Orthodixie

Father,
Could you please explain how to be obedient to the character in “An Empty Church Is A Peaceful Church?” More generally, how to be obedient to God and to people around you that have some authority over you (parent, boss), or even to people that are maybe not what we believe is pleasing God but they do not yet know better (as in: peer pressure).

Betty in Baltimore

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Dear Fr Joseph,

What exactly do you mean by Fast?

Sincerely,

Joe Slow in Sacramento

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Dear Fr Joseph,

Why are there two weeks of transition into Great Lent (Meatfare and Cheesefare) but none leading to Nativity Fast? Does this mean that the fast is not intended to be kept as strictly?

Cindy in Quincy

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Hey Father,

What is the difference between Fast and Strict Fast?

Sincerely,

Suffering Seraphim in Saratoga

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Dear Fr Joseph,

I have a Great Lent cookbook that says fish are always OK, yet other sources say only shellfish. What gives?

You can call me Rachael but do not call me Ray in Santa Fe

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Dear Fr J,

What about Thanksgiving?

Just wondering,

Wanda in Wauwatosa

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Dear Fr Huneycutt,

I do understand how important it is to follow the guidance of one’s spiritual father in the matters of fasting because of the fact that one chooses to be obedient to the fasting that God gives through the Church. But it seems that the different typicons of fasting that exist indicate a lot of variation within our Church, and I am usually at a loss to reconcile this variation with the fact that our Church is one united body that has passed on this tradition for 2000 years. How can I explain this to my non-Orthodox friends who ask why do some people fast this way and others that way, and why fish, but no meat, and why oil, etc? I’d really like to give them the big picture answer that goes beyond the simple aspect of food.

Written in blue from Sue in Kalamazoo.

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Hi Father, I have a Question:

What about what some in our parish lovingly call “pharisee food”… fake sausage patties and burgers, Nayonaise, Soy Dream “ice cream”, soy/rice/almond/potato starch and warm tap water milk, etc. I admit I use them a lot…but in some cases it feels a little like cheating…keeping the letter but not the spirit of the fast…depriving ourselves formally of some proscribed food group but traveling to the ends of the earth (or dark shady vegan scented edge of the city) and paying through the nose to avoid missing the flavors (or their feeble approximations) of our favorite foods.

Manuel in Miami

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Dear Father Joseph Honeycutt,

When you said you would welcome questions about fasting, I wanted to write. I am a mother of 3 kids, ages 1, 6 and 8. Can you briefly explain how to lovingly encourage children to fast? My 8-year-old understands the fasting but constantly complains that he is hungry. A couple of bowls of split pea soup just don’t fill him. Should children’s fasting be always voluntary and to what extent do we dictate what they eat?

Pam in Pensacola

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Hi,

I’m an Orthodox enquirer.

At the moment, if I eat breakfast on a Sunday morning, then go to church, thereby missing morning tea, I am feeling faint well before lunchtime. I’m also extremely cranky with my husband and children. How do Orthodox cope with the Sunday morning fast that I have heard about? Have Orthodox people experienced some extra grace to get through that time with no food or drink at all? Or have I heard wrongly about this tradition?

Cheers

Ruth Ann in the Rio Grande

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Greetings Fr. Joseph:

I am a catechumen in Boise ID and am slowly coming to take in Orthodoxy, and learning all the much further there is to go. Well, my question follows, but I would say I am to timid to find my name on radio broadcast (not that I think this is sure-fire podcast material or anything).

My question lies in the asceticism of many Orthodox monastics (and Saints, though for I figure they new what they were doing) and the words of Colossians 2:11-23. Particularly confusing to me is when St. Paul emphasizes “Therefore, if you died with Christ form the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulation “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle””. St. Paul continues getting closer to the confusion I have; we have the ending, “These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.”

Where does this leave asceticism which Orthodoxy so loves?

All the best,

Boyd in Boise

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These are the questions. For the answers (maybe not THE answers, but some answers), tune in to the Orthodixie Podcast on Ancient Faith Radio.

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No doubt, this is good news for everyone (except maybe Satan and those who believe the 60’s were the New Jerusalem).

Why the Pope is right to purge modern music
By Damian Thompson

For decades, the standard of singing in St Peter’s basilica has struggled to match that of a Gilbert and Sullivan society.

Church music in Italy is generally atrocious, and the Vatican is no exception. Since he arrived in Rome nearly 30 years ago, the music-loving Joseph Ratzinger has had to endure the sub-operatic warbling of bad 20th-century music. Now he has had enough.

The Pope, who last year appointed a new choir director of St Peter’s, wants Gregorian chant, polyphony and baroque masterpieces to dominate the repertoire in the basilica and the Sistine chapel.

And, by making his preferences clear, he is sending out a message to the whole Catholic Church.

We are moving into an era of liturgical revolution. Benedict detests the feeble “folk Masses” that have remained the staple fare of Catholic worship long after they went out of musical fashion.

He wants the Church to rediscover the treasure of its heritage – and that includes Gregorian chant as well as the pre-1970 Latin Mass that can now be celebrated without the permission of bishops.

The old guard of trendy choir directors and composers (many of whom have signed lucrative contracts with dioceses) will fight his reforms every inch of the way, egged on by philistine bishops.

But younger church musicians, like young priests, are conservative in their tastes.

The next generation of choir directors have been charged by the Pope with the task of reintroducing beautiful music into church. If they succeed, then at long last the pews may begin to fill up again.

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Another news article.

Thanks to FWD from RC pal, Tim Gibson.

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It is the duty of nations as well as of men to owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.

We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.

— Abraham Lincoln – October 3, 1863

Thanks to FWD from Margo Elgohary.

The above proclamation seems a combination of pieces. No problem, go HERE and HERE for more!

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As promised last week, this week’s Orthodixie Podcast will attempt to answer your fasting questions. For those late to the party, we are in the midst of the Nativity Fast (sometimes referred to as the St Philip Fast, even Advent). Those following the Julian Calendar (sometimes called the Old Calendar, even the Church Calendar) will begin the Fast on the 28th.

Send your questions, comments or suggestions (funny or serious) to:

orthodixie at aol dot com

Deadline for airtime: Thanksgiving!

Then tune in to Ancient Faith Radio.

It should be fun.

The pic of the Big Boy is, shall we say, tongue in cheek.

Istanbul (AsiaNews) – A XVII century chapel dedicated to Our Lord’s Transfiguration, which lies in front of the Halki School of Theology, was almost completely destroyed [last week] by Forest Guards. The Church had been recently restored with the permission of local authorities. Demolishers had begun tearing down the building without any prior warning, which is called for in such cases.

Only at the last minute was the total destruction of the chapel avoided: following protests by the prior of Halki School and Metropolitan Meliton, director of the Ecumenical Patriarchates office for legal affairs, the prefect of the Prince Islands stopped the Forest Guards. The building however was seriously damaged.

The Prior of Halki immediately brought to the attention of the Turkish authorities that these kinds of episodes will provoke international disapproval, including that of the European Union. The Authorities response was stark: “Don’t dare to threaten us!”.

Shortly afterwards an “unknown” group smashed the windows of Holy Trinity Church in Kadikoy, ancient Calcedonia.

Diplomatic and journalistic circles mummer that cases such as these are on the increase and are not casual either: they are part of a strategy adopted by powers in Turkey who are against the nations process of integration in the European Union and are testing the Governments will to protect religious minorities.

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