We have a Winner, Sort of, and another Question!

a photo from the Winner's blog!

The silly contest is over and, Janelle (whose blog I feature on my blog roll on the right http://geekyphotos.blogspot.com/) has won...but more on that later; First I have an other question:

I arrived a few minutes late (It's getting to be a habit) and the first thing I noticed is that the old familiar words of Vespers, sounded a bit different.  Yes, the tone had changed slightly. Can someone give me the scoop on the changing of the tones? I just don't understand what governs when and why they change. Feel free to comment below or email me, but no prizes this time :)

Fr Gary has come back from vacation! And where he went, he needed our prayers! You see, Fr Gary and his wife went to the Bahamas's on a well deserved trip and were greeted by Hurricane Sandy! So a few days ago we did get an email from one of the parish members to remember them in prayer. We did and God, in His Mercy, kept them safe. It was great to see Fr Gary again even though Fr Ken did a bang up job last week.

 Fr Gary was funny in his homily. He said, "Sandy sends greetings from the Bahama's," then we all chuckled. Then he added, "She says, 'see you soon'" More chuckles, although as I write this in the Midst of Hurricane Sandy starting to ramp up, I am not doing too much laughing.  But God is good and so far we are well.

I do like how in his homily, Fr Gary mentioned he couldn't help but notice all the preparations being made for the hurricane, remarking how this was the right thing to do.  He then went on to say that we should be spending out life making preparations for the return of Christ.  A nice short homily that, by its brevity, helped drive the point home! Be Ready!

I chatted with Daria for a while after Vespers (She runs the choir when Reader Timothy can't make it).We were all in the Narthax while Fr Gary was hearing confessions in the Nave.  She introduced me to her son, Daniel, whom I think I have seen before but now had the pleasure of meeting. A pleasant chap! Daria asked if we were prepared for Hurricane Sandy. I gave a half~hearted "Yes."  (I mean, how ready can you really be for a hurricane?) She then proceeded to invite me and my family to her house since she lived on high ground. Daniel remarked, not without humor, "If everyone shows up whom you invited to we'll have no room!" This brought some laughs. Indeed, it seems everyone was laughing at something. In the conversation next to us, I heard some laughing and finally Tammy gave us all a kind yet forceful "Shh" and then some lady who, to me, looked like a short, feisty Italian woman, said, with a big grin on her face, "Yeah, be Quiet; I want to hear the Confessions!" This almost brought loud guffaws and we all had to leave so we really wouldn't disturb the confessions.  I remarked to Tammy, as I went to my car, I like that woman! It's hard not to like someone who knows how to laugh.

Now, about the contest. I had one person go through the trouble of counting since my 46th visit way back in January.  Jannelle came up with my next visit (meaning this one) being number 78. Well, the thing is, I got a different number. This visit is actually number 74. I think what Janelle did is count the blog posts but some of them did not document a visit to my parish; a few said that I wasn't going so in the interest of accuracy:

 This is visit number 74!

But, what the heck, since she went through the trouble of counting, she wins anyway! Janelle, shoot me an email and I'll arrange to send you the gift card!

By the way, Janelle's blog, A Geek and A Camera Phone,  inspired me to start another blog which is basically me uploading a new pic everyday from my camera phone. Check it out!
http://mydailyphonepic.blogspot.com/

See you guys next time for posts about Visit number 75! Oh, if someone actually wants to go through the trouble of checking my count, go ahead~ I don't mind being proven wrong! :)

A Contest and A Question!

Before you read, you can listen; but it's not mandatory! click below.

listen to ‘Announcement...A Contest!!’ on Audioboo

Yes, I have a contest for y'all! I'm sorry, I can't help it .I run a Children's youth group and am always giving away prizes so I thought I'd offer a prize to one of my readers. But before I get to that, let me ask a question....

