Orthodixie

Here’s some pics, parish & personal, from Pascha 2007.
Click to enlarge.


Fr John Salem leads the procession with the Gospel
Book. Thanks to the cold, rainy weather —
sleet in Houston! — we did not process outside.

Fr Joseph Shahda … “Christ is Risen!”

Blogger: “Christ is Risen!”

His face says it: “Christ is Risen!”

Amou Sami & the Arabic choir … ألمسيح قام

English choir … Vivian said: “Si Cristo ay nabuhay! Siya nga ay nabuhay!”

The Paschal Blessing … “Trampling down death by death …”

The annual egg contest. (I’m looking at my cracked
egg — the victor, eight years running: Fr Joseph Shahda.)

Three princesses gather in the hall for the feast.
(The tallest is a Huneycutt.)

My favorite oldest daughter and her pal, Alexa, are listening to,
so I learned, “The All-American Rejects.” (I’d never heard of the group.
Somehow I doubt that will become a Pascha tradition.)

“Let God arise … let his enemies be scattered!”
(Agape Vespers)


Front to back: German, Romanian, Spanish, and Latin.
(Agape Vespers)

Fore to iconostasis: French, Low Country Scottish, Ukranian, and Greek.
(Agape Vespers)

The guy with the candles: English.
(Agape Vespers)

“What did you say?”

I said: “Christ is Risen!”

Oh, and the Easter Bunny!

My son holds our black cat named Lily. She was born
on Pascha, May 1st, two years ago. Hence the name.
(Though surrounded by Orthodox, to our knowledge, she never fasts.)

My favorite youngest daughter and family friend,
Mary Deane, dye eggs on Holy Saturday.

That’s us … wishing you and yours:

A happy Pascha!

Christ is Risen!

The following notes [an annual “tradition”] come courtesy of Fr Mark Mancuso of St Elizabeth the New-Martyr, Columbia, SC …

Christ is Risen!

A few notes for Bright Week and the Paschal season.

• We greet one another during the entire Paschal season (which lasts 40 days) with the words: “Christ is risen!” and the response to the greeting is: “Indeed, He is risen!”

• During Bright Week, the Holy Doors and the Deacons’ doors of the iconostasis remain open symbolizing the empty tomb of our Master and Savior: Christ is risen!

• During Bright Week, our prayers in church and at home are sung and not read as we sing all week the feast of the risen Christ: Christ is risen!

• During Bright Week, our morning and evening prayers are replaced by the singing of the short service of the Hours of Pascha (see your prayer books or see below): Christ is risen!

• During Bright Week, we do not read from the psalter at home or in church for the prophecies have been fulfilled: Christ is risen!

• During Bright Week, there is no fasting as we are at feast with the Bridegroom who processes forth from the tomb: Christ is risen!

• During the entire Paschal season there is no prostrating or kneeling permitted in church or at home for we stand with the resurrected Christ: Christ is risen!

• During the Paschal season we begin all of our prayers at home and in church by singing the troparion of Pascha: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!”

• During the Paschal season and extending to Pentecost, we do not pray “O Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth…” for the Comforter comes on Pentecost. Christ is risen!

• And most important of all: “A Pascha worthy of all honor has dawned for us. Pascha! Let us embrace each other joyously!…This is the day of resurrection. Let us be illumined by the feast. Let us embrace each other. Let us call ‘Brother’ even those who hate us, and forgive all by the resurrection, and so let us cry: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!” “And unto us He has given eternal life. Let us
worship His resurrection on the third day!”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

PASCHAL HOURS

PRIEST: Blessed is our God, always, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages

But a layman sayeth: Through the prayers of our holy fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ, our God, have mercy on us.

Amen. Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and on those in the tombs bestowing life. Thrice.

Then we chant:

Having beheld the resurrection of Christ, let us worship the holy Lord Jesus, the only Sinless One. We worship Thy cross, O Christ, and Thy holy Resurrection we hymn and glorify; for Thou art our God, and we know none other beside Thee, and we call upon Thy name. O come, all ye faithful, let us worship Christ’s holy Resurrection, for behold, through the Cross joy hath come to all the world. Ever blessing the Lord, we hymn His Resurrection; for, having endured crucifixion, He hath destroyed death by death. Thrice.

The Hypakoe, eighth tone, once: Forestalling the dawn, the women came with Mary, and found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre, and heard from the angel: why seek ye among the dead, as though He were a mortal, Him Who liveth in everlasting light? Behold the grave-clothes. Go quickly and proclaim to the world that the Lord is risen and hath slain death. For He is the Son of God Who saveth mankind.

The Kontakion, eighth tone, once:

Though Thou didst descend into the grave, O Immortal One, yet didst Thou destroy the power of hades. And didst arise as victor, O Christ God, calling to the myrrh-bearing women: Rejoice! And giving peace unto Thine apostles: Thou Who dost grant resurrection to the fallen.

And these Troparia, eighth tone, once: In the grave bodily, but in hades with Thy soul as God: in Paradise with the thief, and on the throne with the Father and the Spirit wast Thou Who fillest all things, O Christ the Inexpressible.

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

How life-giving, how much more beautiful than Paradise, and truly more resplendent than any royal palace was Thy tomb shown to be, O Christ, the source of our resurrection.

Both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

O sanctified and divine tabernacle of the Most High, rejoice! For through thee, O Theotokos, joy is given to them that cry: Blessed art thou among women, O all-spotless Lady.

Lord, have mercy. Forty times.

