Hello again, Tasbeha people

Jeremy

Hi everybody. I don't know if anyone would remember me, but I was previously here as "dzheremi" starting maybe 9-10 years ago, before I accepted baptism, and then for a little while afterwards before leaving over some sort of argument about Thanksgiving or Halloween or something like that (can't remember exactly; it's probably for the best that I don't remember, and I hope none of the rest of you do either). Well I'm back now because honestly I just don't like the other messageboards I've tried out, and I would prefer to just go to church and not be on any messageboard (I don't think online forums bring out the best in me), but I can't because I live in California now and we can't go to church because of restrictions due to the virus. The nearest church appears to be closed right now because of it anyway, so now I just watch livestreams from places where they still have services. I thank God for them, but of course they are no replacement for attending the holy liturgy.

But until normal life comes back I need some way to stay connected to my faith, since on my own I am struggling a lot, and frankly failing a lot. Lord have mercy. Anyway, I hope that you all will accept me back as a prodigal son or a worker in the 11th hour. Thank you.

EstephanosPhilipos

Pray for me Jeremy.

ophadece

Welcome back dear @Jeremy I always found your posts rich and very enlightening and if I remember anything, all I can remember is that I have learnt so much from you.. Great to see you back.. God bless you and please keep me and my family in your prayers..
Ⲟⲩϫⲁⲓ ϧⲉⲛ Ⲡϭⲥ

mabsoota

welcome from your old happy friend!

may God give you and your family peace,

when we had our 2nd church closure in uk, the government allowed churches to be open for private prayer, although many stayed closed as they were not sure it was safe to open.

i used to travel to a friend's church 10 miles away just to pray, and it was well worth it, as the priest there (greek orthodox) used to say hello as he was closing the church at the end of the 2 hour open time, and it was a blessing to see him.

are there any churches open for prayer anywhere near you? if so go, it is great to form friendships with other orthodox churches.

if not, keep praying - God has something for you to learn during this hard time, and He will show you how to stay close to Him.

during the 1st church closure, i also created a thread on these discussion boards as i was struggling so much. i found my dear friends here to be very helpful (especially ophadece who listened to my rants on his private messages).

so we can rename this discussion 'jeremy's psychotherapy thread'!

may God give u peace and grace and a beautiful end to our lovely Christmas fast.

:)

Jeremy

Thank you for all of your responses. It's nice to see a new name and a few I remember. May God protect and strengthen all of you and protect you and your families.

Unfortunately, Mabsoota, there aren't any churches open around me right now that would be able to legally hold services. Things around here are bad with the virus. We need to have above 15% ICU bed vacancies to get out of the most restrictive tier of shut downs in my county, and as of the reporting of the governor yesterday we are at 6%, and projected to get worse from here, since the additional surge in grave cases from the Christmas-time travelling isn't expected to hit for another week or maybe two. It is even worse further south in the state, where from what I understand they've had 0% vacancies for a little while now. Please pray for us.

mabsoota

may God give yr leaders wisdom.

here it is nearly as bad as the first time around (my hospital is full and overflowing), and most of the country can't socialise (we are allowed to meet 1 person each in the park or street, no outdoor coffee shops open) and lots of ppl have been asked to work from home but the government has allowed places of worship to stay open for now, thanks to God.

one pub owner got annoyed and applied to register as a place of worship so ppl could attend 'services'!

it was so awful not going to church though, i pray for you all to have peace and wisdom. 

keep singing hymns and psalms and praying. 

call your friends on the phone and pray together or sing tasbeha (night praises) instead of going to church. 

i sang tasbeha once with just 2 other ppl on a conference call, and it was better than watching something online as we could hear each other and so we all took part in praying together.

i think small interactive groups are better than rather than 100ppl silently watching the same livestream.

write to your senate / parliament members and explain how much good places of worship to to their communities. focus on how they take care of poor and hungry people, give basic medical care and improve peoples' mental health.

(and, of course be sensible, no hugging friends in church or sitting too close etc etc.)

mabsoota

PS

forgot to say 1,000 congratulations on the baptism!

or, as you speak some arabic:

الف مبروك

CanadianCopt

God bless you Jeremy. Due to corona, we get the chance to live like the holy ascetics of the desert by spending our time to prepare for communion doing agpeya prayers, reading the scriptures, studying the church fathers, singing the praises in the book of the psalmody and more.  

mabsoota

that was my problem, canadian copt! i realised i was much, much less holy than them and needed church badly!

but seriously, we can learn a lot in this time, it is just not easy...