Give me a Sinner

Last Sunday, we celebrated the beginning of Lent with Forgiveness Vespers. Nathan was still out of town, so I braved 2 church services is one day with Luke. :)

At the end of the service, everyone (priests, lay people alike), go around the perimeter of the church in a line asking forgiveness of one another, and respond reminding that God forgives. While we may not know everyone very well or feel that we personally have done something to offend the other person, we ask their forgiveness. The Orthodox believe that all sin is damaging in some way and sometimes we do something that offends without even realizing it. Forgiveness Vespers is kind of a way to cover all the bases and begin Lent with the right heart. Personally, I love this service. Looking into the teary eyes of the older women who have been faithful for decades, having them ask your forgiveness, is powerful and humbling and beautiful beyond words.

Anyways, Luke was the youngest participant this year. He went around giving people hugs as we said, "Forgive me, a sinner," and replied "God forgives!" After hearing a few people ask his forgiveness, he began saying "Forgive me, a sinner," as well. This morphed into a shortened version- "Give me a sinner." One teenager remarked, "Luke, I dare you to go into any store and ask the people to give you a sinner. We all laughed. He kept saying the phrase long after the service was over.

On a more serious note, I want to say that this was a great reminder to me of how much we need all sorts of people in church together, especially children. In the past, I have been in churches where babies to high school children are excluded because they are "distractions." Well, if church were merely a course of lectures every Sunday, then yes, that would be very true. But its not! It is much more than that. We all are in this world together and we need each other. Each of us has a role to play.

Luke is a "distraction" sometimes as he mutters to himself or has the occasional outburst during services (and yes, I DO take him out when he gets too crazy- everyone has their limit!), but I saw last Sunday how much of a blessing children in the church are. Luke asking forgiveness made everyone realize again what we were saying to one another in a way that only can come "out of the mouthes of babes."

By Request

Lent began this afternoon with the Forgiveness Vespers Service. This is our first year in an Eastern-Rite Orthodox Church. I really enjoyed the service today and look forward to the weeks ahead.

Emily asked me to join in on the lenten discussion and about some good vegetarian/vegan recipes, etc... The focus of lent is truly about fasting from sin, but fasting from certain foods, prayer, and almsgiving are avenues to this end. Here are some of my "tips" or getting through lent. Let me add the disclaimer that I am NOT an expert at fasting. These are just some things that I have found helpful.

1. Pray! Pray like you are really in a battle (it is more real than we know). If I begin the day praying, I have more energy to journey on and am less likely to despair. I suggest Met. Philaret's prayer for the beginning of the day, and the Lenten standard: The Prayer of St. Ephraim (see below). Really embrace the words and keep them with you throughout the day.

2. Go to the extra church services if at all possible. It is SO encouraging to remember that we (the Church) are all in this together. It is easy to get bitter if you feel alone in fasting. Truly, I have found that struggling through Lent with my fellow parishioners glues our community together in a way that nothing else can.

Since Luke doesn't do well at the night services in general, I am going to try to listen to Ancient Faith Radio podcasts during the season. We will try to actually make it to church too, but it may not always be possible.

3. Have a project. If you are spending less on food, buy extra food for the local food bank, send money to Haiti, etc... Almsgiving really helps fasting make more sense to me.

4. Find good recipes and recycle them. I always face the temptation of trying out all sorts of recipes and spending hours in the kitchen. As our priest in CA said, Lent is about simplification. The fast is to focus our minds on the spiritual, not on proper meal preparation. OrthodoxMom.com and Orthodox Mother's Digest have hosted several fasting recipe swaps.

5. Have a baked potato night each week. Baked potatoes are great, and there is little prep time involved. I like to rub oil on the skins before baking them. They are 10x better this way and it encourages everyone to eat the skin (the best part in my opinion!). Vegans-serve with baked beans, chopped green onions, BBQ sauce, salt, pepper, grilled onions. Vegetarians- use cheese, cottage cheese, butter, sour cream, etc... Homemade pizza once a week is also good, and fun for a Saturday night.

6. Make breakfast easy. I like Emily's idea of having oatmeal every day. For myself, I know that the more I have to think about, the more distracted with food I become. I also like cheese or a homemade energy bar for breakfast.

