Sunday, June 26, 2011

 

St Joseph @ the Bible Bowl



Before heading out the door for a week at Camp St Raphael, I can't resist posting a pic of our gang at the recent Parish Life Conference in Shreveport, Louisiana. (This is like a proud papa post; click to enlarge.)

For more pics of recent events at St Joseph, Houston go HERE.

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Saturday, June 25, 2011

 

DO THAT AGAIN: Wives, Obey Your Husbands (Doh!)

This week's episode of the Orthodixie Podcast, an "oldie but goodie", is about that big event of summer. (I'm away at Camp St Raphael this week; prayers coveted.) For all the Old Marrieds out there, here's a little chuckle someone sent me a while back:

A wife was making a breakfast of fried eggs for her husband.

Suddenly, her husband burst into the kitchen.

"Careful," he said, "CAREFUL! Put in some more butter! Oh my gosh!

You're cooking too many at once. TOO MANY! Turn them! TURN

THEM NOW! We need more butter. Oh my gosh! WHERE are

we going to get MORE BUTTER? They're going to STICK!

Careful. CAREFUL! I said be CAREFUL! You NEVER listen

to me when you're cooking! Never! Turn them! Hurry up!

Are you CRAZY? Have you LOST your mind? Don't forget to salt them.

You know you always forget to salt them. Use the salt.

USE THE SALT! THE SALT!"

The wife stared at him. "What in the world is wrong with you?

You think I don't know how to fry a couple of eggs?"

The husband calmly replied, "I just wanted to show you

what it feels like when I'm driving."

* * *

Love is in the air ... goin' to the chapel and we're gonna ... take out the papers and the trash ... you may kiss the ... love stinks! The missing parts, and the glue that holds it all together, this week (all the way from 2009) on ...

The Orthodixie Podcast on Ancient Faith Radio.

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Friday, June 24, 2011

 

The strangest thing you'll read today ...

An outbreak of dancing plague, also known as St. Vitus' Dance or epidemic chorea, began on this day in 1374 in Aachen, Germany.

Stolen from the Writer's Almanac ...

From Aachen it spread across central Europe and as far away as England and Madagascar. Dancing mania affected groups of people — as many as thousands at a time — and caused them to dance uncontrollably for days, weeks, and even months until they collapsed from exhaustion. Some danced themselves to death, suffering heart attacks or broken hips and ribs. Most outbreaks happened between the 14th and 17th centuries, though there are reports of dancing mania as far back as the 7th century. The 1374 outbreak was well-documented by several credible witnesses who reported that dancers sang, screamed, saw visions, behaved like animals, and experienced aversions to the color red and to pointy-toed shoes.

At the time, people believed the plague was the result of a curse from St. Vitus or St. John the Baptist, and so they prayed to the saints and made pilgrimages to their shrines. Exorcism was another treatment option, as was isolation, and many communities hired musicians to accompany the dancers in the hope that it would help them overcome their compulsion; it usually just resulted in more people joining the dancing. Scientists today are still at a loss to explain it, putting it down to economic hardship, ergot poisoning, cults, or mass hysteria.

For more on The Writer's Almanac - go here.

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Everyone's Board in This Church

"After Mass someone came up to me and said, 'What about ironing boards?' So then I started saying it would be a blessing of surfboards, boogie boards, skate boards, skim boards, ironing boards, school boards, executive boards and even two-by-fours. We got them all except school boards and executive boards."

Uh. There's more.

HERE.

Thanks to FWD from Bob Born.

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Monday, June 20, 2011

 

+ Mother Christina of Saidnaya +

Fr. Charles Baz, Pastor of St. John Orthodox Church, Levittown, New York, writes:

"I have received the sad news of the falling asleep in the Lord of His handmaid, Mother Christina Baz, Abbess of the Patriarchal Convent of our Lady of Saidnaya in Syria. Not only was Mother Christina related to me (her mother and my grandfather were siblings), she was known to several people in our Archdiocese, to priests and bishops, to His Eminence Metropolitan Philip, and to all who visited Saidnaya Monastery in the past. She reposed on All Saints Sunday, most fitting for a nun who lived the monastic life all her life, especially when we heard the Gospel on Sunday, the Lord Jesus saying: "And every one who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundred-fold, and inherit eternal life" (Matthew 19:29).

Among the Clergy Brotherhood in our Archdiocese, I am her only living relative."

May her memory be eternal!

Source

The image of me & Mother Christina, above, is from my visit to Saidnaya in April 2010.

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Dancing With the Demon What Brung Ya?

A while back, commenting on the sad state of a former rock star, I wrote:

I believe it's possible to take one's struggles and temptations and turn them into a craft: poetry, prose, lyrics and art. The muse might possess a bit of madness but, as long as the madness is wrestled with, art is born.

Yet, in a fallen world, the madness itself may become the quest. Instead of the hound that drives a man toward greatness, it becomes the sole possession of a man blinded by self.

A commenter wrote:

Ooo, madness becomes the quest. Can you expand on the next sentence a bit? The part about the hound ...

I responded:

It seems to me that many "creatives" exorcise their demons, so to speak, by creating. Once you embrace the demon, (again) so to speak, then the creativity is lost and you and your art are the worse for it.

In other words, would that the former rock star have continued to struggle metaphorically and poetically rather than polemically and politically.

Or, as another blogger wrote: "Shut up and sing!"

