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Just wanted to introduce myself. I had an opportunity to attend a Ruthenian church liturgy last weekend while I was out of town, and was really enlivened by the experience. I am now trying to learn more about the Byzantine Rite, and get more courage to seek out a Byzantine church in my area.

I'm new, so please forgive me if I ask silly questions. I am really trying to learn! I have been reading all the sections of the forum.

Part of what really draws me is that I started painting after I saw an exhibition of Byzantine Ikons. I was deeply affected by the images in the exhibition, and since then I've been very interested in the writing of Ikons.

Pook,

Welcome to the Forum. We never worry about whether questions are silly. Actually, newcomers seldom post silly questions; we veterans pretty much have a monopoly on posting those .

Seriously (and I was half-serious above), we're more than happy to answer anything that you might want to post; hopefully, we'll do it well and you'll walk away from the screen the more knowledgeable for the experience. Feel free to discuss things and offer your own opinions as well. A fresh perspective is always a welcome thing here.

I'm glad your initial experience of our Divine Liturgy was edifying and hope that you'll continue to explore the East. We have several accomplished iconographers (Dave/Chtec and Daniel/Iconophile, to name just two) here who will be happy to discuss iconography with you.

As far as locating a Church in your area, check the Unofficial Directory of Eastern Catholic Churches in the US [crosslink.net] . It could be a bit more up-to-date, but it's the most complete reference around right now. In Columbus itself, there are both a Byzantine (Ruthenian) and a Melkite parish.

Many years,

Neil

Neil,

I already feel at home here, as you have correctly intuited the most common way people shorten my family nickname! (Pook!)

I e-mailed the pastor of St. John Chrysostom here in Columbus, and he replied. I've put it out there to my husband that I'd like to try going there. He sounds interested, so we'll see how that goes!

What I particularly enjoyed is that a lot of the service was sung. People seemed not only to know the words, but really seemed to be singing! I really felt like I had been to Church.

Praise God! That is wonderful Pook, welcome to this cyber family. A place like this helps one to realize how varied and gifted the Body of Christ is. For the most part it is a place of love, although being brothers and sisters we have sibling fights. Oh Well, God has given us wonderful Admin, priests, monks, and deacons that keep us moving along - you know that phrase UPWARD MOBILITY - well they keep us moving upward towards the Kingdom of God.

Ed Klages is another Iconographer on here. He sent me this bit of info ....We (15 or us) started a mosaic icon of St. Ephrem in Lent and finally completed it last week. (It is 16x20 and has over 30,000 little tiles)....that is at the Knoxville Mission where our ByzanTN also attends. Is that awesome, such a wonderful thing to do for the Church. Totally cool. ED YOU NEED TO GIVE US A LINK TO THE ICON FOR OUR VIEWING PLEASURE.

CONGRATULATIONS ED AND CHARLES!

Pook,
So don't give up if they, the icons are calling you in, calling you home, rejoice for the Lord is speaking through them.

Pani Rose

This was not an artistic masterpiece, as it was the mosaic equivalent of a "paint-by-number". Still, the final result is really quite nice. What was really important is that everyone was able to work on it a portion at home during the week, and then swap sections of the mosaic on Sunday after liturgy. It gave everyone an opportunity to work together on a common project, something that is ordinarily quite difficult in a far-flung mission where some parishoners might live 75+ miles from each other. In addition, everyone was encouraged to accompany the placing of each of the thousands of tiles with a Jesus Prayer, so it enabled a whole lot of Lenten praying that may not have otherwise taken place.

Everyone involved loved the process. We are taking the summer off to avoid burnout, but hope to begin again in the fall producing a similar icon of St. Romanus the Melodist before the Nativity.

The long range hope/plan is that we will eventually get deacon doors on our portable iconostasis and, since Ss. Ephrem and Romanus were both deacons, have the mosaics mounted on the doors.

We now resume our regularly scheduled message thread, already in progress.....

Ed

Welcome to the forum, Pook. I had a good friend in college named Puch(pronounced Pooch) short for an Italian name, but you are the first Pook I have encountered and, of course, seen on our website here.

You have come to the right place. This is a place where you can read a lot about Eastern Christianity and as Neil says - do ask questions. After a year I am still asking them and sometimes feel a little silly when I do...but most often that is how I am learning how much I have to learn.

