Online Orthodox Radio

There are many online Orthodox radio stations that feature podcasts and music. I thought I would make a list of them here for anyone who is interested.

Ancient Faith Radio - www.ancientfaith.com
Ancient Faith Radio has two streams that you can listen to: Ancient Faith Music and Ancient Faith Talk. The music station is the original feature of Ancient Faith Radio. They have just about every Orthodox CD available and play through them 24 hours a day. After about a year, they started to add podcasts, including a podcast by Fr. Thomas Hopko and the podcast of Fr. Stephen Freeman's blog "Glory to God for All Things" - http://fatherstephen.wordpress.com/.

Orthodox Christian Network - www.receive.org
A newer site, Orthodox Christian Network, has two different stations, "The Ark" and "The Rudder." Both of these play podcasts and shows, including "Come Receive the Light." They also have video broadcasts. One highlight for me is the podcast "Icons in Sound" by Dr. Vladimir Morosan.

Orthodox Radio and Orthodox TV - www.orthodoxtv.org
An older site, Orthodox TV requires a fee to view many videos, but they do have free videos and a radio station as well.

Icon New Media Network - http://iconnewmedianetwork.com/
This is a newer site that features podcasts, some tailored to the younger Orthodox croud, like "Generation Orthodox." They also have some videos of Archbishop Lazar (Pulaho), retired OCA Bishop of Ottawa and author.

St. Vladimir, Equal to the Apostles

I have often said that if it were not for St. Vladimir, most of us would not be Orthodox today. In my case, my families relationship with Orthodoxy, or at least Byzantine Catholicism, comes from the fact that they are Russian, and Orthodoxy, at least at the point when my family came to America, was a large part of being Russian.


For those who may not know, here is an abbreviated history of the Holy Great Prince Vladimir, Equal to the Apostles, Baptizer of Rus. St. Vladimir was born around the year 960 and was the grandson of the great Princess Olga, who was the first to convert to Orthodox Christianity. As a prince of Rus, we was a fierce pagan, and came to power as Prince of Kiev through the defeat of his own brothers. But, realizing that there were other religions in the world, he sent envoys to investigate Islam, Judaism, Catholicism, and Byzantine Orthodoxy. When the envoys returned from Constantinople, where they attended the Divine Liturgy in the Church of Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom), they told St. Vladimir that "knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth." When the Byzantine Empire was under attack in 987, they joined forces with St. Vladimir, under the condition that the sister of the Byzantine Emperor would become Vladimir's wife. The Byzantines agreed if Vladimir would send troops and be baptized. When the Byzantine Emperor did not keep his part of the bargain, Vladimir took troops to Korsun and took the city until the Byzantine Emperor gave in. With his new wife, Anna, Vladimir also inhereited the title Tsar, and the Byzantine Imperial Insignia.

Upon returning to Kiev, St. Vladimir oversaw the single most important event in the history of Russia, the Baptism of Rus. By declaring "If anyone does not go into the river tomorrow, be they rich or poor, beggar or slave, that one shall be my enemy," he set the path for the next 900 years of Russia's history. He is remembered for his unification of the Russian lands, and for destroying pagan idols and temples throughout the land, replacing them with churches. He also converted many of his enemies to Orthodoxy and required theological education for the children in his lands.

St. Vladimir also had to deal with many enemies from throughout his land, and eventually was at war with his own son. He died of illness on July 15, 1015.

Today Russia, even after the communist period, is the largest Christian country in the world following one form of Christianity, and it is from Russia that many of Orthodoxy's greatest missionaries (St. Nicholas of Japan; Ss. Herman, Tikhon, Innocent, etc. of America) began their missionary journey. This shows the influence that St. Vladimir's decision would later have on the spread of Orthodoxy, especially in America, where the Russian church ruled until the Bolshevik revolution, thereby leading me to again say, many of us would not be Orthodox today, if not for St. Vladimir.

July

It's been a while since I posted something. Here you go.

The first week of July is an important one for me. My wife’s birthday and my daughter’s nameday are both in that week, as well as Independence Day, which is part of my favorite period of U.S. history.

But another reason is that there are some very important saints that are commemorated in this week. Here is just a very short introduction to them.

July 2nd – St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco (Also known as St. John Maximovitch). St. John was born in Russia in 1896. During his episcopacy, he served in Shanghai, Paris, and finally San Francisco. He is responsible for the building of the Russian Cathedral of the Theotokos, Joy of All Who Sorrow, in San Francisco, where he is now entombed. He was also a great influence on the author and monk Fr. Seraphim Rose. St. John is known for his somewhat shabby appearance and wearing of sandals, and his insistence on not sleeping in a bed. One of my favorite stories about St. John is when one night, on the eve of a great feast, the cathedral held a banquet and no one attended the Vigil. After serving the Vigil, St. John went to the banquet and, without saying a word, stared at each person in the room one by one, and then left the banquet.


