New Book Release

Posted on by Fr. Peter

Listening to the Heartbeat of God
How to Enter into the Ancient Orthodox Life of Prayer
By V. Rev. Hieromonk Peter-Michael Preble

ISBN: 978-192865342-4
Price $9.95
Publisher: Regina Orthodox Press Inc.
PO Box 5288
Salisbury, Massachusetts 01952
800-636-2470
reginaorthodoxpress.com


Prayer is a conversation with God, a divine and holy experience that all Christians are called too.  In Listening to the Heartbeat of God Fr. Peter Preble presents a series of talks given on the topic of prayer in the Orthodox Christian Tradition.  Woven together with the monastic and Celtic traditions of Spirituality this book is designed as a beginners guide to prayer and the start of a deeper relationship between the creator and the creation.

Fr. Peter offers good words of reflection on several important themes of Lent: prayer, readings, spiritual parenthood. These are based on the sixth Chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew. As Fr. Peter says, prayer is an essential part of the life of an Orthodox Christian and of every human being. Everyone needs to learn to pray and to include all human kind in this work. But during Great Lent, our prayer has a special meaning and it should be accompanied by spiritual readings and reflections. Since not every person is initiated to the practice of prayer, especially the Jesus Prayer, it comes the necessity of having a spiritual father or mother. And here we enter the large perspective of the Orthodox Spirituality of spiritual growing in communion with God and the fellow men under the guidance of an experienced person. This booklet is a wonderful opportunity to discover and understand these meanings. + Archbishop NICOLAE, Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in the Americas

“Powered by the strong ancient traditions of both Celtic and Eastern Orthodox spirituality, Fr. Peter guides us through the filtering out of the static of our modern busy lives to indeed listen to the heartbeat of God.” Fr. Gregory Christakos, Pastor, Sts. Anargyroi Greek Orthodox Church, Marlborough, Mass


