In the process of begoming Orthodox, what should I be reading / doing to prepare?

be gone Satan.

Being Orthodox is a massive deal less sinful than being atheist or non-religious. Regardless of your preferred denomination, this is a net positive.

Thank you, I will do that. I don't want to rush the priest.

He said I have to be Chrismated first before I get access to confession or the eucharest… which is a bummer. I just want my sins to be wiped away.

Still a grave sin, still likely going to Hell. Schismatics go to hell, ex cathedra.

Good things come to those who wait.
In any case, yes, Chrismation will seal you as an Orthodox. Recommend you get your hands on a prayer book, you'll likely have two different liturgies depending on whether it's Lent. Enquire with your priest about which book would fit best with your congregation, as these can sometimes vary wildly. Watch the main Orthodox thread, I'll be posting a quote.

Sounds like someone missed the point. And yet, it is also the Orthodox rule of thumb that one is always worse than they think they are.

If you have not been catechized yet, I recommend, in order:
- The Living God: A Catechism for the Christian Faith (goes over the events in the Gospels)
- The Incarnate God: The Feasts of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary (goes over the feast days of the Church)
- The Orthodox Way (Met. Kallistos Ware) (describes the experience of God by the Orthodox)
- The Orthodox Church: An Introduction to Eastern Christianity (Met. Kallistos Ware) (describes the history of the Orthodox Church)
- The Jesus Prayer (A Monk of the Eastern Church) (it's, well, on the Jesus Prayer)

If you have been already catechized, I then recommend instead that you read just "The Orthodox Way", or that you read the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, or that you read the deuterocanonical wisdom books (Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus/Sirach).

so apparently mods find this uncharitable disruptive interpretation to be objective infallible Truth, because all the mild responses opposing it magically vanished somehow. Great job fueling the perception of Catholics being unreasonable authoritarians guys, very Christ-like.

Uncharitable is a code word for Not Catholic.

What do you mean? I hope I am doing things right. I told my priest to forgive me as I am a fool, but a fool seeking redemption from this modern horrible era.

Thank you, I shall ask him which prayer book is best for our church.

Thank you, I have saved your reading list and will look for those online.

Thank you too.

God bless you all and I am so humbled to be finding Orthodoxy. I am truly an underserving wretch but through Christ repentance is truly possible.

Wasn't addressing you on that one, more admonishing the shitposters. Which branch of Orthodoxy are you joining? Mine's Antiochian.

Keep that confession posted elsewhere in mind. It's from Waddel's The Way of a Pilgrim, and should be thought of when preparing for your life confession. Here's the preface to it:

Sorry, I didn't mean to say that to all Christians, just replying to the Catholic who from their perspective is saying it's fine for someone to be Orthodox. Based on Catholic dogma, schismatics go to hell along with Pagans, Muzzies, Heretics and the Devil and his angel, infallibly, unless they join the Catholic Church before they die.

Was not trying to disrupt other people, and wasn't even addressing OP, just the Catholic poster. Didn't mean to derail you guys, just a side convo.

My church is Serbian, although I am Irish.

Replace "priest" with "sister", and that's where I was at three weeks ago. I hope the church you were baptized at doesn't make a fuss over you becoming ordodogs.
If you were raised to believe that the Eucharist is nothing more than crackers and grape juice, I'd recommend you read John 6:22-71. The letters of St. Paul are always beneficial to read. I'm currently reading the New Testament in order and Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.
Obtain your certificate of baptism, study any material the priest gives you (the sister I'm working with has given me a missal, the catechism, and other Catholic books/pamphlets), and continue praying to God for guidance.
You seem confused, if I'll be honest. Be patient and continue studying the Orthodox faith, and if you have any doubts, address them; you want to be as confident as you can be in making this decision. God bless you on your journey.

Get a copy of the Orthodox Study Bible and read it, with whatever reading plan you like, and do so with the NOTES. They're incredible.

Find Father Josiah Trenham online. Either Patristic Nectar or Ancient Faith radio. Get a copy of his catechism lectures at the very least, and anything else you can of his, I have yet to be disappointed.

Many places including Ancient Faith and antiochian.org/epistleliturgicday/ have the daily readings for services, read them and go to your study Bible for the notes as well.