I arrived early to Vespers, had a nice chat with Tammy who informed me that Fr Gary was on vacation so Fr. Ken would be leading Vespers. Then, after venerating the Icons, I decided to sit in a different location than I normally do. (What can I say? I just wanted to shake things up a bit). Well, as a result, I was closer to the front than I normally am. So, we got to one of my favorite parts of Vespers, the Kathisma, where we chant Psalm 2. (Psalm 2 is a psalm I memorized as a teenager and God used that Psalm to get me through a mini crisis of faith!). As we are all chanting, I hear Fr. Ken (sounding like mumbling to me; forgive me) and he was definitely NOT following along with us. I imagine he was praying (I mean what else would it be; surely he wasn't just thinking out loud about the things he had to take care of after Vespers). My Question:
What was Fr. Ken praying? I know the Orthodox have "Secret Prayers" of the priest but I don't remember ever hearing Fr. Gary pray during the Kathisma.  Maybe, he did but I never noticed it before. I would have asked Fr. Ken but, as is my custom, I have to rush out of Vespers right after service to pick up my son at work. As it is, he has to wait at least an hour for me because he gets off work just as we start Vespers so I really don't like to keep him waiting.

So if any of you experienced Vesper's people can clue me in on what type of prayers are in the Rubrics for the priest to say while we chant Psalm 2, I'd appreciate it!

Now, to my contest! For those of you who have been reading for a while, you may remember that I used to number each visit that I made to my parish. I did it as a way to keep track in my mind. But, I stopped putting numbers on my visit back in January . I still would blog each and every time I went to my parish but I did not put a number on it anymore. Well, one of my readers, Bill,  remarked to me, "I know it's silly, but I liked when you use to number your visits."  I thought it was funny he should say that because I was thinking or reprising my numbering system, well....just because!

So, here's the contest: The first person to either email me or, better yet, comment below, what number visit I am up to, wins a $15 gift card to Itunes!  It's really kind of easy to figure out. Just scroll below to the Blog Archive, click on January of this year and start counting to this present blog post! Deadline is by next visit to my parish which, God willing, will be this Saturday night!

I know it's kind of silly to do this and, in many ways, vain but please accept this in the spirit of fun and, more importantly, thank you all for reading my blog and for your prayers. They mean a lot to me as I journey towards Orthodoxy!

Have a great week!

So do I blog when I have nothing much to say...?

my blog a waste of Internet space? I hope not!

Yes, I will.

I know, it's a horrible waste of internet space but when I started this blog, Orthodoxy or Bust, I promised myself I would blog about each and every visit to the Orthodox Church. I made this promise because I have a tendency to lose track of important things and let "life" pass me by without much thought. I guess it's the whole Seed sown parable come to life and I don't want to be among  these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.  If I stop blogging, I'll lose track of my spiritual state...and that would be bad!

So what do I mean, I have nothing to say? Well, nothing new to add about last nights attendance at Vespers; It was, of course, a blessing. I guess that is enough to say about it.  I felt as if I were worshiping and I was blessed to be around others who were too.  

So keep me in your prayers as I remember you!

I arrived early to Vespers for a change...

our parish, taken with my phone minutes before Vespers!

It was good to be back.  Last week I did not attend Vespers because of a family commitment and, even though I only missed a week, I feel like I've been away forever. So I made sure I arrived early this week. I even had time to take a quick picture with my phone! (See above)

On the first Saturday of the month, our parish does a general confession after Vespers. The first time I experienced that I was a little freaked out only because Fr. Gary launched right into the Confession after Vespers concluded. Almost immediately, we were praying the Lord's Prayer and I thought, "Didn't we just do that?" (The Lord's prayer comes towards the end of Vespers). Eventually, I figured it out.

One thing I don't like is, usually, Fr. Gary does not give a homily when he is doing the General Confession. I imagine that is so he doesn't have to keep the faithful out longer than usual on a Saturday night.  But I enjoy his short homilies.But I'm not complaining! I suppose if I want more homilies, I"ll have to abandon the protestants and start going to Divine Liturgies!

In the meantime, I'll enjoy what I can!

JUMP FOR JOY!!!!

on my way to Vespers soon!
I missed last week and I really am looking forward  to going back!!