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Courage in Leadership

Posted on by Fr. Peter
One of the fundamental characteristics of a good leader, no, strike that, a great leader is courage. Of all the skills that leaders, especially leaders in the Church, need it is courage. We are faced with an unprecedented attack on religious freedom in this country, and what we need more than anything are leaders who are not afraid to say what needs to be said. We need leaders who put themselves out in front to protect their flocks from attack. We need leaders who will speak the truth in all situations regardless of the consequences of that truth.
I spent twelve years in the Army of the United States, and I served under many leaders. The one thing that distinguished the good ones from the bad ones was courage. I am not talking about courage under fire on the battle-field, but courage to do what had to be done, regardless of the consequences. That is the mark of true leaders: the willingness to risk it all to complete a mission because they know what will happen if they fail. Courageous leaders always have the welfare of those they are leading in the fore-front of their mind and think of themselves only after they think of those they are leading. Their platoon’s or their church’s welfare is more important than their own.
Recently, Daniel Jenky, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Peoria, Illinois preached a sermon in which he said that President Obama was heading down the same road that Hitler and Stalin had taken. He was referring to the change in the HHS mandate that would require religious institutions to provide abortion and contraception coverage regardless of their moral objections. This change, in my opinion and the opinion of many others, is a direct attack on the religious freedom we have always enjoyed in America. I have written on this topic myself and was publicly taken to task by a bishop of my own Church for what I had to say.
In that April 14 sermon, Bishop Jenky said that the Church will survive what is being done to her and that many “have tried to force Christians to huddle and hide within the confines of their churches.” It is important to note that those governments that have tried to extinguish the church have all fallen, yet the church continues. As Jenky said.
Hitler and Stalin, at their better moments, would just barely tolerate some churches remaining open, but would not tolerate any competition with the state in education, social services and health care…
In clear violation of our First Amendment rights, Barack Obama – with his radical, pro-abortion and extreme secularist agenda, now seems intent on following a similar path…
Every other Roman Catholic bishop in America has made similar statements saying what the Church should be teaching and speaking what her bishops are speaking.
This takes courage! Shortly after Jenky’s sermon, a left-wing, God-hating group filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service citing the sermon as a violation of the IRS tax code in relation to churches. And the faculty of what used to be a Roman Catholic University, Notre Dame, publicly called on Bishop Jenky to retract his statements but so far he is standing by his words.
I believe we have lost sight of the fact that the Church does not change to fit the culture; the Church is supposed to influence the culture and keep the culture on track. When a church changes to fit what society wants her to believe, she has failed in her mission and confused the people. The Church does not decide matters of faith and morals based on opinion polls; the Church decides on what has been revealed to her by the Holy Spirit and through her long tradition. If the culture needs correction, it is up to the Church, and her authentic teachers, the bishops, to bring that culture back on track. I believe we are where we are as a society, because we, the Church, have not been doing our job effectively.
We can look back at the political takeovers of the last century, and see that one of the first things accomplished was the silencing of the Church. When the Nazis rolled into Poland the Roman Catholic Church gave her assent, because Hitler had promised that the Church would not be affected. Soon after the Nazis arrival, that all changed; the Church began to be persecuted.
The socialist plan will not work unless the government is in control of the moral compass of the people. The moral compass of the people is the Church, the authentic Church and her bishops. Right now, with few exceptions, the Roman Catholic Church is fighting this fight on her own. She has the loudest voice, yes, but this is not a simply a Roman Catholic issue, as the liberal media would like us to believe. This is an issue of religious freedom that will affect all of us in America. If we stay silent, we will end up like the Roman Catholic Church in Poland of the 1940s.
To be a leader means to have the courage that it takes to stand up when needed. Leaders cannot be afraid of the political or economic fallout of teaching and upholding what the Church teaches. The Church is to be counter-cultural and to remind people that we do have a moral code, a code that this country was founded on and, if we are not careful, a code that will become a distant memory.
This moral code is very counter-cultural, and most of the adherents to the Orthodox faith are confused on many of the issues that face them every day. The Orthodox faith is not simply a faith practiced on Sunday or when it is convenient another issue that the faithful need to consider but it is a faith that is lived, a faith that is part of the very fabric of our humanity. We can’t separate our life outside the Church from our life inside the Church, because there should be no difference.
What we need now, more than ever before in the history of America, are leaders who are filled with the power and the boldness of the Holy Spirit, as the apostles were on the day of Pentecost. Courageous, Spirit-filled leaders leading the church and say what needs to be said, whether or not it is politically correct and regardless of the fallout. We need leaders who are not afraid to stand up and say that what is being done is not right and who will tell the world we will not be silenced.
But it is not just up to the leaders of the Church. The laity needs to support its leaders when they come under attack. The Church needs to be defended at all levels of society and everyone needs to be involved in this defense of the faith.
The Church needs courageous leaders who are and will be authentic shepherds of their flock and are, in a very real way, willing to lay down their lives for those that God has entrusted to them. Thanks be to God, the Church does have leaders like this, but we need so many more. We need leaders with the courage and conviction of Bishop Jenky, who will stand up and be counted, and take the government and the faithful to task for what they are doing or not doing.
Throughout Scripture, the image of the shepherd is used as an image of Jesus leading His flock. This image has been repeated throughout the history of the Church in reference to the clergy, who lead the Church as descendants of those very apostles. The shepherd who stands on the hillside is not there for his own gain, but to watch carefully over the flock that God has entrusted to him. He is constantly scanning the horizon for any threat to that flock. He provides the nourishment the flock needs. His first thought in the morning and his last thought at night is about his flock. If left alone, the flock is not able to defend itself. The flock needs the shepherd.
Each bishop of the Church carries a staff like those of the shepherds on the hill-side. That staff is to remind him, and the faithful, that he is there to protect them, nourish them, and lead them at all times. If the shepherd turns away, even for just a moment, he opens the flock up to attack. He needs to be as concerned for the ones in the back of the pack as he is for the ones in the front. The shepherd has to be fearless in the defense of his flock, and he has to be willing to lay down his life to save just one.
We have just completed the holiest week of the Church year. The entire week was spent focusing on the Cross. The hymns of the Church services and the Scripture reads helped us to focus on the events that took place. In a very real way, we walked along side Jesus as He went to His voluntary death. We walked alongside Him as He laid down His life for His flock.
The Romans had used the Cross as a symbol and instrument of terror and death for years. The action of one man, Jesus Christ, transformed it to a symbol of freedom. This symbol we need to cling to. With the Crucifixion of Jesus, the cross changed from a symbol of fear to a symbol of courage. We wear that Cross around our necks as a reminder what Jesus did for us. The Cross has become a symbol of truth, and if we just cling to that symbol, we find the courage that we need.
I was reminded recently that the role of the priest is to be the mediator for his people. When priests or bishops put on their vestments for the liturgy, we are reminded that we are clothing ourselves with the armor of God and preparing for battle. We are warriors in the army of the Lord and we are to use that armor to defend the flock.
More than 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ called twelve men to follow Him and to continue His teaching as the inheritors of His mission on earth. One of those chosen fell into temptation and sold Him into the hands of the enemy, but the others became the voice that has given us the church we have today.
The earliest settlers of America had the courage to leave all that they knew to come to a harsh and uninviting place, simply because they wanted to be able to practice their faith without government interference. For more than 200 years, that has been the law here in America. Recently, with the stroke of a pen, that liberty and freedom has been taken away. For the first time in the history of America, the government has forced the Church to go against her teachings. The wolf is standing close to the flock. We need leaders who are courageous who are not afraid to place themselves between the wolf and the flock.
After all, this is what Jesus did!

