On Incense

A few days ago I posted something on incense. But because of differences between the computers I was using the spacing was hoorible and the post was impossible to read. I deleted it.

I am trying again, now. As I said then, this paper is part of a very large book I give out to the men my friend Jeff brings to Holy Trinity Cathedral each year. (Jeff is a pastor at an Evangelical Free Church in the East Bay and once a year he takes a handful of men through a year of intense Bible study and a tour of other churches.) Below is the paper.

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On Incense

By Matt Karnes



Occasionally, a Protestant friend will ask me why we Orthodox Christians burn incense. Of all the questions I have been asked by my Protestant friends this is the most puzzling one. I mean burning incense to worship God is straight out of the Bible!
Of course, Orthodox Christians do not play liturgical archaeology, trying to figure out what the early Church did so we can copy them. We just do what we have received, trusting the Holy Spirit to keep our dogma and practice right. But for a Protestant, who is usually interested in doing what the early Church did, and is always interested in doing what the Bible says ought to be done, incense ought to be a no-brainer. There are three lines of complementary reasoning. Let’s look at the evidence.


I. Old Testament History and Prophecy
When God gave Moses instructions for building the Tabernacle (Exodus chs. 30,39, & 40) he said there would be a special altar for burning incense and that incense would burn on that altar forever. But we know that Israel failed to burn this incense. When King Hezekiah began to reign he said to the priests and Levites…

“…our fathers have trespassed, and done [that which was] evil in the eyes of the LORD our God, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the LORD, and turned [their] backs. Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy [place] unto the God of Israel. Wherefore the wrath of the LORD was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them to trouble, to astonishment, and to hissing, as ye see with your eyes.” (2 Chronicles 29:6-8)

But failure to burn incense to the God was not Israel’s only sin in regards to incense. Beginning in the reign of Solomon they offered incense to idols. Solomon’s error began when he irregularly burnt incense to God in high places instead of in front of the Ark of the Covenant (1 Kings 3:3) and degenerated into burning incense to false gods. (1 Kings 11:6-8). And for the next several hundred years, except for during a few short-lived revivals such as under King Hezekiah, the people of Israel and Judah consistently worshiped false gods by burning incense to them. And God sent his prophets to warn them.
“Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the LORD, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.” (Isaiah 65:7)

“And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.” (Jeremiah 1:16)

“Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry unto the gods unto whom they offer incense: but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble. For [according to] the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah; and [according to] the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars to [that] shameful thing, [even] altars to burn incense unto Baal…For the LORD of hosts, that planted thee, hath pronounced evil against thee, for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke me to anger in offering incense unto Baal.” (Jeremiah 11:12-13,17)

But not only did they offer incense to idols, they offered God’s incense to idols. In describing their spiritual adultery God said to the holy prophet Ezekiel:

“…they have committed adultery, and blood [is] in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through [the fire], to devour [them]. Moreover this they have done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my sabbaths.For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and, lo, thus have they done in the midst of mine house. And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to come from far, unto whom a messenger [was] sent; and, lo, they came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments, And satest upon a stately bed, and a table prepared before it, whereupon thou hast set mine incense and mine oil.” (Ezekiel 23:37-41)

Did you notice where God stopped talking to the Prophet and started talking directly to his people? The switch happened when God began describing how they committed their adultery with His incense and His oil. It is as though God became so angry at the misuse of things involved in His worship, even angrier than he was because of child sacrifice, that he had to “cut out the middle man” and speak directly to the adulteress.
And God was so disgusted by all of it that he said “Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; [it is] iniquity, even the solemn meeting.” (Isaiah 1:13) He was sick of Israel’s false piety. He was nauseated by the smell of their hypocritical incense. And he sent Nebuchadnezzar against them to enslave them and destroy the Temple, and incense was no longer offered to the LORD.
Eventually, God allowed the Jews to return to their homeland and rebuild the temple. And incense was again offered to the LORD in Zion. But even after the return from exile, the Jews did not regard the worship of God correctly. And God revealed something amazing to the prophet Malachi.
No, he didn’t reveal a time when incense would not be offered. He never had a problem with incense being offered by his worshipers. He was only angered when incense was not offered, when incense was offered to false gods, when His holy incense was defiled, or when people offered incense hypocritically. He never indicated that the incense offerings should stop. Rather, God gave every indication in the Old testament that incense should continue.
What God revealed to Malachi was that a time was coming when God would no longer accept offerings from the hands of the Jews. And instead of incense being burned only in Jerusalem it would be offered around the world.

“For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name [shall be] great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense [shall be] offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name [shall be] great among the gentiles, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Malachi 1:11)

The Orthodox hold that we are the fulfillment of this prophecy. Not only has God stopped the offering of incense by the Jews, but from the Sun’s rising to its going down, that is, from east to west, all around the world the gentiles are offering incense to the LORD.

II. The New Testament and the Early History of the Church
II. The New Testament and the Early History of the Church
From Matthew to Revelation the New Testamant shows that incense is used to worship God.
The Gospel of Matthew records the first gifts given to Jesus. These gifts, as everyone knows, included incense. This makes complete sense given that in ancient cultures gods were worshiped with offerings of incense. Thus the fulfillment of the prophecy of Malachi 1:11 began with the Magi who worshiped Jesus.
In the Book of Revelation, which the Orthodox look to as more of an instruction manual for worship than as an omen of things to come, one reads of John seeing an angel burning incense before the throne of God, and of an angel throwing a burning censer to earth.
In between the Gospel of Matthew and the Book of Revelation lies the rest of the New Testament. And, not surprisingly, it does not contain a command from Jesus or any of the Apostles that can be interpreted as a command to stop burning incense to God. On the contrary, we know that the Apostles continued to worship at the Temple, where incense was continuously being offered to God. That seems to be all there is to it. But is it really? What about St. Stephen and the other deacons?
When thinking about Stephen there seem to be two things to consider. First is the Iconography. The Iconography of the Orthodox Church follows certain rules. The most important of which is, only paint what others before you have painted. This is important because we know that Stephen burned incense before the Lord from the Icons. Every extant Icon of him shows him holding a censer. Now why should this matter? Because the Orthodox regard innovation with great suspicion. The last thing an Orthodox Christian, especially an Iconographer, would want to be called is an innovator. If, say, in the 12th century icons suddenly appeared showing Stephen with a censer in his hand when hitherto Icons showed no censer there would have been riots. There would have been councils called. Iconographers would have been anathematized. Bishop would have been deposed. But there is no record of any such disturbance.
The second part about Stephen and the other deacons is the very name deacon. If we look at the description of angels as ministering spirits in Hebrews 1:14 we will see why this matters. Here is the text arranged inter-linearly (Greek text in root form):

Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to
eisi ouchi pas leitourgikos pneuma apostello eis


minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?
diakonia dia mello kleronomeo soteria?


Two of the four words used to describe angels are liturgy and deacon. And what is the Orthodox deacon’s main liturgical role? It is to offer incense and prayers to God. What is the liturgical role of the angel in Revelation 8: 3-5? It is to offer prayer and incense to God. In this, at least, the angel and the deacons share their work.
And this explains why so many Christians before A.D. 318 went to the deaths rather than burn a pinch of frankincense before a stature of the Roman emperor. They knew from Scripture and from watching their deacons in Church that incense is only to be burned to God.
Here, I think I should mention the argument made by some protestant anti-Catholic polemicists. It has been said by some of them that there is no reference to incense in Christian worship prior the the 5th century. I do not know how to answer this except to say that, perhaps, this is a case of confusion coming about because the Liturgy of St. Pope Gregory (also called the Liturgy of Pre-sanctified Gifts) is an evening liturgy and includes the famous verse “Let my prayer arise as incense, and the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice”. But this should not be a cause for confusion since the Jews chanted this same verse in their evening prayers long before there ever were Christians. And among the Jewish services early Christians adapted for their own use was the evening prayer service.



III. Worship and the Heavenly Temple

When Moses built the tabernacle he was following a pattern that God showed to him in Heaven.

“And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee, [after] the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make [it].” (Exodus 25:8-9)

“Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, [that] thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.” (Hebrews 8:5)

Additionally, in the Jew’s Talmud holds that Moses followed the pattern of heavenly things:

“It was taught: R. Jose b. Judah says, An ark of fire and a table of fire and a candlestick of fire came down from heaven; and these Moses saw and reproduced, as it is written, And see that thou make them after their pattern, which is being shown thee in the mount. Will you then say the same [of the tabernacle], for it is written, And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which hath been shown thee in the mount! — Here it is written ‘according to the fashion thereof’, whilst there ‘after their pattern’.” (Menacoth 29a)


This idea of the heavenly temple is further reinforced by a striking correspondence between the Book of Numbers and the Book of Revelation. In Numbers chapters two and three is the record of the placement of the Israelites around the Tabernacle. They are arranged in groups. Moses’ family, the 12 tribes, the three sons of Levi and the 8 grandsons of Levi. There were 24 groups and each group had a leader.

