Last night, I finished reading Orientale Lumen, John Paul II's Apostolic Letter written in 1995 to make the centenary of Orientaliom Dignitas. Towards the end of the letter, John Paul II offers some thoughts that I found very interesting in light of recent discussions I've had about the future of the Eastern Catholic Churches. I think a lot of people think that Byzantine Catholics will eventually become part of the Roman Catholic Church, using the Roman Liturgy and accepting Rome's authority in all things.
I think, on the other hand, that is far more likely that if the Byzantine Catholic Churches are ever made part of another Church, it will make far more sense to join them to the Orthodox Churches. John Paul addressed this in Orientale Lumen when he wrote:
"It has been stressed several times that the full union of the Catholic Eastern Churches with the Church of Rome which has already been achieved must not imply a diminished awareness of their own authenticity and originality. Wherever this has occurred, the Second Vatican Council has urged them to rediscover their full identity...These Churches carry a tragic wound, for they are still kept from full communion with the Eastern Orthodox Churches despite sharing in the heritage of their fathers. A constant, shared conversion is indispensable for them to advance resolutely and energetically towards mutual understanding. And conversion is also required of the Latin Church, that she may respect and full appreciate the dignity of Eastern Christians, and accept gratefully the spiritual treasures of which the Eastern Catholic Churches are the bearers, to the benefit of the entire catholic communion; that she may show concretely, far more than in the past, how much she esteems and admire the Christian East and how essential she considers its contribution to the full realization of the Church's universality."
I think that a lot of people, at least of my acquaintance, are not aware of the history and traditions of the Byzantine Catholic Churches and our connections to the Orthodox Churches. I also think it is important to recognize the traditions of the other Churches. We all need to learn about each other and work together to help the cause of unity along.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
New Name, Same Girl
So I've changed the name of my blog from "Somewhere Only We Know" to "A Light of the East" a name that I took from John Paul the Great's 1994 Apostolic Letter "Orientale Lumen" which means "The Light of the East." I've decided that being a member of that East, with my desire to share my love of Eastern Christianity with others, I would change the name of my blog to suit my purpose.
I was raised Byzantine Catholic. My dad is an ordained deacon in that Church. And I love that Church deeply and passionately. It is my home and my heart. And I want to share this East, this frequently forgotten "lung" with the rest of the Church. JPII liked to refer to the Eastern Catholics as "the other lung of the Church."
And with life in the Church moving the way it is, I think it is really important for me to stand up for my church and share my faith with others. The church is hoping to move towards unity between East and West and I am hoping to be a voice of that unity. I think that being Eastern Catholic puts me in an interesting place in this world. I have many Roman Catholic and Protestant friends; I even have a few Orthodox Christian friends. But I have few Byzantine friends, especially my own age. And I have been exposed to both East and West, and yet my Church is a bridge between the two. This allows me a unique perspective on the Church. And it is this perspective that I want to share with the world.
I will continue to share my life with you, especially once I go to Spain in the fall. I will even continue to share my bizarre news stories with you. But I will also attempt to share a bit of my Orientale Lumen with you.
Christ is Risen!
I was raised Byzantine Catholic. My dad is an ordained deacon in that Church. And I love that Church deeply and passionately. It is my home and my heart. And I want to share this East, this frequently forgotten "lung" with the rest of the Church. JPII liked to refer to the Eastern Catholics as "the other lung of the Church."
And with life in the Church moving the way it is, I think it is really important for me to stand up for my church and share my faith with others. The church is hoping to move towards unity between East and West and I am hoping to be a voice of that unity. I think that being Eastern Catholic puts me in an interesting place in this world. I have many Roman Catholic and Protestant friends; I even have a few Orthodox Christian friends. But I have few Byzantine friends, especially my own age. And I have been exposed to both East and West, and yet my Church is a bridge between the two. This allows me a unique perspective on the Church. And it is this perspective that I want to share with the world.
I will continue to share my life with you, especially once I go to Spain in the fall. I will even continue to share my bizarre news stories with you. But I will also attempt to share a bit of my Orientale Lumen with you.
Christ is Risen!
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Christ is Risen!
First off, I'll say that I was unable to take any pictures of any actual liturgical services that I attended last weekend. However, they were all wonderful. Friday night we had more than enough adventures for one weekend trying to get to and from Good Friday services. Saturday morning, my dad, Greg, Mark, Susanna, and I had Jerusalem Matins at home due to weather. The rest of the weekend went according to schedule.