The Purpose of the Church

Posted on by Fr. Peter

There has been much discussion around the internet these days on the purpose of the church.  The Roman Catholic bishop of Worcester, Massachusetts recently told one of the Roman Catholic colleges in his diocese to disinvite a speaker who is known to be pro-abortion.  His actions have come under harsh criticism from those who hate that the church would dare to speak on such issues, but dear readers, that is exactly what the church is supposed to do.  I have said in other places that the church is not to conform to the ways of the world; it is the church that is supposed to influence the world and act as the moral compass of society.
So what is the definition of the church? For the purpose of this essay the church will be the local parish, the visible presence in the local community. The parish that I serve is part of the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese and as such we have statutes that cover the working of the church.  Chapter 22 Article 2 of the Statutes of the Archdiocese defines the aims and purposes of the parish with these words:
“The aims and purposes of the Parish are to preserve, practice and proclaim the Orthodox Christian Faith pure and undefiled.”
The Orthodox Christian Faith is that which has been handed down to us from the Apostles in an unbroken line and as confirmed in the Seven Ecumenical Councils of blessed memory.  The bishops of the church are the authentic teachers of this faith and the local clergy are their representatives.  God reveals Himself to and through the church by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Her ministers do not interpret the teachings of the church based on their own knowledge but upon the teaching of the church as revealed through the church and tradition.  That’s it in a nutshell.  Just because some opinion poll says we should believe one thing does not mean that is what the church is going to believe.  That attitude is what lead to the heresy of the so called reformers and is what has splintered Christ’s Holy Church.
The Statutes further define the work of the local parish in Article 22.04:
“The ministry of the parish will include proclaiming and teaching the Gospel in accordance with the Orthodox Christian faith; sanctifying the faithful through… God’s grace in worship, the Divine Liturgy and the other sacraments; enhancing the parishioners’ spiritual life, and adding to the numbers of the faithful by receiving persons into the church through instruction, baptism and/or chrismation.”
It is the roll of the church to preach and teach the faithful in season and out of season in all situations. 
Human beings, created in the image and likeness of God, have been given free will.  God desires nothing more than that we love Him and we love our neighbor and to love Him is to obey His Word as has been revealed to us, through the power of the Holy Spirit, in His church.  Free will enables us to choose which path we wish to follow.
If the bishops and by delegation priests, did not speak up when the faithful are being led a stray then they are not fulfilling their role as shepherds of their communities.  God has entrusted the care of these communities to us and it is an awesome responsibility to care for them.  The shepherd’s role is to protect the flock from the predators that will attempt to take their lives.  The shepherd’s role is guide the flock when they are being led in the wrong direction and to keep them on the right path.  Far too many people believe the church should do what they want, and believe the way they want to believe, and not what God wants.  This is just not possible!
Orthodoxy, unlike other faiths, is a lifestyle.  Orthodox Christianity should pulse through the veins of the faithful as blood courses through.  When an Orthodox Christian receives the Body and Blood of Our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ through the Sacrament of the Eucharist, this is more than just food.  Jesus Christ becomes part of us through this taking and He dwells in us and strengthens us.  This is not something that we can discard the moment we step outside of the Church.
For me, it is incomprehensible for the church to remain silent on issues that so directly affect the spirit of the faithful, and so clearly led the faithful toward sin and away from God.  We need to stand as the soldiers of Christ that we are called to be to defeat evil in this world.  That is the task of the church and I so one will not be silent!
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Orthodox Evangelism