7. Prep veggies and fruit and dips to have on hand. Tomorrow I will make hummus, ranch dip (160z sour cream + 1 packet dry ranch dressing mix), and cut up a bunch of carrots.

I guess I will end with a central prayer for the Lenten season. May God bless you all and multiply your efforts to His glory!

Lenten Prayer Of St. Ephrem The Syrian

O Lord and Master of my life!
Take from me the spirit of sloth,
faint-heartedness, lust of power, and idle talk.

But give rather the spirit of chastity,
humility, patience, and love to Thy servant.

Yea, Lord and King! Grant me to see my own errors and not to judge my brother, for Thou art blessed unto ages of ages. Amen.

Sickies

Luke and I have been under the weather since Friday. This is not a flat-on-our-back type cold, but more a runny nose, congested, achy-type cold. Poor Luke has not slept as well due tot he fact that he has to choose between breathing and sucking on his trusty binky sometimes. :(

I am continuing to experiment with Veggie meals. Last Thursday we had a yummy oven-baked omelet and toast. Basically, you mix up an omelet in a mixing bowl and then put it into a greased glass dish and bake it until the eggs have cooked. I used garlic, onion, and cheese in mine, but it is versatile.

To keep up with pictures/videos of the little guy, here is one that Nathan took when he got Luke up after a nap. Note the surprise exhibited when big Daddy-O shows himself to little Baby-Boo:

Lenten Meal #1- Curried Lentils and Rice

What better to have during Lent than lentils? Actually, I looked at the nutritional information on the label, and lentils are really a good thing for lent. They have 8g of protein in one serving, a perfect lean protein. We tried the recipe below last night and it was fantastic. So good in fact, that I almost think that I shouldn't eat it. :) In all honesty, I think that I like the Lenten foods better than cooking up my regular meals.

This meal is cheap (about $1.25 for the whole thing!), healthy, and simple. I had to modify it slightly because I didn't have turmeric on hand, and used cumin instead. Also, if you are the kind of person who likes a more uniform taste- like regular oatmeal cookies better than oatmeal raisin cookies, you might want to leave out the apples and raisins. I like them in.

Serve with some tasty bread.

Ingredients:

* 1/4 cup vegetable broth (instead of using oil)
* 1 onion, chopped
* 3 garlic cloves, minced or put through a press (can use garlic powder)
* 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
* 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
* 2-3 teaspoons curry powder, to taste (I recommend only 2t.)
* 1 cup brown rice, washed
* 3/4 cup dried lentils
* 4 cups water
* 2 vegetable bouillon cubes
* salt (may need a lot, but make it to your taste)
* 1/3 cup raisins or currants
* 1 large tart apple, diced

Directions

1. Heat the 1/4 c broth (or you can use oil) in a heavy-bottomed soup pot, saucepan, or Dutch oven and saute the onion and garlic.

2. Add the ginger, turmeric, and curry powder and saute for a few minutes longer.

3. Add more broth (or water), if necessary, and the rice, and saute for 2 minutes.

4. Add the lentils, 4 cups water, bouillon cubes, and raisins and bring to a boil.

5. Cover, reduce the heat, and simmer for 25 minutes.

6. Add the apples and simmer, covered, for another 10 to 15 minutes, or until the water is absorbed.

7. Optionally, serve topped with plain yogurt and some more raisins.

Lent Begins

Tonight Luke and I are going to our Church's Shrove Tuesday pancake supper. (I know- odd timing to most- the Western Church began Lent last week, and the Eastern Rite Orthodox began earlier this week with Clean Monday. Oh well.) Actually, we will be cooking a bit of the dinner too- Luke in the baby bjorn to watch and smile at all the people coming in and out of the kitchen.

This Lent, we are going vegetarian- the cheap, beans, rice, pb and jelly, bulk Costco cheese, 99c store special finds, type. (I have found that it can be easy to spend more money on vegetarian food) Nathan and I have not yet decided to do with the grocery savings, though there are more and more charities that need it.