As expected, we see the corresponding number of leaders in the temple in Heaven: “And round about the throne [were] four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.” (Rev. 4:4)

There is also the correspondence of the seven lights to consider. In the throne room of God in are seven lamps or candlesticks (Rev. 4:5) while in the Tabernacle there was a 7-branched lamp.

In addition to the echoes of the Heavenly Temple to be seen in the Tabernacle, there is correspondence between the throne room of God and Solomon's Temple that bears on this matter. Before the throne of God there is a glassy sea (Rev. 4:5) while in Solomon's Temple there was a bronze sea ten cubits in diameter. But there was no sea in Tabernacle Moses erected in the wilderness. When was the existence of the Heavenly sea revealed? I don’t know. But there is an extremely bizarre text known as the Zohar used by Jewish Kabbalists (who are reported to be wizards) that says the plan for the Temple was revealed to David who relayed it to Solomon.

“Then he began to expound to them this verse: A song of degrees for Solomon (li-shelomoh). Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it; except the Lord guard the city, the watchman waketh but in vain (Ps. CXXVII, 1-2). Said he: ‘Was it Solomon who composed this Psalm when he built the Temple? (for li-shelomoh could be understood to mean "of Solomon"). Not so. It was King David who composed it, about his son Solomon, when Nathan came to him (David) and told him that Solomon would build the Temple. Then King David showed unto his son Solomon, as a model, the celestial prototype of the Temple, and David himself, when he saw it and all the activities connected with it, as set forth in the celestial idea of it, sang this psalm concerning his son Solomon.” (Soncino Zohar, Shemoth, Section 2, Page 164a)

This seems to make sense, given David’s provision for the building of the Temple (1 Chronicles 22 & 29) and especially since God actually appeared to David at the threshing floor of Ornan (2 Chronicles 3:1). David could hardly provide the necessary material for the Temple if he did not know the pattern of the Temple!

Having established that the Temple and Tabernacle on earth are merely copies of the Heavenly Temple, that is the throne room of God, we can now look at incense. When St. John saw Heaven he saw that

“… another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer [it] with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, [which came] with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.” (Revelation 8:3-4)

You might ask, but what does this prove? Doesn't this just point to some spiritual truth? No. I do not think so. It is truth and it is spiritual, but that does not make it insubstantial. It does not make it less real. Think about that. Is Heaven less real than earth? Not at all.
Interestingly, this is a theme the Protestant writer, C.S. Lewis returned to over and over again. In his preface to Paradise Lost he wrote, “Everything except God has some natural superior; everything except unformed matter has some natural inferior.” Consider our experience of love. Isn’t it drastically inferior to God’s experience of love? The same is true of earth and Heaven. This place is barely real at all when compared to Heaven. Lewis called this world the Shadowlands, because that is all it is, a shadow of something more real. In his book the Last Battle, Lewis explains the idea like this…

"Perhaps you will get some idea of it if you think like this. You may have been in a room in which there was a window that looked out on a lovely bay of the sea or a green valley that wound away amoung the mountains. And in the wall of that room opposite to the glass there may have been a looking glass. And the sea in the mirror, or the valley in the mirror, were in one sense just the same as the real ones: yet at the same time they were somehow different — deeper, more wonderful, more like places in a story: in a story you have never heard but very much want to know. The difference between the old Narnia and the new Narnia was like that. The new one was a deeper country: every rock and flower and blade of grass looked like it meant more. I can't describe it any better than that: if you ever get there you will know what I mean. It was the unicorn who summed up what everyone was feeling. He stamped his right fore-hoof on the ground and neighed, and then cried: "I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia so much is because it sometimes looked a little like this. Bree-hee-hee! Come further up, come further in!"

Is there really an angel in heaven offering incense before the throne of God? Yes. There is. And that angel and his incense are more real than the deacons and the incense they burn in Orthodox Christian temples.
So, given all of this, let me ask my protestant readers a question: Why don’t you worship God the way he is worshiped in Heaven, the way Malachi said He would be worshiped on earth, the way the Orthodox have always worshiped Him? Can you be sure you are really worshiping God if you are not doing it according to the instructions He has given? Othodox doesn’t just mean “right believing” it also means “right worshipping”. So consider this your invitation.
There is nothing stopping you from worshiping God the way he wants to be worshiped. There is nothing stopping you from joining the community of believers that has existed since Pentecost so many years ago. Taste and see that the Lord is good.

My Son is a Paratrooper

Look at this. That is my son's unit. See that machine gun in the top picture? My son does that! Lord, make his aim true.

Funny (but true enough) Stuff

I just read this over at my friend Matt's Blog. I guess he found it at AmericanDigest.org


1. Scenario: Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.
1957 - Vice principal comes over to look at Jack's shotgun. He goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2007 - School goes into lock down, and FBI is called. Jack is hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

2. Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fist-fight after school.
1957 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up best friends.
2007 - Police called. SWAT team arrives. Johnny and Mark are arrested and charged with assault. Both are expelled even though Johnny started it.

3. Scenario: Jeffrey won't be still in class, disrupts other students.
1957 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by the principal. He returns to class, sits still, and does not disrupt class again.
2007 - Jeffrey is diagnosed with ADD and given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a learning disability.

4. Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2007 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy is placed in foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist tells Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself, and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has affair with psychologist.

5. Scenario: Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.
1957 - Mark shares aspirin with principal out on the smoking dock.
2007 - Police called. Mark is expelled from school for drug violations. Car is searched for drugs and weapons.

6. Scenario: Pedro fails high school English.
1957 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.
2007 - Pedro's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro is given a diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

7. Scenario: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a red ant bed.
1957 - Ants die.
2007 - Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Homeland Security, and FBI called. Johnny is charged with domestic terrorism. The FBI investigates parents; siblings are removed from home; computers confiscated. Johnny's dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

8. Scenario: Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Heather. Heather hugs him to comfort him.
1957 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2007 - Heather is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces three years in state prison. Johnny undergoes five years of therapy. Johnny sues Heather and the school, settles for $2.5 Million.

Death

This is pretty neat. St. Vladimir's Seminary Press has made available audio from their summer institute on death.

This is pretty gross. One can have a corpse transformed into a diamond. I'm not making this up. What's wrong with a coffin?

I just recently watched Master and Commander on DVD. (We have a new iMac Duo.) There was a funeral scene in that movie that had me in tears. The movie is worth renting. Perhaps, it is not for young children.

My friend Jeff, with whom I used to blog received some bad news today. His dad has inopperable cancer. It looks pretty grim. If you get a chance, please, pray for Bill.

this day

Woke up at 6 to take my wife to work. Stopped at Peet's for coffee on the way. (I lost my militta #2 filter holder.) After dropping Cyndi off at work the boys and I went to the park.

This particular park was designed by an award winning park architect named Royston. This park was mentioned in Dwell (my favorite architecture and interior design mag.) as one of the best parks for kids. My earliest memory of the place is of when I was 4 years old. I jumped into a concrete tunnel and split my head open. The doctor stitched me up and i was fine. Anyway, the boys and I went there today and had a good time. The water play area is fun for them. Because it was a school day and very early in the morning, they were the only kids there.

We went home had breakfast. Then Anselm got to work on his reading work. We are doing the Independent Styudy Program of our local school district. We want to home school, but I am not confident in my ability to teach reading. After working with him for a couple of hours (during which time little brother Basil was doing everything imaginable to destry the house.) It was time for a nap.

After nap we went to BevMo where we bought a case of S. Pellegrino. It is my fave sparkling water. And BevMo is the only place where I can find 500ml bottle with a real bottle cap. (I hate twist off.)

I've tried other sparkling waters, of course. I like San Faustino for it its bubbles are light and gentle but it is a little chalky. And Calistoga is local but too carboniferous. Gerolsteiner is good in a pinch. But I don't understand the price. I don't think it is worth 10% more than San Pellegrino.

From BevMo we went home and made lunch. But first I read to them. Basils new favorite book is a version of Stone Soup set in China. Lunch, of course was soup. It is so much fun to see the boys weilding big chef's knives and cutting up celery, garlic, parsley, leeks, cabbage, etc. It was a crasy kind of soup with some of every kind of vegetable in the house thrown into the pot. (But the San Marzano tomatoes really made it.) Anslem like the liquid part while Basil liked the solid part. So, I guess, it was a success.

After lunch we went tot he Palo Alto Children's Museum and Zoo for a little while and then we picked up mommy from work. Soup for dinner followed by teeth brushing and reading of the Hobbit. Anselm is really enjoying it.

