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FEBRUARY–MARCH 2011
Things to Read While Traveling through Great Lent by Bishop Savas of Troas
Congratulations to the recent graduates of St. Stephen’s Course in Applied Orthodox Theology upon their ordination into the Holy Diaconate
Rev. Deacon John Mamangakis at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, New Rochelle, NY, with the laying of Hands by His Grace Andonios of Phasiane, Chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America on May 4, 2010
Rev. Deacon John Howard at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, Fort Myers, FL, with laying of Hands by His Eminence Metropolitan Alexios of the Metropolis of Atlanta of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America on December 12, 2010
Rev. Deacon Chrysostom Panos at St. Paraskevi Greek Orthodox Church with the laying of Hands by His Grace Andonios of Phasiane, Chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America on November 13, 2010
For the past 31 years the St. Stephen’s Course in Applied Orthodox Theology has been educating men and women – Orthodox and non-Orthodox- from all parts of the world. It is a “Theological School without walls” – a directed distance reading program with an integrated three year program. The students are from Ireland, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, the Middle East, Greece, Japan, Hong Kong, China, Australia, New Zealand, Sierra Leone, Thailand, Mauritius, Central and South America. These students have had a strong desire to learn more about the Greek Orthodox Church, its Faith, Doctrine and Traditions. They are not, or were not able to attend an Orthodox Seminary or an Orthodox Theological School due to pursuing a secular career or family obligations, etc. There are over 1,000 graduates who now serve, not only as Deacons, but also the local parish as Church School directors, teachers, youth ministers, etc. If you are interested in learning more about the program, fill out the form below or contact the St. Stephen’s Office at 201 569 0095 or theoedu1@aol.com for a catalogue. NAME_________________________________________________________please print ADDRESS________________________________CITY___________________________ STATE_______________ZIP CODE__________COUNTRY________________________ TELEPHONE_____________________E-MAIL ADDRESS________________________
Mail to: St. Stephen’s Course, 385 Ivy Lane, Bergenfield, NJ 07621
As my friends can tell you, I like to ask them, shortly into any conversation, “So what are you reading?” I’m always on the lookout for the “next good book,” just as I’m always looking to recommend my “last good one.” The pleasures of a book, as a wise person once observed, are doubled when shared. Thank God, the Church doesn’t ask that we give up reading during fasting periods, or I’d never make it! It is certainly in the spirit of the Great and Holy Lent, however, to avoid certain kinds of books (say, crime fiction, an escapist romance or a celebrity “bio”) to make mental space for more sober and edifying fare. With that in mind, I write to suggest a book or two for your Lenten consideration. It’s always good, whatever the time of year, to read the Holy Scriptures along with the Church. Every day outside of the Great Fast, the Divine Liturgy is celebrated somewhere, and for every Liturgy the Church designates a reading from the writings of the Apostles and one from one of the Four Gospels. In Lent, however, there are no weekday celebrations of the Divine Liturgy, and so the daily Scripture readings are taken from the Old Testament, and specifically from the books of Genesis, the Prophecy of Isaiah, and the Proverbs. There is also an increased use of the Church’s prayer book, the Book of Psalms. So start there. Read the Scriptures on a daily basis. If you’re not sure what the readings are for a particular day, go to www.goarch.org and click on the “Online Chapel” tab. When the Apostle Philip heard an Ethiopian pilgrim traveling home from Jerusalem by the Gaza road reading the
prophet Isaiah, he asked him, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And the Ethiopian said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” (Acts 8:30-31). Here are a few guides. For the Book of Genesis, I recommend Sister Nonna Verna Henderson’s translation of selected homilies of St. Basil the Great, On the Human Condition, in St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press’s Popular Patristics Series, and St. John Chrysostom’s Eight Sermons on the Book of Genesis, translated by Robert C. Hill for Holy Cross Orthodox Press. For those of a more scholarly bent, Peter C. Bouteneff’s Beginnings: Ancient Christian Readings of the Biblical Creation Narratives (Baker Academic) is an illuminating analysis of the various ways the opening chapters of Genesis have been understood by some of the Church’s greatest thinkers and saints. Consider also Robert Hill’s three-volume translation of St. Cyril of Alexandria’s, also on Holy Cross Press. If you do nothing more than acquire a greater familiarity with the Psalms this Lent, you will have done well. The Psalms are at the heart of Christian worship. There isn’t an Orthodox service that doesn’t draw from the Psalms, to express joy, to ask for forgiveness, to seek enlightenment, to beg for mercy, to make our needs known to God. And there are no more fitting Psalms to accompany us in our upward climb to the Holy City for Holy Week than the Psalms of Ascent, a group of 15 psalms that are numbered either Psalms120 to 134, in most Bibles, or Psalms 119 to 133, in translations from the Septuagint (Greek) Old Testament.
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