Babies' First Sunday Communion

The next day after the baptism, Sunday, the babies got to go again for Holy Communion. In the morning, as they were getting ready, Anastasia was playing with Paul, and he seemed to smile for the first time (see above).

Everyone walked to church. Here you can see James carrying his godson, Benjamin, and Pres. Pelagia carrying a baby. Pres. Sophia, Anastasia, and our friend Angela's daughter, Sophie, also helped.

Here they arrive in the back of the church, and everyone is happy to see the babies and say "Axios" to the new godparents.

Paul's godfather brings him for Holy Communion.

Benjamin with his godfather.

Phoebe with her godmother.

James, Anastasia, Pres. Pelagia, the babies, and Sophie at the front door to our apartment building. James hosted a BBQ at his house for lunch to celebrate.

For more photos, see here.

Baptism

On Saturday morning, the babies were baptized at our parish of St. George's here in Panorama. I celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the morning, and then there was a short break before the baptism began at 11:00 AM.

In the photo above, you see four of the five priests just before we began the prayers for making the babies catechumens. Immediately to the right of me is another Fr. Gregory, a friend who lives in Harilaou (a section of Thessaloniki), and who has a parish out in a village outside Thessaloniki. To the right, in the pink shirt, is my Byzantine music teacher, Manolis Yiannopoulos, recently elected a professor at the university. To the right, in the foreground, is Fr. Alexios, followed by Fr. Panayiotis, the two priests assigned to St. George's.

The godparents were: for Paul, our good friend Paris, a Greek who lives here in Panorama; for Benjamin, our dear friend and neighbor, James Lillie, an Englishman; and for Phoebe, our niece, Anastasia, an American. So it was an international affair. Here you can see Anastasia with Phoebe and me during the prayers for the making of a catechumen.

Here the sponsors and the babies, after renouncing Satan and all his works, turned to the east, toward the church, and accepted Christ. You can see Sister Makrina from the monastery in Goldendale, WA on the left. We were blessed that she and our beloved Gerontissa Efpraxia from Goldendale were able to be with us.

Here the babies are getting undressed for the baptism. From left to right, Paris' sister Litza, Anastasia, Pelagia, Sophie (our friend Angela's daughter), and James Lillie.

Here Paul is being anointed with oil before he is baptized. Paris, the godfather, is holding the oil cupped in his hands, while his sister holds Paul and Fr. Alexios anoints him.

Who would have thought it, but babies slathered in oil and then dunked in water can be quite slippery! Fortunately, I didn't lose anyone at the bottom of the font.

Now it's Benjamin's turn. After the priests anoints the baby with oil, the godparent (here, James) covers them completely with the oil.

Benjamin being baptized (which simply means, in Greek, to immerse or plunge).

Here Anastasia holds the oil as Fr. Alexios anoints Phoebe. The mom, Pres. Pelagia, got to serve as Anastasia's assistant.

Finally, it's Phoebe's turn. I'm sure all the kids will thank us later for posting so many photos of them naked on the internet.

Here Fr. Alexios is tonsuring Paul. Under his arm, you can see Anastasia and Gerontissa Efpraxia's sister-in-law, Sophia, looking on.

Freshly baptized, the babies get changed into their baptismal gowns, which Pres. Sophia made.

Here we are making the Dance of Isaiah around the baptismal font. Everyone was so happy that we did it four or five times. :)

A view from the balcony. I am standing in front of the font, while each of the godparents is holding their baby on the other side.

I saved Holy Communion from the Divine Liturgy, which was celebrated just before the baptism, so that the babies could commune right away. All three babies received it with great ease! Fr. Alexios said it was the first time in all his years as a priest that he saw babies so eager for Holy Communion.

Afterwards, as is the tradition in Greece, the parents sponsored a meal to thank the godparents and all those who had come together to pray for the babies at the baptism. Toward the end of the meal, Fr. Alexios forced me to say something, so here I am talking about something.

Here Fr. Alexios' wife, Pres. Georgia, holds Paul, while Paul's adoring godfather plays with him.

From left to right, front row: Sister Makrina with Benjamin, Gerontissa Efpraxia with Phoebe, Sophia with Paul, Pres. Sophia. Back row: me, Fr. Alexios, and Pelagia.

For many more photos, you can click here to see 200 taken by Pres. Sophia.

Babies at the Beach

After the monastery, since it was such a hot day and we were so close to the shore, we decided to head over to the little town of Metamorfosi (the Transfiguration), which is located on the second leg of Halkidiki. Even Pelagia and I had never been to the beaches of the second leg, which are reportedly more natural and even more beautiful than the beaches of the first leg, which is closer to Thessaloniki.

