Recipe for cheesefare week

Great Lent starts this coming Monday! This week we are supposed to use up all our dairy, eggs, fish, etc.

I had people over for Meatfare Sunday, and we finished all the meat, but there was a lot of cheese and veggies left over, plus a can of tuna I had bought last week. So I experimented and it came out well:

Cheese week recipe

One or two cans of tuna

Carrot

Lettuce

Whatever other veggies you want

Olive oil

Lemon

Salt, pepper, oregano, any other spices you want

Mozzarella, or any kind of CHEESE! Grated is preferable.

Slice the veggies. Mix everything except the cheese, and put it on an oven-safe plate (bowl would also work but I think plate is better). Then sprinkle as much cheese as you want on top of it. Put in the oven on medium heat (covered with aluminum foil might be best), and take it out when the cheese is starting to brown but before it burns. Serve warm. Using one can of tuna makes two small/medium-size portions, depending on how many other ingredients you use.

Igoumenitsa-Kerkyra

(Written on February 3, 2015)

Last weekend we had a long weekend because we had Friday off (January 30), in honor of the Three Hierarchs, the patron saints of Greek Letters (St. Basil, St. Gregory the Theologian, St. John Chrysostom). I.e., this was an academic holiday that the rest of the world had to work on.

I decided to use the extra day off to travel. After class on Thursday I packed my backpack and took a taxi to the KTEL (bus station), because the city bus that goes there wasn’t coming for a while and I was running late. I got there right on time to buy a ticket and get on the bus to Igoumenitsa before it left at 3:00 pm. Igoumenitsa is a city on the western coast of Greece, across from the island of Kerkyra/Corfu. If you remember, I had met three priest-monks on the plane from Boston to Istanbul (I mentioned them in this blog post: http://www.superman-oli.blogspot.gr/2014/11/greece-2014-so-far-november-14.html).

This is me with the three fathers and their friend in the Istanbul airport during our layover - September 30, 2014.

They are from a monastery in the mountains outside Igoumenitsa. It is called Μονή Γηρομερίου (Geromeriou Monastery – website: http://monigiromeriou.gr/en/index.htm), and it is named after the village of Γηρομέρη (Geromeri), which is the closest village, about five minutes down the mountain. The monastery is about a half hour drive from the small city of Igoumenitsa.

I had been in touch with the abbot and gotten his blessing to go. The bus arrived a little before 7:00 pm. The abbot picked me up from the bus station there, and drove me to the monastery. That night we did a vigil for the Three Hierarchs. There are only three fathers there – Fr. Methodios (the abbot), Fr. Alexios and Fr. Seraphim – all of whom are hieromonks (monks who have been ordained priests). Thus, only one of them serves each service, while the other two chant and make sure everything is orderly in church.

Fr. Seraphim served that night. I chanted with Gheronda Methodios for most of the vigil, along with some other guys from the surrounding villages. Gheronda put me “in the chair” (i.e. to lead) after the Gospel. They had limited music books so I chanted the Cherubic Hymn in Fourth mode (Ἅγια) by Theodore Phokaeus. Gheronda held ison for me, which was really nice, and helped me stay on key and chant well. The rest of the Liturgy I did by heart (i.e. “made it up” in fourth mode), the “original” Ἄξιόν ἐστιν (It is truly right) in second mode, and then something from the Simonopetra Psalter book (Ψαλτήριον Τερπνόν) for the Communion Hymn – I don’t remember what.

The vigil was really nice. It’s not often that I get to be the protopsaltis (lead chanter) for the Divine Liturgy. And when I do, there are not usually people around me to hold ison and keep me on pitch, so I often have trouble because the Liturgy is actually the hardest thing for me to chant in the daily cycle of services – I can usually do Vespers or Orthros reasonably well, but I have trouble with Liturgy. I’ve blogged about that before. It’s something I need to work on. But that night was nice. It was a Cherubic Hymn that I knew; Gheronda holding ison really helped; and Fr. Seraphim also knows music well so he kept us in the mode too – it’s always nice to have a priest who knows music and can stay on key! J

