26 April 2017
25 April 2017
Thought of the day
Either extreme of everything being black and white, or everything being relative is bad.
11 April 2017
Thought of the day
It is necessary to avoid situations that will lead to wrath, sometimes it results in a lonely corner though.
24 March 2017
Thought of the day
Save your people O Lord and bless your inheritance, grant victory to your Church over evil, and protect your people by your Cross. (Troparion 3rd Su of Lent)
22 March 2017
Thought of the day
It's quite interesting that people tend to think I'm some super strict, ultra to the right person when nothing could be further from the truth. I'm much more a reasonable person to the right, who tends to hear the arguments from all sides. Especially when it comes to matters within the Church, it's interesting how those from extremes of both sides tend to push people out, but oddly at least within my own experience, it's those on the hard right that do more to push people even further out.
06 March 2017
The ridiculous needs to end, NOW
There's only so much stupid that I can ignore before I end up snapping, the breaking point is far past now, we need to begin. (Bear in mind this was written before the start of Lent)
a. The rioters
Listen, and listen attentively, destroying things isn't going to change the outcome of the results of the election. If anything, this sort of attitude is exactly why the results happened as they were. How does causing damage to the community that's already damaged make things better? You expect the geniuses that run the government to show pity on a situation that was self-caused? LOL!, cute....
b. The protests against the travel ban...
Just stop, stop now! The US is a sovereign nation with a right to protect itself from enemies from outside and within the country. When Bishops elevate matters of prudential judgement to de-facto dogmas, we get stupid things like the Roman Catholic Bishop of San Diego supporting making a mess. (Trump wasn't certainly my first choice, but I don't support acting stupid because one lost)
Is the wall going to stop illegal immigration? Of course not! No one said it would, for that to stop, one has to cut it off at the source, which is the governments of those people that leave various countries being so corrupt to a point where they are willing to break laws to cross into other countries. Something that I've made mention of before, and I'll make mention of it again, illegal or legal is not with regards to a person's dignity, but rather their status with respect to the laws of the given country. Undocumented is quite vague and can refer to those here legally or illegally. Quite literally it's those without papers, or who may have not received them. (Knowing the competence of the government on these things, it's surprising that more papers don't get lost)
c. This pope....AL....
Have we not learned our lesson by putting a microphone in front of this guy? It's at this point where I say, just because one can do something doesn't mean one should do it. The sooner this pontificate ends the better. There are two schools of thought for me on this...To some degree, what's being proposed is already allowed, but usually in these situations, are rather rare. The old saying is we don't take the exception and make it the normal, which is what at least those trying to interpret AL are trying to do. Of course in this approach the definitions are the ends in of themselves, and so a strict absolute no must be held. If we consider dogmas to be more fences, perhaps this approach might be understandable. But I do not think it is necessary for the Roman church to copy the practices of the East in this manner. The words of Jesus are clear, and we're not free to do what we want with them.
d. The dam...
If anything shows government's great incompetence here in California, it's the Oroville dam. I have family there, so if you can keep them in prayer it'd be awesome. This is what happens when we don't use the allocated money for this for what it's supposed to be used for. The sooner I'm able to leave California, the better.
e. Russia
It wasn't the Russians, the cold war is over. Stop buying into the fear that Russia is coming to get us. It doesn't mean Putin is some kind of super-saint, of course not, but it's important to be realistic as well. And yes, I'm still leaving....
f. The name calling....
It needs to stop. Just because someone disagrees does not make them "insert your favourite buzz-word here" It's like chicken little or the boy who cried wolf one too many times. These words keep being used so much, people will be blind when the actual situation does occur right in front of their faces.
g. The various isms
It's not necessarily an ism just because it happens as such. I think too often people read into situations when it isn't such a thing, or it isn't as magnified as people tend to think it is. This isn't, of course, to say that concerns shouldn't be addressed, but we shouldn't be reading into the hearts of the individuals that do various activities. Oh Mr. Potiillor, why aren't more females in science? How's they're not interested sound? I can only hope that those who are influenced by my horrendous example are inspired to do more, but it's not something that can be forced either. We can read into why some aren't interested...My two best math teachers were female....so take that for what it's worth. :p
e. "fake news"
We've had this for decades. What do people think satire is? The truth? Most news stories are incomplete because they only present one perspective on given information about a supposed news item. Most of these have a liberal bent to them, it is quite rare to find alternative points of view. Liberal perspectives in of themselves don't make for "fake news"....incomplete, sure, but definitely not fake. To be fair, though, there are agendas at play, and there's often manipulation of information as to present something as true which isn't.
