Water of life; Oil of gladness

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me
because he has anointed me!

Behold how good and lovely it is
when brothers live together in unity!
It is fragrant as oil upon the head,
which runs down over the beard;
Fragrant as oil upon the beard of Aaron,
which runs on the collar of his robes.
It is like the dew of Hermon,
like the dew that falls upon the hill of Zion.
For there the Lord hath ordained his blessing,
which is life for evermore! - Psalm 132

Nearer and nearer draws the time.

I'm more or less at peace now that I know what's happening and when, and can focus on the spiritual now. I had planned to prepare myself with a fast for a week but, as I'm dieting anyway, I find myself observing most of the fasting rules without necessarily intending to.

However, on the 18th, I plan to make a personal pilgrimage to the tomb of St Bertram from where Fr Paul has asked me to bring back some water to add to the font. I'll go straight from there, bottle in hand, to Fr Paul's house, where I'll join my fellow catechumen in spending the evening in quiet reflection and prayer. We shall make our confessions, and say the hours. Then in the morning, some friends of mine are arriving and I shall be baptised and chrismated before the Liturgy. The weekend should be a thoroughly spiritual experience and I can't wait. I still have a few nerves about the confession but I'm sure that these will pass.

Goodness! In a fortnight, I'll be Orthodox!

The photograph above is my baptismal Cross, which arrived in this morning's post. It is a replica of the Cross found in the tomb of St Cuthbert at Durham Cathedral.

I'd like to thank everybody who has read and contributed to this blog in any way. You have all be so very inspirational and helpful to my formation so far. It is now almost one year since I started this and I have gained so much. I hope that you have received something here as well. I ask for your continued prayers.

Greek fasting cheese

Has anybody heard of this? If so, do you know where to get it? I have tried various vegan places with no luck.

It apparently tastes and behaves like mild cheddar (melts when heated, &c.), but is completely dairy-free. If this is available, it may be the only thing that gets me through Lent without charges of GBH.

If anyone can help, I'll be grateful.

Thank you. :-)

Please sponsor me!

The title of this post links to a webpage with information about the fundraising appeal of the St Edward Brotherhood. They plan to build a new monastic house to better enable them to continue their incense and candle-making, icon-framing and book-binding, and to better serve the pastoral and administrative needs of the church community that they have built up over the years.

As I still have just under 4 stone to lose before I get down to my ideal weight, I have decided to make this a sponsored effort. My current weight is 14 stone and 12 pounds (208lbs.) and my desired weight is 11 stone (154 lbs). I started at 16 stone a month ago and my goal is to reach 11 stone by Pascha, which falls on the 23rd of April.

I have been in touch with my parish priest about this and he will contact Fr Alexis at the monastery so that they will be aware of this. I also plan to place sponsor forms in some local parishes and other organisations.

If any of my online friends and readers are able and willing to give to this cause, please do get in touch and let me know. The monks will be very grateful, I'm sure, and I will be pleased to have the added incentive to keep on with my diet. I'm trying to keep this 2003 photograph of myself in sight to remind myself of my goal.

The King Edward Orthodox Trust Company Ltd. is a registered charity (no 284929/0). If you are a UK taxpayer and would like to contribute, please enable to Brotherhood to reclaim 28 pence for each £1 that you give, at no additional cost to you, by choosing to Gift Aid your donation. Please contact me using the e-mail link at the right-hand column of this weblog for details of how you can donate.

Many thanks in advance for your contributions and may God richly bless you!

The First Antiphon

The first antiphon from the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom (Psalm 102) is amazing. The song of praise of the infinite mercy of God is the perfect way to introduce the Liturgy and prepare to enter into the holiness of what is about to take place. I love it.

Bless the Lord, 0 my soul: Blessed art Thou, O Lord!

Bless the Lord, 0 my soul,
and all that is within me bless His holy name.
Bless the Lord, 0 my soul,
and forget not all that He hath done for thee.
Who is gracious unto all thine iniquities,
Who healeth all thine infirmities.
Who redeemeth thy life from corruption,
Who crowneth thee with mercy and compassion.
Who fulfilleth thy desire with good things;
thy youth shall be renewed as the eagle's.
The Lord performeth deeds of mercy,
and executeth judgment for all them that are wronged.

