Fathers of the Ecumenical Councils...

TODAY IS THE Commemoration of the Holy Fathers of the First Six Ecumenical Councils. To me even though this isn't one of the Twelve Great Feast of the year it is so important. This year my oldest will be studying some church history in addition to his 20th Century World History and the ecumenical councils are a large part of that. I want my kids to know about the councils and understand how important they are to what we believe and how we worship today.

In our studies we will be using Orthodox Christianity Volume I: The History and Canonical Structure of the Orthodox Church . I picked this up at the All American Council that was held here in Washington just recently. This is the first of several volumes that will be out. It looks like a wonderful resource and after speaking with a monk at the council it sounded like a good option for my teenage son. As I post throughout our school year I'll let you know how it goes.

As for today, read something about the councils. Go online and find an icon and talk about all that is represented. While we follow the life of Christ throughout the year and look to the saints for our example, we also honor the men that attended and upheld the faith at the councils so that we can be united in Christ today!

A blessed feast to you all!

Troparion - Tone 8

You are most glorious, O Christ our God!
You have established the Holy Fathers as lights on the earth!
Through them you have guided us to the true faith!
O greatly Compassionate One, glory to You!

Kontakion - Tone 8

The Apostles' preaching and the Fathers' doctrines have established one faith for the Church.
Adorned with the robe of truth, woven from heavenly theology,
It defines and glorifies the great mystery of Orthodoxy!

Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel

TODAY IS THE Feast of the Archangel Gabriel! Gabriel is one of my favorites. Keeping the feasts outside of the school year is some times more tricky, I must admit. One of the things I really appreciate about the school year is the structure it provides to my day. However there are important feasts during the summer that need to be celebrated and observed! For me today is one of them.

As we approach August there are so many wonderful feasts to participate in! The first of the month we begin the Dormition Fast that ends in the celebration of the most Blessed Theotokos! I especially love to decorate with all the lovely flowers that are in bloom. I also have a wonderful bread stamp and I bake a yummy sweet bread in celebration of her feast! But that's for another post.

During the fast we have the wonderful feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord (Aug 6) and the blessing of the fruit. I love taking my kids shopping for the tasty fruit for our basket and then taking it to church to have it blessed. Another special feast for our family is the Feast of St. Herman (Aug 9). He is a very special saint in our family and we try to make it up to Port Townsend, WA to the parish of St. Herman to take part in their celebration. They have a wonderful Liturgy and then a lovely salmon feast out on the lawn. Then we spend the day at the beach and wondering through the fun shops of Port Townsend. I look forward to it each year!

How do you keep the feast of the year? What are your traditions? I'd love for you to share what your family does with me through the comments! I read them all and try to respond to each one.

Troparion - Tone 4

Gabriel, commander of the heavenly hosts,
we who are unworthy beseech you,
by your prayers encompass us beneath the wings of your immaterial glory,
and faithfully faithfully preserve us who fall down and cry to you:
"Deliver us from all harm, for you are the commander of the powers on high!"

Kontakion - Tone 2

You look upon God's glory in heaven,
and bring grace from on high to earth,
wise Gabriel, leader of angels,
minister of God's glory, and divine defender of the world!
Save and preserve those who cry to you:
"Be our defense, so that no one can be against us!"

A blessed Feast of the Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel and blessed names day to all those Gabriels out there! Have a wonderful weekend!!

Feast of Sts. Peter & Paul...

Troparion - Tone 4 First-enthroned of the apostles, teachers of the universe: Entreat the Master of all to grant peace to the world, and to our souls great mercy! All night vigil. St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, Tacoma, WA Kontakion - Tone 2 Today Christ the Rock glorifies with highest honor The rock of Faith and leader of the Apostles, Together with Paul and the company of the twelve, Whose memory we celebrate with eagerness of faith, Giving glory to the one who gave glory to them! Blessed Feast Day to you all!

Spirit Monday...