I recently bulked up my pantry with lots of dried beans, grains, nuts, etc... and I am sure that the crockpot will be my best friend. When I come across good recipes I'll be posting them. I am also going to try and focus more on prayer and spiritual reading when Luke is napping, rather than putz around on the computer. Really, my overall goal is to draw nearer to Christ and be a better wife to Nathan and a better mother to Luke.

I usually approach Lent wrong-headed. Intellectually, I understand that Lent is not about giving up some kind of food or activity, but sometimes I let it devolve into that, seeing only what I can't do or can't have. It is about preparing to meet Christ at his resurrection- to die with him that we might also live with him, to partake (in some small way) in his suffering, to partake with Him in His glory. This year, I am going to try to focus on cultivating virtues, positive actions, rather than the things that are removed with Lent.

When I am done here, I am going to put up prayers and post the fruit of the spirit up around the house to remind myself where to focus my attention. It really amazes me how quickly I can lose focus.

Children in the Church Today- Part #2

" When we consider the question of church attendance, and Holy Communion, and prayer at home, we must have in mind not only the immediate result, but also a long-term view: what is the best preparation for this child to live a Christian life in this world? What will sow in the child a spiritually healthy attitude to Christ, to the Church, and to the sacraments? What will help him/her to preserve until adulthood the desire to know Christ and have communion with him? Sometimes children attend church very often and yet inwardly they are rebelling and rejecting grace. Some athiests were brought up in pious families."



In reading this, I was very impressed. This is such a refreshing view; that we are working to help the child to "desire to know Christ and have communion with him." We are not trying to make it to every service, or impose certain expectations on a child. Rather, we are trying to teach them to love Christ. This makes me think of the verses in Ephesians exhorting parents to not exasperate their children. This does not mean of course that we sleep in on Sundays instead of going to church, but it does make the point that we are dealing with a unique human life, and we need to maintain a long-term view.

Stations of the Cross

Usually a Catholic tradition nowadays, we, as a Western Orthodox Church also celebrate the Stations of the Cross during the lenten season every Wednesday night. We walk through the stations after a 7pm liturgy (which most people fast for beforehand so that they can receive communion). The Stations are not a long service, but after not eating since noon, and an hour of liturgy, our wills often become weak, and thoughts of dinner and rest nearly overwhelm us.

It is at this time, however, that some of the most beautiful words are spoken and prayed, and if we listen, we come away renewed and with a deeper understanding of the Lord's suffering. We also come away with some greater knowledge of ourselves. It is a kind of knowledge that only comes through such an experience; a spiritual meditation of the cross, crossing oneself and bowing, praying, and hearing healing words. The soul and the body putting forth effort together.


When I was a little girl, I prayed that God would show me what his suffering meant; why Easter was so special. It took me until my first lent in the Orthodox Church to really make any headway in this. It took the effort of these long services where we, in our own small way, partook in the sufferings of Christ. That is what I had always been missing- the partaking in Christ's suffering before his resurrection. He calls us to die with him, that we might rise. If we do not die during a preapratory period like lent, the resurrection does not have the same depth or "gravitas," as a friend of ours likes to call it.

On the Easter morning after my first journey through lent, I was filled with such a joy. Christ had risen! Actually, the Hymn "He is Risen!" woke me up, like the Spirit of the Lord coming to announce his resurrection again, afresh. I was so joyful that day and cried as we rang the bells at Church in celebration. Many people did actually, it was hard not to. My emotions matched by desire to know the resurrection that day.

The lenten periods where I have fasted and made the spiritual effort have been the times when the resurrection meant the most. Though this year, my fast is different ( I am not restricting diet so much, except sweets), I need to make a similar effort towards His glorious appearing.

Anyways, I anow off track with my original thought- that of the Stations. Here is an excerpt that caught my eye last night. May it be a blessing to all.

From Station 10: Jesus is stripped of his garments-

Behold the Lord who clothed the world in beauty, who
now submits, for love of man, to all man’s hatred. He is
stripped of His clothing and prepared for the Cross.

P. HOLY GOD, HOLY MIGHTY, HOLY IMMORTAL,
R. HAVE MERCY UPON US.
P. THEY GAVE ME ALSO GALL FOR MY MEAT:
R. AND IN MY THIRST THEY GAVE ME VINEGAR TO DRINK.
Let us pray.

