Mother’s Day

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Happy Mother’s day to all of the mothers who read this blog especially my own dear mother who had a part in me being who I am today. I pray that all mother’s weather they are with us or not have a blessed day.

Take time to thank mothers, and women in general. Mothers have still have a great role in our society not for just bringing forth life but also for nurturing that life and helping their children grow. In the Orthodox world the faith of the Church is passed on by our mothers and we use as a great example Mary the Mother of Jesus. Pray to Mary for guidance and she will show you the way.

A special prayer to those women who find themselves in the family way rather unexpectedly. Hang in there and bring to life that life you are carrying. If you do not want to raise the child you now carry someone will. There are many parents who long to have a child and cannot so bring your baby to this world and let someone care for it. Abortion is not the answer!

Blessings in a special way to single moms. You have the hardest of all jobs being mom and dad to your children. I pray for you that God’s blessings will come upon you for you chose life and not death.

Blessed Mother’s Day

Miss California

Posted on by Fr. Peter
I was trying to avoid commenting on a beauty pageant on these pages since I believe my time can be better spent on, oh I don’t know, real things.

Anyway you know the story. At some beauty pageant a contestant got a question regarding same sex marriage. Well she answered the question truthfully and lost the pageant. She is now blaming her loss on her answer to the question because the person who asked the question happens to be gay. So she lost by one vote?

Okay when did beauty pageants become about anything more than blond hair and bathing suits? Why do we care what some beauty queen thinks about anything other then what evening gown to wear? Now she tells us she is being attacked because this Christian girl posed nude when she was 17 and the photos have leaked.

Now I am trying not to judge anyone here and I believe in forgiveness and that is the business we are in, forgiveness. Don’t be out there all telling people that the big bad media are smearing you because you are a Christian. No they are smearing you because when you were 17 you took your clothes off for a photographer and since they leaked and you are so naive that you did not think they would, and so now you need to blame someone so attack the media.

Little note, before you go all apple pie and ice cream on us and claim to be squeaky clean, burn the negatives. You have no one to blame for this but yourself. All actions have reactions and we may not agree with them but something you did when you were 17 will haunt you for the rest of your life.

Dr. Phil did a story about a year ago about girls gone wild and posting the pictures on My Space. He had college recruiters and headhunters on the show who said that the first thing they do is google people now and see what comes up. Again Miss California you have no one to blame but yourself for this.

Holy Myrrhbearers Sunday

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Sermon Audio

About the beginning of His thirty-second year, when the Lord Jesus was going throughout Galilee, preaching and working miracles, many women who had received of His beneficence left their own homeland and from then on followed after Him. They ministered unto Him out of their own possessions, even until His crucifixion and entombment; and afterwards, neither losing faith in Him after His death, nor fearing the wrath of the Jewish rulers, they came to the sepulchre, bearing the myrrh-oils they had prepared to annoint His body. It is because of the myrrh-oils, that these God-loving women brought to the tomb of Jesus that they are called the Myrrh-bearers. Of those whose names are known are the following: first of all, the most holy Virgin Mary, who in Matthew 27:56 and Mark 15:40 is called “the mother of James and Joses” (these are the sons of Joseph by a previous marriage, and she was therefore their step-mother); Mary Magdalene (celebrated July 22); Mary, the wife of Clopas; Joanna, wife of Chouza, a steward of Herod Antipas; Salome, the mother of the sons of Zebedee, Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus; and Susanna. As for the names of the rest of them, the evangelists have kept silence (Matt 27:55-56; 28:1-10. Mark 15:40-41. Luke 8:1-3; 23:55-24:11, 22-24. John 19:25; 20:11-18. Acts 1:14).

Together with them we celebrate also the secret disciples of the Saviour, Joseph and Nicodemus. Of these, Nicodemus was probably a Jerusalemite, a prominent leader among the Jews and of the order of the Pharisees, learned in the Law and instructed in the Holy Scriptures. He had believed in Christ when, at the beginning of our Saviour’s preaching of salvation, he came to Him by night. Furthermore, he brought some one hundred pounds of myrrh-oils and an aromatic mixture of aloes and spices out of reverence and love for the divine Teacher (John 19:39). Joseph, who was from the city of Arimathea, was a wealthy and noble man, and one of the counsellors who were in Jerusalem. He went boldly unto Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus, and together with Nicodemus he gave Him burial. Since time did not permit the preparation of another tomb, he placed the Lord’s body in his own tomb which was hewn out of rock, as the Evangelist says (Matt. 27:60).

