Sabbath

Posted on by Fr. Peter

Yesterday during our festival we had four priests in attendance. At one point we were all gathered around and we started talking about how much we missed out PLN (Post Liturgical Nap). It seems all clergy use most or part of their Sunday afternoon for their PLN. Yesterday I obviously missed mined but by 8:30pm I was fast asleep.

So it brings up the subject of Sabbath and how we live that out. This morning while reading the blogs I came across a posting by the Prior of Holy Cross Monastery in New York on this very subject. Here is a link to the Priors Column.

He has given me some things to think about on this post festival day.

Berkshire Town Sends Giant Cheese Ball to Washington

Posted on by Fr. Peter
On this day in 1801, the Berkshire County town of Cheshire made a 1235-pound ball of cheese and shipped it to Washington, D.C. as a gift for the newly-elected President, Thomas Jefferson, who was a popular figure in western Massachusetts. When news of the “mammoth cheese” reached the eastern part of the state, it caused consternation. Jefferson had won the presidency by defeating John Adams, Massachusetts’ native son. Westerners were more in sympathy with Jefferson’s vision of a nation of independent yeoman farmers than they were with the strong central government advocated by Adams and his supporters in the Federalist Party. Cheshire’s cheese was a sign of the tensions over ideology, economics, and politics that long divided the state’s eastern and western regions.

Festival Day

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Well the day has arrived and there is nothing more to do to make this a success. All the food is ready and the place looks good now all we need is people. We never know how many will come and the weather needs to cooperate as well. The weather says 50% chance of rain today, let’s hope that we are on the good side of the 50% at least until after 6pm.
So I hope to take some snaps and will report tomorrow if I survive!

Pray for us!

Lambeth Conference

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Well I do not usually comment on things going on in other churches but I thought I would comment on the Lambeth Conference in the Anglican Communion. This is the once every 10 years gathering at Canterbury Cathedral in England. Almost all of the bishops in the communion have been invited and I understand there are about 650 of them with another 200 or so that did not go for various reasons.

One of the interesting if not disturbing points is that some bishops have come from Africa against the wishes of their, I guess the term is, provincial. They have come to join their brothers and sisters but may face retribution when they return. So bad is it that they have changed the way to procession on Sunday will be done. Usually the bishops process by province, but this year they will not so it is harder to identify who is there. How nice! They will know we are Christians by our love.

Lack of Blogging

Posted on by Fr. Peter

One of my regular readers remarked yesterday that she missed my blog posts. It’s not that I have nothing to say it’s just that things have been very crazy around here this week. Work continued on the windows and finished yesterday, thanks be to God. An work on the festival was in full swing yesterday. The big day is on the morrow so if you are in the area stop on by. If you do, and I don’t already know you, say hey and let me know you read the blog. I will be the one running around like a chicken with my head cut off.

I hope to take some snaps tomorrow and post them this week. I am also going to try and sneak away for a few days this week and go camping but the weather does not look good so I might just hide out here and get caught up on all that I have been neglecting for the last week.

Here is a picture of what goes on to get ready for the festival.

Weekend Round Up

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Well Sunday was another glorious day here in New England. Had the usual round of liturgical events and it was nice to have our cantor back from the Congress in Chicago. Nice group at church and then a nice coffee hour after. Years ago the folks used to all live in the same neighborhood so they saw each other everyday or so. That is not the case now a days so the coffee hour is the social time in the parish.

After church I rolled on over to St George Greek Orthodox Church here in the Village for their church picnic. This is the once a year blow out that all three Orthodox Churches here in town have. Ours in next week so this week will be full of activity around here. Small crowd but the food was good and the company was pleasant. Rest of the day was spent on just that, rest!

So today I have a sign to put up for the picnic and some other details to see to. Raining here right now but it is supposed to clear up.

I will attempt to post my homily from yesterday and also try and get a podcast done as well. Oh ya, doing laundry as well…

Titles

Posted on by Fr. Peter
While reading the blogs this morning I once again am amazed by the way we pigeon hole people. I am an avowed church geek and love anything that has to do with large gatherings of bishops or people like the Catholic World Youth Day in Sydney and the Lambeth Conference in England. I also love anything British so this is a bonus.

Anyway, why is it that we have to refer to people by a title? I don’t mean titles like bishop, pope, priest, etc. But rather, liberal, conservative, gay, etc. For example, yesterday Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire spoke at a church in England. All of the headlines were something like Gay Bishops Speaks in Church. However some 100’s of bishops spoke yesterday but I did not see anything like Heterosexual Bishops Speaks in Church! Why is that? Does the word Gay sell papers? The other thing I was thinking about today is why is it that if you do not agree with the person you have the right to make fun of them? I have notices that people who would lay down their life to defend their image of the church quickly throw it all out the window when someone who is canonically elected or appointed disagrees with them. If one of their own says something, no matter how stupid it is, they will refer to them as His High Mucky Muck Holiness kiss his hand and listen to every word that he has to say no matter how stupid it is bishop, but if someone like the Present Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the US, who happens to be a woman, says anything they refer to her simply as Kate or Katie? So you love the church and her traditions but only as you see them.

The same goes for titles like liberal and conservative. Someone asked me yesterday is Jesus was to be here right now would he be a liberal or a conservative. Well, I said, I think he would just be Jesus and his words would speak for themselves. Why do we have to refer to people this way. If they don’t agree with you then they are the opposite of you. I guess George Washington and John Adams were right when they said political parties would divide the nation. We are red and blue, liberal and conservative, gay and straight, etc. Let’s just try being, Oh I don’t know, friends, love one another, maybe Christian!

Google Reader

Posted on by Fr. Peter
I am not what one thinks of when they think of a techno geek. I blog, I podcast, I email, I use the web, but that is about it. So I discovered google reader last week and I have struck gold! If you read blogs on a regular basis as I do then you need to use this thing. I had been using the blog reader on Internet Explorer but if you go to a different computer then your blogs are not there. Google allows you to travel and keep up with the reading it is a great thing. So go to google.com and sign up it is free.

11 July ~ St. Drostan

Posted on by Fr. Peter
A Scottish abbot who flourished about A.D. 600. All that is known of him is found in the “Breviarium Aberdonense” and in the “Book of Deir”, a ninth-century manuscript now in the University Library of Cambridge, but these two accounts do not agree in every particular. He appears to have belonged to the royal family of the Scoti, his father’s name being Cosgrach. Showing signs of a religious vocation he was entrusted at an early age to the care of St. Columba, who trained him and gave him the monastic habit. He accompanied that saint when he visited Aberdour (Aberdeen) in Buchan. The Pietish ruler of that country gave them the site of Deir, fourteen miles farther inland, where they established a monastery, and when St. Columba returned to Iona he left St. Drostan there as abbot of the new foundation. On the death of the Abbot of Dalquhongale (Holywood) some few years later, St. Drostan was chosen to succeed him. Afterwards, feeling called to a life of greater seclusion, he resigned his abbacy, went farther north, and became a hermit at Glenesk. Here his sanctity attracted the poor and needy, and many miracles are ascribed to him, including the restoration of sight to a priest named Symon. After his death his relics were transferred to Arberdour and honourably preserved there. The “Breviary of Aberdeen” celebrates his feast on 15 December. The monastery of Deir, which had fallen into decay, was rebuilt for Cistercian monks in 1213 and so continued until the Reformation.

Wikipedi Entry on St. Drostan

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