Picking a Saint

What’s in a name, Shakespeare asked in his play Romeo and Juliet? When it comes to being Orthodox, we are supposed to pick a Saint as our Patron and then take his name.   Now when I first discovered Orthodoxy, I used to listen to Fr. Josiah Trenman (who was on Ancient Faith Radio for a while) and he said if you are converting to Orthodoxy and you already have a Saint’s name given to you from birth than you should pick that person as your patron. His reasoning was that particular saint has been praying for you since you’ve been born since you bore their name.  Now that makes sense to me and even though I thought of picking a “designer Saint’s Name" like Seraphim or Nektarios, I believe that not picking the Saint’s name whom I bore already would be disrespectful. (Side note: Fr. Josiah said he would let his catechumen pick a different name IF they went to the trouble of changing their name legally. That’s not for me.)

 So James was to be the name for me. Well I began the search for any obscure “James” who happened to be on the rolls of the Orthodox Saint list. Why did I do this? Probably pride is all I can say. I wanted to be unique and say,

“I’m so preternatural that I have a Saint’s name you never even heard of.”   

 I searched the internet and settled upon James the Faster. He was an interesting Saint and he definitely wasn’t typical.  (Spoiler alert- he murdered a girl after having been seduced by her.) I found his life so interesting I even made two 15 second videos about his life. (I made them only 15 seconds long because, at the time, that was the time limit for videos on Instagram.) You can watch them here below:

 

                       

Well, the Holy Spirit got hold of me and showed me by sin of pride.  Trying to make myself distinctive by using an unusual saint is just prideful and not a way for me to grow in humility.  So realized I needed to go with a more traditional Saint.

 

 James, the Brother of the Lord, first Bishop of Jerusalem and writer of the New Testament Epistle seemed to be calling me so that is who my Patron is. Now that is not to say that I am ignoring other Saints. Indeed, there are so many we can learn from. Who am I close to right now? St. Alexis Toth seems important to me right now. I guess it’s because he became a Saint in my homeland.  Also, St. John Maxamovitch is someone I am drawn to.  I also love St. Raphael of Brooklyn. (after all, I am a New Yorker at heart)

I guess the more Saints I learn about and ask for their intercessions, the better off I will be. 

I’m pretty excited about becoming Orthodox in just under three weeks, I’m terrified as well. (Wonder if that’s normal?) Pretty soon, I will have to make my first confession.  I can guarantee that the details of that will NOT be on this blog.  But I do ask your prayers as I prepare myself for that.

Talk to you all soon.

St. James, pray for me.

It's Finally Happening!

I started this Blog May 12, 2010 and even though that was 16 years ago, my journey towards Orthodoxy began even before that in the Mid-2000's with the advent of Podcasts. I first leaned towards Roman Catholicism (Shout out to Fr. Roderick's podcast "The Daily Breakfast") but found myself listening to "Shepherd of Souls" with the then Fr. Peter Preble (now an UCC Clergyman) and heavily influenced by Ancient Faith Radio towards Eastern Orthodoxy.

Well, the time has finally arrived! God willing, on November 14 at 11am I will be received into the Orthodox Church at my parish by Chrismation.  

Please keep me in your prayers. I hope to have a friend video the short service so I can share it with you all.

I am grateful to everyone who has supported me in this blog by your prayers and edifying comments. I will be sharing more with you soon, especially as I need to thank certain individuals who have contributed greatly, aiding me on my journey.  

I'll talk to you soon! and, if you can, join me at my parish on November 14.

Glory to God! 

Meeting with Father Bohdan

Fr Bohdan

Fr. Bohdan agreed to meet with me at the Church for a short discussion.  I wanted his guidance something and I also had a question about “my progress as a catechumen.”   