On Friday morning the abbot was giving a talk at one of the schools in Igoumenitsa, in honor of the Three Hierarchs. I left with him a little before 9:00 am, and he dropped me off at the port of Igoumenitsa where I caught the 9:30 ferry to KERKYRA!! I had been wanting to go to Kerkyra for a long time to venerate St. Spyridon (my middle name), and because one of our ancestors on my dad’s side is from there. Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera to Kerkyra so I have no pictures from that. Oh well, it’s an excuse to go back! J

The ferry ride to Kerkyra was about one hour and 45 minutes, very calm (it started to rain a little bit as we got closer), and very few people on board. It was very comfortable and relaxing. When I got there I asked for directions and found my way to the church where St. Spyridon’s incorrupt relic is. I was so thankful to God and to St. Spyridon for finally getting to go there, somewhere I’ve been wanting to go pretty much all my life. It was really such a huge blessing! I met Deacon Jason who was standing at the foot of the reliquary keeping watch while people venerated. He actually asked me to help him close the lid of the reliquary when all the people were done venerating, which is considered a huge blessing for the local people to get to do that. I actually had the blessing to help close it three times, because people kept coming in and he re-opened it twice more for them. I then got his email so I can keep in touch with him. He gave me some pieces of the slippers of St. Spyridon, as well as oil from his vigil lamp (for those of you who don’t know, St. Spyridon is a “walking saint,” and his slippers wear out because he “walks” and visits people who need his assistance. They change his slippers every year and cut up the old slippers to give them to people as blessings).

I went down to the port and caught the 1:00 pm ferry back to Igoumenitsa. I recognized one of the ticket inspectors from the previous boat ride. He looked at me for a split second like I was crazy – I guess he remembered that I had just come there and was confused why I was going back so soon.

The ferry back was exactly the opposite – full of people, and a storm had just started so it was very turbulent. It took between 2 and 2½ hours to get back, that’s how bad the sea was. I don’t get sick very easily, thank God. I was in touch with Gheronda who picked me up from the port and took me back to the monastery. That storm raged for the next two days. I was thankful to be safe inside the monastery where everything was close and we weren’t near any bodies of water.

Some pictures from inside the monastery during the rain those days. This is looking from the main church to the cemetery (see the photos below).

The outside of the main church.

The inside of the main church.

Outside the monastery, looking at the entrance.

Looking at the altar area of the main church.

Up those stairs is the wing where the fathers live.

Friday night I had sea legs from being on the boat, and hearing the rain and wind outside made me feel like I was still on the boat!

By the way, the mountains around the monastery are the Misty Mountains (whoever has read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings will get the reference). That was something I was constantly reminded of throughout my stay at the monastery. Just look at the following picture. It doesn't do it justice, though. You had to be there!

Saturday morning we had Liturgy at the monastery – it was just the three fathers and me. Fr. Alexios put me to read the Midnight Office – psalms that I’ve never read in Greek – and the First Hour – psalms I’ve only read in Greek a few times. It made me realize my real poverty in reading Greek quickly. They read very quickly at the monastery, and with me reading those things we finished twenty minutes later than usual! It was good for humility. I chanted Liturgy in plagal fourth mode (the mode of the week that we were finishing), which went ok. I did the Cherubic Hymn by Phokaeus in plagal fourth which I have not learned, so I wasn’t as confident as I was at the vigil. Oh well.

After Liturgy I sat in the kitchen with the fathers and a four-member family who came to confess. I stayed there for a few hours and talked to the three who were not confessing. The parents had lived in Boston for a number of years, and we talked about that, among other things. Their first son was actually born in Boston. The rest of the day on Saturday I walked around the monastery (in the rain) to see the things I hadn’t seen yet, like the cemetery chapel.

Looking into the tiny cemetery chapel

The cemetery chapel is so small it's basically an Altar area. The bones of the previous fathers are kept under the Altar table. There is Liturgy there once a year, on the Saturday of Souls before Pentecost, because the weather is usually good and only the priest stands inside the chapel - the people have to stand outside because it's so small.

The door to the cemetery chapel is on the right, and two empty tombs on the left.

I also saw the tomb of St. Nilus the Sanctified, the founder of the monastery, whose tomb is under a giant rock outside the gates of the monastery. They hope to exhume him this summer if possible, and make his tomb into a cave/catacomb/pilgrimage place, while putting his relics in the monastery – if I understood correctly.

