+Father Thomas Hopko - 55 Maxims

Dear family and friends,

I know I haven’t blogged in awhile. Please forgive me. I have much to write about but I have just been so busy that I have not had time to sit down and create a blog post. This week, though, I would like to dedicate my blog post to the memory of Fr. Thomas Hopko (known to me as “Fr. Tom”), who reposed in the Lord this past Wednesday, just after 3pm Eastern time. I just want to say two words about him:

For me, Fr. Tom wasn’t "just" some Orthodox author or speaker whom I happened to like or agree with – Fr. Tom served regularly at “my” monastery, the Orthodox Monastery of the Transfiguration in Ellwood City, Pa. I was blessed to know him and was able to ask him pretty much all the questions I ever wanted – what a wealth of knowledge he was, and a blessing to have so close to my home!!

For me, what most sets Fr. Tom apart among theologians is his humble yet staunch defense of Orthodoxy. He knew what he believed and why he believed it. While some of his writings or sayings may be controversial, I always detected an air of humility in his speech when things like that came up: he might say something like, “I believe this is clear from the way I read the Bible and the Fathers, but if I’m wrong may God forgive me.” He never insisted that he – and only he – was correct. He was open to being corrected if he was indeed wrong on something. And yet, he stayed firm in his beliefs. I believe that is the mark of a truly Orthodox theologian, and of any good Orthodox Christian.

He was also a true liturgist. I looked forward to “vigil” with him on Saturday evening each week at the monastery, and whenever I was blessed to be with him for a Divine Liturgy, it just felt right. He knew what the Divine Liturgy is; he knew what he was doing there at the Altar; and you could feel that from the way he liturgized.

I personally believe that he is now concelebrating at the heavenly Liturgy which is outside of time. May we inherit a portion of his knowledge, of his piety, and even more importantly of his humility. And if he has found boldness at the throne of God, may we have his prayers as we continue our struggle here on earth! May his memory be eternal!

Please lift him up in your prayers, as well as his family: wife Matushka Anne, her mother Matushka Juliana, Fr. Tom & Mat. Anne's children, children-in-law, grandchildren, Mother Abbess Christophora and the sisterhood of the monastery, and all who knew and loved him.

For anyone who wants to watch the funeral services live-streamed from the monastery, the funeral is at 10am Eastern time on Monday, March 23. The complete schedule of other funerary services (Vespers, Liturgies, etc), as well as information on live streaming, is available on the monastery website: http://www.orthodoxmonasteryellwoodcity.org/frhopko

Below are “55 maxims” for Christian life that I believe are on-target, and congruous with the Tradition of the Church.

1. Be always with Christ and trust God in everything.
2. Pray as you can, not as you think you must.
3. Have a keepable rule of prayer done by discipline.
4. Say the Lord's Prayer several times each day.
5. Repeat a short prayer when your mind is not occupied.
6. Make some prostrations when you pray.
7. Eat good foods in moderation and fast on fasting days.
8. Practice silence, inner and outer.
9. Sit in silence 20 to 30 minutes each day.
10. Do acts of mercy in secret.
11. Go to liturgical services regularly.
12. Go to Confession and Holy Communion regularly.
13. Do not engage intrusive thoughts and feelings.
14. Reveal all your thoughts and feelings to a trusted person regularly.
15. Read the scriptures regularly.
16. Read good books, a little at a time.
17. Cultivate communion with the saints.
18. Be an ordinary person, one of the human race.
19. Be polite with everyone, first of all family members.
20. Maintain cleanliness and order in your home.
21. Have a healthy, wholesome hobby.
22. Exercise regularly.
23. Live a day, even a part of a day, at a time.
24. Be totally honest, first of all with yourself.
25. Be faithful in little things.
26. Do your work, then forget it.
27. Do the most difficult and painful things first.
28. Face reality.
29. Be grateful.
30. Be cheerful.
31. Be simple, hidden, quiet and small.
32. Never bring attention to yourself.
33. Listen when people talk to you.
34. Be awake and attentive, fully present where you are.
35. Think and talk about things no more than necessary.
36. Speak simply, clearly, firmly, directly.
37. Flee imagination, fantasy, analysis, figuring things out.
38. Flee carnal, sexual things at their first appearance.
39. Don't complain, grumble, murmur or whine.
40. Don't seek or expect pity or praise.
41. Don't compare yourself with anyone.
42. Don't judge anyone for anything.
43. Don't try to convince anyone of anything.
44. Don't defend or justify yourself.
45. Be defined and bound by God, not people.
46. Accept criticism gracefully and test it carefully.
47. Give advice only when asked or when it is your duty.
48. Do nothing for people that they can and should do for themselves.
49. Have a daily schedule of activities, avoiding whim and caprice.
50. Be merciful with yourself and others.

51. Have no expectations except to be fiercely tempted to your last breath.
52. Focus exclusively on God and light, and never on darkness, temptation and sin.
53. Endure the trial of yourself and your faults serenely, under God's mercy.
54. When you fall, get up immediately and start over.
55. Get help when you need it, without fear or shame.

*(Fr. Thomas Hopko’s “55 Maxims” – On Living a Christian Life)

*Fr. Tom expounds further on this at: http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/hopko/lent_the_tithe_of_the_year

Fr. Tom in his Paschal vestments, with his wife Matushka Anne, in the monastery chapel.
Photo from St. Vladimir Seminary website:
http://www.svots.edu/headlines/protopresbyter-thomas-hopko-reposes-lord

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! ;)