If u wanna go deep I suggest Dimitru Stanilaoe's Orthodox Dogmatics

Orthodox Spirituality by Dimitru Stanilaoe & The Art of Prayer by Igumen Chariton

I'm a Cathodox inquirer myself user, though I try to balance the search, for the Orthodox side I could first and foremost recommend the Orthodox Study Bible which essentially assures you're reading the Bible while getting a lot of Orthodox teachings on most verses in the form of the notes and sometimes entire pages of catechism.
Talking with your priest over what you read in OSB could be great.
For personal books regarding Orthodox theology, The Way of a Pilgrim, Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church by Vladimir Lossky, The Mystery of Faith: An Introduction to the Teaching and Spirituality of the Orthodox Church by Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, basically anything from the Church Fathers is useful, also be sure to read the 7 councils and there's a lot more but I won't flood you more, be sure to know much before you're completely accepted into the church.

Good luck friend!

then you can graduate to Staniloae's dogmatics and the Philokalia

…and then they will dare and call someone else a LARPer. Pathetic.
Catholics on this board are toxic and obnoxious.

An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith by St John Damascene is a good start I think. It speaks well about basic tenants of Orthodoxy. You can ignore the medical and astronomical parts of it, knowledge of which was rather limited at the time. Rather concentrate on Theological ones.
Writings of Lossky are also interesting. You can start with "Orthodox Theology: An Introduction"

Catholics are definitely right for recognizing Peter's primacy. But that's about the extent of it. Why they think it's in their church is beyond me. You can't even quote their own Catechism or Vatican documents to them without them attacking you and scoffing, sometimes not even knowing it's their own Popes saying things they despise. This is not the Church that Christ founded on Peter. A house divided against itself can not stand.

Read the Church Fathers
pastebin.com/kNMtcmsi

This is a collection of all the writings by those taught directly by the apostles. It's not that much stuff so you can read through all of it fairly quickly.

Here are some good samples from various Church Fathers and why you should read them.

St. Optatus of Milevis, a great 4th century eastern father
You cannot then deny that you do know that upon Peter first in the City of Rome was bestowed the Episcopal Cathedra, on which sat Peter, the Head of all the Apostles (for which reason he was called Cephas), that, in this one Cathedra, unity should be preserved by all, lest the other Apostles might claim, each for himself, separate Cathedras, so that he who should set up a second Cathedra against the unique Cathedrs would already be a schismatic and a sinner.
tertullian.org/fathers/optatus_02_book2.htm#C2

and St. Maximus the Confessor from the 7th century
"If the Roman See recognizes Pyrrhus to be not only a reprobate but a heretic, it is certainly plain that everyone who anathematizes those who have rejected Pyrrhus also anathematizes the See of Rome, that is, he anathematizes the Catholic Church. I need hardly add that he excommunicates himself also, if indeed he is in communion with the Roman See and the Catholic Church of God …Let him hasten before all things to satisfy the Roman See, for if it is satisfied, all will agree in calling him pious and orthodox. For he only speaks in vain who thinks he ought to persuade or entrap persons like myself, and does not satisfy and implore the blessed Pope of the most holy Catholic Church of the Romans, that is, the Apostolic See, which is from the incarnate of the Son of God Himself, and also all the holy synods, according to the holy canons and definitions has received universal and supreme dominion, authority, and power of binding and loosing over all the holy churches of God throughout the whole world."
books.google.com/books?id=_rHqBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA553&lpg=PA553&dq=
Also note Orthos don't really have any idea of confession so don't worry about it, they don't have any idea of mortal sin or what actually needs confession.
Here's some samples

Just as a physician might see you and diagnose an illness and then prescribe therapy that includes many components, (for example medication, diet, physical therapy & counseling) which all are targeted toward the goal of recovery so also the spiritual condition might be diagnosed in confession, and various spiritual remedies prescribed by the confessor.

