Ask the Priest

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

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