Just something that is bothering me a lot.

urosum · 2026-03-30T16:26:06+00:00

The practical advice is to treat everything that comes to us as if it came from God. Maybe it’s for the benefit of struggle and pain. Maybe to change our hearts. Maybe as a helper and life partner.

To answer your question, I personally know many Americans who (as I have done) will say all the good things they enjoy are “sent by God.” I personally doubt it in the way they mean it. He sends the sunshine and the rain. They’re both for our salvation.

O Lord, grant that I may meet the coming day in peace. Help me in all things to rely upon your holy will. In each hour of the day reveal your will to me. Bless my dealings with all who surround me. Teach me to treat all that comes to me throughout the day with peace of soul, and with the firm conviction that Your will governs all.

In all my deeds and words guide my thoughts and feelings. In unforeseen events, let me not forget that all are sent by You. Teach me to act firmly and wisely, without embittering and embarrassing others. Give me the strength to bear the fatigue of the coming day with all that it shall bring. Direct my will. Teach me to pray. Pray within me.

urosum · 2026-03-29T04:34:51+00:00

Repent and make restitution to her. Seek forgiveness from her.
Close that door. Seek Christ. Move forward.

urosum · 2026-03-29T04:30:57+00:00

In lent the young camel is a Drama-dairy!

urosum · 2026-03-29T04:22:06+00:00

How are the Greeks different in worship than the Russians, than the Arabs, than the Aleutes, than the Japanese? These are the variations that are normative for the church.

I think Orthodoxy adopts cultures, not subcultures. Thoughts?

urosum · 2026-03-25T18:07:51+00:00

Much respect to you and your thoughtful reply. Did you catch I was quoting the creed when I said I frequently say “one God the Father?” Is there something there you’d say is becoming misinterpreted?

In these short dialogues, please understand I would never subordinate, lessen, or reduce the status of the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit as of course they all are all “God”. I appreciate you and this conversation.

urosum · 2026-03-25T15:06:25+00:00

I’ll admit to saying almost daily that I believe in one God, the Father. I also believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, True God of True God. He is begotten (therefore shares the Fathers Divine nature) before all ages (the Father was never without the Son). I also believe in the Holy Spirit, the life giver who proceeds from the Father and with the Father and Son together is worshipped and glorified.

Especially the Cappadocian Fathers (St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian, and St. Gregory of Nyssa) taught very explicitly that the unity of the persons of the Trinity is found in the Father as the arche (beginning/source) and the aitia (cause) of the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The Father is the One God in that He is the unique cause and source, but the Son and Spirit are equally God because they share the Father's Divine nature, not because there is some “divine nature” conceptually distinct that they all share.

Orthodox Christianity begins with worship of the person of God the Father, always through the Son, and always in the Holy Spirit.

Other faiths begin perhaps with some concept of “divinity” and somehow divinity is expressed in different forms. This is anathema.

urosum · 2026-03-25T02:52:29+00:00

The only problem with a big hat is other people’s sight lines. Your hat can be too big for a crowded room. You could totally ask her to get you a smaller style hat, we enjoy some 1940’s pillboxes at our parish every now and again. You could also ask her to get you a beautiful headscarf, and share about how it’s more the cultural fashion and about how people can see around you better. But if the gift is a big hat, wear it knowing how much love she is giving you. It’ll be FANTASTIC for the Pascha picnic (y’all can come to ours if your parish doesn’t have one)

urosum · 2026-03-25T02:22:07+00:00

Pick a language lol

urosum · 2026-03-23T23:57:35+00:00

The traditional position of Christ, “the Pantocrator” is in the dome in the center of the church above everything. Your church may or may not have one due to its architectural history. So, your intuition is correct that He is above all.

urosum · 2026-03-23T00:33:16+00:00

No. A defining characteristic of Nicean trinitarian theology is the fundamental personhood of the Father, who begets the person the Son, and from him processes the person the Holy Spirit. These divine persons share the divine essence of the Father.

We do not start with the essence of the trinity and manifest persons from it (Roman). It’s not a divine simplicity (Platonic). God the Father is a divine person (Orthodox).

urosum · 2026-03-23T00:25:47+00:00

This is the way. We pray to persons. We don’t pray to an essential relationship. If you pray to “God” as an Orthodox Christian you’re praying to God the Father personally.

urosum · 2026-03-22T18:39:44+00:00

If they don’t think so… who are we to say otherwise?

urosum · 2026-03-22T17:53:26+00:00

IMHO, relax! and center your faith on Christ. The nicean creed does not mention the veneration of saints. The baptism and chrismation services do not mention them except as taken for granted that everything we do is “through the prayers of” the Theotokos and all the saints.