And one of those spiritual remedies may be to refrain from receiving Holy Communion for a time (just as a physician might temporarily restrict your diet for a particular purpose) or perhaps the remedy prescribed might be to receive Holy Communion (like taking medication - or to stay with the diet analogy, to eat the proper nutritional foods).
orthodox.net/articles/confession-and-communion.html

Another friend told me that he was so worried about all he had to confess that he decided to write it down. “So I made a list of my sins and brought it with me. The priest saw the paper in my hand, took it, looked through the list, tore it up, and gave it back to me. Then he said ‘Kneel down,’ and he absolved me. That was my confession, even though I never said a word! But I felt truly my sins had been torn up and that I was free of them.”
theophany.org/orthodox-faith-confession.php
Mocking confessing all your sins, it's just sacreleige

Also more relevant to you they don't take seriously hiding what you said in confession

Compare whit the Catholic view
It is a crime for a confessor in any way to betray a penitent by word or in any other manner or for any reason”
confessors are forbidden, even where there would be no revelation direct or indirect, to make any use of the knowledge obtained in the confession that would “displease” the penitent or reveal his identity
And if a priest does this ONLY the Pope can forgive him.
It's not just some random people no one care about saying it's important "under strong constraining influence", it's in the law and if they ever do it they literally have to the Pope and be forgiven to not go to hell.

But even more important is just this
Yes, one can confess directly to God—but refusing to confess in the presence of a priest implies that one can also be one’s own spiritual physician. If this were so, then one wouldn’t find that one is generally confessing the same sin, over and over again—which not only implies that one is not making progress in overcoming one’s sin and also implies, perhaps, that one really doesn’t want help in overcoming one’s sins in the first place
oca.org/questions/sacramentconfession/confessing-in-the-presence-of-a-priest
Because they hate Catholics so much and want to avoid using the perfectly rational distinctions between mortal sins and venials sins (obviously in scripture) they basically undermine the existence of confession as a whole. You don't go to confession to get your sins forgiven, you go to confession to get spiritual guidance.
So continue to ask God daily for forgiveness, but please do not overlook the need everyone has—including priests!—to seek guidance and direction in overcoming sin. And never forget that, if it true that God often heals the physically ill by guiding the hands of a surgeon, He also heals the spiritually ill by guiding the words and advice of a priest.
from the same article

For them it's not a sacrament or mystery, it's literally just getting advice from their priest because their theology is so bad because of their hatred of Catholicism/the truth. You already get your sins forgiven by God by repenting you just go for the good advice, it totally naturalizes it and removes God from the equation.
Of course this effects how they conduct the sacrament so there is basically 0 chance your sins would actually be forgiven by the priest anyway.

So if you are looking forward confessing to God only for forgiveness like a protestant, telling all your sins to a priest who is under the strong force of some old documents nobody cares about to not reveal what you told him in confession, just to get some cool advice that's up to you.

If you want the sacraments and eternal life you should become Catholic though.
youtube.com/watch?v=8GCLa9ducvQ&list=PLi2hQGNTzIBR4krsq7OiNGg8rKJcdbxyr

Why are you guys so annoying?

You guys are the real larpers aren't you? Everything is external and there is always a strange feeling of pride among the "catholics" on here?

Is it too much to ask to have even a single Orthodox thread on here that doesn't get spammed with RCC propaganda and hubris? Then again, this Catholic cockiness probably does more to drive people towards Orthodoxy rather than away from it, so whatever.

Either way, OP has obviously begun the catechism process already, and likely decided to do this after weighing the options, because as this thread shows, it's nearly impossible to go very far without encountering a bunch of muh Papacy arguments everywhere.

There is a great catechetical book called The Law of God by Priest Daniel Sysoev. I also recommend a small book called Theosis by Archimandrite George of Mount Athos. God bless you on your journey into the church, brother.

like clockwork

wow you guys convinced me

weren't you the one spitefully trying to convince others here? why should we care what Frankish idolators think?

But regardless, since OP is still learning, he might as well know why you guys are untrustworthy on this matter:
impantokratoros.gr/PaulBallaster_Convolier.en.aspx
orthodoxchristianity.net/texts/Bulgakov_VaticanDogma.html
orthodoxinfo.com/inquirers/papaldogma.aspx
orthodoxinfo.com/inquirers/decretals.aspx
golubinski.ru/ecclesia/primacy.htm
youtu.be/DyuvkoiYlYk
youtu.be/Bqm8pt21cYg
youtu.be/SvEX15vd82w
youtu.be/R-s8v81ZkeU
youtu.be/f3PGARSJeNU

jaysanalysis.com/recommended-reading/

good you and your "Pope" are helping Orthodoxy grow, day by day :)

begone Satan