Posted on by Fr. Peter
I serve what I guess would be considered a small church.  We have about 65 families and we are located in an old mill town in Central Massachusetts that long ago saw its last immigrant from what one would call the “traditional” Orthodox countries.  Our church might be small but the people are dedicated to their faith and to the growth of the church.  So how do you grow a church under these circumstances in the 21st Century?
This is a question that I have been reflecting on for some time now and I don’t think I am really any closer to an answer then I was when I started.  There is no magic bullet here or anything like that.  A long time ago a listened to a podcast on Ancient Faith Radio about growth in American Orthodox Churches.  The priest giving the talk made the point that location really did not matter as long as the people in the church were praying for those that God was going to send to them.  In our situation this was good news.  We are located in the middle of a neighborhood on a road that unless you know where it is you will never find it.  No amount of signage will help if you don’t not do two things, preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and just plain love people.
Church attendance is a hard sell for people these days.  Studies show more people stay home on Sunday then go to church; a trend that the experts say is not going to change any time soon.  I’m not sure why but people seem to have lost their faith in many things including church.
All too often I believe we are in a rush to “improve” our numbers and so we try and fast track people through the process.  Yes we have churches that are full or partially full but are those people spiritually full or spiritually empty?  If we do not preach the Gospel then the people are not being fed.  I would be interested in a study of church attendance that looked at and followed up on people who “joined” the church a year or more after and see where they are.  Are they still with the church or have then moved on so to speak.  That would be one interesting study!
A report was released by the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) earlier this year concerning the growth of the various diocese that make up the OCA.  In the period of the report, 2000 – 2006 the OCA Diocese of the South grew by 38% while all of the others save the diocese of the West that had a growth of 7% declined in numbers.  Some of this can written off so to speak by shifts in the population but there must be something to this.
The late Archbishop Dimitri, leader of the Diocese of the South during this time, was what one could call as master at church growth.  There were no gimmicks or anything like that just preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and love.  That is the model we need to be teaching in the seminaries however preaching takes a back seat in our American Orthodox Seminaries.
Today, whilst running some errands, I was listening to a podcast on Ancient Faith Radio called Lord Send Me.  The podcast is hosted by Fr. John Parker chair of the Department of Missions and Evangelism for the OCA.  On the podcast Fr. John shared some reflections about his recent trip to the Diocese of Mexico.  He ended the report with a quote from His Grace Bishop Alejo, bishop of the Diocese of Mexico:

“Father, I don’t believe in ‘missionizing’, that is planting churches. Rather, I believe in evangelizing. Planting churches can lead to good or to bad, when the focus is on church planting. It can lead to one of the main problems we have today—that many people have been sacramentalized but not evangelized. That is: they have been baptized and chrismated, and communed and married, but they were never discipled. So, we need to evangelize the people. When we teach the Gospel first, the rest will come.”

Our job is to educate those who are seeking, teaching them what is necessary for salvation, and not to worry about numbers.  I believe His Grace hit the nail right on the head.  It is about preaching the Word of God and the rest will take care of itself!

Who Will Roll the Stone Away?

Posted on by Fr. Peter

Sermon ~ Sunday of the Myrrhbearing Women
“And when he learned from the centurion that He was dead, he granted the body to Jospeh. And he bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped Him in the linen shroud, and laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a stone against the door of the tomb.”
“And He rolled a stone against the door of the tomb.”  That was to be the final act in the life of the greatest life that ever lived!
He touched the blind and gave the sight.
He touched the minds and hearts of sinners and made them new persons.
He offered hope to the hopeless.
He healed the sick.
He raised the dead.
Then they, we, crucified Him.
They placed Him in a tomb and rolled a stone against the door.

