Veterans/Remembrance Day

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Today in the US it is Veterans day and in the UK it is Remembrance Day. It seems it has become just another day. Oh well we seem to forget everything except ourselves in our world now. We have become so self-centered that we seem to forget the things that are important. On this day of remembrance of those who fought to keep this country safe let us pause for just a second, in our busy lives and say thank you.

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

–Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae (1872-1918).

Monastery

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Today I am off at 4:30am to meet with my Bishop at our monastery near Middletown, New York. He has been there this weekend and he requested that I come down and see him. I have not been able to meet with him for a year and he likes to see his clergy when he is in the area. So I am up early and out the door. The flip side of all of this is I will be back in the rectory by 1pm or so. I hope.

Pray for me as I travel.

Sunday

Posted on by Fr. Peter

I have been silent since Tuesday night after my election live blogging. I am sure some of you are happy and some of you are not with the outcome of the election. I was going to write something about the election but so much has been written that I figured why bother. I posted something on Facebook the other night and asked if the liberals were filled with this much hate when George Bush was elected in 2000 I cannot remember all of this nonsense but I guess it did exist. I believe that we all need to pull together and make this country work. Will Obama do everything that we agree with, no but neither did President Bush. So where do we go from here? We just keep on doing what makes this country great. Think about it this way. In some countries people would have been killed on election day, and then the election would have just been called for whatever dictator was in favor. Think of all of the places where the people get no voice. I just ask that we tone down all of the rhetoric and get on with fixing this mess. As Orthodox we pray for the President of the United States, no matter who he or she is.

This weekend is our parish patronal feast. St. Michael’s feast day was actually yesterday but we transfer the feast to Sunday. We had a vesper service last night and today after liturgy we have a banquet. We are expecting about 70 people for lunch and the team that put it all together has done a great job. The folks from St. Nicholas Albanian Orthodox Church come to liturgy today and we will repay the visit for their feast day in a few weeks. It is nice when we are all able to worship together. I have struggled all week on the homily and I am not really pleased with what I have come up with. Maybe I will get a spark from the Holy Spirit at the last minute. One can only hope.

Election Blogging

Posted on by Fr. Peter

I am going to be live blogging the results as long as I can stay awake that is.

11:00pm CNN Projects:
Obama Wins

10:25pm CNN Projects:
TX – McCain
MS – McCain

10:00pm CNN Projects:
UT – McCain
KS – McCain
IA – Obama

9:53pm CNN Projects:
NM – Obama

9:38pm CNN Projects:
OH – Obama

8:40pm CNN Projects:
PA – Obama

8:30pm CNN Projects:
NH – Obama

8:11 Electoral College
McCain – 34
Obama – 77

8pm CNN Projects:
ME – Obama
MA – Obama
CT – Obama
DEL – Obama
DC – Obama
SC – McCain
TN – McCain
OK – McCain
MD – Obama

7pm CNN Projects:
VT – Obama
KY – McCain

Election Prayer

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Election Prayer
by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

Lord Jesus Christ, You told us to give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God. Enlighten the minds of our people [in] America. May we choose a President of the United States, and other government officials, according to Your Divine Will. Give our citizens the courage to choose leaders of our nation who respect the sanctity of unborn human life, the sanctity of marriage, the sanctity of marital relations, the sanctity of the family, and the sanctity of the aging. Grant us the wisdom to give You, what belongs to You, our God. If we do this, as a nation, we are confident You will give us an abundance of Your blessings through our elected leaders. Amen.

H/T Fr. Z

Today is the Day

Posted on by Fr. Peter
So it has arrived. For the past 18 months we have been inundated with political stuff and it is now our turn to cast our vote. It is up to us now to make the difference. By all accounts this will be a record setting day. There are reports from Ohio that people will be standing in line for more than an hour. This is a good thing. On the radio this morning it was reported that Connecticut is expecting a 90% turn out! Can anyone remember a 90% turn out?

Fr. Greg and I will be meeting about 12:30 for lunch and then a drive around podcast that I hope to get online right after depending on the editing and technical problems. We plan to drive to various towns in the area and see what is going on and talking about the election. We have very different views on voting and this should be interesting.

Tonight I will perform what has become a tradition. I will ensconce myself in front of the TV and watch the returns. I usually print a map and I color in the states, I know I am crazy but it is tradition!

I posted a prayer last week for the election and I will keep it at the top of the blog today. Pray it before going to cast your vote.

Sermon from Today

Posted on by Fr. Peter
It has been some time since I posted a sermon. This week I talked about the upcoming election and how we need to think about the vote. I will be curious to hear your comments. Just be nice!

SERMON

Homilies Online

Posted on by Fr. Peter
I have been posting my homilies online on the parish website www.stmichaelorth.org and now they can be heard on Ancient Faith Radio.

Ancient Faith Talk, part of the family, will be airing my Sunday homilies on Mondays at 4:45am and 4:45pm and on Fridays at 2:45am and 2:45pm do tune in if you get a chance. There are some great shows on Ancient Faith Talk and great music on Ancient Faith Radio. You can tune in here.

Ancient Faith Radio

Speaking

Posted on by Fr. Peter
If you are looking for a speaker for a conference or a parish mission or the like my speaking calendar is now being managed by the Orthodox Speakers Bureau. There are many great speakers there as well. So if you would like to book me for something follow this link.

Still Here

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Well I am still here and still suffering with this cold. I hate being sick and since I am alone I still have to do all the house stuff and prepare my own meals. I am not complaining because I like to eat when I want to eat and not when someone wants me to eat but now I am out of food and need to go shopping. Today sounds like a good day for beef stew.

So I have just been hanging around this week and trying to get over this cold. Last night I met with one of my Spiritual Children. I was going to cancel but we have been trying to meet for a month and we finally settled on a date so I thought I should stick to it. I am glad I did. I need to get back in the swing of things.

So I watched the Obama infomercial last night. Good concept, I don’t think anyone has ever done that before I am not sure it changed any minds but you gotta do what you gotta do as they say.

In Massachusetts we have three questions on the ballot. I am thinking of writing something on them over the next few days so look for that as well. I have my show to record today and get off to the radio stations and some reading to do. Tomorrow I am on the air at 7am so that will be fun. We have the principal of the High School coming in for a chat. He is a great guy and pulls no punches so it should be interesting.

Okay gang thanks for reading!

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