He hath made His ways known unto Moses,
unto the sons of Israel the things that He hath willed.
Compassionate and merciful is the Lord,
long-suffering and plenteous in mercy;
not unto the end will He be angered,
neither unto eternity will He be wroth.
Not according to our iniquities hath He dealt with us,
neither according to our sins hath He rewarded us.
For according to the height of heaven from the earth,
the Lord hath made His mercy to prevail over them that fear Him.
As far as the east is from the west,
so far hath He removed our iniquities from us.
Like as a father hath compassion upon his sons,
so hath the Lord had compassion upon them that fear Him;
for He knoweth whereof we are made,
He hath remembered that we are dust.
As for man, his days are as the grass;
as a flower of the field, so shall he blossom forth.
For when the wind is passed over it, then it shall be gone,
and no longer will it know the place thereof.
But the mercy of the Lord is from eternity, even unto eternity,
upon them that fear Him.
And His righteousness is upon sons of sons,
upon them that keep His testament
and remember His commandments to do them.
The Lord in heaven hath prepared His throne,
and His kingdom ruleth over all.
Bless the Lord, all ye His angels,
mighty in strength, that perform His word, to hear the voice of His words.
Bless the Lord, all ye His hosts,
His ministers that do His will.
Bless the Lord, all ye His works,
in every place of His dominion.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit;
both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Bless the Lord, O my soul;
and all that is within me bless his holy name:
Blessed art Thou, O Lord!

Orthodoxy for Beginners

Fr Gregory Hallam of the Antioch Abouna blog has recently comiled what I think is a very good introduction to the basics of Orthodoxy, leading naturally into exploring questions in more depth.

Thank you for this, Father.

Erm

I'm not entirely sure what's going on here, but I just took this from the ROCOR home page. One has to wonder what the bishop in the middle is thinking.

St Edward, King and Martyr

Troparion

Celebrating the newly manifest commemoration of the holy King Edward, who shone forth of old in the virtues and suffered undeservedly, and bowing down before his precious relics in gladness we cry out: Wondrous art Thou in Thy Saint, O God!

Kontakion

Thou didst shine forth in the land of Wessex as a pious King and radiant Martyr. For when the enemies of godly order fell upon thee, thou didst bear the wounds and blows, and to thy Saviour thou didst speedily depart. But now thou workest a multitude of miracles for them that call upon thee: Rejoice, O holy King and Martyr Edward, intercessor for our land!

A hagiography of St Edward is linked to from the title of this post, and his relics may be venerated at the Church Abroad's monastery at Brookwood.

Thanks to Leetle M for suggesting continuing the lives of Saints of the British Isles. In related news, Credo has today posted this about St Wulfstan.

Theophany

When Jesus had been baptised, just as he came up from the water, suddenly, the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, 'This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.' - Matthew 3: 16-17

In just under an hour's time, I'll be setting off for Vespers for the Eve of Theophany, complete with the Blessing of the Waters. This is, of course, new to me, and the Baptism of Christ never really received much theological focus in my past church experience. I'm really looking forward to it.

I do love the Trinitarian depth to this feast, and had never really thought about it before until recently, but it is the first time in our entire salvation history that we receive such an explicit revelation of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It seems to me to be a deeper revelation of the Truth of the creation, in which the eternal natures of the three Persons are revealed, as well as their relationship with the created order: the generative Father, source of all that is, the eternal Word of God, at whose coming all things came into being by the power of thje Spirit of God, the sustaining breath on which the Word travelled, and which continues in creation and most fully in the Church today. How amazing!

In the Western Rite, tomorrow is Epiphany, which is a celebration of the manifestation of Christ to us, the Gentiles, in the persons of the Magi. This is followed by a series of Sundays in which different aspects of the revelation of God to his people are focused on. This coming Sunday is the Baptism of Christ, with many of the same themes as Theophany in the Eastern Rite. There is a focus on Christ's first miracle at the wedding at Cana, his healing miracles and the Transfiguration on the holy mount.

I love this time of the liturgical year. What a blessing we have!

Our Ladye in English Piety

In spite of reformation iconoclasm, the Mother of God is still remembered in popular tradition in England. It was not for nothing that England was formerly known as "Our Ladye's Dowry", the equivalent of the Russian title, "The House of the Mother of God", which was given to Russia in the days before the revolution. We are left today with the beautiful names of the Feasts; Lady Day for the Annunciation, Our Lady in Harvest for the Dormition, and Our Lady in December for the Conception of the Mother of God.

The ladybird is, in fact, "Our Lady's bird", and nearly a dozen flowers are named after the Mother of God, for example, Our Lady's Smock (Cardamine pratensis), and the marigold is, in fact, "Mary's Gold". How appropriate it would be to use such flowers to decorate icons of the Mother of God on her various Feast days! Indeed, one wonders if such a practice might not be the utlimate origin of the names themselves. As far back as the eight century, the Venerable Bede made the Madonna Lily, also called the Mary Lily, the emblem of the Dormition of the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, likening the white petals to her spotless body and the golden antlers to her soul glowing with heavenly light. To this day the saying that a bride must wear something blue at her wedding goes back to the liturgical blue, worn on the Feasts of the Mother of God. if a bride wears something blue, she is in fact asking for the blessing of the Mother of God on her marriage.

