AXIOS! Last Sunday, November 12th, Subdeacon Richard Petranek was ordained to the diaconate at St Joseph/Houston, Texas (pictured here) and yesterday, Sunday, November 19th, he was ordained to the priesthood at St George/Houston, Texas. Father Richard, who has been assigned to the pastorate at St Paul Church in west Houston, will serve his “Week of Liturgies” November 20th-26th. Father Richard may be contacted at:richardjp at houston dot rr dot com I had the pleasure of interviewing Fr Richard back in... Read more

What? Me, Seminary? HT Jean-MichelThis, ladies & gentleman, is no laughing matter! It’s scary to know what personal information is being made public about us these days!For example. HT My oldest It’s hard to keep up with the gang at GetReligion. They’re everywhere! GetReligion is like a magazine — delivered up fresh daily MORE THAN daily! Recent posts of note include this one, this too, and more … (I also stole the pic from them.) It’s the weekend. It’s the... Read more

West University, a prominent township just west of Rice University — part of greater Houston — and where St George Church is located … Picture this: Big, clean Cadillac Escalade … with a bumper sticker in the middle of the left rear window: DISCOVERJesus in the Quranwww.freequran.org If you must, here ’tis. Oh, and the bumper sticker. Read more

I don’t like Fasting.It’s too expensive.We have to change our daily status quo.We have to give up our “same-oh same-oh.” It costs so much more to switch over to Organic Soy Milk from our regular milk. Veggie Burger costs more than hamburger, and eating out at Red Lobster is killing our budget! The other day in coffee hour, we were talking about one of the ethnic groups in our church, and how they always mess things up for the rest... Read more

I was blessed to read Dawn’s manuscript back in the summer, while at Camp St Raphael. You’d think that would have given me enough time to produce my own review. Slack, slack, slack. In the meantime, as the time nears, here’s one from another … In her new book, The Thrill of the Chaste, Dawn Eden writes with a naked truth and passion seen in few writers since Augustine and Pascal. Sprinkled with wit and quips, Dawn tackles a serious... Read more

Starting today. Click the above link. Read more

THE NATIVITY FAST begins today, November 15th, and continues through December 24th. This Fast is divided into two periods. The first period is November 15th through December 19th when the traditional fasting discipline (no meat, poultry, eggs, dairy, fish, wine and oil) is observed on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but with katalysis for wine and oil on Tuesday and Thursday (some also permit fish on Tuesday and Thursday during this first period), and for fish, wine and oil on Saturday... Read more

She had a white stripe of hair, off center from between the eyes, swooping back from her forehead — always immaculately coiffed. (She’s pictured here in red with my family back in July.) My wife was her “Godmother.” We always joked in a flirtatious way, Sheila and I. The accent, almost Cockney; the fiery personality, incorrigible. Dynamis! She adored her husband. After he died, everyone thought she’d soon follow. She’d followed others — even me. She followed me out of... Read more

Clippard likened this situation to that of the Russian Orthodox Church, whose priests were debating what color vestments they should wear as the communists were invading Russia. “Can that happen to us?” he said. “You bet it can.” This too … The Saudi Arabian Royal Family and the Saudi government have opened and funded 1,156 Moslem study centers in universities across North America, he said: 138 in the United States, 28 in Canada — including three in the University of... Read more

The Church of England has broken with tradition dogma by calling for doctors to be allowed to let sick newborn babies die. Thanks to FWD from blog reg, Tikhon. Read more