Orthodixie

It was Thursday, the Feast of the Annunciation, and I was taking my daughter to high school.

I said: “Wow, Holy Week.”

She said, “I know, right? I can’t believe it’s already here.”

“This Saturday’s Lazarus Saturday,” I said, “and everyone at church will be like Woo-hoo! – and then, Sunday is Palm Sunday and everyone will be like Woo-hoo! And then …”

“And then Jesus dies,” she said.

We rode along in silence for a while, till she said: “Dad, half the people are going to come to church this weekend and go Woo-hoo … then they won’t return again till Pascha and go Woo-hoo!”

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Knowing I was headed to St Vladimir’s Seminary for their public Lenten Retreat, the wife and I decided, last year, that one of my teen’s Christmas presents would be tickets to a show (and a trip with Dad). Herself, above, as we arrived at LaGuardia.

First stop, the Empire State Building …

Then, to Rockefeller Center (it was a remarkable 70+ degrees!) …

And, Times Square …

Can you guess which show we saw?

It. Was. Pretty. DogGone. Wicked. Fabulous!

The next morning, the American Museum of Natural History (sans Ben Stiller) …

Okay. Did I mention that said teen had 25 hours of touristy stuff (wherein we did ESB, Times Square, Broadway Show, Museum, China Town, Little Italy, St Patrick’s Cathedral, meals & sleep)? The rest, naturally, was “church” …

That’s St Nicholas Cathedral, Brooklyn, where we attended the final Akathist Hymn, talk and fellowship. The Dean, Fr Tom Zain was an excellent host, tour guide and NYC driver!
[Scroll back up to the second pic to see the back of his (he’s very tall) head.]

But what kid wants to hear Dad speak all afternoon? Instead, after Saturday’s Liturgy at St Vlad’s, she topped off the day with a guy who, so I hear, lost his “top” (Sleepy Hollow), thanks to chauffeur Shammasy Melanie Sakran.

On Sunday, we attended Liturgy at SVS and shared brunch with the Dean, Fr John Behr, and his family and the Chancellor, Fr Chad Hatfield and Matushka Thekla. (This was preceded by my adventure at Kids’ Cafe, and was followed by my teenager heading back into the city with a young couple hoping to attend SVS in the fall.)

Way back when, she and I would go to the Asheville Mall, walk around, sit on a bench and share a pretzel. Trust me, that was just yesterday! Daddy-Daughter time — highly recommended!

Recently, I had the good fortune to enjoy some warm spring days in the Northeast at St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, where I spent the weekend teaching, preaching, and hanging out with some wonderful young people at what’s known as The Kid’s Café.

[At Liturgy’s end, one of the altar boys came back into the altar; I said: “What’s your name?” “Peter,” he said. “How old are you, Peter?” “Eight.” “Are you married?” I asked. Without a moment’s hesitation, he said: “Nope, but my Dad is!”]

The Orthodixie Podcast on Ancient Faith Radio.

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It’s the birthday of Flannery O’Connor [Savannah, Georgia (1925)] who wrote two novels and 32 short stories and who said: “I come from a family where the only emotion respectable to show is irritation. In some this tendency produces hives, in others literature, in me both.” When she was six, she and a chicken that she taught to walk backward appeared on the news. She later said: “I was just there to assist the chicken but it was the high point in my life. Everything since has been anticlimax.”

As she herself put it, she wrote about “freaks and folks.” She said, “Whenever I’m asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one.”

— Stolen from The Writer’s Almanac

Someone once told the Catholic writer Flannery O’Connor that it is more open-minded to think that the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar is a great, wonderful, powerful symbol. Her response was, “If it’s a symbol, to hell with it.”
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Flannery O’Connor: “When I know what the laws of the flesh and the physical really are, then I will know what God is. We know them as we see them, not as God sees them. For me, it is the virgin birth, the Incarnation, the resurrection which are the true laws of the flesh and the physical. Death, decay, destruction are the suspension of these laws. I am always astonished at the emphasis the Church puts on the body. It is not the soul she says that will rise but the body, glorified… The resurrection of Christ seems the high point in the law of nature.”
[Source]

It’s also, of course, the Great Feast of the Annunciation to the Theotokos (ns) — where we celebrate the Archangel Gabriel’s announcing to the Virgin Mary the Good News of our Salvation in Christ, her Son and God.

Happy Feast!

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So … I’m still Peter Gillquist.

The funniest thing happened to me this past weekend in New York: upon entering “coffee hour” following Saturday’s Liturgy at St Vladimir’s Seminary …

John Maddex of Ancient Faith Radio jumped up from his table, grabbed me — giving me a big hug — and said:

“Fr Peter! I am so happy to finally meet you! Your book, Becoming Orthodox, played a big part in my spiritual journey!”

(Now that’s funny.)

Anyway, the SVS retreat talks — Paschal Fire From Spiritual Ashes — are posted on AFR:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Pics from my Daddy-Daughter tour of the Big Apple soon to follow.

In the meantime, as we prepare to wiggle out of Lent, dive into Passion Week, and head toward PASCHA …

NOW is a good time (but of course Peter Gillquist would say this) to order:

We Came, We Saw, We Converted

… from Conciliar Press.