In the photo above, Anastasia is strapping in Phoebe, with Benjamin on her other side.

Here the girls and the babies are wading in the water, with Paris sitting on the dock taking a photo.

Here Paris took a photo of all of us. I was talking to a man who approached us, curious about the triplets. The two little girls in the water also came over to see the babies.

Here I'm putting Benjamin's feet in for his first time in the ocean. :)

Here Pelagia is holding Phoebe as the suns sets on the water.

We then headed back home, having had a wonderful day out.

Holy Monastery of the Annunciation in Ormylia

Yesterday, we made our first big outing with the babies with the help of our good friend and Paul's godfather-to-be, Paris.

At 1:30, we filled up our car and Paris' car with three babies, me, Pres. Pelagia, Pres. Sophia, Anastasia, and Paris,, and headed just over an hour east to the Holy Monastery of the Annunciation, which is located in the village of Ormylia. Ormylia is situated at the point where the first and second fingers of Halkidiki meet. The monastery is probably the most well-known monastery in Greece (outside the Holy Mountain), and it is quite well-known outside Greece as well. In fact, when we went, they were hosting visiting nuns (including abbesses) from monasteries in Georgia and Ukraine.

It has over 100 nuns, and they do everything from iconography to making vestments -- from scratch! Yes, they even make the fabric themselves, by hand, on old looms. For this reason, a set of vestments starts at about 2100 euro ($3000). Of course, they are also famous for their beautiful chanting, and they have published several CDs.

The babies enjoyed the car ride and slept well. Since it was a Thursday, there were very few visitors there, which was nice, since it allowed one of the sisters in the Arhontariki, Sister Prosdoki, to spend a lot of time with us.

Technically, the monastery closes at 4:00, but since we arrived only shortly before 3:00, we asked if we could stay a bit longer. Specifically, we were hoping to stay for Vespers, in order to hear their beautiful chanting. Generally, the monastery is quite regulated (and rightly so), but we received a rare exception to stay past closing for Vespers.

As an extra blessing, we were also able to speak with the abbess of the monastery and introduce her to the babies. She is quite fond of our beloved Bishop Maxim, so she was happy to meet us.

The photo above is to commemorate the babies' first pilgrimage to a monastery. It is taken in front of the monastery's main church, which, incidentally, reminded me a lot of an Athonite katholikon. Additionally, the iconography in the church is almost complete, and it is absolutely beautiful.

In this photo, we are examining the monastery's baptismal font, which is only used for adult baptisms.

This photo was taken as we were leaving the monastery. Anastasia is sitting with one of the babies and taking one last look around the monastery before leaving, while Pres. Pelagia and Pres. Sophia can be seen in the background walking down the hill back to the car.

Once outside the monastery's gates, we stopped to feed the babies and get them situated, so we stayed here for awhile before resuming our trip.

Here we are, with babies and Paris, just before we left. For more photos, click here.

Catacombs of St. John the Baptist

Last week, Ana and I went down into the city to find some items for the babies' upcoming baptisms. While downtown, we passed by the Catacombs of St. John. I can't find any information on this site in any of the usual books, but the site's keeper gave a full run-down of its history, which is quite remarkable.

According to her, it was once the site of an ancient pagan temple, one column of which you can still see standing in the bottom three photos. Next to the temple was also a bath complex. This part of the story I was not clear about, but it seems that perhaps the area had become abandoned at some point, or that there were catacombs attached to this complex that were rather isolated. In any event, this was where the city's first Christians met. The Christian community here, we should note, was founded by the Holy Apostle Paul himself in the 40s AD and has had a continuous presence until our very day.

Ana and I walked in the tunnels underneath the modern-day church and saw what once served as the Holy Altar (see photo above).

The underground complex is basically a series of very small rooms (see photo above). There is also a natural spring in one room, which presumably was the reason there was originally a bath here.

After the triumph of Christianity in the fourth century, a baptistery was built on the site of the spring, which you can see in the photo above (and below, to the right of Ana's shoulder). Two photos above, the potted plants sit on the remnants of the walls of that baptistery. We were told that this baptistery was reserved for the aristocracy, and that St. Emperor Theodosius the Great was baptized here in 380, which according to this information on the life of the saint, seems quite likely.

Baby Photos by Anastasia (our niece and Phoebe's godmother to be)

Benjamin getting a bath.

Benjamin getting a bottle.

Benjamin giving the camera a funny look.

Here is Benjamin in his favorite place -- in the sling with his grandmother. In this photo they're grocery shopping at our local market.

Phoebe is eating her future godmother's nose.

Phoebe with Anastasia.

Phoebe is giving her cousin a kiss.

You know they're American boys with their baseball outfits.