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Ancient Faith Blogs presents a select group of writers and thinkers who regularly post on matters of theology, culture, art, parish, and family life.
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Glory to God for All Things
Words As Icons
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Creation has a sacramental purpose: it reveals God. For from the first making of the world, those things of God which the eye is unable to see, that is, his eternal power and existence, are fully made clear, he having given the knowledge of them through the things which he has made (Rom. 1:20) This is inherently true in things as they exist in nature. However, it becomes another matter as things…
Father Bill's Blog
102. The Seven Deadly Sins #5 - Lust, Part One
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Ah… I thought this might catch your attention. But you may be a bit disappointed in what follows. Earlier Posts on the “Seven Deadly” were #85, #86, #93, #94, and the previous two, #100, #101. Passions and “Besetting Sins” Lust is defined in our Antiochian Pocket Prayer Book as “impure and unworthy desire for something evil”. So sexual lust is only one kind of lust. It is often said, for example, that…
Faith Encouraged
No Short Cuts!
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“I know a shortcut!” And with that, me and my buddy promptly got lost going to a friend’s house! You see, I remember the days before GPS! Yes, I’m THAT old. By the way, are you aware that we now have a generation growing up that will never know what the world was like before the smartphone and GPS tracking? I wonder where they will take “shortcuts?” We all face the temptation…
The Morning Offering
The Domestic Church
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The incubator for a life of righteousness Prior to electricity and central heating, most families gathered in parlors, spending evenings with reading, sewing, and family conversations. The notion that everyone would retreat to bedrooms, kitchens, or dens, separating themselves from other family members, was unthinkable. The communal nature of the family was natural. I can remember, as a child (this…
Faith Encouraged
An Offer You Shouldn't Refuse
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I looked out at the congregation and said: “If Kmart had a Blue Light special like this, they’d sell out in a minute.” Of course, you don’t know what a “blue light special is. You may not even remember KMart! Suffice it to say it was a marketing trick that a store use to use to draw attention to special deals they had in their store. And my reference was to the…
The Morning Offering
Faith
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The enemy of faith is pride “Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”” (John 6:29). The absolute necessary element for salvation is faith, and faith is a clear sign that God’s grace has been activated in us, for faith brings us into communion with God. Faith is…
Behind the Scenes
Choosing to Read The Wilderness Journal
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The Whole Counsel Blog
Psalm 68 and the Gospel of Jesus Christ
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The scripture readings assigned to the Sunday after Theophany in the Orthodoxy Church, Ephesians 4:7-13 and Matthew 4:12-17 are bound together thematically by Psalm 68 (67 in the Greek numbering). This Psalm is quoted, and slightly adapted, by St. Paul who gives to the Psalm the interpretation which would later enshrine it in Paschal liturgics. It also, however, connects to the geographical themes set out by St. Matthew as Christ’s public ministry begins following his baptism by St. John the Forerunner. Understanding the way in which Ss. Matthew and Paul use this Psalm to characterize the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ is important to understanding the very meaning of the term ‘gospel’ as it is applied to our…
Faith Encouraged
Quick! Get UP!
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Sometimes it’s just time to move. I mean there comes a time in your life when the day has passed for contemplation, planning, and consideration and the time comes to act and act fast. But you are never going to be ready for that moment in your life without preparation. And that preparation takes three distinct disciplines to make you ready to move when the time comes. No one is able to…
The Morning Offering
Be Yourself
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Don’t shelve a part of you When we enter into communion with one another in the life of the Church, we come broken, and far from the image and likeness that God intended when He created us. We, to a one, are in need of the healing that comes from a life in Christ. Yet we often hinder ourselves from…
Glory to God for All Things
An Unrepentant Secularism
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Perhaps the greatest tragedy of life in a secularized world is the freedom from failure. The mantra of progress ignores every secular failure as an abiding ill of an earlier age yet to be vanquished. Thus, its every failure is an excuse to double-down on the same insanity that failed the first time. The secular world’s unbridled self-confidence comes at the price of self-awareness. With freedom from failure comes freedom from repentance.…
Behind the Scenes
A Year of Tending the Garden
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Faith Encouraged
Is Gentleness Weakness?
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There’s one word that those who know me best would NEVER use to describe me: Gentle! I don’t know if it’s my “creative” use of language or just my deep suspicion of spineless mediocrity, but I am rarely what you might call “gentle.” I tend toward the “over-the-top” and brash black and white mindset of a hard-nosed conservative, former police officer, by-the-book rule keeper. So, do you still love me? And yet,…
The Morning Offering
The Church Militant
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The Church on earth is in the midst of a battle The Church Militant, which is the Church of Christ here on this earth, is in the midst of a battle. Our enemy is not one of flesh and blood, but one of darkness and evil. The survival of humankind is not dependent on the number of people who accept…
Faith Encouraged
They Devoted Themselves
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The first time I heard this, it hit me like a ton of bricks! “Let us commend ourselves, ONE ANOTHER, and our whole life unto Christ, our God. To You, O Lord.” “One another?” How do I “commend” someone else to “Christ, our God?” Aren’t they responsible for themselves? What does this mean? Well, of course, each of us is responsible for ourselves, but, from the very beginning when Cain asked God…
The Morning Offering
Hospital or Hospice?