If you are interested in seeing videos of Eastern Catholic services, check out this. It's the YouTube account for St. Elias (Elijah) Ukrainian Catholic Church in Brampton, Ontario.
If you are interested in seeing videos of Eastern Catholic services, check out this. It's the YouTube account for St. Elias (Elijah) Ukrainian Catholic Church in Brampton, Ontario.
Monday, March 17, 2008
All We Like Sheep
That's always been my favorite part of The Messiah. I love the idea that if you just look at the words, it seems like we're saying that we like sheep when really Handel (and an Old Testament prophet) is comparing us to sheep that go astray only to be found by The Shepherd who will break their legs and carry them around on His Shoulders until they learn to stay close to Him.
Well, it's Holy Week. I suppose it's fitting that it would be during Holy Week that I would have to spend most of my time writing papers. Today I have a paper about the effects of divorce on children due. Tomorrow, I have a paper about "A Room of One's Own" by Virginia Woolf due. And a week from today, I have my huge child development paper due. My goal is to have it done by Thursday so I don't have it distracting me when I should be focusing on praying and church services.
This year, my brother was asked to help cantor the Thursday evening service at the church we attend in Grand Rapids. He agreed and so we will be attending the "Twelve Gospels" service at St. Michael's Ukrainian Catholic Church in Grand Rapids. I've never been to this service before because most Byzantine Catholic parishes hold this service during the day on Good Friday and I'm always helping my mom with things around the house then. However, St. Mike's is holding the service on Thursday night and so Greg and I will be attending the service. Basically, it's a service that consists of reading St. Matthew's Passion, then St. Mark's Passion followed by St. Luke's Passion, and just for good measure, St. John's will conclude the evening. There are a few other prayers during the evening but the primary focus is on the Passion accounts in the Gospel.
Greg and I will be heading home after the 12 Gospels. Friday night, we will be back at our home parish, Sacred Heart Byzantine Catholic Church in Livonia. Here we will attend Good Friday Vespers with Burial Procession, an Eastern tradition. The basic idea behind this service is that it is Christ's funeral. At the end of service, we "inter" the Shroud of Christ in a "tomb" at the front of the church. The Shroud will remain there until Resurrection Matins on Sunday morning. The Shroud has an icon of the Body of Christ; around the edge of the shroud is written "The noble Joseph took down Your Most Pure Body from the Cross and wrapping it in clean linens laid it in a new tomb." The evening concludes with the veneration of the Shroud by the faithful while the cantors sing "Having suffered passions for us, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us."
After this, Greg and I along with our friends Mark, Susanna, and Charlotte will head home to explode Peeps in the microwave.
Saturday morning, my dad, Greg, Mark, Charlotte, Susanna, and I will head to St. Nicholas Byzantine Catholic Church in Detroit for Jerusalem Matins. This is primarily a service meditating on Christ's saving act of salvation and how he is the fulfillment of countless Old Testament Prophecies.
Sunday morning, we will attend Resurrection Matins, which obviously celebrates the Resurrection of Christ. This is followed by the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, which is pretty much normal except for a few things. The Gospel, which is John 1:1-18, is read in English, Greek, old Church Slavonic, Arabic, and Latin as a symbol of the proclamation of the Gospel to all the nations. After the Gospel, the deacon proclaims St. John Chrysostom's famous Easter homily. After this, we all go over to the parish hall, where the priest blesses our Easter baskets filled with traditional Slovak Easter foods such as egg bread, egg cheese, sausage, and hard-boiled eggs. (Okay, so we might like eggs.)
At some point next week, I'll try to put up some pictures of what this looks like.
Well, it's Holy Week. I suppose it's fitting that it would be during Holy Week that I would have to spend most of my time writing papers. Today I have a paper about the effects of divorce on children due. Tomorrow, I have a paper about "A Room of One's Own" by Virginia Woolf due. And a week from today, I have my huge child development paper due. My goal is to have it done by Thursday so I don't have it distracting me when I should be focusing on praying and church services.
This year, my brother was asked to help cantor the Thursday evening service at the church we attend in Grand Rapids. He agreed and so we will be attending the "Twelve Gospels" service at St. Michael's Ukrainian Catholic Church in Grand Rapids. I've never been to this service before because most Byzantine Catholic parishes hold this service during the day on Good Friday and I'm always helping my mom with things around the house then. However, St. Mike's is holding the service on Thursday night and so Greg and I will be attending the service. Basically, it's a service that consists of reading St. Matthew's Passion, then St. Mark's Passion followed by St. Luke's Passion, and just for good measure, St. John's will conclude the evening. There are a few other prayers during the evening but the primary focus is on the Passion accounts in the Gospel.