First, as to his guidance: I started out explaining something he already knew. Even though I have only known him for about a year, he knows my connection to Orthodoxy has been for over a decade. Even though I had a desire to convert almost from the very beginning, it was Father Gary who would only consent to it IF my wife gave her support in the matter (unless I felt my very Salvation were at sake, that is.) Well, my wife was not a big fan and, honestly, a part of me was reluctant to move ahead since I knew it would bring a lot of stress to our family life.  So I bided my time and stayed as close to Orthodoxy as I could manage when, as a protestant, I was pretty involved in my protestant church -working with the kids, being a board member, working at the media booth making sure we were livestreaming – which meant I would attend Vespers from time to time and Sunday Divine Liturgy even less than that.  But all the while I was a protestant with my wife, I was Orthodox in my heart.

 

As you know, that changed when my wife began her journey to be Roman Catholic and she insisted that, since I would not be Roman Catholic, that I become Orthodox.

 

My question for Fr. Bohdan: “How do I balance being a good husband and supporting my wife in her journey and remaining faithful to Orthodoxy?”

I wanted to know how to keep my Orthodox identity but at the same time, pray with my wife, even attend Mass with her from time to time.

Fr. Bohdan said it is most important that I pray with her. I should strive for unity with her, as far as I can. I asked about doing “some Catholic things,” like crossing myself with holy water. (Karen put a holy water fixture on our wall.) He explained that these little things (what Catholics call Sacramentals, not to be confused with Sacraments) can be helpful in our  daily walk and help us to keep focused on Christ during our day to day struggles. He explained how, when he was in seminary, he would partake of Holy Water and prosphora (Blessed Bread) daily to help him get through the day.  Basically, I should strive for as much unity with my wife as I can. I was strickly forbidden to receive communion in the Catholic Church, which is something I knew already. I should not “fight” with my wife, trying to force a conversion. That I knew already also. 

.

Holy Water Font my wife bought. Fr. Bohdan he can give me Holy Water so both Karen
and I can cross ourselves when we leave the house. 

There are some on the internet that say I should not even pray with my wife because she is not Orthodox. That, of course, makes no sense to me and my meeting with Fr. Bohdan reinforced that idea.  So, now, as a husband, I need to step up my game and pray with Karen more and help her in her journey to Christ and she helps me.  His advice to me was reassuring.

Now regarding my progress as a catechumen, I admit I was a bit frustrated because I didn’t know about when I would be joined to the Church (i.e., Chrismated.) At the Monday night Catechumen class, it was not discussed what the timeline would be. Thinking about it, that makes sense since, at the class, there are different people in different stages, some of them are very new to Orthodoxy and know very little about it, while, others, like myself, have been hanging around for a while and know a thing or two.  Discussion on when to be brought into the Church is better done on a one to one basis. 

That being said, he believed that I should be Christmated sometime in November so that I could receive the Eucharist during Christmas.  That is great news  (and also terrifying news given I shall have to ready myself to receive the Body and Blood of Christ!) While I thought that I was forgotten, because no timeline had been mentioned to me,  it seems that Fr. Bohdan had this in mind for a while because he mentioned that I would be Christmated with someone else who was ready to enter the Church. (Not gonna mention who right now since I don’t know if they know yet- Fr. Bohdan said that person was going to be baptized while I was to be Christmated. I have to remember to bring in my baptismal certificate from when I was baptized in the Catholic Church.)

It will be on a Saturday sometime in November and Fr. Bohdan mentioned if I wanted to host a little reception afterwards that the Church Hall was available. Maybe I will. Perhaps a cake and some coffee? I’ll think about it.

So, as things become firmed up, I’ll let you all know. 

Keep me in your prayers as I strive to grow close to Christ, His Church and grow closer to my wife.

Bishop Michael visits our Catechumen Class

Bishop Michael visits our Catechumen Class

     When the Bishop visits a Catechumen class, it’s a big deal. Fr. Bodhan made sure that as many as possible would attend that class by constantly reminding us, both by email and in person, that we should be there. We even had pizza which is not the norm in our catechumen class 😊Bishop Michael is an excellent speaker, humble yet obviously well-educated so our “Question and Answer” session was very beneficial.

