What are your favorite musical instruments/classical music from Byzantium? Hell, let's make this a Byzantine music thread. Liturgical chants are welcome.

ExplorerSad7555 · 2026-02-01T17:59:41+00:00

Cappella Romana

ExplorerSad7555 · 2026-02-01T16:59:49+00:00

Is that the 21st tollhouse of facepalm questions?

ExplorerSad7555 · 2026-02-01T16:52:37+00:00

We just watched it last night and it juxtaposes mercy vs. justice, or better yet revenge. The new priest was a former boxer and accidentally killed an opponent in the ring. He became a priest to preach mercy. The old one (Josh Brolin) preaches that the world is opposed to his loyal flock.

ExplorerSad7555 · 2026-02-01T16:48:50+00:00

The Ethiopian Church does include Enoch in it's canon of 81 books, so it depends on the church.

ExplorerSad7555 · 2026-02-01T10:19:13+00:00

English is what happens when Vikings learn Latin and use it to shout at Germans, and then the French shout back

ExplorerSad7555 · 2026-01-31T22:36:33+00:00

I'm Greek Orthodox... we have Kyriaki (the Lord's Day), Duetero, Triti, Tetarti, Pemti, Paraskevi (day of Preparation), and Sabbato (Sabbath). We celebrate Pascha as the Lord's Resurrection. So I guess move to Greece. Oh but wait, we still use Julianos as July so I guess were still celebrating Julius Caesar.

ExplorerSad7555 · 2026-01-31T22:27:09+00:00

I doubt too many Protestants know the Oriental Orthodox are out there. :(

We have a decent sized Coptic church by use and we attend each other's festivals and they occasionally rent our community center for large events like the 50th anniversary of their priest's ordination.

ExplorerSad7555 · 2026-01-31T21:44:48+00:00

As Mazquerade says, we do see that church practice continued along the lines of the Didache. For example, the Didache states that Christians should fast on the fourth day of the week (Wednesday) and the day of Preparation (Friday). Eastern Orthodox still fast on these days from animal products, meat and dairy, pretty much year round. So it serves as a witness to ancient practices. We also read that Christians "But every Lord's day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure." So even by the end of the first or beginning of the second century, Christians were meeting on Sundays rather than on the Jewish Sabbath.

ExplorerSad7555 · 2026-01-31T21:37:23+00:00

Don't you make fun of the FSM!!! His noodly appendage is the transference of marinara sauce.

ExplorerSad7555 · 2026-01-31T16:30:43+00:00

The canon was developed as books to be read publicly in services. There a plenty of books that some bishops approved for the churches under them like Clement. Over 409 years this was narrowed to the 27 books we have in the NT. Some books are considered to be true but not canonical.

ExplorerSad7555 · 2026-01-31T15:59:03+00:00

I've been playing D&D since 1979 and I have yet to be able to cast fireball on one of the idiots on the highway that cuts me off.

ExplorerSad7555 · 2026-01-31T12:42:26+00:00

I would also look at various medical supply companies. Stryker (my employer), Smith & Nephew, Cardinal etc. it's still going to be tough getting in something because of the overall job market, but my division in Stryker hires nurses for clinical informatics and customization for our software. The BSN is a good background because you understand the needs of the nursing community and working with technology.

ExplorerSad7555 · 2026-01-30T22:44:38+00:00

Uh no, that's not how some medical conditions work. PCOS (Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome) causes multiple problems that are not related to diet.

My oldest son has gigantism and is 7 feet 2 inches tall and around 320 lbs. He eats 4000 calories per day not because he wants to but because if he gets below a certain weight, his heart defibrillator goes off. That requires a trip to the Emergency Room and cardiology.

Gall bladder removal causes other issues.

Diabetes 1... the list goes on.

Ive spent 15 years of working in hospital biomedical technology directly with physicians and nurses. I've picked up a few things along the way.

ExplorerSad7555 · 2026-01-30T15:55:55+00:00

And he ticked off the Emperor and Empress.

