gdp's Comments

Sidetracked Sarah : Slow Cooker Mexican Lasagna - Delicious and Simple + a Giveaway!

Fri, 10 Mar 2017 19:39:26 +0000

I love the lime green colander. My favorite ground beef recipe is stuffed green peppers. It's not a crock pot recipe, though. I cook ground beef saute onion. I add curry powder, celery seed, Worcestershire sauce, and cooked rice. I put all of this into steamed green peppers and bake for 30 mins at 350 degrees. If peppers are out of season, I will just steam, slice, and use fewer to line a casserole dish and then add beef mixture. I can lay a few slices on top before I bake for added flavor.

San Francisco Bay View : The first Memorial Day was Black

Tue, 26 May 2015 09:45:04 +0000

I can't help but wonder what happened to those graves in Hampton Park. Were they moved for the West Indian Exposition in 1902? And if so, to where were they moved?

This Side Of Glory : They're all the same ... not

Wed, 5 Nov 2014 21:05:15 +0000

I only just this week downloaded this to my kindle. I haven't read it yet, but it sounded intriguing. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F5KX78M/ Here in Northern VA things stayed blue. I had great hopes. Oh, well. Next time.....

This Side Of Glory : Bright Week to-do's and -don't's

Wed, 8 May 2013 01:12:14 +0000

The St. Philip's Prayer Manual for the Fellowship of St. John the Divine (of which i have been a member for years) states in the morning prayers (in a footnote) '"Glory to Thee O God...." and "O heavenly King...." are not said during the time between Pascha and Pentecost.' and '"Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal...." is repaced with "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life," during the time between Pascha and Ascension.' Ditto for Noonday prayers, Evening Prayers- Monday-Friday, Saturday evening prayers, and Sunday morning prayers,

This Side Of Glory : 'The reign of life has begun'

Sun, 5 May 2013 14:08:48 +0000

It is a perfect image of what has just happened. (as an aside - doesnt' it feel a bit odd to be at home on Sunday morning?)

This Side Of Glory : Mpn. Anthony: 'Life would not let them escape it'

Sun, 5 May 2013 14:07:08 +0000

Yes! Let us attend!

This Side Of Glory : Living and feeling the liturgy

Sun, 5 May 2013 14:02:53 +0000

A little postscript. After the Great and Holy Saturday vespers and liturgy, we had baptism and chrismations. An older woman there talked about the midnight service. She told me that she would leave after the Nocturns service when we circle the church. She told me that she had been doing this for so many years it was now anticlimactic. It made me so sad to hear that. I pray that in someway it will always be new!

This Side Of Glory : Living and feeling the liturgy

Fri, 3 May 2013 14:59:05 +0000

I'm with ya! And while I can't say this has been a particularly good Lent for me (I've had some trouble keeping a discipline I took on for the fast), boy, the end is great! Last year Fr. told us that the Thursday service was 3 hours long because that is how long Jesus was on the cross. If Jesus could spend that much time on the cross, can't we go to a service that tires us? So off to Divine Liturgy on the morning of Great and Holy Thursday celebrating the Last Supper. Then to the dentist. Now I don't usually mind having my teeth cleaned, but for some reason, I was really fearful yesterday. I sat in the chair saying the Jesus Prayer over and over again. And I thought how often I think I could be strong and not deny Christ and be a martyr and now here I was a quivering mass while sitting there - and nothing bad was happening! Oh, how very weak I am. Jesus could go through all that on the cross without a whimper and I'm a wreck for nothing. At last night's service, my knees were killing me during the first Gospel reading. All I could think about was how Jesus suffered much more. And then, when he was nailed to the cross - the sound of the hammer - I broke into tears! And once again, I knew this was where I was supposed to be. How many times this year have I gone to a service somewhat reluctantly, but said to myself, "I need to go," only to be overwhelmed by the knowledge that that is EXACTLY where I was supposed to be. It's not that I THINK I need to be emotional - in that case I am forcing it - but when it just hits you like that - WOW!

This Side Of Glory : Are Christian churches being threatened?

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 14:26:27 +0000

There is no doubt in my mind that we are. Subtly now, but it will be more overt as time goes on.

The Blazing Center : Put Down The Cheetos, Read This Post, and Stop Being So Lazy!

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 13:10:24 +0000

"...in Christ Jesus my good works matter. When we faithfully plod along, fulfilling God’s call on our lives ... our actions count for eternity." You have no idea how much I needed that right now.

