Hymn to the Theotokos- series on Divine Liturgy

after the consecration of the Holy Eucharist, the priest continues...

PRIEST: (silent prayers then-) Especially for our most holy, most pure, most blessed and glorious Lady, the Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary.

PEOPLE: It is truly proper to glorify you, who have borne God, the ever-blessed and immaculate and the Mother of our God. More honorable than the Cherubim and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim, who, a Virgin, gave birth to God the Word, you, truly the Mother of God, we magnify.

Truly proper (or 'fitting'), glorify, magnify; I like the words here. It is fitting that we give respect to the Theotokos, the Mother of God. She who gave birth to God the Word is above the angels. We don't worship her, but we praise her for her YES to God. We don't ignore her as some religious traditions do, but we sing this song directly to Mary (notice that we sing "you" twice during this song) during every Divine Liturgy because of her vital role in salvation history. By the way, that title of Theotokos (Mother of God) is important not to make Mary a demi-God. It emphasizes the dogma that Jesus was, is and always will be God and man. Being born of a woman did not diminish His divinity.

for your edification

what is the Divine Liturgy

is Theophany Epiphany

can I go to Byzantine Catholics

priest's wife

wife of priest

priest's wife exists

Christmas lights not made in China

lights not made in China

China food delicious

can a Catholic priest eat at a parishioner's home

what does Bill Clinton fear

if you really needed it

fear not

fear

why fear

james thurber

penguins

smile and wave

inspired by Simcha Fisher- yes, this search word poetry knows it's bad

Once more, with feeling...

Epiphany/Theophany has come and gone, so the highest holidays of the Christmas season are over. Most of us have been busy with cleaning and decluttering and organizing after the decadent (whether or not we feel well-off- if one lives in the West and has computer access, one is richer than most of the world) past weeks. We have had a lot of fun and opened a lot of presents from family and friends. I don't look at labels or countries of origin when we receive a gift- but this little gift gave me pause.

I must admit, when we got four of these 'stockings' I first thought to myself- Does Soulemama get these kinds of gifts? No, she probably receives only intentional gifts of organic, hand-dyed, local somethings (I kid- she is a favorite even though I will never live the life on her blog). But then I got mad.

I'm not mad at the lovely person who probably thought to herself on the way to Christmas Liturgy that she just had to have a treat to give to the kids. I really appreciate that, for the most part, my children are loved  by those who join us at church.  I'm just at mad at the situation that we seem to be in the West. In our lust for cheap goods, we have sold so much of our manufacturing backbone to China. We expect everything to be 99 cents. We consider it a triumph when candy canes are made in Mexico instead of China. 

I remember learning in high school that the two important industries of Oregon were being sent to China- lumber and salmon would be harvested in Oregon but processed in China, then sent back to the States with Made in America tags. But who wants to pay $20 a pound for processed in America salmon? Just a bit of food for thought...

click on the 'China' label below for other posts of mine on the subject

Random QuickTakes for a New Year

1. I didn't make many resolutions this year- I'm just trying to accomplish the goals I've blogged about in the past year! But I have been successful in not blogging much. 

2. Extreme pet peeve- those people who equate married priests with woman priests, actively homosexual priests, self-consecration of the Eucharist, etc, etc. This past week, a bishop has fallen from grace (well, he did that a long time ago) and has admitted he has two children. Allowing him to have been married wouldn't have solved this specific problem. Most likely, he is the kind of man who didn't take to keeping vows of any sort. We are praying for his soul; the scandal is serious as is the fact that he fathered two children and then wasn't present for them in their needs. Sins all around for the bishop...

3. We had a real New Year's party at the 'big mission' and the parish priest of the actual parish (they rent us the space- they are Byzantine Catholic, too- different ethnicity) let us sleep in the classroom connected to the big hall so we didn't have to drive an hour towards home in the middle of the night.  The last people left the party at 3:45 or so. We slept until eight, cleaned some more and then had Divine Liturgy as usual at 11:30. Yes, the little ones yawned, but we made it through.  So balance is possible. Work all day Friday and Saturday to set up and cook for the party- have Liturgy at the small mission- drive an hour to get to the big mission- have a party from 8 to 3:45- clean for an hour-go to sleep- clean some more- go to Liturgy at 11:30- have a leftover lunch with parishioners until about 3- finish cleaning- get home at about 6- get the little ones in bed because the sun is down anyway and they don't read clocks- watch an episode of Dick van Dyke with the big girls- plan for next year's party

4. Speaking of balance- my sister got an organizing book for Christmas. Not surprisingly, some of the advice was a bit too minimalist for my taste. It says to have only 4 pots in the kitchen. Um, no. But it did inspire me to Goodwill the set of pots I had before I got a different set about 6 years ago. I also decluttered some utensils and old plastic containers. I'm trying for balanced baby steps. The book also says that the goal for photos should be two photos per event and to retire with about 800 photos total. Um, no. But it did inspire me to delete some frankly lousy photos and to pick the best of a set of the same pose. I also have three bags of clutter to drop off at Goodwill.

5. Why my brother-in-law rocks- he fixed the circuit in the kitchen, thus giving me back three outlets. No more extension cord! He also narrowed down my problem with the dryer- now, I just have to tell the problem to the repairmen. On the downside, he-who-listens-to-Greek-on-his-Ipod-and-is-writing-a-book-about theology/art/etc introduced my kids to the annoying orange (warning- do NOT youtube that).

6. Life with 12 1/2 and 11 1/2 year olds- we got to run to see the new Mission Impossible movie. The theater is very close to the house, so they watched the little ones and saved us $10+ per hour for babysitting. The girls said to deduct it from their ballet costs. Will do, girls. 

7. Just a little thought from Father's homily from last Sunday (I think- remember our readings will be different than Roman-rite)- Mary losing Jesus for three days and finding him at 12 in the temple was a foreshadowing of the three days in the tomb. She kept all these things in her heart, and Jesus was always about His Father's business.

find more quick takes at conversion diary.com

Life's Sweet

celebrating Wordless Wednesday