That’s a picture of Santa at six years old. (He’s now 10.)
This week’s podcast is taken from the AFR-chives.
It speaks of an annual dilemma — or delight — or sump’m.
Ho! Ho! Ho!
(Wait, now that you mention it, Santa looks a lot like Cap’n Hoe.)
The Orthodixie Podcast on Ancient Faith Radio.
(Or, just listen right here.)
[A painting] depicting Hagia Sophia, in the twelfth century, during an Orthodox Liturgy, purportedly during a visit by King Richard the I, Coeur de Lion (the Lionhearted). This is a rare glimpse of this Mother Church of Christianity, which was completed in the early sixth century (537) on the site of two earlier Churches dedicated to Holy Wisdom. It was the largest Church in Christendom for nearly a thousand years.
Almost all of the modern pictures and photographs of the Church depict it as a mosque, into which it was transformed after the Islamic conquest of Constantinople in the fifteenth century. It was also taken by the Latins for a short period of several decades, after the sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in the thirteenth century.
Thanks to Archbishop Chrysostomos of Etna (pic and text), who adds:
A number of you have asked me in the past for a depiction such as this, so I am very pleased, at last, to provide it. I am only sorry that I do not yet have any further information about the painting itself. I cannot call the present occupiers of the edifice, now a museum, exactly knowledgeable about, or forthcoming with, accurate information about the Great Church’s Christian past.
Our recent Advent Retreat (November 15th) at St George with Fr David Barr, Pastor of St Elias, Austin, is now available online:
Part One – “Life as Mystery”
Part Two – “The Mysteries of the Church”
Having recently signed on with The Orthodox Speakers Bureau, here’s a preview of their roster:
Metropolitan Jonah … not much info provided (yet); were I a betting man, I’d bet this man’s hands are, for the foreseeable future, uh, full.
If you ever wanna make a priest jump … about 5 minutes before Matins/Orthros begins (that’s the service that comes before Liturgy in most churches, by the way) – just before it begins, about a half dozen of you guys start goin’ something like this …
EEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee …
Oh,don’t really; I’m just kidding … church ain’t no place for practical jokes. But, believe me, there’d most likely be a head peering out the Angel door or through the curtain, eyes wide with bewilderment.
Nothing quite excites a priest like a Bishop’s visit … particularly one that is not planned!
One Russian bishop once told me that there’s a saying in Russian: The favorite thing a priest ever sees is …
The Orthodixie Podcast on Ancient Faith Radio.
(Or, listen right here.)
As mentioned in a this week’s podcast, we’ve been blessed lately with multiple hierarchical visits at St George, Houston. Here’s a few pics and links:
Bishop BASIL praying the prayer for the elevation of Fr John Salem to the rank and dignity of Archpriest.
From left: Deacon Joseph Carter, Archpriest John Salem, me and my shadow.
Bishop BASIL delivers a powerful message on the elevation of an archpriest, the struggles of the priesthood and the cross that a priest’s family bears.
Listen HERE.
More podcasts from Houston – here.
Front row, left to right: Priest Michel Pavez, Mother Melania (Fr John’s sister), Archpriest John Salem, Archpriest Thomas Zain, Archpriest Constantine Nasr.
Back row, left to right: Deacon Joseph Carter, Priest Joseph Huneycutt, Bishop BASIL, Archpriest Joseph Shahda, Archimandrite Michael Evans.
When’s your birthday, Sayidna?
There’s over 200 pics of the Hierarchical Liturgy with Bishop BASIL – here.
And, over 200 pics of the Hierarchical Liturgy with Bishop LUKA and Patriarch IGNATIUS – here.
Pics and links thanks to Hatem Khalaf of Kingwood Photo Lab.
Orthodixie 