One thing about home schooling that is really neat is getting to pray right before instruction begins. The boys like watching me struggle to get the incesne going. (Anslem always has lots of advice: "Blow - put the match on it - hold the charcoal higher", etc.) Basil just gasps every time I light a match. (I always need at least three to get it going.) Now you might be wondering "why is Incense a big deal? You're Orthodox. You should be used to it." Well, at Church, yes. But my wife doesn't like the charcoal smell, so we don't usually use it at home. But since success in education is so imprtant, and to make sure Anselm understands how important it is, we burn incense when we pray before lessons.
Then we light the lamps before the Holy Icons and pray O Heavenly King , which is the prescribed prayer for such occasions.

Its a good life. I need to try harder to be thankful for it.

Two things I learned this week

1. One shoud avoid whistling Village People tunes in the locker room of the Y.M.C.A.
2. Chinese Five Spice is not a good substitute for for any other spice, especially not for chili powder.

The cure for my prior nostalgia

Helen: True, but for people who haven't read the New Testament but hear someone tell them that "God is compassionate" couldn't that be understood as "we shouldn't suffer in this life"?

Fr. Tom: If someone said to me "God is compassionate," I'd remind them that the word "compassionate" means co-passionate or co-suffering. The God who is compassionate is the God who suffers with us. He's not the God who takes our suffering away in the fallen world. Never forget that the ultimate revelation of God on the planet earth is in the bloody corpse of a dead Jew hanging on a cross in front of the city of Jerusalem, put to death by Gentiles between two thieves, in the most horrible, vile, wretched method by which a person could die, which, according to Mosaic Law, was even cursed. That's the Christian faith.

From an interview here.

Conservapedia

It may be that you have heard of Conservapedia, the conservative alternative to wikipedia. I thought it sounded like a good thing, and I wrote a couple of articles for it. For instance, I wrote the first half of the "Christianity" article - from the top of the page through the Jesus sub-head. I also began work on the "Salvation". I was attempting to cover all of the major theories of how we are saved, including a discursive on soteriological conflits within conservative Protestantism (e.g. Calvinism vs. Arminianism).

I went back to the site on Saturday night to continue work on the article when I saw that one of the Sysops deleted everthing I wrote, put in something that is very similar to the Four Spiritual Laws, which is a good example of St. Anselm's satisfaction theory. I don't mind being radically edited. (Being a wiki contributer is not for the thin-skinned) No, what galled me, I mean totally fried me, was that my user account was blocked!!!! Think about this: I am the most conservative man in Santa Clara County and I was banished from Conservapedia. (Credentials: I was in the room when Reagan made his Evil Empire speech, raised money for the Contras, never voted for a pro-abort or a Democrat, and got all my friends who were 18 to register as Republicans when I was still to young to vote.)

I wrote to the Sysop who blocked me but heard nothing. On Sunday night I wrote to the chief Sysop. I still haven't heard anything. It seems that my tribe has rejected me.

(In case you are wondering, Orthodox Christians adhere to a version of what is known to Westerners as the Christus Victor theory of salvation.)

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Update: I've been reinstated but the sysops will not let anyone alter the Salvation article, even though, as I've pointed out to them, some very heavy hitting conservatives such as Justice Antonin Scalia, Paul Wyrich, and Bill Buckly disagree with the the conservapedia sysops' explanation of salvation.

Harry's Patronus

I have several times in old books seen illustrations of a stag or hart with a cross in it's antlers. I never knew why there was a cross there until I read an article at Hogwartsprofessor.com about the Stag being code for Jesus. But even in that article there was no explaination of why, other than the falling off and regrowing of the antlers. But our brother at Biblicalia just poisted this. I'm copying it here for your edification:

The General and the Saint
General Placidus had been hunting the great-antlered, magnificent stag, the finest he’d ever seen, for three days now. He and several of his servants had followed it through a wooded valley to the side of a mountain late in the day, just a great storm blew in. The proud general gained the distinct impression that he was being taunted by this haughty stag, which seemed to be leading them onward, waiting, and then bounding out of range of their javelins as soon as he or his men would close in. Now the rain began pouring down, and day seemed to turn to night. Lightning began to flash all around, and the thunder was deafening. Still, the general could catch glimpses of the stag further up, higher up, waiting, but then always moving toward the top of this rocky mountain. He looked for his men, but couldn’t see them, shouted, but they could not have heard him through the downpour and the thunder. For all he knew, they may have been felled by the lightning already or fallen down the steep slopes. In the prime of his life after many conquests in the far-flung empire of his lord the Emperor, Placidus continued uphill, pulling himself up the rocky face hand over hand, feet finding slight purchase on the slick rock, the rain running off his cloak. With a flash of lightning just above, he sees the mighty stag standing on a jutting rock just above him, very close, looking down at him. A little more climbing, and he finds himself exactly where the stag was, on a roughly level area, next to a craggy peak. More flashes of lightning illuminate the scene, and he sees the stag looking back at him and bounding up the peak itself. Placidus roars and bounds forward himself, javelin at the ready, knowing the stag will have little chance of escape. Lightning strikes dangerously close all around the general, and yet he scrambles onward and upward. He can no longer see the stag. There, near the peak, he sees what seems to be a cleft in the rock, and a glow coming from within it. He supposes his men to have found a cave and set up a fire within, the lazy slaves. Still, a warm fire in a dry cave without lightning flashing all about would be welcome. Yet he wondered where the stag went, if not into this very cleft. He heads toward the cleft in the rock, and then notices the strange quality of the light, how it is steady and bright, like sunlight, not flickering like a fire. He proceeds out of the rain, entering the cave cautiously, but then stops in his tracks, dropping his javelin. There, inside, stands the stag, magnificent, mighty, bigger than any stag should be, with the finest antlers imaginable. Placidus, the fearless general, commander of Rome’s legions, is suddenly frightened, for between the mighty antlers of the great stag shines the image of a man on a cross. The great stag stands, noble, impassive, staring directly down at Placidus, who falls face-down in worship, striking his fists on the floor of the cave, weeping. He knows the Crucified One. He hears a mighty voice, loud as the thunder, and is paralyzed, nearly fainting in fear. It says, “You have hunted Me long enough, Placidus. Now you have found Me.”

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~
After his visionary conversion experience, the general Placidus and his family were soon all baptized as Christians, with him taking the baptismal name Eustachios, either late in the reign of Trajan or early in the reign of Hadrian. He gave most of his wealth away to help the poor. He and his family died as martyrs for the faith, after refusing to worship the gods of Rome. The feast of St Eustachios, also known as St Eustachius and St Eustace, and his family, is 20 September in the West, and 2 November in the East. The place of his conversion, where he saw the vision of the stag, is called Mentorella, and is a place of pilgrimage.

News of My Son's Unit

Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Friday, August 3, 2007

An officer who was killed Tuesday in Afghanistan has been identified as a member of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, based in Vicenza, Italy.

First Lt. Benjamin Hall, 24, assigned to Company D, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne), died in Asadabad, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when his unit was attacked by insurgents in the Chowkay Valley, according to a Department of Defense news release.

Hall is from Virginia, the release stated, but his hometown wasn’t listed. The Virginian-Pilot newspaper of Hampton Roads, Va., reported his hometown was still being verified. Little other biographical information was available on Thursday.

Hall was at Vehicle Patrol Base Seray when enemy forces initiated an attack from multiple locations, according to a news release issued by Southern European Task Force (Airborne), the higher headquarters of 173rd.

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By Mark St.Clair, Stars and Stripes,
Mideast edition, Wednesday, August 8, 2007


His name is Tank, and the U.S. soldiers have no idea where he came from, nor do they care. All they know is that he’s one heck of a scout here in eastern Afghanistan.

Sure, he’s got the standard allotments of unconditional love, dogged loyalty (he is, after all, a dog), and infinite patience. He gives those to the grunts in spades.

All the enemy sees is the feral beast within.

“We’ll be at an observation point, and Tank’ll hang out with us. Every once in a while, he’ll run around the perimeter sniffing and marking his territory. Any time we go on patrol, he’s with us,” said one 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team soldier from Task Force Rock. “If he hears anything, he’ll just keep barking. He hates the [enemy].”

It’s tough to tell how old Tank is, with his lopped-off ears and wheezy breathing. Put him next to a team of infantrymen, and it’s anyone’s guess who’s dirtier. His bark-box still works, though — so much so that one company commander told his troops to either have Tank removed from the base or he would “be removed.”

The men got him out on a convoy the next day. Three days later, he showed back up, having walked for miles in the summer heat. As soon as he made it, the soldiers said he fell over from exhaustion.

One paratrooper had given him an unopened water bottle; Tank still managed to get a drink, happy to be with young soldiers who treat him as one of their own.

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A platoon who will remain nameless for security reasons is using magic to try to flush out enemy activity in the eastern Afghanistan mountains near a small base occupied by 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team soldiers.

Part radio equipment, part oscillating fan, “Magic Man II” is also all bunk.