From what I understood, the tomb is under the giant boulder. There used to be a chapel on top, right where I was standing, and there was dirt in the now-gap. They removed the chapel and dug around the rock, to get down to the tomb. They hope to prop up the rock and exhume the saint, and then put the rock back where it was, and make a subterranean pilgrimage spot out of the empty tomb, replacing the dirt and the chapel on top... something like that. I could have gotten some of the facts wrong.

On Sunday Gheronda went to one of the villages for a memorial service. Fr. Alexios liturgized and I chanted with Fr. Seraphim. It was nice. I ate lunch with the fathers a bit later, and then Fr. Seraphim (who is the cook) packed me up a “goody bag” for the road. Gheronda took me down to Igoumenitsa to catch the bus at 2:30. It was then that we saw the aftermath of the storm that was just letting up that day. Many low roads next to the river were flooded, and the water was rising because of the water coming down from the mountains. I felt bad for the people that it affected.

Stop sign in the water - that's how high it was.

Look at that car going through the water. That's also what we looked like from the front.

It was cloudy for almost the entire bus ride back, until we got pretty close to Thessaloniki when it cleared up, but by then the sun had set. When I got back I took a taxi home, and then went to a vigil at St. Haralambos for the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple (Ὑπαπαντή). It was nice. Anya (whom I mentioned in the Christmas blog) once told me that she likes the Presentation because there are a lot of things in first mode (Lord, I have cried/Κύριε ἐκέκραξα, and the Apolytikion and Kontakion as well). When I told that to another musical friend, he retorted, “Are you kidding?! Ypapanti is the Feast of Γα!” (Fa in the western scale), because the Canon of the Feast is in third mode (the ninth ode megalynaria are awesome: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1r6Yo4Xxrw), and the Aposticha at Vespers are in Varys, which is also based on Γα. First and third modes are both awesome, so I really enjoyed the vigil J

This entire trip happened because Lufthansa was on strike, I got put on Turkish airlines, and I met the fathers on the plane. Otherwise I certainly would not have gone to Igoumenitsa and probably not Kerkyra either!

Glory to God!

Blessed Triodion!

Liturgical Jetlag

So my last blog was about Christmas 2014. This blog is about Christmas 2014, round two! As many of you know, Mt. Athos (aka the Holy Mountain, Ἅγιον Ὄρος, the third finger of Chalkidike, etc) follows the old (Julian) calendar. Well I went and did Christmas a second time there. It was really nice, but as far as my experience goes, without specific questions I can’t really describe how things were there… it was a nice experience that I’m glad to have had, and I’m going to keep it in my heart forever. If you want to email and ask me specific questions, that’s fine, but I don’t think I can write a blog about it.

What I do want to blog about, though, related to my trip to the Holy Mountain for second Christmas, is a phenomenon that I have termed “liturgical jetlag.” Just as I coined “ecclesiastical nightlife” last semester, so I am coining this phrase (unless it’s been used already). It refers to the feeling that someone gets when they are to a greater or lesser extent a liturgical nerd. The extreme is when one (e.g. yours truly) identifies each day of his life by the various liturgical lineups – for example, I wrote this blog entry on Sunday, January 25, which is the first day of the week of plagal fourth mode, when we read the eleventh Matins Gospel and celebrated St. Gregory the Theologian. It’s also the Sunday of Zacchaeus (we heard this Gospel at Liturgy) – This all means that we are a month past Christmas, and next week the Triodion begins. *gasp!*

ANYWAY, getting back to my story…

It doesn’t need to be stated that I am kind of the epitome of a liturgical nerd. And while I like celebrating things on both calendars (going to canonical churches that follow the old calendar and celebrating a certain feast or saint a second time), my “liturgical time travel,” if you will, usually lasts a few hours and then I leave that particular church building and am back on the new calendar. And it’s so short a period that you really don’t feel the difference because your whole life is on the new calendar.