Of course, the best way to learn is to experience the Divine Liturgy in a Byzantine Church and sounds like you just did that. What a blessing, right? And here you are. Glory to God who directs our paths. \o/

Your sister in Christ,


Mary Jo aka Porter

That in an understatement for sure! The Lord never gives up on me, and He had to go to some efforts to find me and bring me home! After I found out that I had been baptized RC as an infant, but before I went to RCIA, (another story in itself...) I saw the Ikon exhibition at the Pontifical College Josephineum. I saw an ad for the exhibit on TV one day, and told my husband "Honey, I have to go see that." I didn't know why I wanted to go so badly, I just did.

I stood there for hours -- I think they had to chase us out at the end of the day. I couldn't get some of the images out of my mind. Especially the "Tenderness" images, and the Dormition. A few days went by, and I just couldn't stop thinking about it. so I pulled out some of my husband's paints, and I gessoed a little wooden board, and painted.

I was at a craft show a few months later, and I brought some of my little paintings, not to sell, I'm not really sure why I thought to take them. My booth was next to a woman who made jewelery from driftwood, and she happened to be Catholic, and she also went to the same church as my husband's uncle. We started talking about Catholicism, and I showed her my paintings.

She said to me, " You may not have made up your mind about Mother Mary, but I think she has made up her mind about you. "

Powerful images, those are!

Oh, I hope some day I get to work on a parish project like that! In the past few years, our RC Cathedral downtown was gifted with huge murals painted on the upper walls behind the altar, to replace some tapestries that had been damaged beyond repair I think. These are western painting style paintings, not icons, per se. But every time I read another article about them being painted, I wanted to quit my job, and run down there and offer to help the artist by mixing paint or cleaning brushes, or whatever.

The Josephineum was affected by a fire a few years back, and they enlisted the help of some students from a local art college to help them restore some murals damaged by the fire. Again, thoughts of quitting my job and running over to help any way they might let me.

But by and large there really aren't a lot of places an RC can go and find people who are interested in doing religious art. In retrospect, I kind of wonder why no one ever pointed me down the block to the church with the big gold onion dome, and said "Go look there..." because all my Catholic friends know about my fascination with Ikons. I guess the Lord knows when the best time is for all things.

Mary Jo,

Glory to God! I am always amazed at how He puts the very things that I need right in front of me. if I stay focussed on Him, He leads me.

You know when I was in RCIA, one of our advisors lent me a book about a young Russian man and his mother who made a pilgrimage to remote monasteries so that he might have an opportunity to become a priest. Ding Ding! Ding! (I think that was a hint.)

Then last week, I picked up a used book by the Monks of New Skete, thinking I would enjoy it because I enjoyed that other book. In it was a retelling of the story of Prince Vladimir of Kiev whose ambassadors to Constantinople brought back news of a religion there "where God dwelt among men..." and I remembered that story from the other book.

Then Father Farmer in his little talk mentioned that same little story.

Okay, maybe that's just coincidence, but it definitely caught my attention.

Pook wrote:

[Then last week, I picked up a used book by the Monks of New Skete, thinking I would enjoy it because I enjoyed that other book. In it was a retelling of the story of Prince Vladimir of Kiev whose ambassadors to Constantinople brought back news of a religion there "where God dwelt among men..." and I remembered that story from the other book.

Then Father Farmer in his little talk mentioned that same little story.

Okay, maybe that's just coincidence, but it definitely caught my attention. ]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I think that when something like that happens more than once, then it is likely something to prayerfully discern one little step at a time.

Prayerfully,

Mary Jo

Yes, I think so too! I'm glad to find out that it's not unheard of for an RC, even a family of Rc's, to go to a Byzantine Church now and then, or even regularly. That will, I hope make it easier for me to discern.

Pook

Yes, we are still R.C.'s and do attend a B.C. Church when we can. Our problem is distance driving as there is not one in our area. We are retired and may eventually move closer though - then we can be more regular attenders. It is best, anyway, to go at this gradually. There is much to learn and this is a good place to learn. So far I have grown to love Byzantine Spirituality and all that means. Actually it has richly blessed me in many enriching ways, e.g. icons. Lot of good threads on this forum on icons and someone is always starting another one.

Peace and Joy,

Mary Jo aka Porter.