Dear Dustin,
Congratulations and my very best wishes, which I know everyone here also sends, to you in your studies.
Will they expect you to get a real Christian name now that you are in an Orthodox seminary?
I've thought about how you could guard against the temptation to become OCA while you are there.
The top ten methods, here goes:
1) wear a rosary on your belt, the clinking noise will drive them nuts and they'll stay away from you.
2) put a button with the Pope's picture on your back-pack
3) keep reminding them that you are Orthodox too, but in communion with Rome - but never to your professors before exam time . . .
4) eat lots of fish in public on Fridays
5) during class discussions on the subject of Latinization in the Church, throw in a few "And what's wrong with that?" once in a while . . .
6) list the names of famous Russian Catholics among your personal heroes
7) take November 25th, the Feast of St Josaphat, off as a mandatory religious holiday
8) begin a movement for the Brotherhood of the Immaculate Conception among the Orthodox
9) write a paper on John Meyendorff attempting to prove he was pro-Catholic after all
10) during ordinations, when everyone else is yelling "Axios!" throw in "Viva il Papa!"
These practices will help you keep yourself in Eastern Catholicism - if you follow them, the Orthodox will have nothing to do with you.
Good luck and our prayers for Michaela - she'll need all the help she can get!
Alex
