Orthodixie

Next week, the week following the Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee, there is katalysis [allowance] for all things, meaning that there is no fasting on any day of the week. During the week following the Sunday of the Prodigal Son we observe the traditional fasting discipline (no meat, poultry, eggs, cheese, milk or other dairy products, fish, wine and olive oil) on Wednesday and Friday. During the week following Judgment (or Meatfare) Sunday we abstain from meat and poultry; note however that there is katalysis for eggs, cheese, milk and other dairy products, fish, wine and oil on all days of that week. From the first day of the Great Fast, known as Pure Monday, the day following Forgiveness (or Cheesefare) Sunday, we observe the traditional fasting discipline (no meat, poultry, eggs, cheese, milk or other dairy products, fish, wine and olive oil) on weekdays through Great and Holy Friday, while on Saturdays and Sundays there is katalysis for wine and olive oil;

EXCEPTIONS: on Annunciation (March 25th) and Palm Sunday there is katalysis for fish, wine and oil; on Great and Holy Thursday there is katalysis for wine and oil; on Great and Holy Saturday, if we eat anything at all, we observe the traditional fasting discipline (no meat, poultry, eggs, cheese, milk or other dairy products, fish, and olive oil) with katalysis for wine. We break the Lenten Fast only following the Paschal Orthros and Divine Liturgy.

Taken from the daily memo from His Grace, BASIL, to the St Raphael Clergy Brotherhood, Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America.

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UPDATE: I am away this week for our annual Clergy Brotherhood Retreat – Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America; blog updates and comment approval may be nonexistent.
Prayers coveted.

I have a suspicion that many AFR listeners may not understand this week’s podcast.

Why?

Because I know for a fact there’s folks out there in AFR land who are non-Orthodox — Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, Anglicans — and, yes, even nominal Christians and secular types.

Some people will definitely be offended.

But, I also suspect that many of those same people are, like me …

come closer …

WHITE.

Typical signs of Orthodox White People are exposed by the following questions:

Have you written a book about your conversion to Orthodoxy?
— With the exception of Fr James Bernstein, you are white.

Have you read a book about someone’s conversion to Orthodoxy?
— No doubt, you are white.

What’s that, you say? You are an Orthodox blogger?
— Whitey, whitey, whitey.

OH! You are an African-American convert?
— Yes, well, welcome to the club — and, in this club, you may as well be white, too, buddy.

By now there are some of you thinking: “Hey! You can’t talk that way!”

Well, I don’t.

But plenty of so-called ethnic Orthodox …

The Orthodixie Podcast on Ancient Faith Radio.

Or, just listen right here.

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FYI – I will be speaking at St Nicholas Cathedral, Brooklyn, this weekend, January 31st, at their annual Winter Retreat — and in Chicago, February 13-14th, for the 26th Annual Young Adult (YAL) Ministries Conference sponsored by the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago.

If you’re in the area, join us! Click the links for details.

Fr Joseph,

I just wanted to drop you a line to let you know that I finished One Flew Over the Onion Dome last night and really enjoyed it. A lot of what I read really resonated with me, especially the part about the vulnerability required by love. When my girlfriend and I broke up it took me a long time to move on. Of course this is an incomparable matter to the vulnerability experienced by Christ on the cross, but it made me realize that in order to love as He does I have to be willing to be vulnerable, which is tough.

I loved the part about Orthodoxy in the South too … your descriptions of us Southern folk were on target. Your commentary on the convert/revert struggle with the burden of their own sin and lack of progress in the faith as a result of such weight really hit home. It’s been something I think I’ve been struggling with lately … the more I learn the more I realize how unworthy I am of Christ. I have to keep trying though and commit myself to do so.

I just really enjoyed the book and wanted to thank you for the time you spent writing it. I hope to start your second one soon.

Thank you!

XXXX

One Flew & Defeating Sin … here.

One thing we must not forget: Orthodoxy is Christianity. You cannot add Orthodoxy to Christianity. Rather it is Christianity. We shouldn’t beat others over the head with this fact but we should never shy away from it.

— taken from One Flew Over the Onion Dome as cited in the Report on Evangelism for the year 2008 for St. Luke Orthodox Church, Palos Hills, IL, by Lee Kopulos.

While blessing homes as a Mission priest in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee … I was younger, a good bit hairier, about 40 pounds heavier, and still as foolish.

In those days I would often read other church bulletins where there was, invariably, a note announcing house blessings which ended with the words:

DO NOT FEED THE PRIEST!

Back then I always found that admonition odd … after all, in a small parish or mission setting, a priest may only have 10, 20, or 30 homes to bless over a two month period (from Theophany to the Great Fast) – and many times the families want the priest’s whole family to enjoy a meal. Believe me, it can be done!

And, hey … ya gotta eat … so why not feed the priest?

If you are a priest or parishioner in such a smaller setting, you know it can be a blessing.

But, I currently live in Houston.

Ladies and gentlemen, enter the Dynamic Duo …

The Orthodixie Podcast on Ancient Faith Radio.

Or, just listen right here.

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The following is lifted from the most recent issue of TOUCHSTONE magazine (the only mag you really need these days):

Through a resolution adopted at its Lambeth Conference in 1930, the Anglican Church became the first Christian body to formally approve the use of contraceptives. In an editorial published on March 22, 1931, the Washington Post had this to say in response:

It is impossible to reconcile the doctrine of the divine institution of marriage with any modernistic plan for the mechanical regulation or suppression of human birth. The church must either reject the plain teachings of the Bible or reject schemes for the “scientific” production of human souls. Carried to its logical conclusion, the committee’s report, if carried into effect, would sound the death-knell of marriage as a holy institution, by establishing degrading practices which would encourage indiscriminate immorality. The suggestion that the use of legalized contraceptives would be “careful and restrained” is preposterous.

* * *

That was less than 80 years ago. My, we’ve sure come sunk a long way.

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