Greg and I will be heading home after the 12 Gospels. Friday night, we will be back at our home parish, Sacred Heart Byzantine Catholic Church in Livonia. Here we will attend Good Friday Vespers with Burial Procession, an Eastern tradition. The basic idea behind this service is that it is Christ's funeral. At the end of service, we "inter" the Shroud of Christ in a "tomb" at the front of the church. The Shroud will remain there until Resurrection Matins on Sunday morning. The Shroud has an icon of the Body of Christ; around the edge of the shroud is written "The noble Joseph took down Your Most Pure Body from the Cross and wrapping it in clean linens laid it in a new tomb." The evening concludes with the veneration of the Shroud by the faithful while the cantors sing "Having suffered passions for us, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us."
After this, Greg and I along with our friends Mark, Susanna, and Charlotte will head home to explode Peeps in the microwave.
Saturday morning, my dad, Greg, Mark, Charlotte, Susanna, and I will head to St. Nicholas Byzantine Catholic Church in Detroit for Jerusalem Matins. This is primarily a service meditating on Christ's saving act of salvation and how he is the fulfillment of countless Old Testament Prophecies.
Sunday morning, we will attend Resurrection Matins, which obviously celebrates the Resurrection of Christ. This is followed by the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, which is pretty much normal except for a few things. The Gospel, which is John 1:1-18, is read in English, Greek, old Church Slavonic, Arabic, and Latin as a symbol of the proclamation of the Gospel to all the nations. After the Gospel, the deacon proclaims St. John Chrysostom's famous Easter homily. After this, we all go over to the parish hall, where the priest blesses our Easter baskets filled with traditional Slovak Easter foods such as egg bread, egg cheese, sausage, and hard-boiled eggs. (Okay, so we might like eggs.)
At some point next week, I'll try to put up some pictures of what this looks like.
Monday, March 03, 2008
When I look to the sky...
I'm home on spring break, which puts me at being about halfway through the semester. It hasn't been a hard semester academically but it has motivated some serious thoughts on a more personal level.
1) My cat was diagnosed with thigh cancer in early January. He's still alive, and thoroughly obnoxious thanks to the steroids he's taking to help with the swelling in his thigh. They make him hungrier than normal, but he isn't being fed anymore than normal. We might send him off to hang out with Barry Bonds...
2) I'm starting to deal with the more practical details of preparing for Spain and while it's not a lot of work, it does keep me reminded that in six months, I'll be living in a foreign country, far from everything I know and am used to.
3) This one is probably the biggest thing I've been dealing with of late, but it requires a bit of explanation. On Good Friday 2003, I was diagnosed with migraines. For a fourteen year old girl, this was hard. I was put on a prescription daily "preventative" called Propranolol, which was to prevent migraines. I took this medication and struggled through migraines for about two years. While on a retreat on April 2, 2005, I was prayed over for healing from migraines and they left. I lived a migraine-free life from April 2, 2005 until December 21, 2005. That day, while spending time with some friends and celebrating the start of Christmas break, I had my first migraine in eight and a half months. Since then, I've lived with migraines that can often last for days and that have become more intense and more painful and more frequent with the passing of time. I've tried to treat them without prescription medication however, of that, that has become impossible. In the month of February, which is by the way the shortest month of the year, I had five migraines.
I know my "triggers": light and sound/noise. And I know that caffeine helps me. But it's hit the point where I need more. So this morning, I saw my doctor who put me back on Propranolol and added Imitrex to my life. Now I have a more powerful resource than a cup of coffee or a couple of Excedrin migraine tablets.
I've been asked why I don't want to be prayed over for healing in this area of my life. And believe me; I've thought about doing that. But I've been praying about it and I feel that isn't what God wants to do with my life right now. At some point, He may want to work in that direction with my life, but right now, He wants to do something else with my life. I know that God uses sufferings to bring us closer to Him and to work in our lives, so I'm going to trust that there is something God wants to do in my life right now and He is working through my migraines to accomplish it.
That's my life right now. It's not exciting or dramatic, but God is working in it. And maybe someday, I'll understand it better.