The story of life goes on.  Life rolls stones at us, stones that burry hope, stones that cause bitter disappointments, defeat, frustration, sickness, and even death.  These are the stones that make up our lives.  Life was nailed to the cross and then it was laid in a tomb and a stone was rolled in front of it.
We read today that on the morning of Pascha the women were on their way to perform the final act of love for Jesus.  The man they had followed these last years and the man they had watched die on the cross.  They had their worries, and I can only imagine that they were silent as they walked the path to the tomb.  They worried about who would roll the stone away for Scripture tells us it is very large!
Sometimes, as we are walking the path of life, we fret about the stones in our lives.  Sometimes, as the women were wondering who would roll this stone away because it is so large.  Sometimes we feel we cannot do this alone anymore and like St. Paul we cry out, “Who will deliver me from the body of this death.”
We all have these stones in our life and like the women we need help to roll them away.  We think of the huge stones that stand in our way:
The stone of regret for the way we have often taken in the past.
The stone of uncertainties that concern us at this moment in time, uncertainties about the future and how we are going to make it.
The stone of fear, fears that we have about the future.
The stone of inadequacy to live up to what others want us to be.
The stone of weakness in the face of temptation.
The stone of sins, of the things we have done and the things we have not done.  The people we have hurt or exploited.
The stones that block our way to a happy life.
And the stone of death!  The stone that will be placed over our tomb.

All of us have these stones at one time or another in our life and they seem as large as the stone that closed the entrance to the tomb of Jesus.  They are so large we have no idea how we are going to move them and so we ignore them and they just keep getting larger and larger.
I cannot tell you the number of people who talk to me each day about their hurts and their guilt and other feelings that they have.  The uncertainty of the future has caused so many problems in our lives and the lives of our families many of us have lost the hope that we were promised and many of us now hope for change.
But like the women who were heading down that path, the path of life, to the tomb of Jesus they found that the stone had been rolled away.  They found that their fears were not necessary because the very person who had been in the tomb had rolled the stone away, and as they found out, He is ready willing and able to roll our stones away and free us from all of those things that keep us down.
The women, and the others, thought that this was indeed the end.  They watched their teacher, their leader, their son, their brother, and their friend nailed to the cross.  The saw the metal nails pierce His flesh and they listen to Him as He cried out in pain.  They watched Him suffer and they were helpless to do anything about it.  Standing between Him and them was the might of the Roman Army, a very large stone.  The only thing they could do was to go to the tomb an anoint His body after he was dead and that was their task.
They were not going to the tomb with nothing in their hands, they carried all of the necessary things that they would need to anoint the body, and they were carrying all of their hurts, wants, and sins with them.  But they carried nothing to remove the stone!
Jesus did not come to free people from their human captors.  Jesus came to free the people from their spiritual captors, to free us from our sins, and to roll the stone that blocked the way to eternal life away.  The stone that had been rolled in front paradise by our sins.  He hung on the tree because we brought sin into the world through a tree and he rolled the stone away, that same stone that had been blocking the entrance to paradise.  He completed everything that we had been waiting for, and He continues to all we have to do is ask Him to roll away those stones.
What keeps us from asking Jesus to roll these stones away, these stones that hold us down?  Maybe we think they are so large no one can move them.  Maybe we are afraid to ask someone for help because we fear that they will judge us or tell everyone about our stones.  Maybe we think we can do it ourselves and when we realize we cannot we just give up.  But fear not because Jesus can move away any stone that we have, any stone that blocks our way, and stone that keeps us down.
Who will roll the stone away for us from the tomb?  Jesus has and He will if we just ask Him and invite Him to come and roll away that stone.
“And looking up they saw that the stone was rolled back; for it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe; and they were amazed. And he said to them, ‘Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; He is not here; come, see the place where they laid Him.’”