Set up to look like communication equipment, the decoy will eventually sit on a hillside across the valley from the troops, smack in the middle of an enemy hornet’s nest.

A far fancier version than his predecessor, Magic Man II will come with a host of improvements to make him look more like a real piece of equipment.

Magic Man I wasn’t very successful, one specialist said. “We had some kids come and start to play with it. We had to fire a warning shot to scare them away.”

The troops hope No. 2 will produce better results. With the amount of danger the platoon is in, they need all the help — magical or otherwise — that they can get.
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Memory Eternal!

While I was on vacation my friend Vladimir reposed in the Lord. I missed him during his illness. He greeted everyone who came in the door of the Cathedral and, given half a chance, would fill one's ears with stories of the radio industry. He is the only smoker I ever knew about whom it could be said, the force of his personality overcame the anti-gravity of his cigarette-smell. My son loved him. I hope I see him again.

Vacation

We are going on vacation. Its not the best time according to the calendar of feasts and fasts, but it is when my wife is able to get away. We'll be camping again but this time in the Hendy Woods. We liked the place we went last time but the nights by the ocean are SOOOOO COLD!!! This time we will be a little inland and protected from the cold, but close enough to Mendocino to go there, and close enough to the fun stuff in the Anderson Valley to go there for little day trips. We'll be gone five nights. Leaving right after church on Sunday.

Bragging on my wife

My wife is the hardest working person I know. In addition to her very important work at Stanford (which she does not enjoy) she just finished CERT training and she has a special helmet and an ominous looking backpack, is knitting Christmas presents for a whole bunch of people, is a much loved mother, and just got an A in her public finance course (final paper was an analysis of the effect of urban growth bounderies on housing prices in the S.F. Bay Area. With 4 semesters down and two to go she has a 3.86 gpa in her masters degree program at USF.). Ten years ago, if someone had suggested I would someday be married to a person like her I would have laughed. But, here I am married to a person like her. Who ever would have thought I would someday have a trophy wife? God is very good to me.

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Update.
My wife informs me that I reported her GPA wrong. She has a 3.95, not a 3.86 as previously reported.

Saurkraut

A few days ago someone left a comment on my post about pickles saying I should try Bubbies Old Fashioned Sauerkraut. I did. And it was the best sauerkraut had ever tasted. Thank you, Bubbies. You are marvelous.

I know a young boy who swallowed a tack.

Yesterday we had to drive drive drive to deal with stuff for my wife’s mom and pick up her ashes. There was a gathering of the female descendants of my mother-in-law. It was difficult for my wife. They asked her to pray but her mother committed suicide. That means there are only two possible prayers that an Orthodox Christian can offer. And each can be offensive to non-Orthodox. But she prayed one of them. And all went well. The ashes are in a little wooden box on a shelf about 2 meters from me. Heavier than I expected.

So, since nothing got done yesterday, today is chore day. After morning prayers Athanasia went to the store to buy stuff to make into a birthday present for my mom. And the boys and I picked raspberries. When Athanasia got back she joined us and we picked enough berries for a cobbler.

When the berries were picked we realized that we didn’t have all the necessary ingredients. So, back to the store for my wife. I sorted laundry, fed the boys second breakfast, and was starting in on the dishes when Anselm came running into the kitchen drooling from the mouth, grabbing his throat, and eyes bulging. He had swallowed a thumb tack.

Paramedics came and immobilized his head and neck, and transported him by ambulance to the ER where they could not find the tack in his throat. The M.D. wasn’t willing to go exploring down his throat without radiographs so we had to wait for an X-Ray camera to become available. While we were waiting he puked up a stomach full of raspberries and one thumbtack.
All of this happened before noon.

Basil is asleep. Anslem and Athanasia are finger painting. I’m taking break from chores to write this blog entry. My Mom’s birthday party is tonight.

Party Leaders Notice

Ahhh. The leaders admit Ron Paul is the guy the grass roots like. It is just a foot note but there it is.

Thoughts on HP7

I finished HP7 on Tuesday and have been thinking about it for a while. I'm sure all the real HP7 Scholars have already thought of these things and have published their ideas, but since I come to them independently (not that anything any human being does is independent.) I figure these are my ideas as much as theirs. That said, this is what I think.

Style: Even though this was (one of?) the longest Harry Potter novels it seemed rushed. Did Ms. Rowling just throw this one together?

The Hallows and the Horcruxes: It might have been intentional, and it might have been my lack of sleep while reading the book, but keeping track of what the mission was (e.g. finding the hallows or destroying the horcruxes) was confusing. It all got jumbled up there for a while, didn't it? But maybe that was her intention. Like us, we sometimes forget that we are supposed to be busy laying the ax to the root of sin in our lives and try to save our lives instead. That seems to be the problem Harry, Ron, and Hermione had. THey were given the clues to find the hallows, which would have allowed them to defeat death. But in gathering the hallows they would have had to neglect their assigned mission: destroying the horcruxes that allowed the enemy to keep returning. "He who would save his life will lose it."

Harry's death: Harry had to die. He had been practicing this in the previous 6 books, but in HP7 he actually died in order that others might live. It reminded me of St. Justin Martyr of whom it was said he was a martyr for his whole life before he ever laid his head on the chopping block.

Teamwork: Harry only destroyed a couple of the horcruxes, while others destroyed the rest. He was helped in all he did by Dumbledore, Snape, Hermione, Ron, and dozens of others. To them belonged the victory. THis was a picture of the Communion of the saints, of life in the church. Evil is overcome in community. Voldmort, on the other hand, did everything alone and for himself. THe only time he did anything with others it was completley for selfish reasons. And when he died with Harry Voldemorts soul seemed to be a lonely, deformed, crying infant. While Harry's soul was described as "a man" and he was in the company of Dumbledore whom he loved. All of this reminded me of something said by the Archpriest Victor, "The only thing we do alone is go to Hell." That is what happened to Voldemort.

There is more, but these are the main things. I don't want to catalogue all the things, such as the sword/cross in the pool and the baptism there, that are obvios allusions to Christian thought and practice.

So, my review is mixed. It was a good ending to the story but it could have been written better.

Byzantine Ruler quiz

Which Byzantine (they refered to themselves as Romans) ruler are you? Click here and take the test.

Me? I'm St.Theodora.

Theodora was the wife of the ninth-century emperor Theophilus and mother of the future emperor Michael III. Theodora ruled the lands after her iconoclastic husband died. She labored to overturn his heretical policies, chiefly by summoning a council that upheld the veneration of images of Christ and the saints. For this, she is herself honored as a saint by the Orthodox Church. Her feast day is February 11

Things overheard waiting for HP7

Friday night at 10:30 pm I woke Anselm, got him dressed and into the car and drove to the Borders Bookstore on University Ave. in Palo Alto. (It is located in the renovated movie palace where I saw Rocky Horror Picture Show many many years ago.) We got in line at 11:56pm. It was nuts. The police came through. Fire fighters were on hand. There were hundreds of people in the street. We heard some strange things standing in line.

1. "Yeah I just flew in from Austin an hour ago. But I had to come here and get the book before I could even think of going to my hotel."
2. "Why are the stormtroopers here?"
3. "Hey! Watch it with that wand, buddy!"
4. "Next person who gets on the fountain will be arrested. (Announced by a fire marshal flanked by two police officers."
5. "I'm not well known in the industry at large, but in the world IEEE standards I'm pretty famous."
6. Girl dressed like Hermione Granger #1: "Is she supposed to be Prof. McGonnagle?" Girl dressed like hermione Granger #2: "Only if Prof. McGonnagle is a slut."
7. "Actually, the stormtroopers aren't as strange as the 40 year old women dressed up like witches."
8. "We saw Skynard at Shoreline tonight. I held my lighter up for the whole song and totally melted it. Wanna see my thumb?" (Said by the drunken whisky smelling "dude! Its Summer!" elementery school teacher standing in line in front of us.)
9. "My iPhone is the first thing I touch in the morning and the last thing I touch at night."
10. "This is fun, Dad. I love Harry Potter." (Said by Anselm, who until that night had never even heard of Harry Potter.)

We stood in line for just over two hours. I bought book #7 for Athanasia and myself . I bought book #1 for Anselm. (For those who think Harry Potter is Satanic please look here.) Oh, in case you are interested, I read through to the end of chapter 24 on Saturday. But I haven't read any today since my wife had me building shelves, renting trucks, and moving furniture. I'll try to finish Monday night.

Do you hear those j-i-n-g-l-e bells off in the distance?

So, here we are in July. That means one thing and one thing only: It is time to start thinking about Christmas. Top of my "music I gotta buy" list is Brian Setzer.

Election

All I have to say is that Giuliani Girl has a better singing voice than Obama Girl.

