"Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine."  1st Timothy 4:13

I sit here under the soft whir of an electric ceiling fan in my darkened bedroom and read today's Epistle and immediately this part of it jumps out at me and grabs my attention. It has relevance for my life as an Orthodox man attached to the Old Rite but without a parish anywhere near me, it's words giving me strength inwardly to know that I'm on the right path.  I'm to continue my modern old believer style path of prayer and self study as long as I am able. 

One of the beautiful things about Orthodoxy-- especially the Old Rite variety- - is that every word and gesture in the service books points to and in fact incarnates the path.  The content of the various Canons, hymns and Troparia, along with the ritual gestures of bowing,  making the sign of the cross and even the way we mark time itself (Byzantine Creation Era and Julian calendar)  helps incarnate the Faith into one's life.  It's a truly holistic Faith in that it takes account of everything- - including time- - and sanctifies it.  

Later as I write more perhaps I'll go deeper into explaining just why I ultimately chose this particular path and why I feel completely at home with it, but since this is just a small intro with me getting my feet wet into blogging again I'll leave it at that for now. 

I'll leave with today's Troparion and Kontakion: