Christmas Encyclical 1999 - Patriarch +Pavle of Serbia

This deserves to be reprinted. I received it in small portions from a priest (Fr. D.) over the span of a couple weeks. I then found the whole article online and decided to re-post it. It is amazing. It reminds us that CHRIST is the reason for EVERYTHING, a message which is unfortunately seldom heard. Ignore all the fancy intro and all the names at the end if you want, just get to the core of it. Please take ten minutes of your time to read this. CHRIST IS BORN! +

-Emmanuel

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The Serbian Orthodox Church to Her Spiritual Children at Christmas 1999

+ P A V L E

BY THE GRACE OF GOD ORTHODOX ARCHBISHOP OF PEC, METROPOLITAN OF BELGRADE-KARLOVCI AND SERBIAN PATRIARCH, WITH ALL THE HIERARCHS OF THE SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH, TO ALL HONORABLE CLERGY, VENERABLE MONASTICS, AND ALL THE FAITHFUL SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF OUR HOLY CHURCH, SENDS HIS CHRISTMAS BLESSING AND GREETING:

PEACE FROM GOD - CHRIST IS BORN!

"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." -John 6:68

Persons and events come and go with the relentless march of time. That which today seems important and crucial may be completely forgotten tomorrow. Persons regarded by their contemporaries as influential and powerful are forgotten, as if they never existed. History brings and then carries away everything with itself, it concocts and then abandons to oblivion. Everything appears temporary and relative, even we ourselves. Man can carry on in various ways with the pessimism of history, but it is far more important how God sees history. By His constant presence and action in history God, through what only appears like a meaningless course of events, prepares the way that leads toward a predetermined goal. By His entering into history He has transformed history so that particular events are not relative and temporary, but on the contrary, they are unique, unrepeatable and of crucial importance both for God and for man. God's presence in history cures history itself of its natural pessimism.

And precisely today, here and now, for the two thousandth time we celebrate and remember the event that divides history in two; the event so significant that we count the years from it and now complete the second millennium. Two thousand years have passed since that night when history's greatest miracle took place in that cave near Bethlehem, when the Son of God Himself came and put on flesh and became like one of us and "dwelt among us." (John 1:14) He is none other than the eternal and uncreated Son, the Word or Logos of God, through Whom all things were made. Since that night nothing in human life and history is as it was before. The "Sun of Righteousness" (Malachi 4:2) was born to us and all the depths of human fallenness and struggle against God have been filled by His warmth and light. From that night on, all human life and the history of every nation comes down to only one dilemma, to one simple question: Are you for or against Christ? One simple question, but a question so crucial that our entire life and the future of our people hinges upon it. That question overshadows and defines every historical period of the past twenty centuries.

For or against Him? Earlier periods that were, at least for the most part, "for Christ," brought forth fruit that stands as an example and a starting point for all times. That fruit is called Christian culture. It represents an attempt to Christianize every segment of personal, social and national life, so that nothing remains outside or apart from Christ. We call it an attempt, since nothing in history is absolute and final. But the value is truly in the deeply Christian attempt, since a basic characteristic of Christianity is its all-inclusiveness - that Christ be all in all. Let us simply remember how the writer of the life of the Serbian ruler [St.] Stefan Lazarevic [+1427] said of him, that he wished that "life throughout his land truly be like the Church of God." The fruits of life directed in this way are magnificent. Christianity was poured into the everyday way of life. It Christianized every soul and created the atmosphere in which all personal and social life developed. No matter what area of life in that period we examine, we always find at its core a Christian vision and understanding of life and the world. It was an inexhaustible source of vitality and, most importantly, optimism for the age that declared itself "for Christ." Even the tragedies that occurred, such as our Kosovo, could take on a Christian character in the national consciousness. Historical periods cannot be repeated, neither can models from the past be transplanted into the present. But what remains as an example for all times is the creative effort to base all of life on Christ, so that there are no spheres of life or activities that honor laws or rules other than Christian ones. Epochs that were "for Christ" well understood His words that "no one can serve two masters...You cannot serve both God and mammon." (Matthew 6:24).

But then come dark times, times that struggle against God and Christ, regardless of whether they come from conquering foreign peoples or from the actions of our own people. The goals and methods are always the same: Kill Christ in the souls of the people, throw Him out of every area of life, and erect and proclaim new "gods." In every such time Christians answered in the same way - with their blood. In such times the history of the whole Church, as well as of our Serbian Orthodox Church, is written in blood. From Kosovo to Jasenovac all the martyrs and new-martyrs witnessed that there is no life without Christ, and they did not fear those who could kill only their bodies but could not harm their souls. Their blood is our foundation, and we are accountable to it, that we not betray Christ even at the price of our lives, much less for our positions or careers. Their blood will be the measure of our salvation. [Note from Fr. D: As will the blood of the future Orthodox new-martyrs in the USA and Canada be for OUR salvation, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ!]

For or against Christ? On the basis of this yardstick, how can we grade the century we are leaving behind?

Wars and a whole ocean of spilled Serbian blood. Suffering and misfortunes characterize the past century, but its grade can be summed up in only one word - failure. So much war, so much blood, and so little peace. Even the peace we did have during the past hundred years was not really peace, since we used those times to create the groundwork for new conflicts and wars. Governmental and ideological adventurism during the twentieth century cost the Serbian Church and people dearly. And in the end, what is left is that we are beginning the new century and the new millennium in a state of total crisis. Many are the names and characteristics of the crises in which we find ourselves, but fundamentally what we have is that deepest and most difficult of all possible crises - the crisis of humanity. Wrong has become right for us, falsehood has become truth, and we can only cry out with the Psalmist David, "Help, Lord, for there is no longer anyone who is godly! For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. They speak lies every one to his neighbor; with lying lips and deceitful hearts they speak." (Psalm 12: 1-2)

The twentieth century constantly preached with the lips of its demonic "wisdom" that human lives are the cheapest of all merchandise. In the number of its victims it far surpassed all other centuries of human history. The tyrannies to which it gave rise have nothing comparable in any other time of history. The ideological dictatorships which arose during this time, especially in Orthodox countries, were unprecedented attacks on human freedom and human life. In the name of ideologies millions lost their lives simply because they wished to think and live differently.

What is man, and what is he worth? The twentieth century said that man is nothing, but this feast today tells us, just as that day two thousand years ago told us, that man is sacred. And that applies not only to his spirit or his soul, but also to his body. The whole of man, body and soul together, is an inviolable shrine of incalculable and eternal worth. Today's feast tells us this, the day on which the Bodiless becomes embodied and on which the Son of God become the Son of man. This precisely is what is radically new in our faith. That the soul is holy is suggested by other religions, but that the body is equally sacred is found nowhere else. During the whole first eight centuries of Christianity, which were characterized by struggles against heresies, the Church unyieldingly defended this truth: that the whole of man, both body and soul, is holy. And that applies to every human being, regardless of his religion or nationality. Every murder, every disrespect for human personality and freedom, is sin, even more so when it is justified on ideological or nationalistic grounds.

In contrast to this dismal picture of the twentieth century, today we see before us a young mother holding her newly-born Child to her bosom, and are moved to feel one of the greatest of human virtues and attributes: a warm heart. The motherly love of the Most Holy Theotokos permeates today's entire event and radiates a warm feeling within us. Christmas is the feast of warmth and of warm human hearts. If it seems that there is no place today a person can "warm" himself, it is because human hearts have grown cold. They have become hard and unfeeling even towards the suffering of so many of our brothers and sisters who in recent years have been left homeless, exiled from their birthplaces, and some even without their loved ones. That life is hard is not the exception but the rule. Only the twentieth century has brought the simple-minded dream that life should be easy and leisurely, which it never has been throughout history. "In the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread," the Lord tells Adam (Genesis 3:19), and that is the law of human life. But afflictions and difficulties and limitations are easier to bear when we have warmth in us and amongst us. For in the day of His second coming, the Lord will not ask us what kind of times we lived in, but how we related to our neighbor. Was he our "hell" or our "heaven?" We ourselves build either heaven or hell in our own hearts out of the momentary circumstances we are given, and the warmth of the human heart is able to transform any situation, even to make a cave in Bethlehem the most beautiful palace and birthplace of the King of kings.

It is hard to be a human being. To be a human being who spreads human warmth is even harder, but it is a task to which we are suited and which the Lord Himself has entrusted to us - to be human even in inhuman times. Let us look around us. See how many families are governed by coldness, where there is no more love and which are disintegrating. There are more and more such families. See how many ties of kinship, neighborliness, friendship and kumstvo [koumbaroi, in Greek] have been broken and enveloped in coldness. We will be completely immobilized by the ice of discord and intolerance, of disunity and envy, if we do not bring Christ into our hearts and especially into the hearts of our children. He is the only One able bring together the disunited and reconcile the alienated, to warm our hearts and give peace to our lives.

So what is to be done now, in the new century and new millennium? We pose this question to ourselves. We pose this question to our brothers throughout the world who care about us. The future is hidden and unknown. There are many roads before us, but they are not all the right roads. Some of them lead to destruction. But the future which lies before us is not simply something we must await, but it is a road we, first of all, must construct. We are responsible for our future no less than for our past. It is revealed to us as a possibility which we must responsibly and consciously create. And overshadowing the future is the same question we have already asked - For or against Christ? If the Lord has not revealed the near future to us, leaving it up to us to create it, He has revealed to us the final and ultimate truth - that no matter what, He will triumph. He revealed that good is far stronger than evil, and that every triumph of evil is temporary and illusory. The weeds and the wheat grow together, but only until the harvest.

For or against Christ - this is the question that will determine both our future and the future of all nations.

As we gather here today around the Divine Infant Christ celebrating His birth, we hope and we pray to Him that He will be reborn in our hearts, in our neighbors, in our people and our country, and in the hearts of all people and nations.

Peace from God - Christ is Born!

Given at the Serbian Patriarchate in Belgrade at Christmas, 1999.

Your intercessors before the cradle of the Divine Infant:

Archbishop of Pec, Metropolitan of Belgrade-Karlovci and Serbian Patriarch PAVLE

Metropolitan of Zagreb and Ljubljana JOVAN
Metropolitan of Midwestern America CHRISTOPHER
Metropolitan of Dabro-Bosna NIKOLAJ

Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Coastlands AMPHILOHIJE
Bishop of Shumadija SAVA
Bishop of Zica STEFAN
Bishop of Shabac-Valjevo LAVRENTIJE
Bishop of Buda DANILO
Bishop of Nish IRINEJ
Bishop of Zvornik-Tuzla VASILIJE
Bishop of Srem VASILIJE
Bishop of Banja Luka JEFREM
Bishop-Administrator of Temisvar LUKIJAN
Bishop of Canada GEORGIJE
Bishop of Australia and New Zealand [New Gracanica Met.] NIKANOR
Bishop of America and Canada [New Gracanica Met.] LONGIN
Bishop of Eastern America MITROPHAN
Bishop of Banat CHRYSOSTOM
Bishop of Backa IRINEJ
Bishop of Great Britain and Scandinavia DOSITEJ
Bishop of Ras and Prizren ARTEMIJE
Bishop of Bihac and Petrovac CHRYSOSTOM
Bishop of Osijek and Baranja LUKIJAN
Bishop of Central Europe CONSTANTINE
Bishop of Western Europe LUKA
Bishop of Timok JUSTIN
Bishop of Vranje PAHOMIJE
Bishop of Western America JOVAN
Bishop of Slavonia SAVA
Bishop of Branicevo IGNATIJE
Bishop of Milesevo FILARET
Bishop of Dalmatia FOTIJE
Bishop of Zahumlje and Hercegovina GRIGORIJE
Bishop of Hvostno ATANASIJE
Bishop of Budimlje JOANIKIJE
Bishop of Jegar PORFIRIJE
Retired Bishop of Zahumlje and Hercegovina ATANASIJE
Retired Bishop of Western Europe DAMASKIN

Thanksgiving 2014

If the holiday of Thanksgiving had ever crossed my mind since coming to Greece, I guess I thought it was a given that I would not be celebrating it this year since it’s an American holiday and I’m not currently living in America. That was totally fine with me. Just another Thursday during the Christmas fast.

Well, the first thing that changed those thoughts was when my Greek teacher asked me a few weeks before (half jokingly) to treat the class on Thanksgiving since I’m the only person from the United States in the class (in Greece it’s traditional to treat your friends on your birthday or nameday). I suggested that rather than buying cookies or chocolates I give them a taste of Thanksgiving. She said, “Not turkey, please! Not in the classroom!” I laughed and said, “How about pumpkin pie?” Everyone seemed to like the idea. They all forgot about it, and even forgot which day Thanksgiving was. But I was committed to the idea. And since I didn’t know who in the class was trying to fast I decided to try to make the pie fastworthy, so I searched for vegan pumpkin pies on Google and came up with the following: http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipe/vegan-pumpkin-pie/

Well, the problem is that Greece doesn’t do measuring cups or spoons so we had to approximate. Plus, cornstarch and molasses are impossible to find here. As is sugar cane syrup which I’ve never even heard of in America. I used corn syrup instead. Here is the recipe as I modified it:

Crust

¾ cup (or a little more) flour

½ tsp salt

½ tsp sugar

½ tsp baking powder

3 tbsp canola oil

3 tbsp soy or almond milk

½ tsp lemon juice

3-4 tbsp water

Filling

2 cups pureed pumpkin (bake until soft (about 1 hr 15 mins at 400º F), puree in blender)

1 cup soymilk

¾ cup corn syrup

½ cup flour (thickening agent, add gradually)

1 tsp vanilla extract

Cinnamon (2 tsp or to taste…I put a lot more!)

To make crust:

1. In medium bowl, combine flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder. In small bowl, mix oil and soymilk mixture.

2. Pour liquid mixture into dry ingredients, and mix with fork until dough holds together in ball. If it is too dry, add some water, a little at a time, until dough is moist enough to roll. (If time allows, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.)

3. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface with lightly floured rolling pin (or a roll of plastic wrap in the absence of a rolling pin…), forming a circle that lines the pie pan. Flute or crimp edges with fingers or fork. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until ready to use.

4. Preheat oven to 425°F.

To make filling:

5. In large bowl, mix all remaining ingredients until smooth and blended. Pour into prepared crust and smooth top. Bake 10 minutes.

6. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F; bake about 50 minutes and then check it every 5-10 minutes until a knife comes out mostly clean (I just baked it until one spot on the top turned dark brown, then I took it out and prayed that the middle was set). Set on wire rack to cool, then refrigerate overnight. Top with your choice of dessert topping if desired.

I was very worried that I wouldn’t do it correctly, but I did! Thank God! I used the kitchen of a friend of mine from France who is a co-student of mine and offered to help me. I was eternally grateful! It went over well in the class, and we had half a pumpkin leftover so I baked two more the week after, and took them to Fr. Spyro’s talk the following Thursday. It went over well there as well! Now if I ever have to make αρτίσημο (non-fasting) pumpkin pie, I don’t know how I’ll do it. My only experience is this one, haha!

Here is a picture of the finished result:

Well on Thanksgiving all the Americans got together at a taverna. There were two options for food: turkey or cuttlefish (something like squid). Both pictures are below:

After dinner they brought us the Greek version of pumpkin pie, κολοκυθόπιτα, which is basically pumpkin filling in fyllo dough.

We stayed there quite a long time. It officially started at 7:00, I got there around 7:30 and we ate around 8:30 if memory serves. The last of us left around midnight. After dinner and dessert, one of the guys had an idea to watch football (Chicago vs. Detroit was on), and he was looking for an outlet to plug his computer on. I pulled mine out of my bag since I had it with me and it was almost fully charged.

We were all sitting around a long table but somehow we divided into the stereotypical parts of the house. Let me explain: At one end of the table, four or five of us were talking philosophy and theology interchangeably, kind of like the “den” atmosphere after dinner in a home, if we had had more space to spread out.

At the other end of the table two of the girls were talking (I don’t know about what), and it reminded me of the conversations that would happen in the kitchen after dinner, if we were in a real house. In the middle of the table some of the other guys were half-distractedly watching football (living room, right?) And behind the table one of the other guys’ dads (who was visiting for a few days) was standing and talking to one or two people at a time, kind of in passing (like standing in the hallway). So we had kitchen, den, living room and hallway, all around one long table in a taverna.

It was a good time! :)

Saint Nicholas and Saint John Cassian

Holy Father Nicholas, pray for us!

As the bishop said last Friday night where I went to Vespers, "Many years to all those who celebrate, and to all those who don't celebrate!" Because (as the Synaxarion from Simonopetra says) St. Nicholas and St. George rival for "most-loved saint" across the Christian world.

The following story was told to me recently during a student synaxis in Thessaloniki. It is a Russian myth that involves St. Nicholas and St. John Cassian (Kassianos in Greek) whose feast day is February 29 (it's moved to the 28th during non-leap years, but for the purposes of this story we're pretending that his feast day only happens once every four years). I stress that this is a myth, because as we should remember the saints do not get jealous of each other. When one is honored all rejoice, because they have the same Lord Who is wonderful in His saints!

St. Kassianos used to have a different feast day. But he was a complainer in heaven. He was complaining to the Lord that not only did St. Nicholas have two feasts each year (December 6 and May 9), but also that he is commemorated every Thursday along with the Apostles. "That's not fair," St. Kassianos was complaining.

One day all the saints had a synaxis (gathering). They were all there, and St. Kassianos started to complain about St. Nicholas again. So this time the Lord decided to answer him. He called Nicholas to come to the front of the room. The other saints started to turn and look around them for St. Nicholas. He was nowhere to be found. Christ started calling, "Nicholas, where are you?" Some of the saints went outside to look for him and couldn't find him. After awhile St. Nicholas came running into the room, out of breath and drenched in sweat. He fell at the Lord's feet: "Forgive me for being late, Lord! People were calling me all night! I was running from this widow to that orphan to the other sailor... I've been all over the world and didn't even sleep last night!"

The Lord raised up St. Nicholas and turned to St. Kassianos and said, "See Kassianos? This is why he is celebrated every week. Because you complained about him we're changing the date of your death to February 29!"

May we have the prayers of both Saint Nicholas and Saint Kassianos!

+ Καὶ τῷ Θεῷ δόξα! +

#ecclesiasticalnightlife

There are at least three Divine Liturgies in Thessaloniki every day, at various churches (that I know of. Most days there are more. And now a lot of churches are doing forty Liturgies for the Christmas fast - Nov 15-Dec 24). There are also quite a few churches who do Liturgy on Friday night rather than on Saturday morning. The Crypt of St. Demetrios is one of them, they do Divine Liturgy between 8:30-10:00 pm approximately, and there is another church that does it at 7:00 pm. There are also two churches that regularly have Friday night vigils (Vespers, Orthros, Divine Liturgy), going from about 8:30 or 9:00 pm until 12:30 or 1:00 am. Other churches do vigils for various feast days as well.

A number of weeks ago, on the eve of St. Luke the Evangelist (Friday, October 17), I stopped into St. Panteleimon, the church that does Liturgy at 7:00 pm on Friday. I thought it started at 9:00 so I got there right before Communion, I stayed until the end of Liturgy, and then I decided to stop into some of the other vigils for a few minutes before going home and going to bed. I went to St. Athanasios where they were just about to start the Artoklasia (blessing/ breaking of bread) during Vespers. I stayed until the end of the Artoklasia and asked for a piece to take home since I was going to leave. As I was leaving the church, I recognized some of the people who were just coming in as being the same people who had been at the Liturgy at St. Panteleimon. That made a big impression on me – just as some people take Friday night as the opportunity to bar-hop, these people were church-hopping. It made me coin the phrase “Ecclesiastical night life.” Thessaloniki’s ecclesiastical night life is very rich, especially on Fridays! It makes me feel good that I’m not alone J

Allow me to open a short parenthesis: On Sunday, November 2, Fr. Spyro took three of us Greek-Americans to Grevena in central-northern Greece for the installation of the new metropolitan there (David) who is an old friend of his (it made the enthronement in Pittsburgh three years ago look like nothing…it felt like the whole city of Grevena came to welcome their new bishop, and there was security everywhere! See the pictures below).

Everyone gathered in the town square for speeches before the enthronement service.

People awaiting the arrival of the bishops outside the cathedral.

People outside the cathedral.

The cathedral was packed - inside and out!

At the end of the service, after it had gotten dark. Still a lot of people!

AXIOS (WORTHY!) written in flowers over the Beautiful Gate of the cathedral.

Newly-enthroned Metropolitan David of Grevena serving a Trisagion (memorial service) for one of his predecessor bishops (I don't remember the name).

Here we close that parenthesis...

We got back from the trip to Grevena around 9:00 or 9:30 pm, and I went straight to a vigil at St. George, the Athonite metochi (a dependency of Gregoriou Monastery) in the center of town. They were doing a vigil that night because the next day (Nov 3) is the Feast of the Translation of St. George’s relics and their deposition in his church in Lydda, so it was like the church’s second patronal feast day.

I am copying (word for word) a conversation I had that night with an American friend via texting:

Me (my phone only texts Greek in capital letters):

ΑΓΡΥΠΝΙΑ ΑΠΟΨΕ ΣΤΟ ΜΕΤΟΧΙ ΤΗΣ ΓΡΗΓΟΡΙΟΥ, ΑΠΕΝΑΝΤΗ ΑΠ ΤΗΝ ΡΟΤΟΝΤΑ. 8-1 ΝΟΜΙΖΩ

(translation: vigil tonight at the dependency of Gregoriou, across from the Rotonda. 8-1 I think)

My friend texted back in half Greek and half English:

Μολις τωρα ερχομαι στον αγιο δημητριο για την αγρυπνια. Lol. I am willing to switch vigils though. #ecclesiasticalnightlife

(translation: I am right now coming to st demetrios for the vigil. Lol. I am willing to switch vigils though. #ecclesiasticalnightlife)

The # sign (called “hash tag”) is what people write on Twitter, of which things I have no personal experience. But it’s made its way into general English usage (rarely, and mainly among a specific group of people). I thought that was really funny and told him that I would mention it in my blog.

Ecclesiastical night life is something that really doesn’t exist in America.

As one of my other Greek-American friends said on our first Sunday at St. Haralambos, “I love going to church in Greece.”

Saint Demetrios

There is a phenomenon known as the “Holy Week of St. Demetrios,” which is where they take the hymnography of Holy Week and adapt it to St. Demetrios, including an epitaphios service with encomia (aka praises, "lamentations") two nights before the Feast. It really felt like Holy Week this year because the Feast fell on Sunday. With Fr. Spyro’s blessing I went to as many things at St. Demetrios Church that week as I could. They do Orthros at 6:30 pm, with a three-ode Canon based on one of the Canons of Holy Week. Then follows the Paraklesis to the Panagia. After a short break, a vigil begins at 9:00 pm, the content of which varied by night. Mostly it was Vespers, Orthros, and Liturgy. One day they threw Paraklesis in there. Another day it was just Orthros and Liturgy. The vigils were generally well attended, some more than others. But there were always people. In the morning they did Orthros and Liturgy again. I never went to any morning Liturgies there because I have class every day.

Each year St. Demetrios is co-celebrated with a wonderworking Icon of the Panagia. In 2012 it was the Axion Estin (It is truly right) Icon from Mt. Athos, and the lines were out the door (I was in Thessaloniki from Oct 26-28 that year). This year they brought an Icon I had never heard of, Panagia Triphotissa from Ainon of eastern Thrace. I don’t know where that is, that’s just what it said in all the literature. In any case it was a great blessing to get to venerate both her and St. Demetrios every day that week.