         We were all sitting down when the Bishop entered the room. We all immediately stood up and Bishop Michael said, “You don’t have to stand” and he went around shaking everyone’s hand.  I wish I had done the whole “Master, Bless” thing with the cupped hand, kissing his right hand but I was taken off guard and shook his hand like the Orthodox armature I am. Some of the more advanced, did it the proper way but most of us catechumens just shook hands.  We sat down, after a prayer for the food, and began with the Pizza and the questions.

     There were questions about the Soul (i.e., what is it?), questions about the Trinity and there was even a question about Toll houses (which seemed to scare the hell out of the questioner - Bishop Michael said the Toll Houses were not to be taken literally but we are to learn that the demons do not want us in Paradise.) There were questions about Confession. Basically, It was Orthodoxy, A to Z and Bishop Michael handled it well. He even promised reading materials about both the Trinity and Toll houses to the questioners.

    

One of the questions was about "Toll Houses" but I don't think it was about the cookies

I myself asked a question about the Western Rite. I asked if the OCA ever considered adopting it, like the Antiochians did.  My reason for asking this is I believe my wife would be more amendable to the Western Rite than the Eastern Rite.  Bishop Michael gave a very good response saying the Western Rite was “contrived” and not organic. And there is really no ONE Western Rite, but they are all different, kind of a hodgepodge of different rites. He even went into the history of OCA citing how the Uniate Church was forced out of the Latin Church -St. Alexis Toth is one of my heroes -so it is understandable how a Western Rite wouldn’t be well received.  What he said made sense, although I still would like to visit a Western Rite Parish sometime. Reader Andrew made an interesting comment on how the ROCOR Church requires that their Western Rite Parishes be on the Old Callender which seems kinda anti-western, don’t you think?

     I wrote an email to Bishop Michael expressing my gratitude for both the visit to the class and for his prayers. In the email, I mention how I actually have met him before back in the summer of 2015. (You can read about that in my blog post Orthodoxy or Bust!: Visit 182 ~ Vespers with a Bishop!) Here is what I said in the email:

Archbishop Michael,

Master, Bless!

I wanted to thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to visit our Catechumen class at the Annunciation Parish in Brick, NJ on Monday, July 13^th.  Your humility and eagerness to connect with both catechumens and inquirers is inspirational.

The class was not the first time we ever spoke together. Fr. Gary actually introduced me to you, when I was just an inquirer, back in the summer of 2015 and we had a brief conversation.  Fr. Gary explained how I wanted to convert but my wife was very opposed (since she was a convinced Protestant) and you asked me her name, which I gave. You then said you would pray for us. Well, those prayers worked and I thank you. My wife, through a series of podcasts, felt led to become a Roman Catholic. When I told her I could not in good conscience do that, she insisted that I become Orthodox so that I would not miss out on the Eucharist. So here I am in as a Catechumen!

I certainly would love your continued prayers for me and my wife Karen. Please know that you are in my prayers.

Thanks, again.

With Respect,

James Vivanco

 

Bishop MIchael

     Bishop Michael wrote me back right away which happily surprised me. I know he is very busy but being the kind shepherd that he is, he made time for one of his newer sheep.  I will not publish what he said here but I will say that he promised to keep me and my wife in his prayers, saying he would add us to his prayer list.  Glory to God!

     The whole night went for about two and a half hours whereas normally Catechumen  class goes just a little over an hour.  None of us complained. Bishop Michael made a joke, towards the end of the night, on how Father Bodhan seemed antsy and wanted to end for the evening so we wrapped it up in prayer and we all went home refreshed, renewed in our love for our Lord, His Church, our Bishop and for Holy Orthodoxy!

     Glory to God!    

The Passing of my brother and What I can do about it!

 

John Thomas Vivanco, With the Saints give rest, O Christ to the soul of your
servant John, where there is no pain, no suffering, no sighing but Life Everlasting. Amen

     I thought when I became a catechumen, I would be blogging all the time, given how excited I was to finally be entering into the Church and my propensity to want to share my journey online. But, I am happy to say, I am far too busy trying to “make myself Orthodox” in a Parish setting to do much blogging about it.  But something happened that I would like to talk about.  As you can guess from the picture above (and the blog post title), my brother passed away (quite unexpectedly) at the age of  60.  He was walking to work and simply collapsed -heart attack.  True, he was a big guy and had diabetes and we siblings always thought he might go first, even though he is the youngest, because of his health issues but it was still a shock to us when it happened.