O BLESSED LORD JESUS, now prepared for the gallows tree;
Help us to strip off all false pride and to be clothed with sincerity
of heart: Let love rule in our hearts and fill them so that no
room remains for anger; let us rejoice in the success of others, and
pray for them in their shortcomings, that we have no room for the
cloak of envy; for lust, give us singleness of purpose; that all our
desires may be lived in the pure crucible of this Thy holy sacrifice;
Grant us for greed a love of holy poverty; for sloth a holy industry;
for gluttony a wholesome discipline; that resisting all temptations of
the world, the flesh, and the devil, we may live in faith, through
hope, with love by Thee, who now livest and reignest with the Father
and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

The Annunciation

For those of us still in Lent, the Annunciation is an especially bright feast day. Besides being one of the great Twelve Feasts of the church, it is the world's first message of hope. Until this day, no one knew exactly how God would bring salvation to the world. I am making salmon, couscous and asparagus tonight for dinner in celebration (good baby food :) ). Have a blessed feast day!

"Today marks the crowning of our salvation and the revelation of the mystery before all ages. For the Son of God becomes the son of the Virgin, and Gabriel proclaims the grace. Wherefore, we also cry out with him, 'Hail, O full of grace, the Lord is with you.' "

Annunciation of the Theotokos

The Reading is from Luke 1:24-38
In those days, Elizabeth the wife of Zacharias conceived and for five months she hid herself, saying, "Thus the Lord had done to me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men." In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you! But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end." And Mary said to the angel, "How shall this be, since I have no husband?" And the angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.
And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible." And Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.

Reflections During Lent #1

I have been directed to a wonderful book, so this lent I am going to post a little of what I am reading. Part of my lenten discipline will be to read "Children in the Church Today," which was recommended to me by Fr. Stephen our priest. It is a collection of talks given at a monastery in England that were so popular that people begged the nuns to publish them. I am glad they did. If anyone is interested, it is published by St. Vladamir's Seminary Press, or is available on Amazon.com. My slightly used copy was all of $.60.

From Ch. 1- Marriage and the Christian Family
"All you learn about marriage, all of your work for your marriage, is work for the salvation of your children, and this is not something small, but something which is of eternal value. "

This is a beautiful and sobering thought. Children are brought into a family. They are conceived in love and born into the love of their parents. That love serves as an anchor and a guide for them in all future relationships. Children need love to survive, that everyone knows. If they do not receive it, they not only struggle on earth, but their soul becomes fragmented and all things spritual are harder for them.

Since being pregnant, an awareness of all the broken people in this world has become to me more acute. People I meet at work, or just around town. I am more and more grateful for the family that I had and the the family that nurtured Nathan.

Lenten Ideas

For the Eastern Christian Church, Lent begins very soon. Usually, I would know the kind of fasting and additional spiritual excercises to take on because the Church prescribes a fast and gives some boundaries for an appropriate rule. This year, I am not quite sure what to do. I have asked this question of my priest, but he has given me some guidelines, and not a rule necessarily. I was wondering what other people have found as appropriate rules during the Great Fast for times of life like I am in right now.

Should I go meatless and trust God, or is it more important that I get the nutrients in meat for the baby's sake? Beans and rice are a full protein and the Western Rite fast does not remove dairy products, so I won't have to worry about getting enough calcium. I remember Kelly saying that she would make simple meals, instead of trying to cook something fancy for dinner. Simplifying life is defnitely in the Lenten spirit.

My priest has said not to reduce the quantity of food, as is also the Lenten practice. Is there any other way to get similar spiritual benefits that would come with the quantity reduction?

Also, Fr. recommended giving up something outside of food, such as watching movies or going out to dinner. Any ideas here? Maybe the internet when I am not at work. That is an area that I indulge in.

I certainly plan on doing some spring cleanng this Lenten season, cleaning out the home while cleaning out the heart. Cleaning is so healing and so human. We have a lot of extra things around the house- clothes, dvd's, odds and ends, various appliances that we don't necessarily use. I loved Bethany and Evan's "Two Tunic Day" last year, where they went through their house finding things that they didn't need ( the second tunic) and invited their friends over to pick out what they need. So, if anyone needs anything in particular, I will keep the blog updated.