Miscellaneous Tidbits
Things I wanted to record in my online journal for a while:
1. Not long ago, after Liturgy one Sunday, Father said (and I'm not kidding), "Well, for those of you interested, the Patriarch of Antioch is in Austin this weekend, attending services with his cousin at St. Elias downtown. I only just received word about this last night from the priest at St. Elias, who only found out about it yesterday afternoon from a friend of a friend (in a naturally Arabic manner). Apparently, his holiness the Patriarch was in Washington last week delivering a speech, and thought he would take advantage of his sojourn in America to visit his cousin here in Austin. They're not serving a patriarchal liturgy, just their normal one, which starts one hour later than ours. That means that if you hop in your cars right now, you might just be able to catch the Patriarch in the parking lot and watch him drive away in his car." No joke. It really did happen. The Patriarch of Antioch -- the bishop of the city where the followers of Christ were first called Christians -- was here incognito! Yes, the bishop of one of the oldest Christian churches in the world, a church which is still headquartered on the "street called Straight" in Antioch (Acts 9:11), was in Austin attending a liturgy like a normal Joe. A couple of our parishoners did hop down to St. Elias downton, and they did see him.
2. A couple of weeks ago, Father Aiden gave an absolutely amazing sermon on our calling to be saints. It's available here.
1. Not long ago, after Liturgy one Sunday, Father said (and I'm not kidding), "Well, for those of you interested, the Patriarch of Antioch is in Austin this weekend, attending services with his cousin at St. Elias downtown. I only just received word about this last night from the priest at St. Elias, who only found out about it yesterday afternoon from a friend of a friend (in a naturally Arabic manner). Apparently, his holiness the Patriarch was in Washington last week delivering a speech, and thought he would take advantage of his sojourn in America to visit his cousin here in Austin. They're not serving a patriarchal liturgy, just their normal one, which starts one hour later than ours. That means that if you hop in your cars right now, you might just be able to catch the Patriarch in the parking lot and watch him drive away in his car." No joke. It really did happen. The Patriarch of Antioch -- the bishop of the city where the followers of Christ were first called Christians -- was here incognito! Yes, the bishop of one of the oldest Christian churches in the world, a church which is still headquartered on the "street called Straight" in Antioch (Acts 9:11), was in Austin attending a liturgy like a normal Joe. A couple of our parishoners did hop down to St. Elias downton, and they did see him.
2. A couple of weeks ago, Father Aiden gave an absolutely amazing sermon on our calling to be saints. It's available here.