and every day for the rest of our lives.At times I worry what I would do if anything ever happened to Frank and I were left alone. Pain grips me just imagining my sorrow. However, I know that come what may, he and I will have been united by God and will remian united throughout all of eternity in our shared love of our Creator. In God's holy Wisdom, I am hopeful that in the age to come, when all the dead are raised and every knee shall bow and worship the One True God in Trinity, Frank and I will be kneeling side by side, singing in unison our hymn to God. May He grant us such a blessing! Amen.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Christ is Risen! Hristos Anesti!
For the first time in my life, I attended Pascha at a Greek church. Coming from a very Russian tradition, I was admittedly hesitant about what my experience would be: no four part music, no Pascha baskets. Would it even feel like Pascha?
Boy, did I receive the greatest surprise (and blessing) of my life! Even without a procession and half of the service in Greek, I had never been more "present" in the ultimate miracle that is Christ's resurrection.
Perhaps it was because the lack of everything familiar forced me to focus more on the words of the hymns instead of their melodies; perhaps it was because the community I have slowly begun to become a part of at that parish (where I will be attending full time after Frank and my wedding in July) felt so much like celebrating with family; or perhaps it was simply the Grace of the Holy Spirit showing me the true reality behind all externals - this Pascha I truly grasped the eternal significance of words I have sung thousands of times over my lifetime:
"Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down Death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!"
We sing this so often and in so many different languages and melodies that I think we Orthodox often take the words themselves for granted.
Christ is risen! THIS is what makes Pascha, and if I sing nothing else, or if I have to wait until tomorrow to eat what was in my Pascha basket, or anything else - THIS is what encapsulates the fullness of the Feast.
This realization was truly humbling - after years of learning music for Pascha, learning recipes for Pascha, learning the rubrics for Pascha - all that truly matters is the first thing I ever learned about Pascha as a young child:
Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!
Pictures from Pascha: http://picasaweb.google.com/jkhouri87/Pascha2009?feat=directlink
Boy, did I receive the greatest surprise (and blessing) of my life! Even without a procession and half of the service in Greek, I had never been more "present" in the ultimate miracle that is Christ's resurrection.
Perhaps it was because the lack of everything familiar forced me to focus more on the words of the hymns instead of their melodies; perhaps it was because the community I have slowly begun to become a part of at that parish (where I will be attending full time after Frank and my wedding in July) felt so much like celebrating with family; or perhaps it was simply the Grace of the Holy Spirit showing me the true reality behind all externals - this Pascha I truly grasped the eternal significance of words I have sung thousands of times over my lifetime:
"Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down Death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!"
We sing this so often and in so many different languages and melodies that I think we Orthodox often take the words themselves for granted.
Christ is risen! THIS is what makes Pascha, and if I sing nothing else, or if I have to wait until tomorrow to eat what was in my Pascha basket, or anything else - THIS is what encapsulates the fullness of the Feast.
This realization was truly humbling - after years of learning music for Pascha, learning recipes for Pascha, learning the rubrics for Pascha - all that truly matters is the first thing I ever learned about Pascha as a young child:
Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!
Pictures from Pascha: http://picasaweb.google.com/jkhouri87/Pascha2009?feat=directlink
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Capturing vs. Permeating
A note from Frank...
I just realized something very important I want you to help me always to remember.
I have been focused so much on trying to collect and capture Orthodox sayings, thoughts, and books, that I have not allowed it to permeate me.
This comes from my habit / job where I collect and capture requirements.
But what the danger is .. is that I could collect all these ideas and capture them down on paper and it becomes a science, a formulae, and a madness of trying to describe God within a box.
What I refuse to do is to ...let it go. To let it enter my heart and not be anxious about forgetting the saying or writing it down so I don't forget. God gives me bread crumbs when I need them.
I have a habit of saving everything... thinking that if I don't save it now what will I do in the future?... I have forgotten about God's provision to spiritually feed me... to provide those coincidences of finding spiritual morsels when I am struggling with that exact same issue.
Anyways.. just thought I would share that with you.
I just realized something very important I want you to help me always to remember.
I have been focused so much on trying to collect and capture Orthodox sayings, thoughts, and books, that I have not allowed it to permeate me.
This comes from my habit / job where I collect and capture requirements.
But what the danger is .. is that I could collect all these ideas and capture them down on paper and it becomes a science, a formulae, and a madness of trying to describe God within a box.
What I refuse to do is to ...let it go. To let it enter my heart and not be anxious about forgetting the saying or writing it down so I don't forget. God gives me bread crumbs when I need them.
I have a habit of saving everything... thinking that if I don't save it now what will I do in the future?... I have forgotten about God's provision to spiritually feed me... to provide those coincidences of finding spiritual morsels when I am struggling with that exact same issue.