Clergy Meeting

Posted on by Fr. Peter

The Leadership of the Eastern Deanery

Every so often, once or twice a year, the clergy of my diocese gather for a meeting.  Our Archdiocese is broken down into smaller administrative units called deaneries and ours covers the eastern third of the United States.  Not all of the clergy able to attend but yesterday 12 priests gathered with our 2 bishops for a day of meetings.
These meetings are always a great experience for no other reason than it gives us a chance to catch up with one another.  We see each other so infrequently it is nice to be able to see how all of the other priests in the Archdiocese are doing.
On the agenda for yesterday’s meeting was updates from our bishops of happenings around the Archdiocese as well as with the Assembly of Bishops.  We have 2 young, energetic bishops who put many miles on their cars each year as our Archdiocese covers all of North and South America (we have 3 parishes in South America).  They also sit on the Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church and that involves several trips to Romania each year.  They never seem to stop!  I am very thankful God sent 2 Holy, and tireless men to lead our Archdiocese.
Each year the Romanian Patriarch selects a topic as a focus for the year.  Last year this topic was the Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Matrimony.  Around the Archdiocese we held symposia and other gathers around this topic and much of the writing of the clergy centered around these two topics.  Yesterday we were presented with draft copies of two booklets that have been prepared that summarizes the teaching of the Orthodox Church on these two subject as well as the practical aspects of performing both Sacraments (for example; when weddings can take place, who can serve as a sponsor for baptism etc.).  I say draft copies because our Archdiocese functions in four different languages, Romanian, English, French, and a little Spanish so everything needs to be translated and then edited.  We hope to have these booklets completed by the time our Congress meets in July.
This year the topic selected by the Patriarch is the Sacrament of Anointing.  I am pleased that this is the topic selected this year as this is an often misunderstood Sacrament in our Church.  People believe that this is only used when one is dying.  When the priest shows up the undertaker is not far behind.  This could not be further from the truth!  This is an important ministry in our Church and I am glad to see that it will be taking center stage this year.
Last month the Archdiocese hosted a Symposium at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Seminary in Brookline, Massachusetts and the papers presented will be printed in our Annual Almanac at the end of the year.  Yesterday we were treated to a short paper on the subject and a discussion of the practical application of this in the parish.  It is a wonderful experience to sit around a room and have this kind of discussion with other clergy.  I am planning more study and writing on this subject as the year progresses.
Another very large project of the Archdiocese is the English/Romanian Divine Liturgy book.  We have been working on this for several years and it is coming to an end.  It is amazing how much work is involved in a book such as this.  It seems easy on the surface but, as my Roman Catholic brothers and sisters can attest too, translation is never easy.  The biggest problem is we do not have a common English translation of the Liturgy.  Some are fine and some are just horrible.  Some use the Olde English while others use modern English.  So many choices.  And if that in not enough just as we finished, actually the day we sent out the final draft for review, the Holy Synod in Romania released a new translation of the Liturgy in Romanian.  Back to the drawing board.
It is interesting to note that the Church in Romania has always updated the Liturgical language as the vernacular changes.  Languages evolve and change over time and the Church has changed along with this.  Some Churches use a “Church Language” like Church Slavonic and I believe that the Greek used in Liturgy is a more formal language then what is spoken on the street so to speak.  So we had to change the Romanian version of the Liturgy but we also needed to modify some of the English words to fit the Romanian usage, not many, but it still had to be done.  I can say the final draft, we hope, has now been released and we hope to put it in trial usage soon.  We are being very practical about this and we are going to give it a test drive for a few months to make sure it works.   Because we sing the Liturgy it has to flow and in some sense it needs to be poetry as well as Liturgical.
During an amazing lunch we continued our time to catch up with one another and then a few final presentations on financial matters and other items that will be on the agenda for the upcoming Congress in July.

When the meeting was first announced I was not looking forward to attending.  It is a day out of my schedule that I cannot afford to give up and it would be a rather long day.  The trip was three and half hours in each direction, but as I sit today and write this I am very happy that I attended and I look forward to the next meeting.