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

More honourable than the Cherubim, and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim, who without corruption gavest birth to God the Word, the very Theotokos, thee do we magnify.

If a Priest Serve: In the name of the Lord, Father bless.

PRIEST: O Lord Jesus Christ our God, for the sake of the prayers of Thy most pure Mother, of our holy and God-bearing fathers, and of all the saints, have mercy on us.

If a Reader’s service: O Lord bless.

Amen. Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and on those in the tombs bestowing life. (thrice) Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

If a Priest Serve: Father bless.

PRIEST: May Christ our true God, Who rose from the dead, and trampled down death by death and on those in the tombs bestowed life, through the intercessions of His most Pure Mother, and of all the saints have mercy on us and save us, for He is good and the Lover of mankind.

If a Reader’s service: O Lord bless!

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Indeed, He is Risen!

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Christ is Risen!

Χριστὸς ἀνέστη!

ألمسيح قام

Хрңстос Воскресе!

Hristos a înviat!

by Subdeacon Anthony Camille Baba — posted by permission.

The title should read …”A Pilgrimage thus far,” and that it’s been! We got here safely on Tuesday evening about 4ish but didn’t leave the airport until an hour or so after that. My parents got their passports stamped but I on the other hand had to wait. I fit the description: young, Arab, young, and Arab. They didn’t give me a hard time really, they asked me a couple questions and after a while gave me back my passport and that was it.

Back to the should be title … very early this morning (Holy Thursday), I drove to Jerusalem from Ramallah with my parents (they would drive back after dropping me off) and an 8 mile drive took us almost an hour, without traffic. There were two checkpoints and lots and lots of curvy and bumpy roads.

I met with the son (George) of the Priest in Jerusalem (Fr. Elias Yaghnam) at St. James Cathedral for the Divine Liturgy. It was AWESOME! George got me right in there with the rest of the chanters, I was standing right next to the Bishop’s throne. It wouldn’t be long until the Patriarch would make his way there. Literally speaking, I could see his nose hairs. There were so many people taking pictures and I’m sure I was in all of them. 🙂

Before the Liturgy was over, George and I walked outside to the courtyard where the service of the foot washing would take place, but before the Liturgy started, there was hardly anyone in the courtyard and by the time we went out, there were probably 1,000 people barricaded. We walked through the open areas that the Patriarch and clergy would be processing and made our way to the top of a building to get a REALLY AWESOME view! Unreal. It was very neat, a bit theatrical but not in any negative way.

Before the foot washing service started, a big priest walked up a really skinny ladder to stand on a very small platform to read the Gospel. He was like the narrator, he would say, “Jesus said” and the Patriarch would actually say what Jesus said. Then the priest would say, “Then Simon-Peter said” and one of the 12 priests who was assigned to Simon-Peter would complete the sentence. There was a crew standing next to me with a really high-tec video camera and microphone…they’re from New York and there for PBS. They said the DVD would be on sale and that it would be aired on PBS in a year.

That’s all I got for now, I’m hopeful that I’ll be there again on Holy Saturday morning for the Divine Liturgy and especially to see the uncreated Light. Aka The Holy Fire, or the “light that needs no bic.” 🙂

Please be assured of my prayers at these most holy places, and please keep me in your prayers. I’ll try to keep y’all updated, it’s not very difficult finding one of these “IN-TERRR-NET” Cafes.

As-salam-‘ah-lay-kum,
Camille

PS – It’s what they say anywhere and everywhere around here, Christian or non.

Image courtesy of IOCC.

Beloved and Christ-loving Clergy, Monastics and Laity of the Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America:

I embrace and greet you with a holy kiss in the Name of the Resurrected Theanthropos Jesus Christ, and, together with you and Orthodox Christians throughout the world, I joyfully proclaim that Christ is risen! Χριστὸς ἀνέστη! ألمسيح قام Хрңстос Воскресе! Hristos a înviat!

As we prepare to celebrate the most glorious Feast of feasts in our beautifully adorned church temples across the Heartland of America, let us recall and be inspired by another glorious Pascha – this one celebrated in stark Block 26 at Dachau Concentration Camp in 1945:

“The room was bare, save for a wooden table and an icon of the Theotokos. A creative solution to the problem of the vestments was found. Linen towels were taken from the SS hospital. When sewn together lengthwise, two towels formed an epitrachelion, and when sewn end-to-end they became an orarion. Red crosses, originally intended to be worn by the medical personnel of the SS guards, were put on these towel-vestments. On Pascha, May 6th, countless Serbs, Greeks and Russians gathered in and around the barracks. In the entire history of the Orthodox Church there has probably never been a Paschal service like that one. Greek and Serbian priests together with a Serbian deacon wore the make-shift vestments over their blue and gray-striped prisoner’s uniforms. Then they began to chant, alternating from Greek to Slavonic, the Paschal Canon and the Paschal Stichera all from memory! The Gospel—“In the beginning was the Word”—from memory! And finally, the Paschal Homily of Saint John Chrysostom—also from memory! A young Greek monk from the Holy Mountain stood up in front of us and recited it with such infectious enthusiasm that we shall never forget him as long as we live. Eighteen Orthodox priests and one deacon concelebrated this unforgettable service.”

May our Paschal joy approximate in some small measure that experienced by those courageous Orthodox Christians in Dachau sixty-two years ago.

Wishing you and your families a glorious Paschal season, I remain
Your Father in the Risen Christ,

+ B A S I L
Bishop of Wichita and Mid-America

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