Mt. Athos is different, though. The entire Mountain is on the old calendar. So unless you work in the monastery’s office and need to have contact with the outside world, it doesn’t matter to you what day it is there, you live and breathe with your reference being the Julian date. For example, today (Sunday) that I am writing this, it is 100% January 25 for us in the world, while it is 100% January 12 on the Holy Mountain (Russia has a little bit of calendrical schizophrenia from what I can tell, in that they use both calendars, one for religious dates and the other for secular).

Therefore… it was kind of a shock for me when I had chanted Vespers for the prefeast of Theophany on January 3 (the evening before) – “Be thou ready, Zaboulon; prepare thyself O Nephthalim…” … and then when I went into the Mountain it became December 21 and I heard at Vespers the following day, “Be thou ready, Bethlehem…, Ephratha prepare thyself…”

WAIT A MINUTE! HOLD ON! PAUSE THE PROGRAM!

I just celebrated Christmas! I went to a vigil (you can read about that in my entry from January 2). Then I celebrated St. Stephen two days later, and then St. Joseph the Betrothed on Sunday the 28^th, along with St. Simon the Myrrh-Gusher. Then I “gave up” the Feast on the 31^st and rang in the New Year that night! Now I traveled back to 2014?! Wait… has Christ been born yet? What in the world?! AAAH!!

Believe it or not this was actually a rather large problem for me until I talked to the abbot of the monastery about it. He helped me by telling me that it doesn’t matter if Christ was born thirteen days before or later, but that the services happen (whenever they happen), and the most important thing is that Christ is born in our hearts. All the other stuff is extra (Christmas trees, etc… by the way, I didn’t see a single Christmas tree on the Mountain).

I eventually got over the liturgical jetlag and had a wonderful second Christmas – I even forgot (for all intents and purposes) that Christmas Eve for us was Theophany for the new calendar world (December 24/January 6). I then celebrated the Synaxis of the Theotokos (December 26), St. Stephen (27), St. Simon the Myrrh-gusher and founder of Simonopetra (28), and St. Joseph the Betrothed on the Sunday after Christmas (December 29). I had adjusted to the new liturgical time zone, if you will, and everything was going great.

Then it struck again, but this time in the opposite direction… I had a great time on December 29! I actually saw a friend of mine whom I hadn’t seen since he was tonsured a monk last summer, and I was at peace. I was really enjoying myself, but a little bummed that I would be returning to the world. Then suddenly, when the boat landed in Ouranoupolis, it wasn’t December 29 anymore…I had traveled forward again into 2015 and it was January 11, the Sunday after Theophany.

WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?!

For me Theophany was a sort of event that was going to happen sometime in the indefinite future…not sure when; but Theophany always follows Christmas, so now that Christmas is past, New Years’/St. Basil is next, and then Theophany a few days later, right? NOPE! It was like I had fallen asleep for a week, and meanwhile Mrs. Theophany had come and gone without bothering to wake me up and let me know she was there (“Feast” in Greek (γιορτή) is feminine). Using another analogy that I thought of then, it was like I had gotten stuck in the wardrobe talking to Fr. Tumnus, but instead of picking up right where I left off when I came out, the world had moved ahead eight more days and I was left wondering where I was (a play on the names and events in C.S. Lewis’s spectacular novel, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe). Also, before I went to the Mountain I was talking to a friend in America about doing “second Christmas,” and my friend said I sounded like a hobbit talking about second breakfast – haha! (Reference to The Lord of the Rings)

That episode of liturgical jetlag eventually passed as well, and I continued going to church on the new calendar in Thessaloniki. I returned to the Mountain on January 4/17 in order to celebrate Theophany on the 6^th/19^th. I was only there for less than three full days so that time wasn’t as much of a shock to my system, plus I had just time traveled the week before so I was kind of anticipating it.

Anyway… I do have photos from the blessing of waters on Theophany Eve outside the church, and Theophany Day at the sea, as well as some from Christmas, but I’m not sure that I have a blessing to post them online since they were taken at a monastery. I can email them to friends, though. If you would like to see some pictures, please email me and ask! I’ll be happy to send them to you.

Now that both calendars are finally in 2015, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!