For what it's worth, a further thought:

Creatives are always tempted by escape: drink, drugs, food, sex, crime, sloth, etc. That's because the muse can lie. But, when we dance and do not consummate, metaphorically speaking, we can create. Art mirrors Creation. It is a reflection born from the continual dance; whereas "consummation" brings death. There has to be a healthy medium -- a certain tension, an expression of continual inner struggle -- for art to be made manifest.

Or, in much the same vein ...


The Orthodixie Podcast on Ancient Faith Radio.

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Sunday, June 19, 2011

 

Why Come to Houston in June?



Also, check it out on our Parish Life Conference webpage!

Special thanks to Producer, Doug Burns, and webmaster Eddie Brega.

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Tuesday, June 14, 2011

 

Now, for something clap happy & differ'nt



WDMS?

Go here.

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Flag Day Not Your Cup of Tea?

Okay.

But it is a sobering thought that young men continue to spill blood and sacrifice limb and life for all who stand in the shade of that flag.

On this June 14th, I'd like to introduce you to the author of Warriors Remembered, retired Army Colonel Albert Nahas:





Albert is a longtime member of St George Orthodox Church, Houston. There's more about Al, here.

For more info on his book, Warriors Remembered, go HERE.


A note from the author:

Response to Warriors Remembered has been overwhelming. All advanced copies were sold before its Veterans Day release date. The first printing shipment arrived on December 10th and over 200 orders were filled in time for Christmas. As word of Warriors Remembered has spread, 2011 orders have continued at a rapid pace.

If you have already purchased Warriors Remembered, thank you and please consider forwarding this email to your friends and fellow veterans. Your response has almost universally been: "this is long over due"; "had no idea these memorials existed and everyone is different"; "thank you for devoting so many years to pulling this together"; "a moving journey for any veteran".

Warriors Remembered is a 240-page, hard cover, 11.5" x 11.5" photo documentary of Vietnam Veterans Memorials from all 50 states. It highlights 100 memorials with over 285 photos and captures the struggles and dedication of those who created them. It is organized by geographic region to encourage visits to these very compelling and beautiful memorials nearby.

WARNING: There are many emotional stories in this book. Reader response has confirmed the book is not for those who choose to forget the war and those who sacrificed in it.

Warriors Remembered is available at www.warriorsremembered.com by check or credit card. There you can preview the book's Introduction and two of the stories and see a discussion of one of the book's many unique memorials. I will gladly sign all purchases. Please tell me if you are a veteran so I can properly sign your book.

If you visit our Facebook page and click the "Like" button the book will get more notice. Please spread the word to your friends.


Thank you and Welcome Home.

Al Nahas
Warriors Remembered

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Sunday, June 12, 2011

 

List'nin' to Old Alabama


Last blog entry informed that the Huneycutts were travelin'. Above is a pic, from across the lake, of the cabin (center) where we stayed on the Alabama side of Lookout Mountain on our way to North Carolina.


The view from the porch.


The view out the windshield, exiting the cabin's drive.


God's Country. The Nantahala River @ the NOC in NC.


View of God's Country interrupted by 13 year old boy.


The Fam.

Nothing much else to see here --



Oh!

'Cept, the next day, at my brother's (near Charlotte), we observed the daily duck ration.


God is [always] good.

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Monday, June 06, 2011

 

Lickety Split 'Splainin' Orthodoxy

Recently, the Antiochian Archdiocese's Department of Missions and Evangelism announced a contest to write the best 30-second or less explanation of what the Orthodox Church is, essentially an Orthodox “elevator speech”.

I’d never heard of an “elevator speech” but the announcement went on to say that in the business world, an “elevator speech” is a very brief explanation of what one does for a living or what one's company does or stands for. It is a speech, or pitch, useful when one has only a few seconds of someone else's time and attention – such as an elevator ride.

Years ago, I was visiting someone in the hospital and was wearing my riassa (big black robe, big wide sleeves) and I was hurrying to catch an elevator before the door closed. In this elevator, unbeknownst to me, was four black ladies, hospital employees, on their way down the elevator; headed home at shift’s end. With my big black robe flowing behind me, I quickly rounded the corner in time to jam my hand into the closing doors -- at which point the doors re-opened. I saw one of the ladies eyes enlarge to the size of golf balls as she grabbed her heart and screamed!

She then smiled and said, “Oh, thank you, Jesus … I thought you was the Grim Reaper come to take me!”

She didn’t ask me any questions about Orthodoxy as we all rode the elevator, but ...

The Orthodixie Podcast on Ancient Faith Radio.




For more info on the contest, click HERE.

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Saturday, June 04, 2011

 

Flash Mob Mañana @ a Food Bar Near You

Spending the night in a cabin on the side of Lookout Mountain; having gotten up at 1:30 AM, and, having hit the road by 2 ... all's well.

Those of you who've traveled with family know how punchy peeps get on little sleep and super-sized anticipation. For instance:

We stopped for lunch at a Ryan's food bar and, at meal's end, having sized-up the local clientele in the Tuscaloosa establishment -- and having fantasized that they would enjoy such an event -- I looked at my wife and 3 children and said:

"Alright, here's the deal: I'm gonna go over and stand by the entrance, Mary Catherine, you stay here; the rest of you spread out and, like those YouTube videos, I'll start the Hallelujah Chorus and ...

Y'all join in."

They didn't buy it.

Instead, we decided that we would, next outing, just walk over to a table and start clapping and singing "Happy Birthday to You".

(We later agreed: Not without disguises and only after having learned it in Spanish.)

Anyway, we're not there yet, so ... as you were.

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