1) My cat was diagnosed with thigh cancer in early January. He's still alive, and thoroughly obnoxious thanks to the steroids he's taking to help with the swelling in his thigh. They make him hungrier than normal, but he isn't being fed anymore than normal. We might send him off to hang out with Barry Bonds...
2) I'm starting to deal with the more practical details of preparing for Spain and while it's not a lot of work, it does keep me reminded that in six months, I'll be living in a foreign country, far from everything I know and am used to.
3) This one is probably the biggest thing I've been dealing with of late, but it requires a bit of explanation. On Good Friday 2003, I was diagnosed with migraines. For a fourteen year old girl, this was hard. I was put on a prescription daily "preventative" called Propranolol, which was to prevent migraines. I took this medication and struggled through migraines for about two years. While on a retreat on April 2, 2005, I was prayed over for healing from migraines and they left. I lived a migraine-free life from April 2, 2005 until December 21, 2005. That day, while spending time with some friends and celebrating the start of Christmas break, I had my first migraine in eight and a half months. Since then, I've lived with migraines that can often last for days and that have become more intense and more painful and more frequent with the passing of time. I've tried to treat them without prescription medication however, of that, that has become impossible. In the month of February, which is by the way the shortest month of the year, I had five migraines.
I know my "triggers": light and sound/noise. And I know that caffeine helps me. But it's hit the point where I need more. So this morning, I saw my doctor who put me back on Propranolol and added Imitrex to my life. Now I have a more powerful resource than a cup of coffee or a couple of Excedrin migraine tablets.
I've been asked why I don't want to be prayed over for healing in this area of my life. And believe me; I've thought about doing that. But I've been praying about it and I feel that isn't what God wants to do with my life right now. At some point, He may want to work in that direction with my life, but right now, He wants to do something else with my life. I know that God uses sufferings to bring us closer to Him and to work in our lives, so I'm going to trust that there is something God wants to do in my life right now and He is working through my migraines to accomplish it.
That's my life right now. It's not exciting or dramatic, but God is working in it. And maybe someday, I'll understand it better.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
L is for the way you look at me...like I'm crazy
O is for the only one I see....reading this.
V is very very extraordinary...in that it's Thursday.
E is even more than anyone that you adore...but why you would adore me is beyond me...
Happy Feminine Mind Control Day! I hope it will treat you all wonderfully. Eat lots of chocolate (providing you didn't give it up for Lent) and make sure to get back to work on a diamond-studded chocolate shoe as soon as you have the time.
V is very very extraordinary...in that it's Thursday.
E is even more than anyone that you adore...but why you would adore me is beyond me...
Happy Feminine Mind Control Day! I hope it will treat you all wonderfully. Eat lots of chocolate (providing you didn't give it up for Lent) and make sure to get back to work on a diamond-studded chocolate shoe as soon as you have the time.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Back to Before
So the gorgeous flowers you can now view to the right of my "eloquent" postings was taken on my coffee table this past Saturday. The beauties were given to my household by our neighbors this past Friday. The guys live two doors down from us and are in a Christian rock band. I guess they had a bunch of vases of flowers like this from a photo shoot and our mutual landlord suggested that they give us a vase of them. So late Friday night (while I was elsewhere) Jerry brought the flowers over.
If you examine the picture closely, you'll notice the presence of several tie-dyed roses. These roses were $30 per stem, imported from the Netherlands. I'm sitting here now looking at the flowers and they make me so happy. I love flowers and these ones are just so colorful and cheerful.
Beyond the flowers, my life continues in its usually drudgery...I'm working something like 20 hours this week, which is busy but really good. I need the money. I was sad, very sad, to see the Patriots lose, but I guess that it's a reminder that no one is perfect.
Feminine Mind Control Day is quickly approaching. I can't wait for it to end; I'm sick of all the pink and red crap in the stores.
If you examine the picture closely, you'll notice the presence of several tie-dyed roses. These roses were $30 per stem, imported from the Netherlands. I'm sitting here now looking at the flowers and they make me so happy. I love flowers and these ones are just so colorful and cheerful.
Beyond the flowers, my life continues in its usually drudgery...I'm working something like 20 hours this week, which is busy but really good. I need the money. I was sad, very sad, to see the Patriots lose, but I guess that it's a reminder that no one is perfect.
Feminine Mind Control Day is quickly approaching. I can't wait for it to end; I'm sick of all the pink and red crap in the stores.
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