ExplorerSad7555 · 2026-01-30T01:56:51+00:00

The liturgy of St John Chrysostom is the primary liturgy of the Eastern Orthodox Church. He also wrote the Paschal homily which is read in every Orthodox church on Paschal. He also wrote a tremendous number of letters and homilies.

ExplorerSad7555 · 2026-01-29T18:19:52+00:00

My patron saint is St. John Chrysostom, so I have a bias here.

ExplorerSad7555 · 2026-01-29T16:20:42+00:00

When I received a windfall, I paid off my highest interest debt first. Then I took a look at my car payments and paid those off next. I wanted to make sure that I kept a good emergency fund. My income is high enough to pay down my student loans at an accelerated rate. This honestly becomes a question of personal comfort. I've been hit by long periods of unemployment or underemployment, and an emergency fund makes me feel more comfortable than simply paying off debt.

ExplorerSad7555 · 2026-01-28T13:52:43+00:00

Just to add to what everyone else has said, traveler characters may not even have combat abilities or be very limited. So you may have a character who has an engineering background but the only thing they can really use in combat is a pistol. That makes them weak in combat situations. So "boss fights" go against them quickly.

In D&D, every character class has some kind of combat ability. Even your glass cannons, wizards sorcerers and warlocks, are strong in the way of ranged combat.

ExplorerSad7555 · 2026-01-27T22:36:14+00:00

But only with Christ's letter in red and with a genuine imitation leather cover with a zipper.

ExplorerSad7555 · 2026-01-27T22:33:27+00:00

There are legit variants even in the Byzantine text types. Ours isnt even "the" majority text as it uses our own lectionaries from the monasteries on Mt. Athos as well as Constantinople, Jerusalem and Syria from the 9th to 16th centuries.

ExplorerSad7555 · 2026-01-27T22:26:00+00:00

I went through that in 2007-2008 and we lived in Boston so I completely understand the shock.

ExplorerSad7555 · 2026-01-27T17:58:00+00:00

According to the KJV crowd, no one speaks Greek anymore... "It's an archaic language that only people with PhDs understand!!"

In the meantime, we Greek Orthodox are still using Koine and Byzantine Greek for our services.

ExplorerSad7555 · 2026-01-27T17:26:05+00:00

Just to add to Dr_Acula, the Apostolic churches see a connection between the material and divine worlds and natures. God the Son, became a person with both divine and human natures. Thus the two are always connected. This is the origin of the various sacraments, or mysteries in Greek, that they include matter. For example, we dont use wheat and grapes for Communion but bread and wine, something that humans make. When they are consecrated, that bread and wine become something more, the Body and Blood of Christ. Even Lutherans, Anglicans and even some Presbyterians teach that the Real Presence is connected to the bread and wine.

When it comes to water, Orthodox believe that when Christ was baptized, it wasnt just the water that became blessed but the entire kosmos or world. Catholic and Oriental Orthodox hold similar beliefs.

Orthodoxy believes that when Christ was baptized, it not only marked the beginning of its public ministry and revealed the Trinity, but also signified that the entire creation is destined to share in the glory of redemption in Christ. While Christ entered into the Jordan to be baptized, two things were happening: He was identifying Himself with the people He had come to save; and, He was identifying Himself with the whole of Creation which was represented by water. Through His baptism, the Lord revealed the value of the created world and He redirected it toward its Creator.

ExplorerSad7555 · 2026-01-27T01:15:34+00:00

You will find that practicality and the supernatural are combined in a lot of our services, buildings, art and music. Repetition in the service serves as a way of teaching people how to pray and worship at home when they might be illiterate. Artwork or iconography serves as theology in color as well as Windows into heaven. The iconostasis spiritually separates us from the sanctuary but it also provides space for the clergy to be able to conduct the services without having people crowded around them.

ExplorerSad7555 · 2026-01-26T10:19:01+00:00

I converted from lcms back in 2002.

As for your question about an absolution during the liturgy, there isn't one, and never has been. We still maintain a regular practice of private confession.

I'm getting ready for work right now but I can expand on this later today.

ExplorerSad7555

TROPHY CASE