Orthodixie

The following helpful hints are excerpted from an email from Matushka Elizabeth Perdomo (with gratitude).

After Forgiveness Sunday, which falls on March 6th this year, the Great Fast Begins.

From Monday, March 7th until AFTER the midnight services for Holy Pascha, no meat or dairy or egg products are eaten. A strictly VEGAN diet is adopted by Orthodox Christians throughout the world. That means grains, beans, vegetables, fruits, etc.

There are some exceptions to the rule during the Great Fast. For example, on the Feast of the Annunciation, March 25th, Fish, Wine and Oil are Allowed. This is also true on April 17th, the Celebration of the Entrance into Jerusalem or Palm Sunday. Fish, Wine and Oil are again consumed.

Non-vertebrate sea food is allowed any day during the fast, except for during the “Strict Fast” days. That includes shrimp, scallops, clams, oysters, lobster, etc. So, if you need a special occasion dish or night out, or need a bit extra protein, try to go for seafood dishes!

The liturgical calendars from Church pretty well specify the fast days and the degree of fasting we strive to enter into. If you have questions, check your calendars!

Also: Nursing mothers, Pregnant Women, Young Children and those in Ill Health or who must take certain medications should adapt the fasting rule according to their particular needs. Dairy products are particularly recommended for young children, nursing mothers and pregnant women. Please do talk to [your priest / spiritual father] and receive a blessing and some guidance if you have any questions or special circumstances which would prevent you from following the fast. Having that “Blessing” can better bring you into the fullness of the season, even when one must adapt the fasting guidelines.

People often worry about children and fasting. Children learn by our examples and through our efforts. Dairy can always be added for young children, but other than that, they can easily learn to eat what we eat: Fasting Foods. The key is to make and serve well balanced meals, which can be done even with vegan food choices. It’s a learning process – so, let’s all learn! If one eats lunches or breakfasts at school, it can be more challenging. Still, children can try to make choices which more closely follow the fasting guidelines if they are taught to do so and to want to do so. But, the point is to try to do the best one can. Maybe peanut butter sandwiches, or even cheese pizza, or a tuna sub must be substituted now and then. But, it is better to try than not to even try at all. After all, why do we Fast? To grow closer to Christ! So, what’s not to try for?

Also, when one is traveling, sometimes it is often not possible to keep the fast completely. However, even so, try to follow the fast as closely as possible. If one can not eat a vegan meal, try shrimp or other non-vertebrate seafood. Or, if none is available, try fish. Or eggs… Or dairy… Don’t just go straight to steak just because you’re not at home!

There are always situations which come up during the Great Fast. The FASTING is not the point of the fast; the REACHING and FOCUSING on Christ IS the Point. Fasting is our Tool; our Friend; our Aid in setting aside this time and really refocusing our lives. So, if something comes up, don’t beat yourself up. Refocus, get back into the fast, and continue putting one step in front of the other.

Fasting can not and is not meant to stand alone either. It must be accompanied by its other two components: Prayer and Almsgiving. Remember to make time in your busy lives and attend as many of the special lenten services as possible during this precious season. Remember to give to the poor and needy – and not just your dollars, but your actions as well!

Matushka then points to the programs at her own parish, St George.

Matushka’s friend Denise, who lives in Savannah, GA, also has a cooking blog which shares recipes throughout the fasting and other seasons. She is Italian American, so many of her excellent recipes reflect that background … HERE.

ALSO … a helpful Lenten resource page is offered HERE.

Image of a lenticular cloud taken from HERE.

Taken from a previous posting on Tuesday, February 26, 2008.

Clean Monday is a public holiday in Greece, a day of great celebration and traditions. Families take to the beach or countryside for picnics and kite-flying. Children make “Kyra Sarakosti,” (Lady Lent), a paper doll with seven legs to represent the seven weeks of Lent. Every week, a leg is cut off to show how many weeks remain until Easter …

More here.

Image Source

On this Sunday of Forgiveness, I beg you — faithful readers, lurkers, and surfers — to forgive my many sins, failings, and shortcomings. Prayers coveted and assured, for you and yours, as we prepare, during this holy season of the Great Fast, to meet the Lord in the Bright and Glorious Day of Resurrection (Pascha – April 24, 2011).

— Unworthy Priest Joseph

With all the fanfare [last year] surrounding the return of Jay Leno to The Tonight Show – and earlier, the drama around hosts and ratings, I was remembering my own visit to The Tonight Show, as a member of the studio audience, back when Johnny Carson was host.

I was a college kid selling Cable TV in Southern California – and a coworker’s mom just happened to be on the editorial staff of The Tonight Show. So, a friend and I got comp tickets, even a behind the scenes tour!

I, Ladies and Gentlemen, met The Tonight Show producer Freddie Decordova and Johnny’s sidekick, Ed McMahon!

Anyway …

The following episode from the Orthodixie Archives details my “second appearance” on The Tonight Show:

The Orthodixie Podcast on Ancient Faith Radio.

Yesterday’s regular meeting of the Orthodox Clergy Association of Southeast Texas was hosted by St Basil the Great Greek Orthodox Church.

The following images were captured with my cell phone – click to enlarge.

St Basil’s, having just completed a huge building project, is now in the icon installation phase. Cut-out images, ready for install, were laid out on the tiled floors throughout the temple.

Fr Anastasios Raptis, parish priest of St Basil’s, is pictured above (to your left) showing Fr Anthony Baba, of St Anthony – Spring, the temple. (Fr Anthony and the faithful of St Anthony Church hope to move into their new church building on Palm Sunday.)

Those huge windows afforded a curious image of shade and light upon the new icons.

This year’s Pan-Orthodox Vespers for the Triumph of Orthodoxy (which celebrates the 8th century restoration of the holy icons) will be held at St Basil Church with Fr Thomas Hopko as the guest preacher.

The service begins at 5:00PM — with a reception to follow. Join us!

This image of the Annunciation — with the peculiar shading and depth dimensions common to iconography AND the anticipated completion of scene omitted by my cell phone camera — plays tricks on the eyes. If you look to the upper right corner the photo image does not look square!

Someday, this great dome will include the image of Christ the Righteous Judge.

The iconostasis — and, to the left, the iconographer and crew.

“What one has most to work and struggle for in painting is to do the work with a great amount of labour and sweat in such a way that it may afterward appear, however much it was laboured upon, to have been done almost quickly and almost without any labour, and very easily, although it was not.” (Michelangelo) Quote Source

At first glance, this image seems to have no place here, or anywhere for that matter! But it is a guy named Basil wearing a shirt that says Greece. (I’ll make sure he’s installed in church, too, so to speak … presenting a different image.)