Bikerscum - Patrick St. Jean

Christ Is Risen!

I just got back in from the Paschal Liturgy at St. Maximus's. I got up to the church a little early to spend some time at the tomb reading the Acts of the Apostles before the Paschal services started. We celebrated the resurrection and then broke the fast, enjoying the meat, cheese, and alcohol we've abstained from throughout the 40 days of Lent.

In case you were wondering, the date of Pascha floats, based on the occurrence of the equinox and the full moon. From http://www.goarch.org/en/ourfaith/articles/article7050.asp:

The First Ecumenical Council convened at Nicaea in 325 took up the issue. It determined that Pascha should be celebrated on the Sunday which follows the first full moon after the vernal equinox-the actual beginning of spring. If the full moon happens to fall on a Sunday, Pascha is observed the following Sunday.

I got a chance to go over to the Holy Virgin Cathedral for vespers this evening. It was a beautiful service, which I could follow along with but not understand since it was in Russian and I, sadly, do not speak it.

During the service I was able to take time to venerate the relics of St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco, which was, for me a very special experience. You can read more about him here.

Fr. Justin came over tonight to bless the house. A house blessing is an annual event for Orthodox Christians that serves to rededicate the home to God's protection and drive away all evil influences from the home and everyone who lives in it.

It's not a long service, though Fr. Justin and I stayed and chatted for a while afterwards, but the house really does feel different. It's got a much more peaceful feel to it now.

I had a little time to walk around Helsinki and do some sightseeing today. My first stop was L. C. Engel's Cathedral, then on to Uspenski Cathedral. The cathedral was beautiful and they even had an icon and relic of St. Seraphim of Sarov that, according to the people there, was bought at an antique store and donated to the curch. After that I went down to the Orthodox book store and was given a book with some pretty good photos of Finnish Orthodox churches. On the way I got to take some pictures of a smaller Orthodox church, unfortunately all on film, so they haven't been posted yet.

After getting back to the hotel I dropped off the cameras and headed back out for some dinner at Lappi Ravintola. They serve traditional Lapp cuisine and other Finnish dishes. I had some sauteed reindeer on mashed potatoes with lingonberries. For dessert some Finnish blue cheese. All delicious, and I'll be coming back the next time I'm in Helsinki.

The digital pictures are posted here and here.

Link: http://www.pat-st-jean.com/gallery/v/Fun-Stuff/Finland/Salo2005/

Work took me to Salo today and afterwards I got a chance to drive over to the Holy Cross Tsasouna, a small Orthodox chapel built in the Eastern-Carelian architectural style. It was consecrated in 1990. There are pictures over in the gallery.

I got a little time before sunset to visit St. Alexander Church in Turku. It's right off the market square, and I've walked past it a dozen times, never realizing that it was an Orthodox church. The architecture is radically different than the typical Orthodox church. It was designed by Carl Engel and was built from 1839 - 1846. I got some good pictures of it that will be up on St. Maximus's wall when I get back.

I pulled this off of a religion flamewar over at Fark. It was posted by djpavon.

As the pastor would say - If God isn't interesting to people, it is because the have never been introduced to him. Real christianity made people leave their lively hoods and follow a migrant preacher, it made them submit to torture and attack. If what you are presenting can't even get people to leave the television, then it sure isn't God. And if you are presenting God then that is all you need to do.

Since it's the first of the month and I'm a little bored, here's some of my favorite books:

• Astronomy
  
  • Mike Weasner's excellent Using the Meade ETX
• HAM Radio
  
  • The ARRL Repeater Directory
  • The ARRL HF Digital Handbook
• Motorcycles
  
  • Sit Down, Shut Up & Hang on: A Biker's Guide to Life
  • A Biker's Guide to the Open Road: Ride It Like You Stole It
• Orthodoxy
  
  • The River of Fire
• Sci-fi
  
  • Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's The Mote In God's Eye
  • Anything by R. A. Salvatore
  • David Weber's excellent Honor Harrington series

Link: http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsViewer.asp?FSM=5&FSD=1

Today is Pascha, the feast of the Resurrection, also known as Easter. Today we celebrate Christ's resurrection from the dead. There's too much there for me to say any better than what's on the OCA website. It will have to be sufficient to say that this is the feast of the Christian year.

I arrived at St. Maximus's at around 11:00 PM Saturday night, services started at 11:30 and ran until about 3:30 Sunday morning, at which time we broke the fast with meats, cheeses, alcohol, and the other foods we've been fasting from for the last six weeks.

I got home a few minutes ago and am going to get some much needed sleep.

Christ Is Risen!

The new camera arrived today, so I've got a new toy to learn how to use. But it's still an EOS so I'll be able to hook it up to the telescopes and do some photography. I purchased the external battery pack because one of my goals is to do some long exposure Milky Way photography with it piggy backed on the ETX. I'm planning on using the LPI as an autoguider for those shots.

Hopefully I'll be able to burn a roll or two this weekend, during the Pascha services.