News About My Son in the 503rd

My son is in the heavy weapons platoon of B Company, 2-503 Inf. Regt., part of the 173rd Airborne. He is a paratrooper. His unit has been in combat for a while now. They have suffered 3 KIAs but have killed over 4,000 Taliban. Below is the latest news I have of my son's company:

JALALABAD AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, July 9, 2007 – It's been almost 18 months since 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry (Airborne), 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, Task Force Rock, left Afghanistan after proving its capabilities against insurgents throughout operations in the southern part of the country. The battalion's success was notable as it established relationships with the population helping Afghan authorities develop a respectable fighting force, all while intensely finding, fixing and destroying large numbers of enemy on several occasions.
(PressZoom) - JALALABAD AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, July 9, 2007 – It's been almost 18 months since 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry ( Airborne ), 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, Task Force Rock, left Afghanistan after proving its capabilities against insurgents throughout operations in the southern part of the country. The battalion's success was notable as it established relationships with the population helping Afghan authorities develop a respectable fighting force, all while intensely finding, fixing and destroying large numbers of enemy on several occasions. More than a month after replacing 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, Task Force Rock has once again been charged with completing the task of taming the area between the Pech and Korengal valleys called the "Valley of Fire" by soldiers who patrol it because of the frequency of fire fights. "We are to conduct counterinsurgency operations in ( Regional Command ) East to destroy and defeat the insurgents and build the capability of Afghan National Security Forces to enable the ( Islamic Republic ) of Afghanistan ( to ) provide a secure and stable environment that deters the re-emergence of terrorism in the region," said Army 1st Sgt. LaMonta Caldwell, of Company B, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment. "The troopers of Battle Company, 2-503rd, understand our task at hand: first, to finish what 1-32 has already started -- working with locals to establish a sound-living environment, to help train and work side –by side with ( Afghan National Army ), and second, to eliminate forces that cause disruption to the process of a good, trustworthy government in our area of responsibility," he said. Already the "Sky Soldiers" placed along the triangular-shaped intersection of the two valleys have been in several fire fights and repelled various ambushes. But attempts to challenge the Rock's Paratroopers are a waste of the insurgents' time, Caldwell said. "The insurgents, as you may want to call them, will never match up with any troopers from Battle Company or Rock Battalion," Caldwell said. "This is not our first rodeo. We just left Afghanistan 16 months ago. A lot of those veterans are still around like me. We have been shot at before, mortared before, and we know what to do. Taking care of your buddy to your left and right is the key to our success, and getting after ( terrorists ) when they try to attack us is our motto. And that comes from the heart of these troopers in Battle Company, and no insurgent can match that." The soldiers based in and around the dangerous valleys have proven they have heart and much more in the short time since their arrival. As their war stories accumulate, their vested interest in the progress of the Afghan authorities becomes a personal matter. "We have fought with these guys," said Army Sgt. Raul Padilla, a Battle Company team leader at Firebase Phoenix, in the Korengal Valley. "This has become personal to us. The people, not just the soldiers and policemen, of Afghanistan are depending on us to help them get control of their country." Personal is the only way these hardened paratroopers can take the death of one soldier and several combat injuries in their battalion. But not even the death of their fellow soldiers will deter them, Padilla said. "We won't leave this valley until the insurgents leave, and if they won't leave we'll make it personal for them too," said Padilla, a veteran of Task Force Rock's last deployment to Afghanistan. "This area is now under the control of Afghan and coalition forces. The Taliban is going to have to go away or go around us because they aren't welcome here anymore." The sense of purpose these troops have gained goes beyond their specific jobs and ranks at this point, Army Spc. Jason Mace explained. "Slowly, we are accomplishing things here," Mace explained. "We've already done things we were told were impossible. They said we couldn't go to this area or pass that line, but we have. It's taking time, but it's not going to stop until we do something about it, and we are." The soldiers know their role in Afghanistan is important, said a platoon sergeant from Company A who lives at Firebase California, in the Pech Valley. His platoon's job is to secure an area that includes a road project, seven villages and an unknown number of enemies. "I hope they know by now why they are here," Army Sgt. 1st Class Jose Magaña said of his soldiers. "To look out outside the base and see people doing things, selling things, kids going to schools, even girls, that's why we're here, so that the Afghan people can do things many take for granted. It's not easy to bear all the sacrifices these soldiers are making, but their role is historic in granting people the same freedoms we have at home." One of the platoon's specific tasks is focused around a road project linking several population hubs through three districts. "Our job is to secure an area of the Pech River road," said Magaña, also a veteran of the battalion's last rotation to Afghanistan. "The strategic location and purpose of this road make it very valuable. We need to ensure the road's progress moves forward. This road will improve the lives of the people who live here, enhance the Afghan security forces' ability to control the area and stimulate economic and social development." Just hours after Magaña's interview, Firebase California fended off an insurgent attack. Despite persistent but apparently futile attempts to disrupt Task Force Rock's work, the battalion continues to push economic and social development. A good relationship with the local populace is a goal the battalion is working hard to achieve. "It's important to concentrate on both lethal and non-lethal aspects," said Army Maj. Scott Himes, Task Force Rock's plans and operations officer. "Historically this has been an area of safe haven for the insurgents. If we don't have a lot of positive interaction with the people, they will be susceptible to the Taliban's leverage. We have to rely on a partnership with the people." "We have to prove to them that there is a positive alternative," Himes said. "As we build trust with the people and the people trust more in the capacity of the Afghan governmental agencies, we can build long-term partnerships. They'll know we are going to stay and provide security." A recent flooding of the Pech River, which killed three people and destroyed one home and nine bridges, may have demonstrated the local government's commitment. As coalition forces came to offer aid, they were already in full swing planning repairs. The Pech district's sub-governor not only planned, but also with coalition help repaired the only road leading to the victims of the flood and delivered emergency relief.

Blast from the Past

My childhood and, I suppose, my adulthood (though I'm such a stuffed shirt), was formed in the midst of the Jesus People movement. (What does it mean to label something a movement?) So I sometimes find myself looking for Keith Green on YouTube, or looking for old issues of Cornerstone magazine. I also always notice when the movement shows up in the traditionalist Christian press.

A story I just read at First Things today contains this chuckle inducing paragraph: "Their conversions to Bible-believing Christianity were not the sort to rejoice the hearts of suburban, middle-class parents. The intelligence that one’s runaway daughter had given her life to Christ, been baptized in a bathtub, and taken up residence with a bunch of barefoot, long-haired, guitar-strumming, tongues-speaking twenty-year-olds in a place called Maranatha House was only marginally less disturbing to the average Methodist mother than the news that the same daughter had moved in with a professional tabla drummer and changed her name to Windflower." You can read the whole article here.

They brought him

On Sunday Bishop Benjamin preached (he's a pretty good preacher.) at my parish on the healing of the paralytic man. He focused on the fact that "they brought him" to Jesus; saying that often people do not go to Jesus on their own but have to be brought. It reminded me of the Assemblies of God deacon who followed my then 17 year old dad out of the house through a bedroom window to see him converterd. My Dad did not want to be brought to Jesus, but that Assemblies of God deacon wanted to bring him.

So I think to myself, am I supposed to be like that deacon? Do I grab the spiritually paralyzed and bring them to Jesus? How? I am always ready to explain the faith, I pray for people(its a long list), and try to be a light that attracts people to Jesus, but very few ever ask to introduced to him. I wonder if I am too afraid of offending people and losing friends to bring them to Jesus. Maybe, I don't really love them enough to do the outlandish thing that would bring them to Jesus. I don't know.

Changing my party again

Currently, I am member of the California Independent Party. But I saw a bumper sticker for Ron Paul yesterday and looked him up on the web just now. All I have to say is WOW!

-He is a veteran.
-He is a westerner.
-He is an OB/GYN in private practice with over 4000 deliveries.
-He is pro-life.
-He has never voted to raise taxes.
-He has never voted for an unbalanced budget.
-He has never voted for a federal restriction on gun ownership.
-He has never voted to raise congressional pay.
-He has never taken a government-paid junket.
-He has never voted to increase the power of the executive branch.
-He voted against the Patriot Act.
-He voted against regulating the Internet.
-He voted against the Iraq war.
-He does not participate in the lucrative congressional pension program.
-He returns a portion of his annual congressional office budget to the U.S. treasury every year.

I am going to change my registration to Repubican so I can vote for him in the February primary. If my wife and I had not agreed years ago not to give money to candidates I would be writing my check now.

Hierarchy

Recently, a certain priest in my Church has been criticized for, maybe, over-promoting the ideas of St. Dionysius the Areopagite. (Or, perhaps they were really the ideas of an anonymous writer known as Pseudo-Dionysius,who lived 400 or 500 years later. No one seems to know for sure.) I myself was once admonished by my dogmatics professor not to be "enthralled with P-D when thinking abour the Holy Mysteries." But it is difficult think St. Dionysius was wrong. Especially when what he wrote comports so well with Holy Scripture, and the teaching St. Ignatius of Antioch's description of the hierarchy in the local church, with Philo's explaination of the relationship between God and the Logos, and even the physical world.