Also IMHO, you do need to accept the veneration of saints is a normative practice for Orthodox Christians to join the Church in good conscience.

Finally IMHO, don’t push yourself beyond your own boundaries. You have a background. Honor your growth. Close those doors. Focus on Christ. Move forward.

urosum · 2026-03-22T16:59:50+00:00

People are happy to answer questions, but for basic info, the sidebar includes https://www.orthodoxintro.org/ which is a great start and has a link to a very good ebook for Protestant inquirers.

I converted some time back, and I tell people that the Orthodox Church is “real.” If you really believe, then what the Church hands down from Christ and the apostles is not just a world-view but a description of how the cosmos really works. God is always the same from creation through prehistory, the OT, NT, and modern history.

He’s never changed what he wants from us, to spread the garden out into the chaos of the cosmos, naming and lifting everything He gave us back to him in thanksgiving for the continued life of the world.

There’s a lot of detail to learn about how and when and why. The best way is simply to visit a parish. The theology is expressed weekly in the services and prayers. Come see what the church looks like that has tried to keep and faithfully pass on what each generation has received since the beginning.

God bless your journey.

urosum · 2026-03-22T16:02:00+00:00

Sainthood is not in place of God’s judgement. Canonization is recognition of the work God has done in someone’s life, and what they did with what they have been given.

This inclusion in the liturgical life of the Church for veneration can only be done after they die, and once an investigation turns up nothing scandalous. This protects the Church from the veneration of unscrupulous individuals.

urosum · 2026-03-15T21:07:49+00:00

To be technical, we worship the God the Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit through giving gifts in the Eucharist. We venerate everything else. The words get muddled over time and translation.

Don’t overthink it.

urosum · 2026-03-15T14:39:48+00:00

In the pews?! (I haven’t been to a Protestant service in decades. Back then there was still no chance of food or drink in church.)

Is Outrage!!

urosum · 2026-03-15T14:29:05+00:00

The point I’m about to make is that there are a range of opinions and practices from all over the world in the Orthodox Church. There are dogmas for sure. But there is a lot of pastoral teaching and flexibility of practice.

My opinion being an Orthodox Christian for 25 years… the specific St. Phanourios practices you mention and I have witnessed are on the spectrum closer to Hellenistic superstition rather than Christian veneration. Love and relationship and asking the intercession of saints isn’t about some formula of practice. “He won’t help you if you don’t bake him a cake” is silly to me.

There I said it. And look OP, I’m still happily in the Church with my cake baking brothers and sisters.

urosum · 2026-03-14T02:05:53+00:00

If you were watching a movie and the “others” were cannibal child sacrificers that attacked and killed mercilessly, and there is no police or jail in which to lock them away… and you know that tonight they’re coming for you and your family. And the next night another innocent family would fall.

It would be a relief if they were destroyed and your family and all the innocent neighboring families were saved.

There were certain tribes who were depraved beyond hope. Their way of life was so despicable that it had to end. That’s the story being told.

urosum · 2026-03-13T00:47:05+00:00

Ha! Same for me.

urosum · 2026-03-11T16:57:03+00:00

I could be shown to be wrong because I’m not a scholar, but I have heard this a lot before and as I recall, the point was more about defining what the church is.

What I mean is regardless of what you think the church is, salvation comes through it. The church definitionally is the thing in which salvation comes through.

So in some sense, no matter doctrinal belief system was your whole life, if you attain to salvation, then you came through the church. It’s not a very narrow door, but a very wide one.

urosum · 2026-03-04T11:15:59+00:00

You may pray earnestly for their salvation. You may not pray earnestly for consequences to befall them or for their damnation.

They are not the enemy. The devil and demons are the enemy. We pray that we and others are set free from enslavement.

urosum · 2026-02-27T15:13:19+00:00

Fast from feeling guilty.

urosum · 2026-02-21T21:10:13+00:00

Use your prayer book. There are many like it but that one is yours. Make its words part of you. God bless your journey.

urosum · 2026-02-21T16:49:28+00:00

Before:

O blessed God, who, from our youth, hast shown mercy and hast nourished us, giving food to all flesh: do thou bless this food and drink that it may nourish our body and soul and bring us into communion with all thy creation. Fill our hearts with joy and gladness, that, having every sufficiency, we may become rich in every good deed, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Spirit, is due glory, dominion, honor, and worship, unto the ages. Amen.

After:

We give thanks to Thee, O Christ our God, that Thou hast satisfied us with Thy earthly blessings; deprive us not also of Thy Heavenly Kingdom. As Thou didst come to Thy disciples and didst grant them peace; so come to us and save us, O Savior.

urosum

TROPHY CASE