Christmas 2014 - Thessaloniki

One of the first events of my 2014 Christmas season was on Sunday, December 7 when I took part in a concert at the cathedral of St. Nicholas in Volos (two and a half hours from Thessaloniki – we made a day trip), along with the Philathonites choir under the direction of Demetri Manousis from the Church of Panagia Laodegetria in Thessaloniki (http://laodhghtria.blogspot.gr/). You can see an article (in Greek) and a video of the concert on the website of the Metropolis of Demetriados, which is where Volos is located: http://imd.gr/site/news/3/2234. The video is also on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=v4e86145U9M. That was a really good time, and I had fun on the bus both there and back, as well as during the hour or two that we had free to walk around Volos before the concert. I think we performed well.

A week later I went to a concert at the above-mentioned Panagia Laodegetria Church (in the parish auditorium down the street), where some of the same people were singing traditional Greek Christmas carols. There were four choirs, one of which was the παραδοσιακή χορωδία (traditional choir) of the parish, one from an ecclesiastical academy in Pylaia (a neighborhood of Thessaloniki), and two choirs from other cities. That concert was where I met the priest I mention below who invited me for Christmas dinner.

 

(A random picture from some time in December. I passed a parked car where there was a stuffed bear in the passenger seat, with a seatbelt on)

I expressed to some people this year that Christmas Day was much fuller than it normally is. I’m used to going to church, going home and eating something that has either dairy or meat in it (preferably both), and then going to my uncle’s house for dinner at 4 or 5pm, staying there until 9 or 10 and then going home and going to bed. That’s a full enough day, but compared to Christmas 2014 it’s nothing. Let me explain.

Apparently it’s the tradition in Greece to start church on Christmas morning at 5:00 am. Why? I don’t know. But normally on any other day of the year they start at 7:00 or 7:30. All the churches that I’ve seen, though, start at 5:00 on Christmas. Getting up at 4:00 am isn’t easy. So I went instead to a vigil with some of my friends at St. Haralambos, the dependency of Simonopetra where I go multiple times per week, including Sundays. It's basically my parish, and I love the vigils there. (We had done our Christmas Eve service (Orthros, Royal Hours, Vesperal Liturgy) at 5:30 am and finished around 9:30 am.)

The Old Testament Readings during the Vesperal Liturgy at St. Haralambos on Christmas Eve

(In the afternoon I went out with a friend and some other of her friends whom I met that day for the first time, and we all sang kalanda (Greek Christmas carols) on the porch in front of an apartment building for several hours – that’s the tradition on Christmas Eve in Greece, that young people sing kalanda – and I had called my friend and asked if I could join them. There were some instruments there too. It was fun!)

Closing those parentheses and continuing on with the main story: that night at St. Haralambos we did Small Compline with the Lity and Artoklasia at the end (after the prayer to the Guardian Angel) (interesting Typikon bit)...

The Lity (Entreaty) during the Christmas vigil at St. Haralambos Church

Then we began the Orthros and the Divine Liturgy of Christmas finishing around 1:30 am. It was amazing! I have it recorded up until the end of the Cherubic Hymn when my recorder suddenly stopped recording, unfortunately. There was an unbelievably long Communion line – I would say at least 20 minutes, probably more like 30, with one chalice. And the church is so small and there were so many people that it felt even longer.

During the middle of the vigil sometime, view from the left choir.

Picture taken right after Communion.

Also right after Communion. Looking out into the overflow courtyard.

When the vigil was over I walked around the city a bit with the three other Americans who were there (Vikentios, Chris C., and another one who was visiting), and then I was so tired that I walked home and went to bed around 3:00. I woke up on my own at 7:30 (my body is used to getting up early), and while I could have gone back to sleep I decided to go into the city and find Robert and Anya, my friends from America who were visiting with their baby, and I knew what church they were going to be at (it was easier for the baby to go in the morning than to come to the vigil). I got there around 8:15 I think, right before the Our Father.

A good crowd at Panagia Acheiropoietos on Christmas morning

After Liturgy there I walked with Robert, Anya and baby back to their temporary apartment and we stopped on the way to buy a tiropita for me, and some sweets that we ate back at the house, along with a little meat, cheese and bread that they had. Our other American friend who was staying with them and who had been at the vigil woke up right before we got back so we hung out and talked and ate cheese and snacks for a couple hours.

Anya and baby Joseph.