     Many people can feel powerless in such a situation, that there is nothing we can do to help. In my Protestant years, I would simply have said, “Well, he is gone so there is nothing we can do.” I am happy to say, in Holy Orthodoxy,- and to be fair, in Catholicism as well -   that in our grief there IS something we can do, we can pray. And not just for the friends and family of those left behind but we can pray for the one who has passed.  One of the regrettable outcomes of the Protestant Reformation is an almost complete abandonment of Holy Tradition so that asking for the intercessions of the Saints in heaven or praying for our deceased loved ones is something just isn’t done anymore- if you’re a Protestant.  I wish all Protestants would study early Church history. It would become clear to them that their current “Stripped down” Christianity is devoid of things that were actually quite helpful to the Soul. 

     That is why I am in the process of praying “The Psalter for the Departed.” Basically, it is a reading of the entire book of Psalms, accompanied by specific prayers for the departed.  Now what usually is supposed to happen is people gather together and take turns reading through the Psalms while, I believe, in the presence of the body.  Well, that is not possible, so I have been doing that in the mornings before I go to work.  Right now, I am one third of the way through and I hope to finish before the end of the week.  This practice, besides being a benefit for my departed brother, works out as a source of comfort to me, as only the book of Psalms can be. 

From Ancient Faith Ministries, worth having

     I bought a Psalter from Ancient Faith Ministries which is arranged in the order Monks pray them in the Monastery. The Psalms are divided by Kathismata, twenty sections, each subdivided by three Stasis and specific prayers are said after each Stasis.  Below is the prayers that are used, one for males, the other females.  Also, he is a link to the Kathismata just in case you do not have a Psalter which has it divided like that already.  Liturgics - The Division of the Psalter into Kathismas - Orthodox Church in America

   

    I want to thank all of you who messaged me or commented on my Facebook post, expressing condolences regarding my brother’s passing.  Thank you for those of you who said a prayer for him.  If someone you know has recently died, why don’t you pray “The Psalter for the Departed” for them? It will not only help them but it will help you.

Christ is Risen!

Near the end of Great Lent

 

When Ed Kock was mayor of New York (from 1978 -1989), he had a catch phrase he would scream out whenever he was in front of an audience – “How am I doing?” For the most part, the people of New York answered in the affirmative because he was able to gain the nomination from both the Democratic party and the Republican party- I don’t know if anyone else has ever done that in NYC.   I won’t be asking that question to all of you but I will ask it of myself –

                              “How am I doing this Great Lent?”

I guess it’s a good thing that I haven’t been blogging much during Lent because to be honest, I’ve been very busy and busy with good things.  I have tried to attend as many services as my odd work schedule will allow.  I have been busy with my family, even taking trips with my wife to visit her 98 year old mother who lives around four hours away from us. And in stead of filling up my long commute with audiobooks from Stephen King, Shelby Foote and John Grisham, I have been tuning into Orthodox podcasts by Fr. Thomas Hopko, Fr. Stephen DeYoung and Dr. Jeanne Constantinou.

 

Fr. Bohdan celebrating pre-sanctified liturgy.

As far as prayer goes, I have replaced my normal use of the Faithtree prayer app for morning prayer with the longer form I have with an Orthodox Prayer book I bought years ago from Saint Arseny of Konevets Press which, sadly, no longer exists. In terms of Bible reading, I have been mostly faithful in the daily lectionary selections and I have added the books that Father Hopko recommends be read for Great Lent (Genesis, Isaiah, the Psalms, Proverbs – I may not finish Isaiah before Pascha; it’s a pretty long book! ) I wanted to add the book of Wisdom but I guess I’ll add that next year.