I was torn where to go to church on October 26, the Feast Day of St. Demetrios. Half of me wanted to avoid the crowds and go to St. Haralambos (where there are always a lot of people on Sundays and Feast days, but not like at St. Demetrios on the Feast!). But what persuaded me to go to St. Demetrios that day was that I knew people would ask me something along the lines of, “Oh, you were in Thessaloniki. Were you there on October 26 for St. Demetrios? You were?! Did you go to his church on his Feast Day?” How anticlimactic it would be for me to say, “No, there were too many people.” How lame would that be! Now I went, I had the experience; and if I’m ever in Thessaloniki again for that Feast day, I will probably go to St. Haralambos, or somewhere else where there might be just a few fewer people. Fourteen bishops concelebrated at St. Demetrios, along with ten priests and four deacons (countless others were in attendance though).

Fourteen bishops. Metropolitan Anthimos of Thessaloniki was the main celebrant.

I got there after the Six Psalms, around 6:45 am or so (they started at 6:30). There were already a number of people there but I was able to find a place to stand right behind the roped-off area where the important people were to stand. It gradually filled up around me until I could hardly move.

For those of you liturgical nerds out there who know the set-up of Matins/Orthros, you may know that the practice of the Ecumenical Patriarchate is to switch the Orthros Gospel from its normal place before the Canon, to be read after the eighth ode instead, before More honorable than the cherubim. This so that the bishop can listen to and venerate the Gospel when he comes in at the Katavasies, and also so that the people who come to church late can hear the Gospel as well. The Church of Greece has largely corrected this and put the Gospel back at its proper place. However that day they did the inverted order. The bishop came after the canon and began the Katavasiae, then they read the Gospel, brought it out for him to venerate, and then brought out TWO Gospel books for the people to venerate! I think that was pretty smart. The church was not packed like sardines yet, but there were still a lot of people - definitely way more people than any church in America would have at Communion time on a normal Sunday, but still not nearly full!

Two Gospel books for veneration at Orthros

The veneration of the two Gospel books lasted through the 50^th psalm, through the deacon’s petition O God, Save Thy People, and halfway through More honorable than the Cherubim, at which point one priest took his Gospel to the back of the church to place on a stand for veneration by late-comers (as is the normal Greek parish practice), and the other priest took his Gospel book back into the Altar. I’m also sure that not everyone venerated because there were people upstairs in the balconies, as well as those who were in the line to venerate St. Demetrios. That gives you an idea of how many people were there at that time, and that was when you could still move around in the church. Later on, forget it (see next paragraph).

This gives you some idea of how many people there were.

More people in the balconies

All the important political/military people. I was right behind them.

Communion was interesting, to say the least. There were no chalices on the solea, because that’s where everyone was still in line to venerate the Panagia and St. Demetrios. They had instead multiple chalices at the front of the side aisles of the church, and even one in the courtyard! It was chaos getting up there. Someone accidentally knocked over the icon of the Panagia weeping at the foot of the Cross (there is a free-standing crucifix with the Panagia and St. John the Theologian on the left side of the church). Most of the clergy distributing Communion were not the ones who had concelebrated at the Liturgy, but those who had communed, put on an epitrachili (stole), and had the chalices to commune people. I think that was very smart, because the official “Communion time” during the Liturgy lasted for about a minute, and then they continued the Liturgy while the non-celebrating priests and deacons communed people on the sides of the church. I communed long after the Liturgy had finished.

The daily vigils and morning Liturgies are celebrated each day for two whole weeks – one week before the feast and one week after. This culminates with the Ἀκολουθία τοῦ καθαγιασμοῦ τοῦ μύρου τοῦ Ἁγίου Δημητρίου – the service of the sanctification of the myrrh of Saint Demetrios. This takes place one week after the Feast. The church was packed full of people who all wanted to see what was happening. The Metropolitan of Thessaloniki was there along with a ton of priests. They did a short 30-minute Vespers, and then the metropolitan talked and then began the service where there were basically some prayers, and then the choirs chanted the megalynaria from St. Demetrios’s Paraklesis (the hymns chanted at the end, after It is truly right). They repeated the megalynaria many times because it was during that time that the clergy opened the reliquary and (from the very little that I could see) rubbed cotton on the bones of the Saint to absorb the myrrh that he exhudes. Then they brought out two giant bowls of man-made myrrh which they use to make it go farther – somehow they mix the myrrh of St. Demetrios with the man-made myrrh and put it onto cotton balls to give to the faithful. It’s something to be proud of if you have connections and can get a cotton swab with only the myrrh straight from the Saint’s relics on it. I don’t...

The bishop, priests, and a bunch of people crowding around the relics during the myrrh service.

After the conclusion of this service one of the priests began Orthros immediately, and another priest interrupted the Six Psalms to announce that there were going to be ten priests distributing the myrrh, five on each side of the church (if I remember correctly), and to ask everyone to remain calm and orderly. Orthros lasted about an hour and people were going steadily to receive myrrh from the priests. They stopped distributing when Liturgy started. I didn’t realize that so I didn’t get any myrrh, because I was waiting until the line died down. Right before Communion a random young man stopped me and said (in Greek), “did you get myrrh?” I told him no and he pulled a small plastic pouch with a cotton ball out of his pocket and gave it to me. I asked him how he knew me and I forget what he told me (it was something that made sense – mutual friends. We had met somewhere before), but I did not remember him at all. That was very providential!