My friend Matt brings to our attention an interview (in the Jerusalem Post) of George Gilder which contains this line: "The universe is hierarchical," says Gilder, with the intensity of someone racing to keep up with a mind constantly in overdrive. "And hierarchy points to a summit. The summit remains enclosed in fog, but this doesn't exclude the possibility that behind the fog is a divinity that we, through our faith, might worship."

If you have never heard of George Gilder, I would like to recommend his book Men and Marriage. This book is an amazing philosophical/sociological tour de force on manhood that is the antidote to 25 year olds who behave like 15 year olds. I read this book in the early 1990s and had no idea that Gilder was a scientist/engineer until today. Also, I thought he was much older.

----- Break----

When I was writing this earlier today I was at the park with my boys. I was using the "free" local Google WiFi network. Then the signal dissapeared. And I lost about half of what I said. It happens al the time with the Google WiFi. Such a hassle. Now I'm at a closed Starbucks, sitting in my car, connected to the Starbucks/tmobile network. It costs money but it never drops me.

Islam Is Evil

Christians in Gaza, Saqer declared, who dare to engage in "missionary activity" will be "dealt with harshly,"

Read the whole thing here.

I Was Tagged

I've never been tagged in one these games before. Thanks, Leah.

Here are the rules…
1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

My Eight Things:
I know which gin to use in a negroni (Beefeater), which gin to use in a Martini (Tanquerey) and which gin to use in a gin and tonic (Gordon's).
I have both of my US senators on speed dial.
With a scope-less rifle I hit everything I aim at within 300 meters.
My first pet was a Manx cat named Bossman. He was a dog-killer.
I used to read encyclopedias for fun as a child, and can still get lost in my sons' encyclopedias for hours at a time.
I often worry that I dissapointed my Dad.
I am afraid of dying from colon or liver cancer.
It bothers me that I do not know 8 people to tag.

My tagee's: Jeff, Doug, Matt

176?

Ha! In my last post I said I was down to 176. I meant 276. I haven't been 176 since the week I was graduated from Army basic training. I don't think I'll eer be that light again.

I took the boys to the beach today. Good time had by all, though it was cold and foggy. Watched some seagulls hunting sandcrabs. Basil found a cave to explore while Anselm dug holes in the sand.

Coming home I was run off the raod by a 10 wheeled dump truck while on HWY 1. That was a new and startling experience! I got back on the road and tried to chase him down so I could give his plate # to the highway patrol but he outran me. The last place saw the truck was on Hwy 84 heading inland. It was going about 70 in a 35 zone up into the hills toward La Honda. He was far ahead of me by the time I got to La Honda, but an arborist said he had seen the truck. I drove on as speedily as I thought safe but I never found it. I was appalled that anyone would drive like that on such narrow and winding roads, let alone a behemoth of steel like the truck that sent me off the road and into rough gravel while I was going at 50 mph.

Sometimes, I feel like my life is amazingly boring. Then something like my encounter with the truck happens. I hope nothing like that happens again for a long while.

I put Basil to bed about 7:30. Read "The Wind in the Willows" (beautiful prose. Makes me long for an England that probably never existed.) to Anselm until his mother got home at 10. Doing laundry now.

Prayers at church for Athanasia's mother tomorrow evening.

Good days

Saturday and Sunday were the first two good days in a while. Church both days. Confession and communion. Bishop Benjamin was with us. We finally found a route to church that we can use during gay parades, marathons, and Bay-to-Breakers. And it is a pretty drive, too.

Joined the YMCA Saturday. Family membership. the four of us went swmming this afternoon. Had to buy a new bathing suit. I am no longer a 3X pushing 4X. I am a 2X. And my weight is now 176 lbs. (I was 300 lbs. during bright week.) I am only 6 lbs away from the weight I was when I got married.

Read a new novel: Yiddish Policemen's Union. Except for the last few chapters it was pretty good. It isn't often that my training as an old-earth creationist comes in handy. I totally wasn't expecting to come across the hebrew prhase tohu-bohu in the novel. But I was ready. I bet my Dad was proud of me.

We went to our fave sushi place for supper tonight. We haven't been there in 18 months or more. It was Sooooooo good!

Fr. John will do a service for my mother-in-law on Wednesday. Thank you all for your prayers.

Death

Sunday morning my mother-in-law died a hideous, ignoble, sudden, tragic, and unexpected death. I hope she finds peace in death that she did not have in life. My wife has been in Portland dealing with the situation since then. She just got home a few minutes ago.

Yesterday, the boys and I went to Rancho San Antonio. We saw two does and a 5-point buck. We stood about 50 feet away from them and watched them grazing for about 10 minutes. Anselm found a hive of honey bees in a hollow tree. I watched a robin skittering around in a woodpile then it hopped up on a hollow log and posed as if to say, “I can make hollow logs. What can you do?” I was hoping to see a bobcat hunting for ground squirrels, which we have seen in the past, but not today. Neither did we observe any wild turkey. But we did watch a hawk hunting. That was neat. It kind of hovered in one place for a long time then SWOOOP! Down it bolted like lightning to snatch away a ground squirrel.

Mom update

First, thank you all for your prayers. My mother is home from the hospital. She is not well and is not expected to be alive long. But she is happy to be home.

Mom

My mom is not doing well. she has been going down hill since my last post. Her doctors have told her she needs heart surgery but that she probably will not survive surgery, and if she does survive the procedure she will spend months in the hospital recovering. She has decided not to have surgery.

This and That

My mom, Helen, was admitted to the hospital monday evening. Congestive heart failure. I took the boys to see her on Tuesday morning and again on Tuesday evening. She has so many friends, children, and grandchildren that someone is always in her room. I wouldn't like that but I thnk she does.

In between visits to my mom I took the boys to the beach. Very strange experience. The sea was black deep green. Every wave seemed to be carrying a mountain of sand. Kelp, jellies, crabs, mussels, rocks, and driftwood were all over the place. Every wave brought more. And very oddly there were no birds other than a few crows nesting on the cliffs. I would have thought that given the vast amounts of living creatures washing up on the sand that there would have been hundreds if not thousands of gulls feasting on Neptunes bounty.

My Son and the War

We heard from my oldest son. He is doing well, considering he has been in combat for a few weeks. His unit, the 173rd Airborne Brigade is continuing to live up to its deadly tradition. He said they are moving to [censored] today (He called it "down range". That's cute.) and he doesn't know when we will hear from him again. I am very happy. Surviving on the battlefield is the first requirement of victory and he has shown that he is capable. I am very proud of him.

"Bend your bow, prosper and reign, Son of the Mother of God, subduing the people of Ishmael who war against us, granting to our devout King the Cross as an invincible weapon." - A Theotokion of Sunday Matins

Serbia

Handmaiden of God Leah says: "In this post on the History of Serbia it says:When the Serbian people, having perceived a chance for their liberation from Ottoman rule sided with Austria in the Turkish-Austrian wars at the end of the 17th century…One thing it doesn’t mention is that when the Turkish advance into Europe was stopped by the blood of these Christian people, an important aspect to this story should be remembered. As the soldiers lay dying on the battle field, at the end of the day; the Christian women would go out and take water and give comfort to every man on the field, not just their own, but the Muslims too. Because we are taught to love our neighbor as ourselves. It is our history, the teachings that are handed down to us that make us who we are, that create in us the impulse to do what we do." (You can read her whole post here.)

At this moment my oldest son is engaged in killing Muslims in Afghanistan. I have been thinking that the best way to solve the problem of Iraq is for the U.S. to leave and let the suni and shia slaughter each other. I drafted a letter to my congresswoman urging the decapitation of the Persian state before they build nuclear weapons. But then my sister Leah tells me about serbian women giving water to the wounded Muslim soldiers who just a little while earlier were trying to kill their husbands, sons, fathers, and brothers. Sometimes, it seems to me that I know nothing about the kingdom of God.

UpdatesinceVacation

Did I mention that I've been on a diet? I have been. Lost 18 lbs between the end of Bright Week and the start of my vacation last thursday. Afraid to look at a scale now. Back on the diet now.

The itenerary got messed up the first night. Some stuff we didn'tget to. Added some other stuff at the last minute (such as a trip to Ukiah and a drive down the Russian River Wine Road.

We broke camp about 2 hours late to make it to church on Sunday. I am bumed over that. I was really looking forward to being there and seeing some old friends. Oh, well. Will have to try again.

Mendocino is in pretty bad shape. When I was there 26 years ago it was still a real town. It is all tourism-oriented now. very very sad. Its like a rustic version of Pier 39.

