Selections from Seminary

I have been looking forward to the new St. Tikhon's prayer book for quite a while. I heard a mention of it almost a year ago, I think, I now I finally have one in my possession. If you are one of those who would like to buy one, but have noticed that they are on back-order, I apologize. The second batch should make it to the St. Tikhon's Bookstore  soon. Initially, I would like to share some of the features of this prayer book for those who wonder if they should order one and do not have a chance to pick one up and thumb through it, but then eventually, I would also like to share some of my little "hacks" for the book: things like marking tones to aid in singing and how I use some of the information included here that most prayer books do not have. So, to start off, here are some of the reasons I love it: Every page has a page heading so you can more easily find what you are looking for. It DOES NOT include Liturgy, which is a large section of many books that ...

Was Elder Sophrony canonized a saint? Not yet, it seems. As soon as I walked into class a couple days ago, I noticed a group of seminarians (or as we wondered the other day, maybe they could be called a "ponder" of seminarians) excitedly discussing something. The word on the street was that Elder Sophrony of Essex had been canonized. That was exciting, no doubt. The only problem is, it was not quite true. Today, in class, Fr. Sergius, abbot of St. Tikhon Monastery here, came into class and confirmed that Elder Sophrony is not yet canonized. He heard the same news and went straight to the source, at least, straight to a source, and a very reliable one at that: the monastery in Essex. No, Elder Sophrony has not yet been canonized. I am not going to wander the internet trying to figure out what happened and how this strangely positive rumor began. I do my best to avoid the online venues of Orthodox talk...an ironic statement here. I did happen to see one article, and I not...