Communion and the Flu

Posted on by Fr. Peter
With Sunday coming I am wondering about the question about Communion during this time of the H1N1 Swine Flu. We Orthodox receive Communion from a common cup from a common spoon. It has been done this way for some 2,000 years. I understand people fears but let me say one thing about this subject and then I will link to another source for more information.

As Orthodox we believe that the bread and wine are not simply bread and wine after the consecration. We believe that they are the body and blood of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ who said do this in remembrance of me. Now I am a logical person so I have to ask the question. If it is what we say it is why would it make us sick? Why would the very thing that Jesus commands us to do, and that will make us whole make us sick? Again I understand the fears but I say fear not. If this was a problem we would have received a missive from the bishops and from the health department but to this date nothing of the kind has arrived.

Fr. Ernesto over at OrthoCuban has a post about this subject. I would suggest you give it a read it is very informative. I would also suggest that you add his blog to your must read list.

Liberal Press

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Can someone please tell me exactly who the liberal press are that we are blaming everything on? If the stats are true, and based on the number of newspapers that are folding each day, 90% of Americans do not read the newspapers and 45% of Americans do not have cable, so we get our news from the radio that is populated by the conservatives last time I checked.

So that being the case who is this liberal press?

Fr. John at Orthodoxy and Culture has a run down of what he says the President has accomplished in his 100 days, here is an excerpt:

Well, over the last one hundred days the harvesting of human beings for body parts has been once again made legal (fetal stem cell research), several states have legalized ‘gay-marriage’, euthanasia has been legalized in Washington state, incredibly vast sums of money has been poured into the “Economic Stimulus Bill”–while the regime still pretends that there will be no middle class tax increases, and the list continues.

Okay the stem cell thing I will buy but last time I checked the President of the United States has nothing to do with state government and most of these things were in the pipe line long before he was sworn in. I clearly forgets that President Bush had his own Stimulus Package that was oh so successful as well.

I said this on my radio show the other day. STOP BLAMING PEOPLE! We need to stop blaming and work to change. We also need to stop, and I say we so that is both sides here, spinning things. One party did not get us into this mess and one party will not get us out. We all need to work together to make this country work. If all you are going to do is blame people and complain I would rather you just simply Shut Up!

Christmas in Russia

Posted on by Fr. Peter
I am putting a Pilgrimage or sorts together to Russia for New Years and Russian Christmas. Although I do not have all of the details yet it is looking like the cost would be somewhere around $3,000 – $3,500 all inclusive.

The plan would be to arrive in Moscow on the 30th of December and spend New Years Eve there with tours of Museum of Icons and Christ the Savior Cathedral, Kremlin with Cathedral Square and Cathedral of Assumption, where royal weddings and coronation ceremonies used to take place, also Cathedral of Annunciation and the Cathedral of Archangel Michael (Mikhail).

On January 2nd we will board a train for St. Petersburg and visit the Palace Square with the magnificent Winter Palace, to St Isaac’s Cathedral. We will see St Peter and Paul’s Fortress, Nevsky prospect, St Basil’s Island, the famous Bronze Horseman, Smolny, and the city’s other highlights. Nevsky Abbey and Hermitage the Winter Palace (previously the residence of the Imperial family). It contains over three million exhibits and one of the best art collections in the world. The gallery is most famous for its collection of West European art, with paintings by Monet, Cezanne, Renoir, Picasso, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rubens and Rembrandt.

January 7th is Christmas in Russia so we would attend Liturgy in one of the Churches of St. Petersburg and return to the US on the 8th.

If you are interested in the tour please leave me a comment or email me and I will put you on the list and keep you up to date on all of the details.

Proposed Itinerary

The Mental Murder of Torture

Posted on by Fr. Peter
For some time now I have been thinking about this torture thing that everyone is talking about. How does this effect all of us and should we be concerned about it. Yesterday I posted a poll for my daily radio show about waterboarding. The results were not surprising to me but a little disturbing none the less. A vast majority of the respondents believe that it is not torture to waterboard someone.

