Here are a couple of videos which relate to items recently posted on NLM. On April 5th, we included in our third Laetare photopost some images of a solemn Mass celebrated on the Annunciation at St Michael’s Church in Leawood, Kansas. The thurifer at that Mass was Mr Harrison Butker, the place-kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs; two days ago, EWTN posted an interview with him, in which he discusses his reversion to the practice of the Faith, and the role the traditional Mass played in it. The celebrant, Fr Shawn Tunink, is also interviewed, and has some good things to say about the appeal of the traditional Mass especially for the young.
On May 1st, we shared a new documentary about the monks of Mt Athos. The YouTube algorithm which suggests things one might be interested in, based on previous viewing history (and which at least for me, has a lot of bizarrely counter-intuitive ideas about what those might be), got something right for once, and offered this video from a channel called Orthodox Gardener. The channel is more about gardening than orthodoxy, and its creator describes himself as a “reformed Protestant; I’d say my theology is more Calvinist.” At the beginning of this year, he visited the Virgin Mary’s garden on Mt Athos, and posted this video of his trip. It’s mostly just shots of the scenery (which are very beautiful, of course), and some bits about the difficulty of getting from one place to another, but at 20:00, he has some interesting things to say about the veneration of relics. One of the monasteries he visited had relics of the forearm of St John the Baptist, “a part of St George (and it feels weird to say ‘a part of’)”, and a piece of the True Cross. In the channel’s introductory video, posted just under a month ago, he described himself as “on a pilgrimage ... towards converting to Orthodox Christianity.” This makes for an interesting example of how very often, the separated brethren (do we still say that?) only need to see the historical customs of the Faith in order to perceive the truth within them, and of the beliefs that created them.
On May 1st, we shared a new documentary about the monks of Mt Athos. The YouTube algorithm which suggests things one might be interested in, based on previous viewing history (and which at least for me, has a lot of bizarrely counter-intuitive ideas about what those might be), got something right for once, and offered this video from a channel called Orthodox Gardener. The channel is more about gardening than orthodoxy, and its creator describes himself as a “reformed Protestant; I’d say my theology is more Calvinist.” At the beginning of this year, he visited the Virgin Mary’s garden on Mt Athos, and posted this video of his trip. It’s mostly just shots of the scenery (which are very beautiful, of course), and some bits about the difficulty of getting from one place to another, but at 20:00, he has some interesting things to say about the veneration of relics. One of the monasteries he visited had relics of the forearm of St John the Baptist, “a part of St George (and it feels weird to say ‘a part of’)”, and a piece of the True Cross. In the channel’s introductory video, posted just under a month ago, he described himself as “on a pilgrimage ... towards converting to Orthodox Christianity.” This makes for an interesting example of how very often, the separated brethren (do we still say that?) only need to see the historical customs of the Faith in order to perceive the truth within them, and of the beliefs that created them.