A place you can get lost during Great Lent is fasting.  It is very easy to miss the point entirely and concentrate on what foods are and aren’t allowed.   It is supposed to be about limiting portions so as to crucify the flesh . It is supposed to be about taking your money that you saved by fasting and giving it to the poor.  It’s about denying yourself and picking up the Cross.  While I have been faithful in the “restrictions” of what can be eaten, I haven’t been doing well with portion control.  I ask myself what is the point of just eating rice and beans if I eat too much of it? I find myself snacking way too much on “Great Lent approved foods” when I should be content with the food I eat just at meal times. 

The great things about Orthodoxy is it is about daily repentance. While in my Evangelical days, I was content with a “one and done” approach to Salvation, in the Church I can come to Christ daily, tell him my sins (which He knows already) and ask for His help and help from the Saints.  I pray the Lord gives me many years so I can get Lent right. Of course the way things go in Orthodoxy, I should always consider myself the chief of sinners so I will never truly “get it right.” And when I think I have, it will be a sure sign that I haven’t! 

I am looking forward to Pascha and not just so I can have pizza again but Great Lent has helped me so far in keeping my focus on Christ and His Church. Speaking of His Church, it has been a joy to get to know the young Catechumens and inquirers who are part of this parish. They are inquisitive, joyful and open to God in a way that inspirers me to daily seek Christ. 

May you all finish the course well during the Fast and may you experience the Resurrection of Christ in a new way this Pascha!

Christ is Risen!

Clean Monday....Clean Week....Time to get Clean!

     

Is this how you get ready for Clean Week?

     I wouldn’t use the phrase, “The show must go on,” but I will say that, despite really poor weather conditions, “The Divine Services will be celebrated!” It was really snowy and windy Sunday into Monday Morning so we received an email from Fr. Bohdan saying that even though the weather was “challenging” we would be having service that night:

     And, yes, the weather was bad. I spent Monday morning with my wife and two sons, digging out my wife’s car so she could go to work. (She works at the hospital and they don’t take “weather” as an excuse for absense 😊) She went to work  and I spent the rest of the day digging out my car and making sure the driveway was clear. 

     Later that afternoon, I looked at the roads and decided I would venture out into the snowy abyss.  I gave myself extra time to travel to Church but, me being me, first, I had to create an A.I. video showing how I combatted the snow. Here it is for your viewing pleasure 😊

Getting to Church by all means necessary!

     I arrived early and I am so happy that I did. Yes, we were a small group (I think I counted 10 or 11 by evening’s end) but to pray  the Canon of St. Andrew in person was so much more beneficial than doing it online. (which, thank God, was avialable for those who could not get out of their driveways.) St. Andrew of Crete was certainly a poet and, for those who say that the Orthodox Church does not “preach the Bible”- a claim made by Evangelicals I have encountered- all the text of the Canon were illusions to blbilical scenes and characters. St. Andrew directs your mind and soul to the bible and, through it, the Holy Spirit can convict and move you towards Christ. Totally beautiful.

Fr. Bohdan on Clean Monday

     Clean Week, means daily services but, sadly, I could only attend Monday’s service because of my work schedule.  But, every morning during Clean Week I read/prayed the Canon of St. Andrew with a copy I had purchased latst year, so, even though I wasn’t with my parish, I could participate to the best of my ability. 

     Clean Week is done and I look forward to the Sunday of Orthodoxy this weekend.  There is going to be a procession of the Icons done by the youth of our parish and that should be a blessing.  I’ll try and snap some pictures.

     As Great Lent goes on, I have to get a handle on Fasting.  I did make food  purchases that will help me this week at work but I wonder if there is anyting except rice and beans for lunch and oatmeal for breakfast?  I think I’ll talk to some fellow parishioners this Sunday at coffee hour. 

     In the meantime, I have swapped out listening to audiobooks  to listening to Ancient Faith Radio teaching Podcasts (Fr. Hopko and Fr. Stephen DeYoung are favoirtes.) I guess I’ll finish Stephen King’s Dark Tower series sometime after Pascha. May God give you Strength during this time. 

     Keep me in your prayers as I remember you!