Anyways.. just thought I would share that with you.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
4th week of Lent
At this point in my Lenten journey, I will admit, I am growing weary. The fasting, the praying, the extra church services...it all begins to drain a person. But standing in church this evening, a pan-Orthodox vespers with all three of the neighboring churches worshiping together, I heard these words:
Having passed half the period of this holy fast,
let us clearly show for the beginning of divine glory!
Let us fervently hasten to the achievement of good behavior,
that we may receive the eternal joy!
Having passed beyond the middle point of this holy fast,
let us strive to its end, rejoicing with steadfastness!
Let us anoint ourselves with the oil of charity,
that we may be worthy to adore the noble passion of Christ our God,
and attain His most honored and holy Resurrection!
The Savior Who planted the vineyard and called the laborers is near indeed!
Come, therefore, O workers in the fast:
let us receive our wages, for the Giver is rich and merciful!
Even if we have labored little we receive great mercy!
As I looked at those of us who were gathered at the church this evening, I realized how truly blessed it is for "brethren to dwell together in unity", as Fr. Ignatius said in his sermon, and I begin to see how, it doesn't matter if we are Arab, Greek, Russian, or just plain American; it doesn't matter if we sing in four part harmonies, in unison chant melodies, or simply read the hymns to the best of our ability; and it doesn't matter if we have been 100% in keeping the fast, or if we are only keeping it marginally...what does matter is that we, each and every imperfect and sinful one of us, together form the Church, the spotless Bride of Christ, and that WE will all receive the immeasurable grace that is His glorious Pascha, and will all be able to sing/chant/say: CHRIST IS RISEN! INDEED HE IS RISEN! and find in these words the meaning of our lives and the path to our salvation.
Having passed half the period of this holy fast,
let us clearly show for the beginning of divine glory!
Let us fervently hasten to the achievement of good behavior,
that we may receive the eternal joy!
Having passed beyond the middle point of this holy fast,
let us strive to its end, rejoicing with steadfastness!
Let us anoint ourselves with the oil of charity,
that we may be worthy to adore the noble passion of Christ our God,
and attain His most honored and holy Resurrection!
The Savior Who planted the vineyard and called the laborers is near indeed!
Come, therefore, O workers in the fast:
let us receive our wages, for the Giver is rich and merciful!
Even if we have labored little we receive great mercy!
I felt like a marathon runner, having passed the half-way point, but not sure if my legs could carry me to the finish line. But these hymns, so purposefully and providentially placed at this point in the Great Fast, were like the words of the bystanders, cheering me on, and encouraging me to put that last extra effort into this arduous spiritual race, with Christ's Resurrection as it's goal.
As I looked at those of us who were gathered at the church this evening, I realized how truly blessed it is for "brethren to dwell together in unity", as Fr. Ignatius said in his sermon, and I begin to see how, it doesn't matter if we are Arab, Greek, Russian, or just plain American; it doesn't matter if we sing in four part harmonies, in unison chant melodies, or simply read the hymns to the best of our ability; and it doesn't matter if we have been 100% in keeping the fast, or if we are only keeping it marginally...what does matter is that we, each and every imperfect and sinful one of us, together form the Church, the spotless Bride of Christ, and that WE will all receive the immeasurable grace that is His glorious Pascha, and will all be able to sing/chant/say: CHRIST IS RISEN! INDEED HE IS RISEN! and find in these words the meaning of our lives and the path to our salvation.
Friday, March 13, 2009
A new beginning...
During my stay in Santiago, Chile last semester, I was an avid blogger. I earnestly tried to keep friends and family posted with my goings on, as well as a fair share of pictures. Upon my return to "the States" however, I completely forgot about how useful a blog is in keeping in touch with others and with sharing stories in general.
So, in anticipation of a new beginning in my life (Frank and I will be married on July 12), I have decided to begin this blog in order to share our stories and reflections.
Providentially, we Orthodox Christians are also in the period of Great Lent. Lent proves to be a perfect time for reflection, thus I hope my blog entries will fully encompass the greatness of this period of the year, with all of the bright sorrow that it brings: repentance, growing closer to God, asceticism, and finally, the blessed Pascha!
~Juliana
So, in anticipation of a new beginning in my life (Frank and I will be married on July 12), I have decided to begin this blog in order to share our stories and reflections.
Providentially, we Orthodox Christians are also in the period of Great Lent. Lent proves to be a perfect time for reflection, thus I hope my blog entries will fully encompass the greatness of this period of the year, with all of the bright sorrow that it brings: repentance, growing closer to God, asceticism, and finally, the blessed Pascha!
~Juliana
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