Joseph with both parents (picture taken the week before Christmas)

Daddy's turn! (picture taken on Christmas Day)

I then went home, napped from 12-2 (a little longer than I had wanted to), and hurriedly got ready to leave and meet up with my friends on the bus because my two hour nap had selfishly delayed us.

We had been invited by a priest we met at the concert a few weeks before (see above) to come to his house for Christmas dinner. He has nine kids, two of whom were our friends already, and we met four others on Christmas, some of whom are married. Three of the kids were not there but the three of us made up the difference. We also had another Russian friend who was there as well.

Father and one of his daughters, with the three of us guys, and our other friend from Russia

I did my best at being the translator because out of the other two Americans, Vikentios knows some Greek and Chris C knows none; and although some of the kids know English, it generally fell to me to translate.

Dinner at that family’s house was amazing!

They had lamb and I think one or two other kinds of meat. While I’m not usually a big meat eater I confess that this was really good. It was home-cooked obviously, by Presvytera (I’m not sure how it was cooked, but it was definitely delicious). They also served us their own homemade wine from their vineyard, plus they gave us each a bottle to take home.

The label on their wine bottles - an 11-seater bicycle, with "room" for nine kids and the parents!

All the other food was delicious as well! The atmosphere was really nice also. I was very happy to be there. After dinner some of us sang Kalanda and sat and visited a bit.

We left rather hurriedly. The family’s house is kind of close to Souroti, the village that has the monastery of St. John the Theologian where Elder Paisios is buried (http://xristianos.gr/forum/viewtopic.php?t=783). The monastery closes at 6:00 pm and we wanted to go and venerate there. So we left a little before 5:30 and one of the daughters drove us to the monastery. We got there in enough time to venerate the church and the tomb, and sit and talk a little bit with some of the sisters and some other visitors also. They were very nice and hospitable.

After we left the monastery and our friend was driving us back to the city, on a whim I called another American Orthodox family (Michael and Lisa Colburn) who had invited us for Christmas and whom we had turned down, and I asked if it was still ok if we stopped by to say hi. So our friend who was driving, dropped us off on her way to her yiayia’s house in the center. The three of us went inside and had homemade pumpkin pie that Lisa had made, and we talked to the Colburns for about an hour. Then we got a bus back to the center of town.

On the bus I called a couple other Americans whom I guessed would be independently downtown, and asked if they all wanted to meet up. We arranged a meeting place and time, and once we were all together we walked to a place with various tavernas and we sat down to eat. I was still full from dinner/lunch at the family’s house but some others were hungry so we basically had second dinner.

Second dinner

The menu was interestingly rendered in English.

Since when is feta "sort of" white cheese?

I'll have some fried inkstand with a side of sort of white cheese....whaaaa..?

We had a nice time visiting with each other.

(On the way to the taverna we ran across this sign)

I then went back to Robert and Anya's apartment to pick up something I had left there, brainstormed with Robert about the next day, and then walked home to Skype my family. I got home around midnight and skyped with my immediate family who were at my uncle’s house, along with an unexpected (to me) visitor there who happens to have the fullness of the priesthood of Christ.

A nice culmination to these few days was going on Sunday (December 28) to the Monastery of St. John the Forerunner in Serres, about an hour and a half from Thessaloniki (http://www.im-prodromou.gr/). It is a women’s monastery that has their spiritual father as Gheronda Ephraim in Arizona (one of three monasteries in Greece under his spiritual direction). Robert and Anya were going for a brief visit, and told me I could come along if I wanted because they had an extra seat in the car. I took them up on the offer in a heartbeat! It was really nice to go there, the sisters were so welcoming and I was really glad I went, even if it was just for a couple hours. I really would like to go back sometime, but it's hard to get anywhere when you don't have a car.

View of the countryside around the monastery, from the passenger seat.

Yeah, we had to come to a stop because the cows were blocking our way.

Robert in the monastery courtyard.

Monastery amid the mountains.

That’s it for now. I’m sure there’ll be more to blog about after the New Year begins. It’s always hard to believe the number of the year that we’re entering – 15? No way! Has it really been 15 years since the turn of the century?! I’m gettin’ old! ;)

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

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

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! :)