Red Sox

So it would seem that the Red Sox season is over. We are like 1,000 games behind the Yankees and now we begin to look forward to football season. It just was not in cards, so to speak, for the Sox to win this year. Many injuries and other things and now it is all over. Still a few more games to play, but just for fun now. I did look last night to see what tickets were selling for. The only seats available for the game tonight at Fenway were selling for $85.00 Man I can remember when it was like $20 and that was expensive. Oh well, it’s now a rich mans game. Of course we can only get the games on NESN so you have to have cable to watch them on TV. I guess you can always listen to them on the radio.

St. Giles

Today is the anniversary of the death of St. Giles patron saint of Edinburgh and Elgin in Scotland. More information can be found at the catholic encyclopedia site.
In short, this saint was born on Athens and moved to France. He established a monastery and set about to serve to beggars and down trodden in the area. Nice guy I think and maybe we all can learn something from his life.

Bloggers on the Loose

If you live in the central Massachusetts area beware of two bloggers running around stealing your wi-fi and doing all sorts of random blogging.
The Doxos boys are in town for a little visit and Fr. Greg and I will be seeing them latter on. SO lock up your wi-fi if you know what is good for you.

Forgiveness

Yesterday the Gospel passage was about forgiveness. This is a hard lesson for people to learn. As Christians we have to forgive those who have harmed us. Some of us tend to carry a grudge around with us for years and we are never able to let go. Sometimes the harm is so devastating that we can not give it up. However, if we do not give this up, it harms us in a spiritual way. Spiritual sickness will sink in and we find ourselves being very negative towards many things. We all need to find away to forgive. In the Lord’s Prayer we as to forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. So it would seem that we are forgiven in the measure that we forgive. This was the theme of the Gospel passages yesterday. Pray for those who have harmed us, and pray that we are able to find the grace to be able to forgive.

Fruit Flies

Okay, I give up. Where do fruit flies come from? I had a banana on my counter and came home today and say fruit flies. How do they get in the house? Maybe they come from the planet Pluto, oh yea, we can’t call it a planet anymore…

Fire heavily damages Russian cathedral


This is sad to see!

Fire heavily damages Russian cathedral

By Irina Titova, Associated Press Writer August 25, 2006
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia –A fire raged through a 19th century cathedral in this former imperial capital Friday, collapsing the main rooftop dome and sending clerics scurrying to save treasured icons.
The fire erupted in the early evening and burned through scaffolding outside the soaring blue central dome of Trinity Cathedral, a duty officer at the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said.

The central dome collapsed and one of four smaller cupolas surrounding it — painted a striking light blue and in some cases spangled with gold stars — was also destroyed, St. Petersburg emergency department spokeswoman Lyudmila Rubasova said. There were no reports of injuries, she said.
Firefighters battled to save the other three cupolas as emergency workers and church employees removed icons and other religious articles. A helicopter brought in to fight the blaze dumped water on the historic structure.
About four hours after the blaze broke out, Rubasova said one of the three remaining cupolas had been damaged but that the fire was contained. A department spokesman later said the fire had been extinguished.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known, but acting St. Petersburg emergency department chief Leonid Belyayev said the blaze apparently started on scaffolding on the outside of the church, which was undergoing restoration.
He said the most valuable icons and other items had been saved, and that structural damage beneath the roof area was minor.
The cathedral was consecrated in 1835. State-run Rossiya television said the main dome was the second-largest wooden cupola in Europe, and Channel One said that writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky was married there.
It was used as a storehouse during the Soviet era and was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1990.

New Project

Today one of my guys and I drove to New Hampshire and picked up my new travel trailer. Well, it is not new. She is a 1977 Nomad Travel Trailer. So we took it back to the church property and I started working on it. She was a little dirty on the outside. A little Mr. Clean and a scrub brush and she cleaned right up. A little floor work and some wall paper replacement and she will be as good as new. Look for some pictures soon.

Sunday Sermon

Not that I think I am this great preacher, but I thought I would post some of my Sunday sermons here. In the past I written out the text and preached from that. Yesterday however, I took the chance and preached from the hip! I did have a text all worked out but while I was getting ready for liturgy the Holy Spirit put a new idea in my head. It actually began Saturday night when I flipped on Turner Classic Movie Network and my all time favorite move was on The Nun’s Story. Okay before you start to ridicule me, have you seen the movie?
Anyway it struck me that the movie is all about motivation. What motivates us to do what we do. Sister Luke, Audrey Hepburns character in the movie was not motivated to be a nun, but to be a nurse in the Congo. Not a bad motivation but she needed to be a nun first. Okay so where am I going with this… I don’t know.
So I took that into church with me and talked about our motivation for doing the things we do. When we give to the church, what is the motivation? When we come to church what is the motivation? All sin begins with the motivation.
I just finished teaching an ethics class and all ethics boils down to the motivation for doing something. If our motivation is pure than more than likely our ethics will be pure. Same thing in the church. If our motivation is pure than we cannot go wrong.
Okay this needs more work, but it is a place to start…

St. Dimitrie Parish

I had the opportunity yesterday to take a little trip down to Bridgeport, CT to St. Dimitrie Romanian Orthodox Church. It was festival day for the church, and some of the people there have been after me for three years to come. There is come crossover between my parish here in Southbridge and the parish there. So I decided to drive on down. Bridgeport is about an hour and half from Southbridge. It was nice to see some of the old faces again and meet Fr. Cornel who is the priest there. They have begun to build a new church. So right now they are borrowing space from another Orthodox Church in town. The festival was quite large and the food was outstanding. Now I will have to say it was not as good as the food at our festival but I am a little biased.
Okay, I forgot something so I am now in edit mode. Most of the people there are big Yankees fans, why I don’t know. It was hard to sit there and listen to them go on about how great there team is, but then again the Yankees are 4 1/2 games up now on our beloved Red Sox. Well, football season is just around the corner so we have the Patriots anyway.

Urban Monks Part II

Well, this topic has provided much to talk about. But we won’t be able to figure this question out here. I will be meeting on Sunday with another Monastic person who shares the same vision as I do. The model would be something like this. One house that could be called the mother house. Several monks would live in different locations and come to the house maybe monthly or more frequently if necessary. We would live in the world doing what we do and promise to pray with and for each other and follow a monastic life as best we can. Of primary service would be to the local parish and those in need. More on this to come.
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