H
Hesychios
Guest
A marvelous story Alex, thank you for sharing.
- Status
K
KyivAndrew
Guest
Yes, thanks for sharing that wonderful story Alex.I remember when our new Bishop, Kyr Stefan, was consecrated. At the banquet afterwards, one of our priests (who happened to be a celibate but whose brother is a married priest with children), got up to speak.
He quoted St Paul where the Apostle refers to the bishop as being a “man of one wife.”
He then turned to the assembled bishops there (Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic and Eastern Orthodox) and said with a straight face, “And where are your wives, Most Reverend Bishops?”
My grandfather was a married Greek Catholic priest with seven children (two others died as children).
He was a priest for seventy years and he came to Canada in 1966, one of two priests the communists allowed to travel outside the USSR that year.
I had the benefit of growing up in a priestly/religious environment I would otherwise not have had. My grandmother, Presbytera Irene, prayed an hour morning and night and said the Rosary mid-morning after the Divine Liturgy and Communion and then the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy/Wounds of Christ at 3:00 pm. In the evening, she would bless everything by making Signs of the Cross all over.
My grandfather would wander the halls at home saying his Office and praying the Rosary for everyone.
My grandparents wanted me to be a priest - but a married one. My grandmother was categorically against me being a celibate priest. She had a dozen cousins and uncles who were all married priests (all with doctorates in theology) and she herself was the daughter of a married Greek-Catholic priest (who died suddenly after a day of hard work on construction of his new church).
I also had the privilege of going to Confession to my grandfather and benefited from his life experience. I don’t mind saying that his main teaching to me was that my sins were being caused by my weak prayer life.
To remedy this, his penance for me was always a long, involved one. So many Our Father’s and Hail Mary’s “after confession, this evening before you go to bed, tomorrow morning, afternoon and evening, and so on for the next two weeks. Then come back to see me.”
He told me that there can never be any excuse for leaving off one’s prayers and that without a prayer life there can be no good Christian life, the moral imperatives would be impossible to observe etc.
I was also his altar-server and he would get me up rather early to go with him to Church for his Divine LIturgy/Mass - he liked to be in Church at least two hours ahead of time
On one Gregorian Calendar Easter Sunday, we were waiting for the bus when a police officer came walking by. My grandfather looked at me with a smile and said, "He must be on the Julian Calendar with us. . "
May the Rev. Fr. John and Presbytera Irene rest in the peace of Christ!
Alex
- Status