July 4th – St. Andrei Rublev the Iconographer. St. Andrei is known as the greatest of Russian Iconographers. His most famous icon is that of the “Hospitality of Abraham,” also referred to as the Holy Trinity (shown here). He is also responsible for the frescoes in the Annunciation Cathedral at the Kremlin, the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir, and the Cathedral of the Trinity at St. Sergius-Holy Trinity Monastery in Sergie Posad (home of the Patriarch). St. Andrei lived in the 14th-15th centuries.

July 4th – St. Andrew of Crete. St. Andrew was Archbishop of Crete and is best known for his hymnography, especially the Great Canon, which is read during the first week of Great Lent, and also on the Thursday during the 5th week of Great Lent. St. Andrew lived during the 7th-8th centuries.

July 4th – Holy Royal Passion-bearers Ss. Nicholas and Alexandra, with their children Alexei, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia. The last Romanov Tsar, Nicholas II, was emperor during the Boslhevik revolution. Together with his family and servants, he was murdered by the communists in 1918 in Ekaterinburg. The holy family are considered passion-bearers for facing their death in a Christ-like manner, as opposed to martyrs who are killed specifically because of their faith.

July 5th – St. Elizabeth, Grand Duchess of Moscow, New Martyr of Russia. St. Elizabeth was the sister of St. Alexandra. After the death of her husband, she founded the Convent of Ss. Mary and Martha in Moscow. She was martyred two days after the Royal family in 1918, along with one of her nuns, St. Barbara the New Martyr. Our daughter is named after St. Elizabeth.

O all ye saints of the Lord, pray to God for us!

Lost Books

I was walking through the library where I work tonight and I saw our copy of "Lost Books of the Bible." This title always makes me laugh, because, number one, the contents of the book were never "lost," and they weren't ever in the Bible. The reason the books are not considered lost is because the Church has always known about them. In fact, they have been available in English for most of the 20th century. Most of them are considered to be "apocryphal," or of spurious authorship. They are also not considered to be scripture by the Church, but some of the books, like the Protevangelium of James, have inspired many of the Church's teachings. Let's get back to the fact that the Church knew about the books. There is a reason that these books are not in the Bible, and therefore considered "lost." They did not agree with the other books that were being considered for the New Testament canon, or they did not agree with the teachings of the Church at the time. Therefore, copies were destroyed of those books that did not match the teachings of the Church, such as the Gospel of Judas, and other such books. Hence, the idea that they have been lost, when, in actuality, they were deliberately "lost."

I am Legend (story spoilers)

Over New Year's Eve/Day this year I was very sick, so I decided to read something. When I was Wal-Mart that morning, I saw the book "I am Legend" by Richard Matheson. The first thing I found was that it was written in the '50s. I also quickly found that it was a book about vampires, which was good. I hadn't seen the new movie yet, but I already knew that it wasn't about vampires. Anyway, I read the book that night and the next morning and enjoyed it very much. After doing some research, I found out that other movies had been made based on the book. The first was available for free online and it starred Vincent Price. It's called "Last Man on Earth." Of all of the movies made (there are now 4), this one is the closest to the book, partly because Matheson wrote the script under a pseudonym. The second movie is the famous Charlton Heston film "The Omega Man." Not very close to the book, but somewhat entertaining. Then we have the Will Smith version "I am Legend" and a really bad B-version called "I am Omega" with martial arts actor Mark Dacascos (of Iron Chef America fame). Neither does the book justice.

So what is the point of all of this? I'm not sure, but part of it is that movies based on history and or novels sometimes take too many liberties for me. One of the reasons that Vincent Price's version of the story is the best is that it is the only movie that leaves in two of the most important parts of the story. 1. The infected people become vampires, not zombies. 2. Not all of the infected people that the main character goes around killing have become vampires yet. To me, these are the two most important parts of the story. So, here's to Vincent Price for making a film that is almost just like the book (besides the ending).

the order of nature is overruled...

Today is the first day of the Great Fast. Tonight we will be singing the first part of the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete, the extended penitential hymn used the first and fifth weeks of the Fast.

There is a troparion in the Great Canon that I think about every year that I hear it. It is the Theotokion of Ode 4 on Monday:

"Thou givest birth and livest a virgin life, and in both remainest a virgin by nature. He Who is born of thee reneweth the laws of nature, and a womb giveth birth without travail. Where God willeth, the order of nature is overruled; for He doeth whatever He wisheth."

It's the last sentence that stands out to me the most, and something that I wish non-Christians could understand. That if God is the Creator of all mankind and the earth, then why should he not be able to "overrule" the order of nature?