Moving on from the ridiculous to the actually important.
1. If you could keep the mother of my parish priest in your prayers, she recently passed away.
2. Keep me in your prayers as well, as Friday is mum's birthday, and even 15 years after the fact it's not any easier....
3. If you're watching the Kardashians, you need to step up your game....watch this instead
http://nutiminn.is/kattarshians/
These are by far much cuter, and have way more substance than the actual Kardashians :)
a. The rioters
Listen, and listen attentively, destroying things isn't going to change the outcome of the results of the election. If anything, this sort of attitude is exactly why the results happened as they were. How does causing damage to the community that's already damaged make things better? You expect the geniuses that run the government to show pity on a situation that was self-caused? LOL!, cute....
b. The protests against the travel ban...
Just stop, stop now! The US is a sovereign nation with a right to protect itself from enemies from outside and within the country. When Bishops elevate matters of prudential judgement to de-facto dogmas, we get stupid things like the Roman Catholic Bishop of San Diego supporting making a mess. (Trump wasn't certainly my first choice, but I don't support acting stupid because one lost)
Is the wall going to stop illegal immigration? Of course not! No one said it would, for that to stop, one has to cut it off at the source, which is the governments of those people that leave various countries being so corrupt to a point where they are willing to break laws to cross into other countries. Something that I've made mention of before, and I'll make mention of it again, illegal or legal is not with regards to a person's dignity, but rather their status with respect to the laws of the given country. Undocumented is quite vague and can refer to those here legally or illegally. Quite literally it's those without papers, or who may have not received them. (Knowing the competence of the government on these things, it's surprising that more papers don't get lost)
c. This pope....AL....
Have we not learned our lesson by putting a microphone in front of this guy? It's at this point where I say, just because one can do something doesn't mean one should do it. The sooner this pontificate ends the better. There are two schools of thought for me on this...To some degree, what's being proposed is already allowed, but usually in these situations, are rather rare. The old saying is we don't take the exception and make it the normal, which is what at least those trying to interpret AL are trying to do. Of course in this approach the definitions are the ends in of themselves, and so a strict absolute no must be held. If we consider dogmas to be more fences, perhaps this approach might be understandable. But I do not think it is necessary for the Roman church to copy the practices of the East in this manner. The words of Jesus are clear, and we're not free to do what we want with them.
d. The dam...
If anything shows government's great incompetence here in California, it's the Oroville dam. I have family there, so if you can keep them in prayer it'd be awesome. This is what happens when we don't use the allocated money for this for what it's supposed to be used for. The sooner I'm able to leave California, the better.
e. Russia
It wasn't the Russians, the cold war is over. Stop buying into the fear that Russia is coming to get us. It doesn't mean Putin is some kind of super-saint, of course not, but it's important to be realistic as well. And yes, I'm still leaving....
f. The name calling....
It needs to stop. Just because someone disagrees does not make them "insert your favourite buzz-word here" It's like chicken little or the boy who cried wolf one too many times. These words keep being used so much, people will be blind when the actual situation does occur right in front of their faces.
g. The various isms
It's not necessarily an ism just because it happens as such. I think too often people read into situations when it isn't such a thing, or it isn't as magnified as people tend to think it is. This isn't, of course, to say that concerns shouldn't be addressed, but we shouldn't be reading into the hearts of the individuals that do various activities. Oh Mr. Potiillor, why aren't more females in science? How's they're not interested sound? I can only hope that those who are influenced by my horrendous example are inspired to do more, but it's not something that can be forced either. We can read into why some aren't interested...My two best math teachers were female....so take that for what it's worth. :p
e. "fake news"
We've had this for decades. What do people think satire is? The truth? Most news stories are incomplete because they only present one perspective on given information about a supposed news item. Most of these have a liberal bent to them, it is quite rare to find alternative points of view. Liberal perspectives in of themselves don't make for "fake news"....incomplete, sure, but definitely not fake. To be fair, though, there are agendas at play, and there's often manipulation of information as to present something as true which isn't.