So I came across this article on the First Things Blog by Russell E. Saltzman and he has helped my clarify my thinking on this position. Right in the center of the article the author makes this statement:

I’ve been trying, like many Americas, to think this thing through. There is the altogether practical question: Did torture help us? Did it make America safer? Was the information really good, helpful, in thwarting terrorists? Did it actually in fact spoil pending plots? Frankly, the evidence is mixed.

But I really don’t care. Whether torture “worked” or not as an interrogative tactic is far from the main question. I’m a pastor. I think as a pastor, which is to say as a parish theologian. I don’t care if these guys shrieked like little girls on the playground and blubbered out plots for everything from the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre to knocking over Bagdad candy stores as juvenile delinquents. Torture is morally wrong. It is morally wrong, theologically speaking, because it is an attack upon the imago Dei, upon the image of God inherent to every human life.

Now, I’m not so dumb or so liberal that I can’t understand and remember and share the anger the September 11 attack produced in America, nor was I the least bit hesitant in supporting the studied determination of making sure that nothing like it ever happens again. But if there is anyone suggesting the American homeland is safer today for having abandoned the ordinary principles of humane treatment for prisoners in American custody, then he’s a moral midget. Torture is not what Americans do. Not if we still have some lingering respect for the rights with which God endows humanity.

The important phrase in this entire discussion is the image of God. That is what it all boils down too. As Christians we cannot stand for anything that diminishes the image of God in one of his creations. No matter who, or what that person is we cannot allow this to happen. Any torture is a moral outrage and we need to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves.

This will take many hours of thought and prayer and discussion but it is a discussion that we need to have.

Thomas Sunday

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Though the doors were shut at the dwelling where the disciples were gathered for fear of the Jews on the evening of the Sunday after the Passover, our Saviour wondrously entered and stood in their midst, and greeted them with His customary words, “Peace be unto you.” Then He showed unto them His hands and feet and side; furthermore, in their presence, He took some fish and a honeycomb and ate before them, and thus assured them of His bodily Resurrection. But Thomas, who was not then present with the others, did not believe their testimony concerning Christ’s Resurrection, but said in a decisive manner, “Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe.” Wherefore after eight days, that is, on this day, when the disciples were again gathered together and Thomas was with them, the Lord Jesus came while the doors were shut, as He did formerly. Standing in their midst, He said, “Peace be unto you”; then He said to Thomas, “Bring hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and bring hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side: and be not unbelieving, but believing.”

And Thomas, beholding and examining carefully the hands and side of the Master, cried out with faith, “My Lord and my God.” Thus he clearly proclaimed the two natures – human and divine – of the God-man (Luke 24:36-49; John 20:19-29).

This day is called Antipascha (meaning “in the stead of Pascha,” not “in opposition to Pascha”) because with this day, the first Sunday after Pascha, the Church consecrates every Sunday of the year to the commemoration of Pascha, that is, the Resurrection.

Earthquake shakes parts of Bulgaria, Romania

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Let us pray to the Lord! Lord have mercy!

An earthquake of about 5.3 on the Richter scale shook northern Bulgaria and parts of Romania at about 8.20pm on April 25 2009.

Initial reports from seismologists said that the epicentre was in the region of Vrancha mountain in Romania, about 145km north east of Bucharest and about 400km from Sofia, with the quake emanating from a depth of about 114km.

Bulgarian National Television (BNT) said that the quake was felt in the Bulgarian cities and towns of Pleven, Varna, Dobrich, Svishtov and Belene. Other Bulgarian-language media said that residents of Rousse, on the Danube bordering Romania, felt the quake “strongly” and some fled high-rise flats.

While in a number of the cities in Bulgaria and Romania that felt the quake, people left their homes to stand in the streets outside, initially there were no reports of serious injuries or damage.

Svishtov residents returned inside after about an hour. The town has vivid memories of 1977, when it was among the places hardest hit by an earthquake in which more than 100 people in the town died, among the more than 1500 Bulgarians and Romanians reported killed at the time by the quake, which also destroyed more than 8000 buildings.

A resident of a Bucharest, severely shaken by the quake told BNT by telephone that people had been frightened at the time of the incident, but calm had returned.

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