Absent from Vespers and a question about Prostrations

I know I don't owe any of you an explanation but I thought I would tell you why I didn't go to Vespers last night. I worked six days this week, each morning waking up at 2am so on Saturday I was really exhausted and spent the evening home, recouping!  There were times when I was tired and went to Vespers anyway and I have always been "extra blessed" during those times but I guess you have to know  the difference from being tired and being really worn out.  Last night, I was worn out.

I do have a question that I have been meaning to ask about the differences between Metania and prostrations. For my prayer rule, I use the St. Philips prayer manual from Fellowship of St. John the Divine which I learned about from Fr Joseph Hunnycut of Orthodixie fame and during the morning prayers it says:

O come, let us worship and fall down before God our King.

O come let us worship and fall down before Christ, our King and our God.

 O come let us worship and fall down before Christ Himself, our King and our God.

After each sentence, an instruction is inserted in parenthesis, simply saying metany. Is it proper to do a full prostration instead? Or is that going overboard?  I actually like prostrations better than metany because, believe it or not, it is easier to just go full on the ground than to bend down and touch the floor.

I'd love your thoughts and wisdom on this!

In the meantime, I'll stay with the prostrations....

P.S., if you are interested in the prayer manual, go to this website
http://www.stphilipsprayerdiscipline.org/

 

Banana Cars, Church Signs and Being late to Vespers

photo by Brett Davis, used under the creative commons license.
check out more photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brettdavis/

My kids to this day, even though they are adults, play a game while we are driving called Banana Car~ Basically, you get one point for each yellow car (same color as a banana hence the name of the game) that you spot and at the end of the trip, the one with the most points, wins. A silly game, I know but it passes the time and usually leads to great discussions on different shades of yellow. I bet you didn't know that one color could hold together one conversation for more than ten minutes :)

Why mention the Banana Car game? I'll get to that in a minute but first let me tell you that at my protestant parish, I am responsible for changing the Church sign. I took that job because I used to complain that our associate pastor, who used to change the sign, took such a long time to switch out the sayings. I mean there are only so many weeks you can read the same cheesy quotation without getting sick of it. So, I felt impressed (I think it was the Holy Spirit) to instead of complaining about something, to actually be willing to do something! So I volunteered to take over changing the sign, much to Pastor Brad's delight who really didn't like changing it.

It turns out, I didn't like changing it either and now the sign sits even longer with the same (not so cheesy now) quotation. (For the most part I put up Scripture Verses instead of sayings like, in the heat of the summer, You think it's hot here or Honk if you love Jesus; Text while driving if you want to meet Him.)Honk if you love Jesus. Text while driving if you want to meet Him.) So I deci

The church sign

So I am off to Vespers, knowing I will be late because I took too long on the sign. And, of course, I am in a bit of a bad mood because, believe it or not, I hate being late, even though it seems to happen a lot! As I am at the traffic light, waiting for it to change, I notice two girls on bicycles weaving through the stopped cars . Now, if this had been moving traffic, it would have been very dangerous for these girls but they decided that since the cars weren't moving while we waited for the light to turn green they would quickly cross over. One of the girls seemed to be a bit nervous about weaving through the cars but the other shouted encouragements. She had the biggest smile on her face as she talked to her friend and in the middle of a sentence she yells, "Yellow Car" and continues on with her conversation. I see a yellow car opposite me and I quickly realize that this girl is playing Banana Car only by a different name. As I said, she had a big smile on her face and it seemed to me she was just living in the moment that God gave her and, well, rejoicing! Her smile helped me get out of my little bad mood.

As I walked into Vespers (7 minutes late, it turns out) I quickly take my place and jumped right into the Psalm with the Faithful. My bad mood was gone and I was able to worship without too much distraction. It wasn't until later when I had time to reflect that I realized this girl taught me something I forget sometimes. God gives us moments and when you are standing in prayer with others who love Christ, live in that moment and give it your all.

I know in the Divine Liturgy, there is a point where we are asked to "lay aside all earthly cares."

That's great advice.

Hopefully, I will continue to learn to do that!