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Pani Rose
Member
| Joined: | Fri Oct 5th, 2007 |
| Location: | Irondale, Alabama USA |
| Posts: | 327 |
| First Name: | Rose | | Gender: | Female | | Faith History: | Ruthenian Byzantine in a Melkite Greek Catholic Parish, raised ... |
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Posted: Tue Oct 9th, 2007 02:21 am |
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Our conversion started in the ‘70s, but really it began when we were kids.
My husband was raised Polish National Catholic – an independent Catholic, but in talks with Rome – and a few years of Roman Catholic School in Steubenville, Ohio, thrown in, which were torturous for him. Not because of the School as much as the fact that his parents would not take him to Church, so that made the priest mad. Well you get the picture there.
I was raised Southern Baptist in South Carolina. It was pretty good; I learned the Scriptures, knew the hymns, and spent my summers at Ridgecrest. Pretty much, good stuff, except I could see how they were treating our pastor and was getting upset with that as a teenager. My last summer at Ridgecrest, I had an awesome time with the Lord. His face shown so brilliantly to me, it was just kind of too much so I put it on the back burner and went on.
After high school we entered the Air Force. That is where we met in 1968, in Washington, DC. He thought I was the most stuck up person ever cause I was so quiet, but really I was wondering what in the world the Lord had me doing there. Well I guess the reason was my husband. Since we could not agree on a church we were married in a Methodist Church. Then we proceeded to put Christ on the back burner, no Church!
But in time, we heard Christ’s call, and started searching. I was NOT going to be Roman Catholic, and he was NOT going to be Southern Baptist. So, we searched and searched, went to every church you could think of from Church of Christ and Assembly of God, to the Presbyterian and Methodist Church. Nothing fit!
Our oldest son was four years old and we knew he needed to be somewhere. That year we went to Easter Services with his grandmother at All Saints PNC, of which his grandparents had been founders of. http://www.allsaintspnccpa.org/easter2007.html
It was wonderful beautiful. I remember asking him if the priest was concerned that they did not get enough exercise at home since they had to stand and kneel so much. After all, I was just a small town southern girl, what did I know. We knew that was where we wanted to be, but living over two hours away was not possible. However, that began our search for a Catholic Church that had very similar small ‘t’ traditions of his grandma’s Church.
Well God was glad to oblige us. We were both involved in the JCs at the time, a civic organization. I was president of the Women’s JCs in Wintersville, and had become fast friends with the President of the Toronto Women’s JCs. We spent a lot of time together with our kids, then one day she said, ‘Well there is a Church here, they don’t use Latin and they don’t use English, but it is Catholic and I will find out what it is.’ She called the next day, and said it was St. Joseph’s Byzantine Catholic Church in Toronto, Ohio. (Can’t find a picture) That was the last time we ever spoke. I guess she had finished the work God wanted her to do for us.
So, I talked with Archpriest Michael Moran and just knew we had to go. My husband was obstinate, not until he met him. So meet him we did, we only talked for about fifteen minutes, and thought we had known him all our lives. He said you must come at least three times to get the hang of the worship of the Divine Liturgy, and we said OK. The funny thing is, it only took one time. We knew we were home. Then I remembered Jesus at Ridgecrest and shared it with Fr. Michael. He said that God was faithful to his promise, that he was letting me know he was going to be there to always take care of me. And he did, and he has!
But, it didn’t stop there. We came into the Church on Lazarus Saturday, 1979. Everything was just wonderful. It was like all the Scriptures I had learned as a child literally jumped off the pages at me. Above the Holy Doors in every Byzantine Churche is an icon of the Last Supper. The icon always has Christ and the Apostles sitting behind the table with the front empty – that is because we were there with them, for in Christ there is no time.
The priest prays: (After the fraction of the sacred Bread, the priest says in a low voice):
The Lamb of God is broken and distributed; broken but not divided. He is forever eaten yet is never consumed, but He sanctifies those who partake of Him.
It was so alive, I knew that I was there. That standing in front of that icon, I too was at the Last Supper, that the same particle he fed to his apostles, he was feeding to us.
At the same time the Lord brought us into the Byzantine Catholic Church, he also used our priest to bring us into the Charismatic Renewal within the Roman Catholic Church. In which we have been leaders (we prefer ‘servants’) for almost as many years, and continues to this day. We asked our Lord that he would never let us take him for granted and he never has.
To jump ahead a few years, we are from Steubenville, Ohio. I mean, what more could you ask for being Catholic. That year Fr. Bertolucci said at a conference, ‘look at what God is doing in Steubenville, all the people he is bringing in, and how everyone is growing. But, if he is asking you to leave, you must leave.’ I said no Lord, not us!
For a year, most of 1985, we heard every way possible from the Lord, 'If you hear my voice today, harden not your heart.' Then in 1986, my husbands business dried up, I had been a Rural Carrier Sub at the Post Office, and the economy was bad in the Ohio Valley. He could not find work and I was not getting anymore work at the PO, and to top it all off, our youngest son was in the hospital with pneumonia, and we were Aid to Dependent Children – basically welfare.
We thought Deacon Stan was going to get to be hired by St. George’s Home for the Age. We got a call on Holy Thursday saying he did not get the job. Then we got a call from the Post Office in Birmingham Al on Good Friday, asking if I would transfer here and go full time.
After our move, my husband wrote a several letters and made some phone calls to find if the diaconate was open anywhere. It seemed that between Ohio and Alabama, people were always walking up to him and saying, ‘don’t you want to be a deacon?’ Then, in 1998, he got a call from St. Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, wanting to know if he was still interested. So for over four years he spent his summers studying in Pittsburgh and the rest of the year reading and writing papers.
Well here we are, twenty years later. My husband is a deacon, ordained to the Diaconate of Ruthenian Archeparchy of Pittsburgh in 2003 under Metropolitan Basil. Here he is at the Enthronement of Metropolitan Basil – he is in the center towards the back in black – looks like Santa Clause. http://www.byzcath.org/news/2002/met-basil/2002-0709-Enthronment-Basil.htm We serve the Melkite Eparcy of Newton here in Birmingham. We actually live in Irondale - which I think is hilarioius - I mean, going from Steubenville to Irondale. Our Church is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Birmingham, Alabama, but we are not under Bishop Baker – who everyone here is so excited to have, he is just wonderful! (Have I got you confused yet? Sometimes I stay that way working with three very different, yet very much the same Churches.)
So, here we are at St. George’s, only in Birmingham Al. http://www.saintgeorgeonline.org Here is the virutal churh tour http://www.saintgeorgeonline.org/index-1.html
Also, our Middle Eastern Food Festival is coming up this weekend Oct.11, 12, 13, 2007. If anyone is in the area, come on over and try the food. Let us take you on a tour of the Church.
Oh, the word I use 'Pani' is the Slavonic term for the 'deacon's wife'. If I used the Arabic it would be something like 'Sha'mas.'
See the thing is there are 21 differnt 'rites'(well technically more) within the Catholic Church. It is that we all have the seven Sacraments, we all have Apostolic Succession thereby giving us Patriarchs and Metropolitans of our own, but basically we all 'agree more than we disagree'. That is why it is so important to do what you are doing on your journey, learning about the ECF, for it is in gaining knowledge that we truly see the beauty of God's creation in his Church, giving to the seat of Peter primacy, 'the first among equals.' The Pope of Rome, so for our family, we truly breathe with both lungs!
 Last edited on Tue Oct 9th, 2007 04:20 am by Pani Rose
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