As an Orthodox Christian of Orthodox and Roman Catholic background it fills me with great pride, happiness, and love to see this picture of the Patriarchs of Rome and Constantinople together. They follow in the footsteps of Bishop Flanagan and Archbishop Iakovos of blessed memory as well as our hierarchs Metropolitan Methodios, Cardinal Sean and Bishop McManus.
The other day I visited old friend Bill K. at Olympic Wine & Spirits on Grafton St. in Worcester. This place used to be called Renaissance Wine & Spirits before Bill and his family bought it. I went there once some years ago to buy a bottle of wine and was startled to hear someone say “I can’t believe there is a (expletive deleted) priest in a liquor store”. Good grief. So, it was nice to go there and see a friendly face. In talking with Bill I remembered a story from The Sporting News or SI back in the day. The International Olympic Committee was going after a diner in New York that used the name Olympic and the logo of the five interlocked rings. The IOC was going after this place – no doubt Greek-owned – for using the logo and theoretically profiting off of it. This was likely in the pre-internet era, and I can’t find any reference to it. Bill has a good grasp of the law on this one – you can use the rings as long as they are not in the same order and position as the famous Olympics version. Check out the website that I linked to above – the rings emerge as bubbles from a martini glass that stands in for the y in the word Olympic. Great job Bill!
Go to post pageThe other day Fr. Peter and I were reminiscing about taking classes with Fr. George Dragas. I shared with Fr. Peter a memory of one class where a student in passing referred to one of the Ecumenical Councils and was a bit unsure of the date. Fr. Dragas paused and said to us “You don’t know the dates and places of the councils?”. Here we were just a year removed from Church History class and, well, no one could name them. So he went to the board and wrote them all down from memory: Nicaea (325), Constantinople (381), Ephesus (431), Chalcedon (451), Constantinople (553), Constantinople (680), and Nicaea (787). I realized at the time I should know them. Did I then go and memorize the list? Of course not. But now I will do my best. The conversation with Fr. Peter got me thinking…what other lists of seven should I know? I realize this stuff could well be considered trivia but I imagine back in the day a cultured man would be expected to know such things, so why not?
So…The seven hills of Rome? I can name off the top of my head the Palatine, Capitoline, Esquiline and Aventine. After further review let’s add the Quirinal, Viminal and Caelian. The seven deadly sins are gluttony, avarice, lust, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride (it is well worth exploring the original words to get a better translation and interpretation, though). We all know that the only extant wonder of the ancient world is the Great Pyramid of Giza. How about the others? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria all spring to mind. The others are the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, and the Statue of Zeus at Olympia. I have never really known what the “Seven Seas” specifically were but have always understood it as meaning the whole world. And the Seven Dwarfs? I don’t think the girls have watched that one yet, which means my memories are from thirty years ago. Dopey? Sleepy? Sneezy? That is about all I can name. Let’s look those up as well…And according to this site Bashful, Doc, Happy and Grumpy (How could I forget that one?).
Go to post page
We had a nice pan-Orthodox Sunday Of Orthodoxy vespers service tonight at St. George Cathedral in Worcester, with the newly elevated Bishop John presiding. I was impressed that a group of Marlborough peeps came down for the service. The hall at St. George features icons of all 12 member churches’ patrons, and we decided to take a picture in front of Sts. Cosmas and Damian, the Holy Anargyroi:
The Facing East boys are back! Fr. Peter and I discuss 18th century Worcester, new bishops, ecumenism, raising chickens, and all kinds of things. Listen to the podcast here or on iTunes.
Go to post pageOne of the coolest moments of the Pats’ victory over the Ravens to move on to the Super Bowl came when the “Law Firm”, BenJarvus Green-Ellis (greatest name ever, and a fabulous nickname) scored and pulled at the patch on his jersey commemorating Myra Kraft, who passed away this summer after a struggle with cancer. Her spirit and memory clearly inspire this team, and it is refreshing and sobering to see how much she means to the whole organization. (I had no idea, incidentally, that she was born in Worcester – I will need to do more research on her time here). There is much talk from people in the organization and elsewhere about how she is guiding the team to their destiny. This, to me, is understandable but a bit cringe-worthy; I have spent the past two months listening to sports talk radio people rake Tim Tebow over the coals for similar things his fans, though not Tebow himself, were saying. These same voices have been silent on the Pats/Myra Kraft stuff though.
In any case…Myra Kraft was an extraordinary woman and I can’t help but think of my mother who passed away around the same time after a struggle with health problems. Clearly Myra was an “away mother” for many players. My own mother, for her part, was a bit of a sports sage, in the way that is peculiar to old school Boston fans. Some memories:
-She was an unreconstructed Red Sox fan who never could really get comfortable with the fact that they won the World Series. I mentioned this in my eulogy. Last summer, when they were winning like crazy before the epic collapse, I would go to the hospital and tell her they won, and she would say “they are doing TOO well” meaning it was bound to fall apart – a true veteran Sox fan.
-She was so into the games that when Vinatieri trotted out to kick the field goal in the first Pats Super Bowl win she ran and hid in another room – she could not bear to watch it out of nervousness!
-My mother – Carol – was a huge, huge Bruins fan. She could probably dress for a week in nothing but Bruins clothing – she had that much stuff. She even had special Boston Bruins bowling balls for her weekly bowling with the church seniors.
-She was a devout Orthodox Christian but would talk about how she “hated” Roger Clemens, or Ulf Samuelsson, or some other such sports figure. I asked her about this once and she said “it is sports hate, not regular hate. It is different”. As a sports fan I totally understand what she meant – she didn’t wish bad upon these people in real life but only in the arena of sports.
I miss her so much.
Go to post page