By the Waters of Babylon

Tonight marks the third and last time until next year that we will sing Psalm 136 "By the Waters of Babylon" at Vigil. This hymn is used during Resurrectional Matins on the three Sundays preceding the Great Fast (Lent): The Sunday of the Prodigal Son, the Sunday of the Last Judgment, and Forgiveness Sunday. It is one of my favorite hymns to sing during the year. Below is a commentary from Fr. Seraphim Rose on the hymn that I found at orthodox.net.

By The Waters of Babylon
by Fr.Seraphim (Rose)

"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion".

In these words of the Lenten psalm, we Orthodox Christians, the New Israel, remember that we are in exile. For Orthodox Russians, banished from Holy Russia, the Psalm has a special meaning; but all Orthodox Christians, too, live in exile in this world, longing to return to our true home, Heaven. For us the Great Fast is a session of exile ordained for us by our Mother, the Church, to keep fresh in us the memory of Zion from which we have wandered so far. We have deserved our exile and we have great need of it because of our great sinfulness. Only through the chastisement of exile, which we remember in the fasting, prayer and repentance of this season, do we remain mindful of our Zion.

"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem..."

Weak and forgetful, even in the midst of the Great Fast we live as though Jerusalem did not exist for us. We fall in love with the world, our Babylon; we are seduced by the frivolous pastimes of this "strange land" and neglect the services and discipline of the Church which remind us of our true home. Worse yet, we love our very captors - for our sins hold us captive more surely than any human master - and in their service we pass in idleness the precious days of Lent when we should be preparing to meet the Rising Sun of the New Jerusalem, the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There is still time; we must remember our true home and weep over the sins which have exiled us from it. Let us take to heart the words of St. John of the Ladder: "Exile is separation from everything in order to keep the mind inseparable from God. An exile loves and produces continual weeping." Exiled from Paradise, we must become exiled from the world if we hope to return.

This we may do by spending these days in fasting, prayer, separation from the world, attendance at the services of the Church, in tears of repentance, in preparation for the joyful Feast that is to end this time of exile; and by bearing witness to all in this "strange land" of our remembrance of that even greater Feast that shall be when our Lord returns to take His people to the New Jerusalem, from which there shall be no more exile, for it is eternal.

March 1965

Another "Highlander" movie to pretend never happened.

I am a fan of Highlander, both the movies and the TV series. Well, not all of the movies. Like many people, I do not like the 2nd Highlander, which is just crazy. I like the fact that the 3rd Highlander movie pretended like the 2nd one never happened. Well, now there is another Highlander movie that we have to pretend like it never happened. It's called "Highlander: the Source." It is a straight to DVD movie with Adrian Paul from the TV show, who I thought was already the "one," but apparently not. Well, all 86 minutes of this 5th movie are not worth much. The plot is pretty bad, and the special effects make it really bad. You never even really find out what the source is at the end. It is one of the worst endings to a movie that I have ever seen. I was excited to see Adrian Paul back in the role at first, but now I am just sad that there is another Highlander movie to forget about. Oh well, there can be only one (or 5, I guess).

Nothing better than a Russian male choir.

If you ever talk to me about music, you'll find that I say that there's nothing better than a lot of different things. I love string orchestras, trombone choirs, full orchestras, big mixed choirs, the Greek Byzantine Choir. But I do think that a really good Russian male choir is hard to beat. Especially when they have the full range only possible with a Russian choir. Here is a pretty good example to listen to - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSa5SMANDzU

Please feel free to comment on it.

Harry Potter: Why I read.

Before I was in graduate school, I could probably count all of the books I had ever read up to that point on one hand. Pretty sad, huh? Finally, my wife convinced me to read the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I just never enjoyed reading. I'm more of a tv and movie guy, a product of the MTV era (back when they actually showed videos). Anyway, I finally gave in and read the first chapter. By the end of the week, I had read the first four Harry Potter books. I had almost doubled my whole book total for my life. From Harry Potter I moved onto Tolkien. I also finally started reading Orthodox books, lives of saints, church fathers. I also like religious/historical fiction. The point is, if it wasn't for Harry Potter, I don't know when I would have started reading, and without reading I would have no reason to buy books. I probably wouldn't be a librarian either.;)

First Blog Ever

For some reason I decided today to start a blog. If you don't know me already, I am an Orthodox Christian living in North Texas. I am a Subdeacon and a choir director at an OCA mission. I work as a reference librarian at a community college. I am married and we have a one year old daughter. I am also a martial artist.

I think I will mostly be writing about the Orthodox Church, theology, music, books, movies, and martial arts. I hope you will enjoy my little blog.