The Blazing Center : Really, What Do We Have To Be So Stinkin' Proud Of?

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 11:40:14 +0000

John Climacus in the chapter On Pride (step 23) in The Ladder of Divine Ascent says: ...."it is sheer lunacy to imagine that one has deserved the gifts of God. You may be proud only of the achievements you had before the time of your birth. But anything after that, indeed the birth itself, is a gift from God. You may claim only the virtues in you that are there independently of your mind, for you mind was bestowed on you by God. And you may claim only those victories you achieved independently of the body, for the body is not yours but a work of God." He begins the chapter with "Pride is a denial of God, an invention of the devil, contempt for men. It is the mother of condemnation, the offspring of praise, a sign of hardness. It is a flight from God's help, the harbinger of madness, the author of downfall. It is the ... source of anger, the gateway of hypocracy. ...the source if hardheartedness ... the denial of compassion ... a cruel judge .... The foe of God. The root of blasphemy. ...This passion often draws strength initially fomr the gicing of thanks, and at first it doesn not shamelessly urge us to renounce God. I have seen people who speak aloud their thanks to God but who in their hearts are glorifying themselves, something demonstrated by that Pharisee with his "O God, I thank you" (Luke 18:11) This is a great book and I highly recommend it! It is long and sometimes hard to read since it was written for monastics in the 6-7th century. A group of us have been meeting weekly to read part and discuss it for over a year. There are 30 steps on the ladder, but some steps are many pages long and we need to take it in small bits to comprehend what John is saying. We are on Step 26 and hope to finish the book in 2013! You can find it here: http://www.amazon.com/John-Climacus-Classics-West... A simpler, shorter book for laypeople is Ascending the Heights by Fr. John Mack. Sadly, it is no longer in print, but you can find it (for a price) at places like amazon, alibris, and abebooks.

The Blazing Center : What Distinguishes Us From Everyone Else On Earth

Wed, 8 Aug 2012 11:13:22 +0000

GREAT post! This fits very well with the book I am now reading: "Everywhere Present" by Stephen Freeman Our lives are lived differently when we see God as present with us all the time as opposed to being "the man upstairs" and not here with us. http://www.amazon.com/Everywhere-Present-Christia...

This Side Of Glory : The good Orthodox girl's guide to getting rid of ants

Tue, 7 Aug 2012 01:20:59 +0000

This works so well! I read this, I went to the store and bought the Borax and before I could buy a squeeze bottle on another trip, the ants left, never to be seen again. I can't explain it.....

The Blazing Center : Do We Really Want to Defend The First Amendment By Buying Chicken Sandwiches?

Sat, 4 Aug 2012 01:00:57 +0000

Does this mean that I am to never eat at Chick-Fil-A again because a homosexual seeing me with a Chick-Fil-A bag would decide that I am a bigot and hate gays? Can I go to Sweet Frog until the LGBT folks learn it is a Christian business and then I can't go there anymore? What about LifeWay stores? Can I listen to Focus on the Family? They give money to defense of marriage campaigns. Will all Christian business men go out of business because other Christians are afraid to support them fearful they will be sending "bad vibes" to non-Christians. Certainly the non-Christians won't support them. The boys and I got Chick-Fil-A today for lunch which we took to the pool to eat. I was happy to buy SOMETHING that I knew wasn't using my money to support Gay Pride, abortion, etc. I don't have many places I can make that choice since so many companies like Disney, Kraft Foods, General Mills, Target, Betty Crocker, Levis, Proctor and Gamble, Microsoft, Apple, Home Depot, Pepsi, and Safeway all support Same Sex Marriage! (For the record, I do buy Kraft, Betty Crocker, and Apple, but nothing could get me to buy a Pepsi - I am a Coke fan)

The Blazing Center : I'm A Really Comfortable Exile

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 10:17:44 +0000

Do you ever find yourself getting too comfortable here? Absolutely! Long ago (over 30 years) we touched on this in a Sunday School lesson. I was feeling a little like an outsider at the time having just moved to a new place. I started praying then that God would never let me get comfortable so that I would always long for heaven. Then we moved to Panama. I was convinced that the only reason we had sand fleas there that bit at night was to distinguish it from heaven. And I guess that is when I stopped making that a regular prayer. I've reached a point in my life where I am thinking about the things I want to do before heaven. I want to finish a quilt for a child, I want to get the photos all in order for the kids, etc. Some of the things, I realize, anyone can do. But some of them only I can do. I've put those at the top of my list. I need to take it up this prayer daily again. To put all of the above in proper perspective. Who cares about photos in heaven? Thanks for the reminder.