Last week I was talking on Google chat with one of my former professors from HC/HC and I was telling him a little bit of the above information about St. Demetrios (whom he loves). He was asking about the lines to venerate the relics. From what I could tell there was a pretty steady line during the early evening hours, during either Vespers or that “Bridegroom Matins-ish” service the week before the feast. During the vigil it was not as long and I could go during Orthros or Liturgy to venerate and not wait in line. I don’t know what the morning services were like, or what it was like during the day, but there were quite a few people venerating St. Demetrios and Panagia Triphotissa for two whole weeks! It’s pretty awesome! And on the Feast day you could wait several hours to venerate (I’m guessing), in a very long line - I got there before 7am and only waited 15 minutes. This professor told me he wanted to co-author a book with one of the other professors, about "cities, liturgies, and St. Demetrios." J

Greece 2014 so far (November 14)

Thessaloniki 2014 so far

Written on November 14, 2014

I know it’s been a ridiculously long time since I’ve blogged – I haven’t written anything since the last time I came to Greece in 2012 but here is a summary of my last month and a half here. I got to Thessaloniki on September 30^th. You know things are bad when the Germans are on strike – the strongest nation in the EU. Well, my flight through Germany on Lufthansa was canceled, and my travel agent was very helpful and found a way for me to get on Turkish Airlines and go through Istanbul. I was in the middle of the plane, and in the four seats behind me were four people whom I ended up talking to: three priest-monks from the Monastery of Giromeriou (Μονή Γηρομερίου)(http://www.monigiromeriou.gr/) near Igoumenitsa (Ηγουμενίτσα), on the mainland across from Kerkyra (Corfu). One of them was the abbot, and the other two were monks of the monastery, one who lives there and another who is attached but is the preacher in the Metropolis of Katerini outside Thessaloniki. The fourth person was a layman who is a friend of the monastery and I believe he was from America but has lived in Greece for a long time. I talked with the abbot quite a bit (we sat next to each other on the plane from Istanbul to Thessaloniki), and hung out with the three fathers and their friend in the Istanbul airport during our layover. I have their contact information and hopefully will see them again, either visiting their monastery or when they pass through Thessalonica. See how God works? It was really providential that I got put on that flight. I’m very happy to have met them, and really hope I get to see them again.

With the three fathers and their friend, in the Istanbul airport during our layover.

We landed around 8:00 pm. My cousin met me at the airport and we took a taxi to the place where I am living, a building with very small individual rooms, for international students, about a fifteen minute walk from the center of Thessaloniki. The place provides sheets, that’s about it. So once I met the owners (who had come there because I had been in touch with them and told them my arrival time – they’re usually only there in the morning) and chose which room I wanted, I had to walk downtown to buy some basic things: soap and toilet paper. I probably could have found them close by but I didn’t know the area and I didn’t want to walk around a strange neighborhood by myself at night. So I went downtown. I went to bed late that night and it took a few days to get adjusted from the jetlag.

In the beginning I was going every day to St. Haralambos, the metochi (dependency) of Simonopetra in Thessaloniki. I blogged about it last time. It’s a really nice little church and I had gone there a lot during the month I spent in Thessaloniki in 2012. Right now the married priest who serves there (Fr. Athanasios) is on sabbatical (he’s also a university professor) so guess who’s filling in? Fr. Iakovos, the one and only. There’s a Greek expression, “πάντα μπροστά μου εἶσαι” (lit. "you're always in front of me") or something like that, which basically means that you see someone everywhere. I met Fr. Iakovos in Boston, then I saw him at Simonopetra in 2012 when I went, and then he was in Boston again last year. Now he’s here in Thessaloniki!

Before classes started I really had nothing to do and I was quite bored. Now the pace of things has picked up, I am plenty busy, and I am still going very frequently to St. Haralambos but am also going to the church in my neighborhood, Dormition of the Theotokos, which is closer and easier to get to on some weekdays. I have class 8:30 am until 12:00 noon every day, and I have started my ambitious translation of the Typikon of George Rigas, a 900-page book that is quite awesome, and way more detailed (and more accurate in some places) than the Typikon of Violakes, which is the official typikon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. I’m not the only one who likes Rigas, but unfortunately we are in the minority. (St. Nicholas Planas was reported to say, “by obedience the new (calendar), but by conviction the old!” I would like to modify that to say “By obedience Violakes but by conviction Rigas!” In other words, I am obedient to the Patriarchate and use Violakes even if I don’t like it, but I really wish we could use Rigas!) I’m not trying to start a revolution, however. Hopefully if this translation of mine ever gets finished (I’ve done about  30 pages so far), it will be primarily an academic reference tool, although most academics who would be interested in typikon would probably be able to read it in Greek. It’s also a great chance for me to practice my Greek…I have learned quite a few new words, as well as really interesting details about the services, including different Greek names for the various Litanies (συναπτές, ἐκτενή, δέησις), whereas in English we just call them Litanies or ektenias or something like that, but in Greek each has a specific meaning (at least for Rigas. I’m pretty sure it’s more common).