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Spiritual healing or spiritual pain control? Since the Church is the hospital for the soul, it is important we take full advantage of all the resources for healing found within the Church. Confession is all important for this healing process to begin. The grace imparted during a good confession opens wide the gates of God’s grace, and we begin our…
The Morning Offering
Incarnating Orthodoxy
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We must be joyful and loving ambassadors for the Faith Some forty years ago I’d found myself wandering in a spiritual wasteland, knowing I was drying up, spiritually, and hoping there was something out there that would fill the void. Orthodoxy had not been in my scope, seeming, as it were, to be some exotic, eastern form of a Christian…
No Other Foundation
The Marks of the Church: the Church as Holy
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Every Sunday we confess in the Creed that the Church is “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic”. But what do we mean when we say that the Church is holy? Obviously it cannot mean that we believe that everyone in the Church is of exemplary behaviour. Sadly, the history of the Church, both ancient and modern, is replete with scandals and stuffed with prima facie evidence that all Christians do not always behave…
The Morning Offering
Love
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Passing on the gift of love My father was a golf pro in Spokane, Washington, during my grade and early middle school years, and the country club was the center of our family’s social life. My brother, Dwayne, and I use to play an average of 18 to 36 holes of golf every day, during the summer months (when we…
Father Bill's Blog
101. The Seven Deadly Sins #4: Anger, Part Two
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Last week we looked at five examples of anger (one rather embarrassing to me, I’m afraid) and then at the sources and results of anger. Now let’s consider: How to control Anger 1 First, we need to begin with the external symptoms, the loss of temper, the vengeful acts, because they do so much harm to us and to others, get us into so much trouble. We need to plan how to hold…
Faith Encouraged
The Everlasting City
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“This world is not my home. I’m just a’passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door. And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.” That’s an old spiritual that I use to sing as a boy in church. And it strikes me now as a wonderful and terrible song. Wonderful in the sense that it preserves the Christian hope…
The Morning Offering
Past Regrets
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Clinging to past regrets can be a rejection of the very meaning of repentance Transformation is not something that happens in an instant, but is a journey towards holiness, and as long as we look to the future with hope, transformation of the heart continues, and our past becomes but a fading memory. There are many people who cling to…
Faith Encouraged
The 5 Ministries That Define our WHY
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You can use a hammer to do many things, from nailing a board to a stud to breaking a window to even more nefarious and criminal acts, but “why” was the hammer made in the first place? Answer that question and you’ll get to the very nature of a hammer’s existence. If it works for a hammer, imagine what kind of clarity asking “why” of yourself can achieve. The fact is, it…
The Morning Offering
Our Noble Calling
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Christ calls us to ultimate happiness As Orthodox Christians, we must conduct ourselves as children of the Most High. We must align our own will, our own desires, and our own hearts, to reflect our relationship with God. Our lives must reflect our love for Christ, and our desire to be numbered among His people. Even though we are unworthy…
Walking an Ancient Path
Three Ways to Persevere in Orthodox Worship Even When It’s Boring
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I’ll admit it. Recently the liturgy felt longer than usual, even though my FitBit told me it wasn’t. I had been unable to corral my wandering thoughts during worship and had difficulty focusing. No spiritual or temporal crisis loomed. I believed the words, I appreciated the service and those who ministered, but going through the motions left me disconnected, stifling yawns. And yet… The thought of worshiping elsewhere, of looking for…
Glory to God for All Things
An Unnecessary Existence
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In Dostoevsky’s The Demons, the character, Kirillov, is insanely fascinated with freedom. He cannot bear the fact that he did not choose his own existence. Life is a “given.” In what must be seen as a parable of the radical thought of the 19th century, Kirillov determines to kill himself, the only act of true freedom he can take. His insight about the necessity of his own existence and its lack of…
Time Eternal
The Gift of Time: How I Made Meaningful, Inexpensive, and Beautiful Christmas Gifts for Everyone in my Family in Under an Hour
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Early last month, sandwiched between random crises, deadlines, and stressors, I wondered how in the heck I was going to do Christmas presents this year. My husband and I like to keep things homemade, but I hadn’t knit anything and knew I was quickly losing time to make anything. Plus, baked goods don’t really work for my side…