This Side Of Glory : What's the meaning of this?

Wed, 6 Jun 2012 00:48:43 +0000

I need to brush up on that old Latin!

This Side Of Glory : What's the meaning of this?

Wed, 6 Jun 2012 00:48:15 +0000

Isn't that funny. I THOUGHT some of it looked familiar. But Cicero is in third year Latin in high school which was, um, 45 years ago. I am one of the weird students who also took Latin in college, but I quit after I completed the requirement of 2 years for graduation. See this article: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/4343795?uid... My aunts used to always use the term "mind the _______" when I was growing up. I find that I use it more now that I am older than I used to. "Mind" meaning "pay attention to" seems to make more sense to me than "look out for." I would argue (well, state) that words have meaning, but only in context. For instance, what does the word "ground" mean? You can't even say that it is a noun, a verb, or an adjective until you use it. How could you know what it means without knowing how it is used? All interesting stuff to think about. Thanks!

The Blazing Center : No Boys, It's Not A Ghost

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:17:32 +0000

Funny, this popped up on my blog list yesterday, but I didn't take the time to read it then. Of course, I didn't NEED it then. I needed a sermon on James 1:2-4 (at which I am a dismal failure right now). Today I need this one. Thanks for the timely post////

This Side Of Glory : Baptists and me

Wed, 4 Apr 2012 10:49:31 +0000

Our children were all reared in the Episcopal church - at least until I left and later became Orthodox. My husband is Anglican (in America that's an Episcopalian who thinks the Episcopal church has run off the rails and is attempting to get back to what the church previously believed/taught). Our oldest daughter married a non-Christian. Her children were baptized in Episcopal churches. For various reasons, they started attending a local Baptist church. Praise God, Joe found Him there (or did God find Joe there? doesn't matter - they are together now) When we went to his baptism, it was much better than the communion service on Christmas Eve.... Even my husband found that pretty awful. (And my daughter still goes to the Episcopal church occasionally on weekdays to take communion) I go with my husband to the "home group" Bible study from his church. Sometimes I go with him to church. The home group people will talk about things they experience during a service. "You could feel the Spirit!" "It gives me goosebumps to think about it now!" etc. I go there and I feel .....nothing.... I loved medieval ecclesiastical architecture (old churches, cathedrals, monasteries). I used to be able to go into a church built in the 10th-15th century and feel everything those people talk about. Now I go into a giant cathedral (think Strasbourg, Laon, Amiens, Paderborn, Reims, York, Koln, Chartes) and usually feel nothing. I need to go someplace like Trier where the cathedral was begun by Constantine... I need to ferret out churches in the French countryside built before the Great Schism - the 8th century St. Sebastian's in Laudenburg, Germany, St. Peter's at Bad Wimpfen from 965. I certainly get nothing when I walk into a modern non-Orthodox church. It is, as far as I know, the only thing that makes me sad about my conversion to Orthodoxy. I now somehow deep down inside unconsciously question everything NOT Orthodox. I miss the thrill I had thinking about everything - every detail, all the symbolism - that went into building a monument for God. The stained glass windows are lovely, but I long for the icons. I want the altar, now pulled out for all to see to be modestly placed behind a screen (iconostasis or a rood screen would even work for me - stupid Reformation and Council of Trent!) Is it because I am just too judgmental? I've been Orthodox for 10 years. Will it ever get better? Why do I not "feel" the Spirit when these God loving, Trinitarian Anglicans do? What is the barrier between us?

The Blazing Center : Don't Let The Manipulators Make You Stingy

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:01:31 +0000

In the above example, one is giving to get a blessing - the prayer cloth which will work miracles! That's not giving to the needy! We are to give to the poor without hope of anything in return. The hardest part is the idea, "If I give that panhandler money, he might just use it to buy cigarettes or beer." If someone is hungry, we should first, if possible, give him food or take him somewhere and buy him a meal. Then you know the money is spent for food. If you can't do that, give him the money! You have fulfilled your obligation. What that person does with the money is between him and God. Hopefully, he will buy food. But if he doesn't he will be the one answering to God about it, not you.