The terrible tragedy is that the reverence of old for the Mother of God has so degenrated in modern speech. The real meaning of the corrupted swear-word "bloody" is "By Our Lady": it is, therefore, a blasphemy.

From the chapter Fragments of Orthodoxy in English Popular Tradition in Fr Andrew Phillips' book, Orthodox Christianity and the English Tradition.

15st 10lbs

You will remember that I commented on a previous post about a week ago to say that my scale had finally arrived and I weighed 15st 10lbs. Well I have weighed myself today and I weigh 15st 10lbs. Net loss = 0. I consider this a great success. :-)

I explain. I have decided to weigh myself once per week, at roughly the same time of day, and under the same circumstances (before breakfast, &c.). I started dieting on Wednesday but didn't weigh myself until Thursday, when I weighed 15st 10lbs. Knowing that Nativity weekend was coming up, I broke my once-per-week rule and weighed myself on Saturday morning, to find that I had lost a pound, and was 15st 9lbs. Saturday and Sunday happened, about which we shall not speak ;-) and on Monday morning I weighed 16 st - a gain of 5lbs! One week on from my first weighing, I weighed myself again today to find that I am back down to 15st 10lbs, which means that, while my net loss is nil (due to the weekend), I have managed to lose 5lbs over the course of the past week.

With this in mind, and the knowledge that Christmass is now past and gone, I know that this is something that I can certainly do. I'd definitely like to lose at least a stone between now and my baptism.

Thanks to all for your prayers and for your e-mails and messages of encouragement and advice. They really have helped.

Happy Christmass!

again.

:-)

Thy Nativity, O Christ our God, hath shined upon the world the light of knowledge; for thereby, they that worshipped the stars were taught by a star to worship thee, the Sun of Righteousness, and to know thee, the Dayspring from on high. O Lord, glory be to thee!

Baptism

As many as have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ. Alleluia!

Blessed be God!

I am to be received into the Holy Orthodox Church by the grace of God in the Sacraments of Baptism and Chrismation, on Sunday, the 19th of February.

I'm rather nervous, and yet overjoyed at the same time. I'll post more in the not-too-distant future when I've had a little more time for it to sink in.

Happy New Year!

The fermented juice of the grape, good and wholesome

Iknow that liturgically, the Orthodox amongst our number did this back September, and others at the beginning of December, but I just wanted to wish everybody the best for the new year. Thanks to all for all of your comments, advice, guidance and general fun over the past ten months or so. I look forward to more.

New Year's Resolutions

I hate them! Loathe them! Detest them!

I can't stand the way that those of us who don't make them are made to feel as though we're somehow lazy. I hate the smugness that often comes my way from those who make this an important part of this time of year. I pity the same people when they put themselves down for having failed to keep their resolutions.

I am making a resolution. This happens to fall on New Year's Eve, but let the reader understand that this is most emphatically not a New Year's resolution!

I started a new job in September 2002. Life was going rather well, and I was quite pleased at being able to wear rather closely-fitting garments, as I had just made my way down to 11st 2lbs from in excess of 13st. My ideal weight is between 10 and 12st. I recently saw this photograph of myself from a Ship of Fools meet in Leeds, dating from the spring of 2003, (which shows me with glass-in-hand, as usual). I did a mental comparison of how I looked then to how I look now and reverted back to the denial that I have been engaging in for some months now. The last time I weighed myself was about 6 months ago, and I weighed just under 15st. I mentioned earlier on this blog that I haven't been getting out very much lately for certain reasons. One of the results of this is that I have spent very little time doing the activities that I usually would be doing, and so have put even more weight on.

The worst of it was yesterday, when I saw my best friend for the first time in months, and, knowing that I had gained weight, was embarrassed to have him see me. This is somebody I love dearly and whom I know loves me, and so I know how foolish it was of me to have felt this way. I decided today that I have to do something about it. (Again, the time of year is pure coincidence).

I have tried various diets over the past two years or so but have realised that the first time I intentionally lost 2st nearly three years ago was at a time when I followed my own judgment on these matters and not some fad diet. Therefore, I'm going to do the same again. I'm going to face the reality that there is a lot more of me than there healthily ought to be and so I have just ordered a scale from Argos, which should arrive on Wednesday, at which point I plan to mark my starting point, and see where I go from there each week.

I ask for your support and prayers.

Patience

Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change, the courage to change the things that I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Is patience really as much of a virtue as it is often made out to be, or is it often used as an excuse, perhaps unwittingly, to try to avoid having to deal with things in our lives, to make decisions and to actually use the good sense that God has given us to bring things into being?

Do we perhaps worry how we may appear to others as impatient in making some choices? On the other hand, are caution, prayer and contemplative thought not warranted when making significant decisions?

Hmmm.