Category: Catholicism

Byzantine Back and Forth: Slavonic

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A while ago I wrote a post talking about the exchanges you’ll commonly hear in the Byzantine circles (e.g. “Glory to Jesus Christ/Glory Forever”). In the Ruthenian Catholic Church you’ll often hear greetings and responses in Slavonic. I couldn’t find anywhere on the Internet to help learn them, so here’s my best attempt to list them all out phonetically and record them onto MP3….

Ruthenian

Glory to Jesus Christ/Glory forever (Download)

“Slava Isusu Christu” (SLA-VA EE-SUE-SUE KRI-STU)
“Slava na Veeky” (SLA-VA NA VyEE-KEE)

An alternative dialect has it as
“Slava vo V’iki” (SLA-VA VO VyEE-KEE)

Christ is born/Glorify Him (Download)

“Christos Razhdajetsja” (KRIS-TOS ROZH-DA-YET-SyAH)
“Slaveety Yoho” SLA-VEE-TE YEAH-HO)

Christ is risen/Indeed He is risen (Download)

“Christos Voskres” (KRIS-TOS VOS-KRES)
“Voistynu Voskres” (VO-EE-STEE-NU VOS-KRES)

An alternative dialect has it as:

“Christos Voskrese” (KRIS-TOS VOS-KRES-E)
“Voistinu Voskrese” (VO-EE-STEE-NU VOS-KRES-E)

Christ is among us/He is and will be (Download)

“Chrystos Posredi nas” (KRIS-TOS POS-RE-DI NAS)
“I yest i budet” (YEST EE BOO-DET)

I hope this helps! If anyone out there is a Slavonic expert and would like to correct my pronunciation or phonetic spelling, please leave me a comment! Also, if you’d like to teach the world the responses in Greek, Russian etc, please let me know 🙂

Prayer before starting work

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One of the books I read during my sabbatical was Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence, a lay Carmelite who inspired so many people by his simple, practical approach to spirituality, which focuses on always being mindful of God, even throughout everyday tasks, such as doing the washing up.

brother-lawrence

Yesterday my sabbatical ended and I start back at work. Inspired by this Carmelite’s book, I’ve decided that I’m going to begin each workday with the prayer which Brother Lawrence mentions in the book:

Before beginning any task I would say to God, with childlike trust:

“O God, since You are with me, and it is Your will that I must now apply myself to these outward duties, I beg You, assist me with Your grace that I may continue in Your Presence; and to this end, O Lord, be with me in this my work, accept the labour of my hands, and dwell within my heart with all Your Fullness”

– Brother Lawrence, Practice of the Presence of God

Into the breach!

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If we’re friends on Facebook, you may well have seen a video I posted last week:

This video is part of the Into the breach initiative from the Diocese of Phoenix. Bishop Olmsted, the Bishop of that Diocese, recently released an apostolic exhortation to men, asking them to “Step into the breach”, to fill the void in our society left by an absence of authentic masculinity. In this exhortation, the good Bishop discusses what it means to be a man and gives some of the practical guidance for living out the masculine calling in all its fullness.

I was very much impressed by this apostolic exhortation and I took it with me on my retreat this week so that I could spend some unhurried time reading through it and considering the challenges it poses. After subsequent rereading, I thought that it deserves to be more widely known, so I recorded it onto MP3, making it available to a wider audience.

Audio Download

Into The Breach – Introduction (Download)
The three questions and the context for answering them

Into The Breach – Question #1 (Download)
What does it mean to be a Christian man?

Into The Breach – Question #2 (Download)
How does a Catholic man love?

Into The Breach – Question #3 (Download)
Why is fatherhood, fully understood, so crucial for every man?

Into The Breach – Conclusion (Download)
Sent forth by Christ and Faith of our Fathers

If you don’t want to download multiple files, a recording of the entire document as a single MP3 is available here (80MB).

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