THE HOUSE IS now quiet... and I can now organize my thoughts. Doing this blog thing does take a lot of time, but I'm enjoying it. However, trying to do it with the buzz of children during the day seems not to work for me. I can only keep so many conversations going at a time. Three chatty boys and trying to chat with you, well you should get the picture. But now the house is quiet... How I love the quiet! There are days that I think that if someone could just lock me in solitary confinement in a room full of yarn or fabric, some knitting needles or a sewing machine, that as long as I had a bathroom and meals I could be happy for a long, long time. Ha! Ha!

Today is the beginning of Spirit Week. After each Great Feast of the Church we celebrate the one that made the feast possible. So today, being Spirit Monday, we honor the all Holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, Who descended upon the Apostles at Pentecost. This was the fulfillment of our Lord's promise to send the Comforter to His disciples (John 14:16). At the services of Pentecost we return to singing

"O Heavenly King, the Comforter the Spirit of truth,

who art every where present and fillest all things,

treasury of blessings and giver of life, come and abide in us,

and cleanse us from every impurity

and save our souls O good One."



I especially love this prayer and it is such a comfort to hear it again during our services. It's one of the first prayers I teach my children to sing. I love to hear their little voices singing it during our evening prayers. Don't you just love to hear children sing. It's so sweet. Why is it that adults singing off tune doesn't sound nearly as sweet? Hmmmm....

Anyway, all in our home especially love Spirit Week! A whole week with NO fasting!! For those of you non-Orthodox reading, we fast each Wednesday and Friday during the year. Except during fasting periods, where we fast everyday for a period of time. So fast free weeks are very special to us. I hope to make some fun and more special than usual non-fasting meals on Wednesday and Friday this week to share with you. So stay tuned.

To celebrate the Feast of Pentecost Sunday we were able to get out and just enjoy the day. We had a lovely walk and then a nice meal afterwards. Even though it wasn't a particularly sunny day, it was warm and nice to just get out and admire God's creation.

Don't you just love buttercups...

My kids thought that this was the "X" tree, must be treasure close by...

Now I'm back to planning the week ahead... I hope you have a wonderful day and I hope your are able to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit visit upon you today and everyday!

Feast Days...

YESTERDAY WAS THE glorious Feast of the Ascension of our Lord! While we weren't able to do all that I would have liked it was a lovely feast. Feast days are such an important aspect of living the domestic church. When my oldest was young our whole education schedule was wrapped around the liturgical year. Feast days were days off and we always attended Vespers and Liturgy. At the time we belonged to a mission and my hubby was the only Reader for a time so we attended everything. My son always looked forward to the feasts of the church, mostly because he had the day off school I'm sure, but at least that's something.

It's important to me to have my children celebrate the feasts of the church. It's how we follow the life of Christ and honor his visitation on humanity. It never made sense to me that most people only celebrate Christ's birth and resurrection. What about what happened in between? I want my children to know and celebrate all the feast of the church. I'm slowly, very slowly working my way back to the rhythm of the liturgical year. What I was able to do with one I find more challenging to do with three. I say three because my oldest gets up and makes it to church on his own. We are blessed to live on the church property, so we can just walk down the hill.

Even though we were not able to make it to services for this feast this year we did observe the feast at home. For each of the 12 Great Feasts of the Church I always read about the feast, the children color the icon, we do an activity and often times I have something in the kitchen that we make. I also try to teach them the troparion for the feast. The problem here is that I'm still not great at all the tones without the aid of the choir. So we solider on and do our best.

All these things are wonderful tools to help teach about Christ, his visitation and why and how we, as mere humans can become more like Him. I think if you want to keep Christ in Christmas then we need to keep all His feasts and through these experiences we are more able to attempt to reflect his humanity and experience true joy that only He can bring.

Troparion - Tone 4
O Christ God, You have ascended in Glory,
Granting joy to Your disciples by the promise of the Holy Spirit.
Through the blessing they were assured
That You are the Son of God,
The Redeemer of the world!