Where have I been?

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Well this was a weekend to forget for sure. If you follow me on twitter you know that I was in hospital Sunday and Monday. I was taken by Ambulance, from the church, Sunday morning before Liturgy. I was having a little cardiac issue and thought I should go and have it checked out. Don’t want to mess with the old ticker!

So off I went and was stuck with all sorts of needles and had all sorts of tests only to discover that I am under stress. Well I could have told you that, what priest is not under stress? So I need to find ways to deal with the stress and not let it bother me. I also need to lose weight and exercise more. Talk about stress! Just thinking about exercise makes me want to go back to hospital.

So I have been home since Monday afternoon and have been laying low, well sort of low. I had a full day yesterday but managed to enjoy myself along the way. We have a golf tournament coming up and I was running some errands for that as well as a few hospital visits.

I went to see the daughter of a parishioner of mine who just had a baby boy. The amazing thing about this is that it is the first birth since I have been here. The other amazing thing is that he begins the fifth generation of people in the church. Five generations… WOW!

So I am on this smoothie kick now. I have just discovered this wonderful thing. Seems like I am always the last to figure this stuff out but none the less I am blending all sorts of things now. It seems a bit strange to have the blender out and not have any rum around. Well maybe latter on tonight I will who knows what the day holds.

I also went to the farm stand yesterday and purchased all sorts of things that grow out of the ground. So I am trying to eat healthier and we shall see how long that lasts.

Well on with the day.

Church says relic of saint stolen

Posted on by Fr. Peter
LOWELL – When the Rev. Demetri Costarakis returned to church last Monday afternoon, he was immediately drawn to the front of the chapel. Something was different, wrong, out of place. The garments that usually sit atop a small, gold-plated chalice were on a shelf. The chalice was gone. Then Costarakis’s heart sank.

He immediately looked to the left, his eyes drawn to the mantel on a wooden shrine where a small, elaborately-decorated silver box containing a small piece of bone believed to be a 2,000-year-old fragment of the remains of St. Andrew, had sat on display.

The Rest of the Story

Reading for the Day

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Romans 14:17-19

The kingdom of God does not mean eating or drinking this or that, it means righteousness and peace and joy brought by the Holy Spirit. If you serve Christ in this way you will please God and be respected by men. So let us adopt any custom that leads to peace and our mutual improvement.

Hospital

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Well if you follow me on twitter, plurk, or Facebook you know that I spent a few hours in hospital yesterday. I had a little heart thing going on and I don’t like to mess with that stuff so I checked in to see what was going on. All is well and I am wearing a heart monitor for the day.

I guess this is what happens when when gets older. Although I was just talking to my mother and she told my that my father, who is 75, is no longer on any medication. A year ago he was diagnosed with diabetes and he went nuts and lost all kinds of weight and really looks good. And now, no medication. Keep up the good work Dad!

So I am thinking of some sort of exercise program. I think we can all be in better shape then most of us are and I think we all can do a little something, walking maybe or anything. I will give this some thought and maybe we can do something together.

Oh well on with the day!

Lambeth 2008

Posted on by Fr. Peter
I assume, and maybe I should not, that most of my readers are of the Eastern Orthodox variety and therefore have no clue what Lambeth is. Well Lambeth is the once very 10 years conference of all of the Anglican Bishops in the Anglican Communion who are invited by the Archbishop of Canterbury to come to Lambeth England to talk about the Communion. This conference has just concluded, and because I am such a church geek I have followed the news of the conference these last two and half weeks. There is a lot of information on the web about the conference and a simple Google search will keep you busy for most of the day.

During the conference the bishops gathered together for Bible Study in groups of eight and then in larger groups, called Indaba, for discussions on certain topics. It is these Indadba groups that I will comment on.

First off the word is pronounced in DAH ba and is a South African concept of listening to the others in the group in an attempt to reach consensus on the issue being discussed. The main word in that phrase is listening. How often do we really listen to one another without any preconceived notions about the other person. Some of the bishops have commented that they have learned so much from their counterparts in other parts of the world during this process and others hope that this process will continue even after the conference is over. I think it is very easy to complain about someone or something if you do not know who or what they are!

One of the more challenging things of pastoral ministry is listening. Ministers all called to be good, no great, listeners. People want someone to talk to and to be listened not preached at or told what to do. Sometimes the best thing to say is nothing at all.

In my short time in the ministry I have often found that if you just let the person talk they will figure it out all on their own in their own way with their own words. We need to do more listening in the church. We need to really listen to one another and not pre judge a situation or a person.

Listening requires giving up something as well and also it makes us vulnerable to what we might learn in the process. As humans we are so quick to judge one another for all sorts of reasons and that is not right. If we take a step back and listen to the other person, really listen, to their wants, needs, hurts, joys, desires, then maybe, just maybe, we could really minster to them and to our world.

Stop preaching and start listening I guess is what I am trying to say. Also stop judging and start listening. You might just learn something.

An Interview with the Most Revd. Metroplitan Kallistos Ware of Diokleia

Posted on by Fr. Peter
This interview was conducted at the end of Lambeth Conference in England. This is the first time I have read the words of an Orthodox Bishop so clear on our need to listen and understand where society is going and where the church fits in. His words on women’s ordination and homosexuality are very new words to me from an Orthodox Bishop.

Okay put the cross and the gasoline away! He is not saying that we are going to do this but we need to understand why we don’t! That’s the point understanding.

Read the interview here.

When We Fast

Posted on by Fr. Peter
I have just finished an essay called When We Fast… In this little essay I take up the topic of not ow to fast but why we fast. I have saved it as a pdf rather than just posting the entire thing here, it is four pages. If you are having trouble let me know.

Pesto Recipe

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Here is another fasting recipe that I tried out yesterday. I think you need a food processor to make this little gem. I cannot imagine chopping up 2 cups of basil!
The basic recipe is from the book When We Fast

2 Cups Fresh Basil

2 to 4 garlic cloves
1/4 to 1/3 cup olive oil
Salt to taste
pepper to taste
2 to 6 tbl spoons of pine nuts
Pu the basil and garlic in the food processor and with the machine running drizzle in the olive oil until a creamy consistency is achieved. (You have to figure this out for yourself) Make sure you stop from time to time to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

This is a great sauce to use with pasta. Last night I made up some pene and put some of this in it and it was FABULOUS!

Pesto can be frozen. Put it in ice cube trays and freeze then pop it out and put the green cubes in a zip lock freezer bag. Make sure to take most of the air out of the bag. When needed use one or two cubes. This same process can be followed with different types of stock as well. The key is to make sure as much of the air as possible is removed from the bag.

Welcome a New Blogger

Posted on by Fr. Peter
I want to welcome Fr. Ernesto Obregon to the Orthoblog world. Fr. has posted comments in the past and has joined us in this little world. Fr. is a Cuban American from Florida and an Orthodox Priest very cool. Read his blog OrthoCuban here.

Welcome Fr. Ernesto!

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