We discovered the Anderson Valley and the Anderson valley Brewry. Much fun.

We are home now. Much recovering to do. (In case you are wondering, the tent worked well.)

Serbian New-Martyrs

Commemoration on June 28th for the The Serbian New-martyrsTroparion Tone 8

For your faith in God and His Righteousness, you suffered in the flesh.

The earth sorrows, but you have saved your souls and heaven rejoices!

And your ancestors sang aloud with the heaven greeting you at the gate

Of paradise with this song: Your names are in the Book of Eternity.

Enter into Paradise O children of immortality! We your posterity

On earth, cry out in unison: O New-martyrs, pray for us!

I find my mind has been often returning to the hideous idea that Kosovo is to be severed from Serbia. You can read the stories of some of the Martyrs (the most glorious rank of saints) of Serbia here. You can read about what is going on in Kosovo here. You can pray for Serbia anyhere.

Vacation

We bought a tent (Not just any tent, the Trailhead 6) at REI a couple of days ago. We are going to try it out this weekend. We are going north. Thursday evening we are going to leave Menlo Park and drive up the peninsula, through San Francisco, accross the Golden Gate Bridge and into the wine country town of Cloverdale. On Friday we will go to Mendocino and that fabulous beach at the bottom the cliffs (there are stairs made of driftwood, at least there were in 1981 when I was last in Mendocino). We will spend Friday night and Saturday night at Russian Gulch. On Sunday we are going to visit Saint Seraphim Parish. I think it will be a fun trip. It will be the first time either Anslem or Basil has been camping.

Sunnyvale Chrysler Dealer Service

I have had nothing but bad experiences with Chrysler dealers. They have installed wrong parts (to be fair they made it good after I pointed out the problem.) and they are always late. For example, I made an appointment to take my PT Cruiser in for an oil change. I was told it would take 2.5 to 3 hours. That was a little annoying since an oil change should only take 30 minutes. But I was already there and the oil change was already paid for (I bought the pre-paid package when I bought the car) so I left the car there and the boys and I went for a walk up and down El Camino Real in Sunnyvale. (not a walker friendly neighborhood. Totally auto-centric.) When we came back three hours later the car was not in the "We're all done woking on this car" parking area. And my "Service Advisor" was nowhere around. We stood around about 15 minutes when we saw someone drive our car INTO the sevice bay!!! I could not believe it. I just took the car and left without getting the oil changed. I will never go to Sunnyvale Chrysler again. And I must admit losing my temper at the Service Advisor and her boss. I do regret that.

Thursday I am going to go to Boardwalk Chrysler in Redwood City. I've already talked to the Service Manager, and have explained my past experience and what my expectations are. He said their goal for an oil change on a PT Cruiser is 45 minutes and that they are almost always finished within an hour of drop-off. I'll be wearing a watch.

Albanian Muslim Plot Against U.S.A.

I've mentioned on this blog before that the geniuses in the State Department want Kosovo, the spiritual heartland of Orthodox Christianity in Serbia, to be an independent country for Albanian Muslims. This, even though they already have one. Its called Albania. I suppose the fact that it was Albanian Muslims who were plotting an attack on Fort Dix won't change their minds.

Birds

Anslem and I go bird watching once in a while. We have a guide book and even though it doesn't show all the seasonal changes in plumage it is serviceable, as long as we keep looking in the same place over the course of a year. For instance, the avocet's black, white, and grey plumage is handsome. But for a short time each year the head is reddish. The guide book only shows the red head. It took a very long time before we found out that we were looking at avocets.

This morning we went to the Palo Alto Baylands , a wet land preserve. At one time all the land between Hwy 101 and the Bay, from San Francisco's Candlestick Point in the north to south of the Guadalupe River wetland. In fact, the wet lands extended far south along the banks of Coyote Creek. And the sky, according to early explorers was black with waterfowl, as the wetlands around San Francisco Bay and in the Santa Clara Valley were a major resting area for the avian set traveling along the Pacific Flyway.

So, back to my story. This morning, after dropping Cyndi (who I sometimes call Athanasia) at school (last day of the semester. She is geting straight A's.) we went to the Palo Alto Baylands. While we were there we saw several score Night Herons. WOW! what intense birds. They are all about finding little fish and frogs and skewering them on the dagger-like beaks. But this is hatching season. We saw dozens of hatchlings and anslem went around picking up egg shells. It was such a pleasant experience. We saw gosslings and ducklings, too. We also saw gulls fighting over a gosling's corpse. (Question: As Orthodox Christians, do we believe that birds are ever anything but a corpse?) Anselm said he no longer likes gulls.

Tonight after dinner we took Cyndi to the Baylands to see the Night Heron chicks. We got there just at sunset and had the pleasure of watching the adults leave their nests and roosts to hunt. We walked a little way beyond the trees where their colony was nesting to a dense stand of palms (They are not trees. They are very large grass.) where we saw Snowy Egret chicks.

We came home and ate watermellon. I read Chapter two of Prince Caspian to the boys while they took a bath and Cyndi cleaned the kitchen floor. They and Cyndi are in bed right now. I'm going to join them. Goodnight.

The gnat

I haven't mentioned the financial scandal in my Church (not my parish or diocese, which are above reproach in every way) on my blog until now. Even though it was in the Washingotn Post and currently in Commonweal and people around the world have known about it for years, I didn't want to draw the attention of its existence to someone who might be considering a conversion to Orthodoxy, or to an Orthodox of weak faith. But today, it occured to me that I, by not mentioning it, was doing the same thing the bihops of my church are doing, trying to hide the facts. I do not anticipate writing a lot about this scandal or the people involved. I am only mentioning because I do not want to be like those who want to sweep it under the rug.

Now that I've mentioned it, I want to tell you what I am doing about it.
1. I pray to the Mother of God and to St. Tikhon theEnlighter of America to remove from the ranks of the clergy all those who have lied or stollen money in the course of this scandle. That includes Metropolitan Herman (I am aware of no evidence that Metropolitan stole money. But he has been caught in lies. And he was treasuerer when a lot of money dissapeared.)
2. I call the Metropolitan's office every day and ask him to resign.
3. I've written a letter to my bishop (now retired) asking him to take our diocese out of the OCA and into one of the other jurisdictions of the Orthodox Church.
4. I have ensured that none of the money I give to my parish filters up to the Metropolitan's office or any of his programs.
5. I have written to the Holy Synod and asked them to deal with the situation and not just sweep it under the rug.
6. I ask God to not let my annoyance at the bishops and priests eclipse my view of my own sins. (It is easy to get so worked up over the weeds in your neighbor's yard that you forget to weed the garden of your own heart.)
7. I have written many emails to the Metropolitan Council, urging them to do their job and not just be a rubber stamp for Metropolitan Herman.

I probably won't mention this situation on this blog again. Hopefully, through God's mercy those who have done wrong will repent, come clean, and we can all get on with our mission.

Bubbies Pickles

Last night I went grocery shopping. It was late. It was so late that my regular stores, the stores where I usually shop, Trader Joe’s, Piazza’s (but not for frutas y verduras, usually), and Whole Foods were closed. I had to go to Safeway, which is the largest grocery store chain in California. If a product is made by Kraft, ConAgra, Nestle, or Unilever it is sold by Safeway. They tend to not carry products unless they are made by huge producers. It doesn’t make financial sense for them.

One of the things I bought last night was Claussen Dill Pickles, a Kraft Foods product. I bought two jars for less than I usually spend on one jar of of my usual brand of pickles. I was very excited. But not just by the price. Why? Because since the second Monday of Pascha I’ve been on a diet (I want to live to 50) and dill pickles are something I can eat as many of as I like.

When I got home I opened my jar of pickles, admired their color, took one out of the brine, tasted it and almost spat it out. It tasted sweet and chemically. I thought to myself, “What? Why would a pickle taste this way? All you put in dill pickles is water, salt, vinegar (sometimes), herbs, and spices.”

So I looked at the list of ingredients. But the first thing I noticed when I looked at the label is that each serving of theese pickles has five calories (that’s kcals for my british reader). That shocked me. A serving of pickles usually have less than 1 calorie each. What was going on here?

I continued to read: “ Fresh cucumbers, water, distilled vinegar, salt, contains less than 2 percent high fructose corn syrup, dried garlic, spices, calcium chloride, sodium benzoate, dried red peppers, natural flavors, polysorbate 80.”

Why is there corn syrup in pickles? Disgusting! This is a jar of kosher dills not sweet gerkins. And why the preservatives sodium benzoate and polysorbate 80? By definition, pickles are preserved. Once cucumbers are pickles and and put in a barrel or jar they last for years and years. This makes no sense to me.