I’m also trying to excel in Byzantine music. I know the 95% of the prosomia, and I can generally chant idiomela if I practice them (unfortunately I mostly sight-read them in church and therefore make more mistakes than I would like). My real difficulty however is the papadic genre, i.e. slower pieces chanted during the Divine Liturgy: the Cherubic Hymn, It is truly right, and the Communion hymn. It’s my short-term goal to learn at least one Cherubic Hymn and It is truly right in each mode, as well as (kind of ambitious) a Communion hymn for each day of the week, in each mode. That’ll take awhile. I bought a nice little book that has short Communion hymns in the eight modes that aren’t too hard. I’ve learned one and a half so far ;) I also bought a big book called Mousike Pandekte, volume 4, which has pretty much anything you could want for the Divine Liturgy (it’s 878 pages, 373 of which are just Cherubic Hymns...that gives you an idea of how detailed it is). It’s kind of cumbersome to carry with you to church, but it’s what is being used in the music class I’m taking at a church here, and my teacher in Boston recommended it as being good for practice. So, σιγά-σιγά. I want to be able to chant the Liturgy in any mode at the drop of a hat – a little ambitious, and baby steps will get me there (such as learning a Cherubic hymn in each mode first). It’s rare that I’m placed first at a Liturgy and am asked to chant the Cherubic hymn and/or It is truly right, but when it happens I want to be prepared – it happened the other day for instance. I was the only person who knew music, surrounded by three older men and a young guy, all of whom knew the order of the service very well, plus some basic things, but nothing complicated about music. I wasn’t prepared but I chanted the Liturgy in first mode (this week is plagal first) and it went ok. I want to be able to do that in every mode, and not to go “ok,” but “great.” Σιγά σιγά. My next goal is to learn a Cherubic hymn in plagal 2^nd for next week, and to keep working on those short Communion hymns in that little book, particularly the ones in plagal 2^nd.

On Monday nights I go to a Byzantine music lesson from 7:00-9:00 at Panagia Laodigitria. I am going to start going from 5:30 because in that class they are finishing the slow heirmologion and starting slow Doxologies, things that I studied in Boston but am nowhere near a master of. It’ll help, I hope. The 7:00 class is Liturgy stuff, so it’s right up my alley also! These lessons are down the street from the Panagia Laodigitria church, in the parish center, a multi-storey building. On the roof they have a little chapel to the New Martyr Alexander (I don’t know anything about him). At 9:00, after the music class finishes, they do Small Compline in there, and in the middle (instead of reading the Akathist) they chant the Paraklesis to the Theotokos, but only the canon (the “heart” of the Paraklesis), so that it takes about fifteen minutes, plus fifteen minutes of Compline, comes to half an hour altogether. At 9:30 one of the priests (Fr. Barnabas) gives a talk in an auditorium in the same building. The auditorium is full of young people every week. It’s impossible to find a seat, and most of the time I stand against the back wall. The talk goes until 10:30. I have met quite a few nice people there at Panagia Laodigitria, people around my age, and I hope to deepen our relationships and become friends with them through continuing to go to music lessons and talks. I also see some of them around at random things in other parts of the city, so it gives another setting as a background for a friendship.

On Thursday nights I go to a much more low-key talk at Panagia Acheiropoietos in the center of town, with Fr. Spyro. There are about 20-30 people every week. A lot of Americans go to that but Fr. Spyro talks in very simple Greek (with the occasional translated word or phrase) so it is helpful for us! I take notes when I go to talks, and my notes are half in Greek and half in English. It’s kind of funny for someone to look at my notebook if they’re not used to it. J

Oh, and…yes, I am learning Greek. Slowly. Equally as important as are the classes, I need to make sure I spend time with Greeks and not with Americans, so that I can learn slang and other informal things, as well as getting comfortable practicing what I learn in class. I also should probably try to read some Greek books. Now, however, on the rare occasion when I make time to read, it’s usually in English (unless it’s music or the Rigas typikon…).

That’s basically my life in a nutshell. I wrote it on the train between Thessaloniki and Athens because that’s the only time that I can get on my computer and not be distracted by internet. Otherwise I don’t find any time to blog, even though I know I should and people want to know how I’m doing. Forgive me.

(I am hopefully going to blog about my trip to Athens another time. I went there for the weekend, and now it is Monday and I am back in Thessaloniki, but this blog was written Friday on the train, as I mentioned.).