The Doubt of Thomas

Posted on by Fr. Peter
The Second Sunday after Pascha in the Orthodox Church is dedicated to the Doubt of St. Thomas. I find it interesting that we would set aside a Sunday, after we just celebrated the Feast of Feats, to the doubt of one of the closest followers of Jesus. I find great consolation in the fact that the Apostles were real people with real faults and doubts.
Many years ago when I was about to enter the novitiate in the Benedictine Monastery I had to choose a name that would be given to me by the abbot. I could have used my given name, and my mother would have been pleased if I had by the way, that name is Michael. But I wanted to have a new name to go along with the new person I was going to become in the monastery, so I chose Peter.
I had to justify my choice of names and so I wrote in my letter to the abbot that I chose Peter for several reasons. One was that the feast day of St. Peter is the same day and my birthday and therefore it would be easy to remember and the second was that Peter always seems to catch on just a little after the others and he was always putting his foot in his mouth. Just like me! So, here I am today, as Peter.
Thomas was just like the rest of them. He was chosen by Jesus to be one of his closest friends and would go on, as tradition tells us, to found the Church in India. But Thomas had doubts. He was not present when Jesus appeared the first time and when he heard the story he was skeptical like many of us would be. He was a real person and he needed real proof of what was going on. His world had really changed in the last few days and he was scared.
So Jesus returned and told Thomas to touch him and place his hand in the wound in his side. Scripture does not tell us what Thomas did with the exception of crying out, “My Lord and My God!” In an instant Thomas was converted.
We all have doubts. In this world we live in it is hard to have faith in anything. We have lost faith in people, we have lost faith in the government, and many people have lost faith in the Church. Jesus told us that the world would hate us and we are seeing His words come to pass. It is not easy to have faith when attacks are coming from all corners and the very ground under us is shifting. We need stability and I pray that the Church can be that place!
Doubt that leads to understanding is, in many ways, the doubt that Thomas had. He did not write off what the others were telling him he was just skeptical of it. He needed more information and his doubts lead him to seek that information and understanding. We need do the same thing. If we have doubts we need to ask questions. We need to seek out those who can give us the straight answers and not some watered down politically correct version of the truth. The world today needs a clear voice that will clear up the doubts and uncertainty that we all have. That voice needs to be the Church.
Thomas had doubts, but that doubt was turned into great faith and that faith was used to change the world. Where is your faith? What are your doubts and concerns? Where are you turning for answers?
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Red Eggs at Pascha

Posted on by Fr. Peter
If you have been following these pages for the last few months you know that in the fall I acquired a flock of chickens, seven to be exact. During that time I have learned a lot about chickens and their eggs I find all of the absolutely fascinating. However the tradition of the Red Eggs at Pascha (that’s the word we Orthodox use for Easter) in even more fascinating.

It is a tradition in many Byzantine Churches, not so much in the Slavic Church, that the faithful will bring red dyed chicken eggs to Church on Holy Saturday night. These eggs are blessed at the conclusion of the service and then distributed to the people. The eggs are crack, one on another, whilst exclaiming “Christ is Risen.” There is sort of a contest involved to see who can last the longest cracking their egg.

As with everything that we do in the Church there is a tradition behind all aspects of the egg. I say tradition because there is very little theological meaning behind it but tradition is important as well.

The eggs are dyed red to symbolize the blood of Jesus Christ that has been shed for the life and salvation of the world. The hard shell of the egg represents the tomb of Jesus where He was placed after the Crucifixion. And the cracking of the eggs represents the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

There are of course many legends of how this all began. Some of it involves the fasting that we Orthodox partake in during Great Lent. If you follow the fast as prescribed by the Church you will not eat meat or dairy products for the 40 days. However, as I have found out, Chickens do not follow the fast and they continue to lay eggs. So as not to let the eggs spoil, and therefore wasting food, people would hard cook them and preserve them. They would then bring them to Church on Pascha to be eaten.

One of my favorite legends involves Mary Magdalene, actually there are several that involve her and many think that the tradition of the Red Eggs came from her. The story goes that on the day of Resurrection, Mary Magdalene was bringing as basket of eggs to share with the other women who had gone to the tomb to prepare the body of Jesus. If you recall the story they buried him in haste and returned the next day to complete the process of burial. When she saw the risen Christ, the eggs in her basket turned red. Hence the egg became associated with the stone that was placed in front of the tomb.

Another legend involving Mary Magdalene has her traveling to Rome. She stands before the Emperor Tiberius and presents him with an egg and says, “Christ is Risen.” Tiberius responds that if this is true this egg will turn red. Guess what? The egg turned red.