Beginning with this post I am going to begin compile a list of good, pure, wholesome, good-tasting foods that are available to SF Bay area residents. The first item on that list is Bubbies Dill Pickles. (I've mentioned them on this blog before). They contain no corn syrup, no polys, no benzoates. They are good pickles that taste the way God intends pickles to taste. The list will be in the right margin of this blog.

My article

My guest editorial was printed on Friday. I'm on Page 23 of the paper version. Here is the link to the online version. It was very difficult getting it down to 600 words from its original 1300 words. Essentially, I left the conclusions in but cut out most of the supporting arguments for those conclusions.

Duh!!!

It has been reported that scientists have discovered the sun singing.

Amazingly, God already revealed this to us.

When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38:7)
Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light. (Psalm 149/148: 3)



This amazing discovery of the scientists reminds me of that guy from USC who thinks people might live to 120 years of age. What is wrong with our society that an educated person can know so little about the Bible? Of course, we can live to 120.

And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. (Gen. 6:3)



Next thing you know, scietist will discover that there is stuff that exists.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1)

WOW!!!

You know all that stuff I said about TV in my last post? Well, I might have to take it all back. In the world to come I want to be Emmitt Smith. (And check out his shoes!!!)

Watch What Your Servants are Teaching Your Children

Not too long ago I heard a story. An old man said to a young boy, "There are two wolves inside you. One is evil, one is good, and they are fighting for control of you."
The boy asked, "Which one will win?"
The old man answered, "The one you feed."

It reminded me of something I read by St. John Chrysostom. He told parents to make sure that household servants are not a corrupting influence on children. When I read it I felt confirmed in our decision about no television in our house.

But today, I wasn't fast enough in turning off the radio. Anselm heard about what happened at Virginia Tech. I was busy making lunch and didn't even notice that he was sitting at the table with his mouth open, shocked by what he was hearing. He asked me in disbelief, "People kill themselves?" I said, "sometimes".
"What happens to them?"
"I think they go to Hell because they have given up all faith and have turned their backs on life, the greatest good thing God gives people."
I turned off the radio. I wish I hadn't been listening.

Peggy noonan wrote about the media and its influence on children.

Think of it this way. Your child is an intelligent little fish. He swims in deep water. Waves of sound and sight, of thought and fact, come invisibly through that water, like radar; they go through him again and again, from this direction and that. The sound from the television is a wave, and the sound from the radio; the headlines on the newsstand, on the magazines, on the ad on the bus as it whizzes by—all are waves. The fish — your child — is bombarded and barely knows it. But the waves contain words like this, which I’ll limit to only one source, the news:
. . . was found strangled and is believed to have been sexually molested . . . had her breast implants removed . . . took the stand to say the killer was smiling the day the show aired . . . said the procedure is, in fact, legal infanticide . . . is thought to be connected to earlier sexual activity among teens . . . court battle over who owns the frozen sperm . . . contains songs that call for dominating and even imprisoning women . . . died of lethal injection . . . had threatened to kill her children . . . said that he turned and said, “You better put some ice on that” . . . had asked Kevorkian for help in killing himself . . . protested the game, which they said has gone beyond violence to sadism . . . showed no remorse . . . which is about a wager over whether he could sleep with another student . . . which is about her attempts to balance three lovers and a watchful fiance . . .
This is the ocean in which our children swim. This is the sound of our culture. It comes from all parts of our culture and reaches all parts of our culture, and all the people in it, which is everybody. . .

(Read her whole article here.) She was writing in the context of the killings at Columbine. But the excerpt above seems applicable to Virginia Tech, and Abu Ghraib, and even my own life. I know that in my own life 5 - 10 hours of television almost everyday when I was growing up almost ruined me. Pro-wrestling, and Star Trek, and Dirty Harry taught me that violence solves all problems. M*A*S*H, Happy Days, and the Love Boat taught me that women were for my pleasure.

A few days ago when I took the DVD of the movie Happyfeet (its about anthropomorphized penguins on the make) out of the computer and Anselm protested because it was a present from his Granny I felt kind of bad. I felt like every kid in America has seen this movie. My Mom paid good money for it. Was I being too cutious? Until I read Ms. Noonan's words I thought, maybe, I was being too protective. But now, I am convinced, I did the right thing. I was starving the evil wolf.

Kosovo

I admit that I am a little late to the party. I didn't know that my government was even thinking about independence (from Serbia) for Kosovo. But as I was cruising around the State Department's website I came across this. I looks like the war our country waged against Serbia wasn't enough. Now we want to take part of their soverign teritory, but not only that, the heart and cradle of Serbian Orthodoxy and turn it over to Muslims. Hven't the Orthodox in Europe suffered enough?

Pass the Duchy

I never knew what "Pass the duchy on the left hand side" meant. I loved the song as a teenager, 13 or 14, I think. I sang the song enthusiastically while riding around Tampa with my cousin in his 1975 white Lincoln Continental. I loved that song but I had no idea what it meant. I kind of guessed it had something to do with a nostalgia for the British Socialists and a desire to break up the Duchy of Corwall. (I was a bookish kid.) It turns out I was wrong.

Today I was reading a movie review and saw that the correct spelling is dutchie. Well, I thought to myself, "I wonder if there is a Wiki article on this". So I searched, and lo and behold, someone had written an entry on the song. Now I know what the line "pass the dutchie on the left hand side" means. I kind of miss my original idea of a bunch of skinny black leftist boys singing about the destruction of the British aristocracy.

Thou Shalt Not

Of all of the 10 commandments there is only one that strikes agaist God, the state, and the person. The proscription against giving false testimony is that one commandment.

By giving false testimony the liar acts against God, who is Truth.
By giving false testimony the liar undermines the authority of the state, making it an object of scorn among righteous people.
By giving false testimony a liar unleashes the awful and frightening power of the state against the innocent person.

A liar has been found among us. She has given false testimony. She has subverted the state. She has accused people of doing that which they have not done. She has acted against God. Her name is Crystal Gail Magnum.

Sharpton Not Sharp

I do not know anything about Don Imus. I have never heard his radio show. But havin worked in radio, and having known some "on air personalities", I am not surprised that he said what he said. But what galls me is Al Sharpton condemning him. Sharpton said:

'It is our feeling that this is only the beginning. We must have a broad discussion on what is permitted and not permitted in terms of the airwaves'

I remember Sharpton speaking into a megaphone, threatening race-violence and inciting riot during the Tawana Brawly investigation. I remember him even accusing the district attorney in the case of being a rapist.

I am not a Democrat (neither a Republican) so let me say to any Democrats out there, please, figure out how to make Sharpton go away. Like the smell of dog shit, his words in service of race hatred are offensive to me.

Beslan Martyr?

I remember hearing about a Greek national who was in Beslan when the Muslims attacked and took the students hostage. He was a teacher in the school and was killed while protecting a girl from one of the terrorists. I assume he is Orthodox since more than 90% of Greeks are Orthodox. I've wondered for a while if anyone is going to declare him a martyr and when we will start seeing Icons of him. Does anyone know?

Global Warming (deniers) on the Wiki

"Our team ... has discovered that the relatively few cosmic rays that reach sea-level play a big part in the everyday weather. They help to make low-level clouds, which largely regulate the Earth’s surface temperature. During the 20th Century the influx of cosmic rays decreased and the resulting reduction of cloudiness allowed the world to warm up. ... most of the warming during the 20th Century can be explained by a reduction in low cloud cover." - Henrik Svensmark, Danish National Space Center

Read (here) a long list of scientists who are skeptical of the "science" behind the current global warmong scare.

School and Bright Week

Last night during prayers Athanasia chanted "O Heavenly King". When she was through I remeinded her that we don't do that until Pentecost. She then pretended to be a Protestant and insisted that I find in writing who said we don't chant "O Heavenly King" until Pentecost, and why not. It was very funny. She sounded very authentic. Hours later I am still laughing about it.

We finished book two of the Chronicles of Narnia. It was so much fun to watch Anselm get so excited during those last two chapters. Today we went to the Library and checked out book three.

Bright Week is going well. Yesterday I BBQd lamb chops for the boys lunch. I've discovered that brandy, super fine sugar, and a bit of campari shaken with ice and strained in to a cocktail glass makes a very nice refreshment. Tomorrow night we are making a big ham dinner and taking over to my Mom's house. I am having fun just yelling "Christ is Risen" at random moments and hearing Anselm yeall back "Indeed he is Risen". Is there any better way to teach the faith to children? I love being Orthodox. Everything about our lives can be about the Faith if we just pay attention. Going to a paschal liturgy Thursday morning. I've discovered that a mixture of sour cream and blue cheese is much much better than mayonaise for making tuna salad.

As far as schooling goes, we are concentrating on two things right now. Anslem is doing reading and atletics. That is about all. For athletics he is doing soccer and he is taking fencing lessons.

I've been accepted into a distance program from the University of Massachusetts. I'll begin working on a B.A. in Community Studies in the Fall.