Moving on from the ridiculous to the actually important.
1. If you could keep the mother of my parish priest in your prayers, she recently passed away.
2. Keep me in your prayers as well, as Friday is mum's birthday, and even 15 years after the fact it's not any easier....
3. If you're watching the Kardashians, you need to step up your game....watch this instead
http://nutiminn.is/kattarshians/
These are by far much cuter, and have way more substance than the actual Kardashians :)
22 February 2017
Liturgical attitudes (Experiences from the Assyrian church of the East)
I was blessed with the opportunity to experience Liturgy in Aramaic for the past few Sundays, while my parish had suspended Sunday Liturgy, I share my experiences to perhaps to bring a different perspective to some of the debates we see in western circles.
a. Attitude is everything.
The priests and deacons were in prayer before the Divine Liturgy, praying Orthos in Aramaic. (I was praying mine in Russian). None of this casual atmosphere as one finds in many of the western parishes.
Afterwards, the priest and I had a brief introduction, I stayed for Liturgy. it was quite nice to hear the language of Our Lord being used. Fortunately, there was a Latinised version of the Aramaic so I could somehow attempt to sing the Liturgy. It not being among the languages that I do speak, was a little hard to sing at first.
Everyone was attentive to the Liturgy and the various actions within the Liturgy, from the sign of peace to the incensations, and when the deacon went around with the incense. Seeing as the Liturgy was nearly 2 hours long, this non-Byzantine rite definitely had much motion, but there was plenty of genuflecting by the priest and deacons....it was very interesting to observe the various points. I think on a non-Sunday Liturgy, we would be kneeling with them. ...
Something that I've repeated on this blog and elsewhere, it's hard to take things seriously, when those that around us don't. This wasn't a problem. Everyone knew their piece and did what they were supposed to do.
b. Come time for Holy Communion....
As an Eastern, we really don't do Communion in the Hand...so needless to say that I was taken back when Our Lord was placed in my hand. However, it really wasn't so much in the hand, as our hands acting as a paten. Something that Bishop Schneider refers to in his book Dominus Est, and also on his interview on EWTN. We brought our palms to our mouths and did not touch the Host. I must say the external attitude made this much easier to deal with, it wasn't casual, with reverence to the cross on the tetrapod. If Communion in the Hand was done this way at parishes it'd be much less of a bother instead of the irreverence that's often shown elsewhere.
If you have the chance to visit them, by all means do so. It was definitely a different experience.
a. Attitude is everything.
The priests and deacons were in prayer before the Divine Liturgy, praying Orthos in Aramaic. (I was praying mine in Russian). None of this casual atmosphere as one finds in many of the western parishes.
Afterwards, the priest and I had a brief introduction, I stayed for Liturgy. it was quite nice to hear the language of Our Lord being used. Fortunately, there was a Latinised version of the Aramaic so I could somehow attempt to sing the Liturgy. It not being among the languages that I do speak, was a little hard to sing at first.
Everyone was attentive to the Liturgy and the various actions within the Liturgy, from the sign of peace to the incensations, and when the deacon went around with the incense. Seeing as the Liturgy was nearly 2 hours long, this non-Byzantine rite definitely had much motion, but there was plenty of genuflecting by the priest and deacons....it was very interesting to observe the various points. I think on a non-Sunday Liturgy, we would be kneeling with them. ...
Something that I've repeated on this blog and elsewhere, it's hard to take things seriously, when those that around us don't. This wasn't a problem. Everyone knew their piece and did what they were supposed to do.
b. Come time for Holy Communion....
As an Eastern, we really don't do Communion in the Hand...so needless to say that I was taken back when Our Lord was placed in my hand. However, it really wasn't so much in the hand, as our hands acting as a paten. Something that Bishop Schneider refers to in his book Dominus Est, and also on his interview on EWTN. We brought our palms to our mouths and did not touch the Host. I must say the external attitude made this much easier to deal with, it wasn't casual, with reverence to the cross on the tetrapod. If Communion in the Hand was done this way at parishes it'd be much less of a bother instead of the irreverence that's often shown elsewhere.
If you have the chance to visit them, by all means do so. It was definitely a different experience.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)