We have seen the True Light; we have received the heavenly Spirit; we have found the True Faith, worshipping the undivided Trinity, for the Trinity has saved us.
Blessed be God!
I am to be made a catechumen on the 18th of September, Deo volente, and, if all goes well, baptised and chrismated between Theophany and Pascha next year.
I ask your prayers.
Thursday, August 25, 2005
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14 comments:
Wow. Didn't know that Blogspot was subject to comment spam.
Many years to you! Many years
Adding the unworthy prayers of Leetle Masha, very proud of our catechumens all!
Leetle M.
Slice spam very thin and grill until burnt around edges. Tastes better slightly burnt.
Good Lord the spam is atrocious. Slightly burnt Leetle M? Lets go for whole hog cajon ;)
Mnohya Lita! on your news Michael. I'll definately say a prayer for you before the Icon of St. Michael (also my middle name) in my Icon Corner.
Oh and Leetle M., your getting some competetion on the three year catechumen thing from this side of the pond. I was made a Catechumen well over 18 months ago at the rocor parish I attended. Strange I don't know if I am still canonically a Catechumen or not as I left that bunch of loonies after they started talking about going to some schismatic looney sect. Had enough of More-Orthodox-than-you-know-who thank you very much....
Joe Zollars
You will be in my prayers and thoughts Michael.
Joe, I think somebody else must have been talking to you about a three-year catechumenate; I don't think I said anything about it except to say I took my time studying before I became Orthodox. It's good to take plenty of time, of course, and make a thoughtful decision.
What I did to help make this decision was to write, for my spiritual father, a spiritual autobiography of my whole life. Then I wrote out exactly what I believed about each phrase of the Nicene Creed. My spiritual father used those documents to see where my faith needed "adjusting", and then he taught me about Orthodoxy. I was fortunate in that I was the only one he had to teach at the time.
The "jurisdiction" stuff is sometimes a real problem. If we have landed in a parish that's "wrong for us", we can always move to one that is better suited to our situation.
But one is not a "loony" just for being in a particular "jurisdiction". It's the other way round: when enough loonies get into a jurisdiction, sometimes they can change it for the worse. It depends on whether they are truly Orthodox loonies, or just loonies. :)
I always made sure I stayed well away from that kind of stuff, and nowadays (since I'm too old for squabbles) I just go to the closest parish. Fortunately, none of the "jurisdictions" where I live are full of loonies, at least not yet. The parish I go to now happens to be Greek.
Leetle M.
Sorry for double post, but I wanted to mention, for Joe's and anybody else's sake, that when you find that the parish you're in doesn't "fit", for whatever reason, and you have to go to another parish, talk to the priest in the new parish and find out as much about that parish/jurisdiction as you can. Tell the priest honestly what has been happening since you began to want to be Orthodox. If it's a place where they "hop" from bishop to bishop according to whim, you can be pretty sure they are in some outfit that isn't quite canonical. The Rocor, the Moscow Patriarchate, the Church of Antioch, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, and the national churches of the C.I.S. are most likely to be canonical. If someone approaches you and says they are a priest of the Holy and Most Orthodox Autonomous Church of Lower Transylvania and Dependencies, beware.
There are a lot of "bogus" Orthodox churches around. Google before joining.
Best wishes,
Leetle M.
Ah thanks for the advice Leetle M.
1. sorry I meant Ian with that, not you.
2. what is CIS? I've never heard of it over here in the desperatly monarch-deprived lands...
Joe Zollars
The C.I.S. (Congress of Independent States, I theeenk) is former Soviet Union. Sometimes known as the Russian Federation.
Some Real Russian will correct me if I'm wrong, please.
Leetle M.
ah! Well I generally refuse to recognize anything after July 4th/17th 1917. JK.
Thanks for the prayers Michael. You are likewise in my unworthy prayers.
Joe Zollars
...Good luck and many prayers Michael!
DJO
Wonderful news! Congratulations and God bless!
On their way! ;)
Deo gratias!
-- Alt Wally
Hi Michael greetings from down under. I was searching for the latest information on prayers , I can see how I landed on your page. While Catechumenate wasn't exactly what I was looking for. (I was after prayers related stuff) I ejoyed reading your blog, I'll come back agin to read future posts. Take Care.
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