The last legend that I will share involves the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus. The legend states that the Theotokos brought a basket of hard cooked eggs to the soldiers that were to Crucify her son. She brought them in the hopes that they would treat Him well during the task that they had to complete. As she presented the basket of eggs to one of the soldiers her tears fell on the eggs and they turned red.

So, as you can see, there are many different legends and practices involving the Red Eggs at Pascha. These are all fun traditions but should not, and cannot replace the joy of the Resurrection of Christ.

Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!

Holy Thursday ~ Washing of the Feet

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Many Orthodox have never seen this service as it has been suppressed in many parishes.  The proper place of this service is on Holy Thursday.  At present it is served mainly in monasteries and some cathedrals.  Watch this video from Jerusalem to see how it is done.

http://www.reuters.com/resources_v2/flash/video_embed.swf?videoId=205547556&edition=BETAUS

The Awesomeness of the Priesthood

Posted on by Fr. Peter
On Lazarus Saturday, April 7th, I had the great honor of participating in the ordination of one of my spiritual children. Subdeacon Michael became Fr. Deacon Michael in an amazing liturgical celebration. Every Liturgical celebration in the Orthodox Church is an amazing thing but this one was very special.
During the ordination, 2 priests escort the man to be ordained to the bishop who stands at the Royal Gate. As the candidate bows three times, the sponsoring priests sing, “Command” and then present the candidate to the bishop who blesses him. He is then lead into the Holy Place, through the Royal Gate, and led around the altar three times, each time his kisses the corners of the altar and the bishops hand.
After the third time around the altar the candidate kneels at the altar whilst the bishop reads the prayer of ordination. Kneeling behind him, listening to that prayer once again, was a reminder of my own ordination almost 8 years ago. We all need little reminders from time to time.
During communion, there were more priests present then needed for communion; we had a little discussion about how nervous we all were during our own ordinations. One priest related a story that since he is left handed, we usually distribute communion with our right hands, he was shaking so much he was afraid he was going to drop the sacred body and blood.
We started talking about how we lose that fear and how sometimes serving at the altar becomes just something that we do. That is not really the right way to put it but somehow we lose that “awe” that is a better word, the awe of standing there doing what we do!
It is an awesome privilege to be a priest in God’s Holy Church and to serve His people. To stand at the altar and offer the mystical sacrifice not only for myself but for all those that God has entrusted to me is an awesome responsibility and one that we constantly need to be reminded of. I sometimes lose sight of this and I am glad I was reminded of this at the ordination.
Tonight we will serve the Unction Service and anoint all of those present with oil for healing of ailments of body, soul, and mind. This is another reminder of the awesome responsibility of the priesthood. Usually this service is served by seven priests, but during Holy Week in Byzantine Churches and some Slavic ones, the service is done by a single priest, the father of the community.
The service is part of the Matins of Holy Thursday and consists of seven Epistle Readings, Seven Gospel readings, and Seven prayers over the oil and the people. For me the most poignant prayer and the one that reminds me of this awesome job I have is the fifth of the seven prayers. Right in the middle of the prayer I will read these words:
“Even me, Your lowly, sinful and unworthy servant, caught up in a welter of transgressions, and wallowing in unseemly thoughts, You have called to the sacred and lofty order of the priesthood, enabling me to enter beyond the inner veil, into the Holy of Holies, where the holy angels long to look and hear the covenant voice of the Lord God, and behold with their own eyes the presence of the holy oblation, and delight in the divine and sacred Liturgy.
You have judged me worthy to mediate Your heavenly mysteries, to bear gifts and offerings for my own sins and for the failings of the people, to intercede for Your spiritual flock, that through Your great and ineffable love You might blot out their iniquities. Will you, most gracious King, hear my prayer at this hour and on this holy day, and in every time and place and give heed to the voice of my supplication.”

Each year when I pray this prayer during this service I cannot help but get a little choked up by these words. A great reminder of why we do what we do! The priest is to “intercede for Your spiritual flock”
To all my brother priests who might be reading this I pray that together we never lose the sense of the awesomeness of what we do!
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