Ask the Priest

The Triodion. We’re just past the Theophany and already our attention turns to the Great Lent and Pascha - the feast of feasts! As part of this preparatory season you’ll hear references made to the “Lenten Triodion,” or just the “Triodion;” so what is it, exactly? It actually refers to two distin

The Book(s) of Needs - Great and Small. In Greek the term is euchologion “book of prayers;” in Slavonic we call it the trebnik - “book of needs.” Either title is appropriate, but the latter tends to make more sense to me personally because with a few exceptions, the services in the Book of Needs a

When was Christmas? Every year around this time the articles and memes start popping up, trying to convince us that our celebration of Christ’s Nativity is at best in error, and at worst, promoting paganism. The most common ones indicate that it’s actually Saturnalia, Sol Invictus, the Winter Sols

Christ in Hades?! There are three mentions of Hades in the Divine Liturgy - one in the proskomedia, one during the 6th Hour in Psalm 54, and one just after the Great Entrance, where echoing the first the priest says (referring to Christ), “In the grave bodily, but in Hades with Thy soul as God; in

Monasticism. I am fond of saying that our beloved monastics are the heart of the Church because they have separated themselves from the world to focus on praying for those of us stuck here in the world. That said, there is a lot of confusion about what monastics are, what they do, and how we ough

Monasticism. I am fond of saying that our beloved monastics are the heart of the Church because they have separated themselves from the world to focus on praying for those of us stuck here in the world. That said, there is a lot of confusion about what monastics are, what they do, and how we ough

Monasticism. I am fond of saying that our beloved monastics are the heart of the Church because they have separated themselves from the world to focus on praying for those of us stuck here in the world. That said, there is a lot of confusion about what monastics are, what they do, and how we ough

The episcopal vestments. I thought it might be interesting in the next several weeks to do a bit of an exploration on the stuff clergy wear - an explanation if you will, of why we wear what we do. This week we’ll look at the vestments unique to the episcopacy. Because the bishop is a priest also

I mentioned the week before last (and then forgot to follow up on it) the classification of feasts in the Church, so we’ll cover that now. In Orthodoxy, we rank our liturgical celebrations throughout the year according to a hierarchy of classifications, numbered first through fifth. So first and f

Before and After. This Sunday is the afterfeast of the Dormition, but just what does that entail? We look in the calendar (or at least we ought to) and see forefeasts, afterfeasts, and occasionally an apodosis; this week we’re going to talk about what each of these is, means, and requires of us.

I’ve just been asked a really good question by a protestant inquirer, and it’s one I’ve never really considered, so we’re going to work through it together! The question is, why isn’t the Holy Communion/ Eucharist, as we Orthodox understand it, cannibalism? I don’t know how many folks consider thi

What’s with all the bowing?! If you’ve been attending the parish for a little while (and especially through the Great Lent) you’ll have no doubt noticed that we do quite a bit of bowing in Eastern Orthodoxy! There are in fact at least five different kinds of bows that we perform, depending on the

Old Calendarists. What are they? Are WE them? This is an interesting topic that comes up from time to time, especially because we in ROCOR do in fact follow the Old, i.e., Julian/ Revised Julian Calendar, as opposed to the Gregorian calendar that other jurisdictions, e.g., the Greeks and Antiochi

My apologies - this one is going to run a little long(ish). The central prayer of the Divine Liturgy of the Faithful is called the anaphora (from the Greek for “offering up”), and it’s actually a bunch of prayers in a very specific sequence that we follow through as priest and congregation in the L

It’s been a busy week with Matushka out of town, so I’m handing off the Ask the Priest this week to our area Dean, Archpriest John Whiteford. Here is an excellent article he prepared last year regarding our Holy Tradition: http://fatherjohn.blogspot.com/2021/05/stump-priest-tradition.html

Theophany House Blessings. From the Theophany (January 19th, 2023) until Cheesefare Sunday (February 26th, 2023), Father will be blessing parishioners’ homes. This is something we do every year during this time with the newly-blessed holy water, and it’s an opportunity to renew the sanctificati

The 12 Days of Christmas. Every year, much to Father’s extreme irritation, retailers throughout the country start the 12 days of Christmas on roughly the 12th of December. They’ve had over two thousand years to figure out which side of Christmas the 12 days are supposed to be on, yet they continue

New (Old?) Martyrs. A martyr (from the Greek word for “witness”) is someone who has given their life for Christ, dying as a witness to the Orthodox Faith. There are also Great Martyrs - those whose deaths were particularly horrific, Hieromartyrs who died as priests, and Venerable Martyrs who died

Oriental Orthodox. We hear about them fairly often, and are frequently confused for them, but what are they? It’s especially confusing because “Oriental” means “from the East,” and we’re “Eastern” Orthodox, so what separates us? The Oriental Orthodox (hereafter OO for brevity) keep to the first t

Monasticism. I am fond of saying that our beloved monastics are the heart of the Church because they have separated themselves from the world to focus on praying for those of us stuck here in the world. That said, there is a lot of confusion about what monastics are, what they do, and how we ough

Monasticism. I am fond of saying that our beloved monastics are the heart of the Church because they have separated themselves from the world to focus on praying for those of us stuck here in the world. That said, there is a lot of confusion about what monastics are, what they do, and how we ough

The diaconal vestments. I thought it might be interesting in the next several weeks to do a bit of an exploration on the stuff clergy wear - an explanation if you will, of why we wear what we do. This week we’ll look at the vestments unique to the diaconate and subdiaconate. Like bishops and pr

The priestly vestments. I thought it might be interesting in the next several weeks to do a bit of an exploration on the stuff clergy wear - an explanation if you will, of why we wear what we do. The first item that goes on over the cassock is called a sticharion, usually a white garment, but i

A good one this week that surprisingly I haven’t been asked before: Why should we want Holy Communion? Featured in all four canonical Gospels, the Lord’s Supper is the central focus of the Divine Liturgy in which we hear that Christ blessed bread, broke it, said it was His Body, and the Apostles pa

We’ve got a really interesting and timely one this week, and best of all, the bulk of it was written for me! One of the topics that comes up from time to time in the Church is that of women’s ordination - why don’t we, why can’t we, isn’t it unfair, etc. These are all perfectly valid questions to

“Will not give thee a kiss as did Judas…” You hear it every week, and it’s one of the most-often asked, “why do we say that?!” questions that priest’s receive, so what’s up with it, and just what does it mean? So officially the whole bit that we recite together before partaking in Holy Communion i

Sergianism. Hot on the heels of last week's discussion of the old calendarists, let’s talk about one of their favorite claims to level against “world Orthodoxy” in general and ROCOR in particular - Sergianism! So as you might expect, the concept itself derives from someone’s name, Patriarch Ser

Last week, I wrote about the anaphora; this week I’d like to talk about the epiclesis - literally from the Greek “invocation.” The epiclesis is the part of the Divine Liturgy where God’s Holy Spirit is called to come down “upon us and upon these gifts” (the wine and the prosphora) and make them “tru

Wait, what - we’re fasting again?! Yep. This time we’re on the Apostles’ Fast, one of the earliest fasts of the Church, originally to officially close out the time of celebration following the Feast of Pentecost but now tied to the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul (for which we will someday require

Apostasy. I’ve had to mention it a few times, and it’s a sad occurrence, but it does happen, unfortunately. From the Greek (because of course it is) ἀποστασία, meaning rebellion, abandonment, or defection, this refers to the rejection of Christ and His saving power of baptism - a falling away from