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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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The Morning Offering
Our Patronal Feast
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The Feast of Christ the All-Merciful Saviour Today our brotherhood celebrates the Patronal Feast of our monastery. Thirty-three years ago the beloved and ever memorable Archimandrite Dimitri (Egoroff) of Santa Rosa, CA tonsured Father Paul and me as Orthodox monks, having embraced Orthodoxy after many years as monks in the Eastern Catholic Church. Guided and inspired by Father Dimitri’s kind…
Father Bill's Blog
139. Why do we honor the Mother of God? Because the Bible says so! - Part Two
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Last week we saw how often the Virgin Mary is mentioned in the New Testament. Nobody except her Son comes close. Then… well, go back and read it for yourself. We stopped in the middle this section. What the Bible teaches about Mary 5 Does the New Testament tell us that Mary is the Mother of Christians, the Mother of the Church? Yes. There is, of course, no distinction between the titles, since the…
Faith Encouraged
Do You Know What Motivates You?
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What’s the difference between Inspiration and Motivation? Well, Inspiration usually comes from the outside. I’m inspired by that act of charity, or that life well lived. Motivations, however, are usually internal; that set of desires and drives that either keep me on track or send my life down a dead end. My best friend use to say “No life is a total waste. It can always serve as a bad example!” So,…
The Morning Offering
Acquiring Holiness
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Holiness comes only to those who struggle Not an hour should pass without taking time to examine our heart, for the hour of judgement can come at any time, and we must be ready to give account to God for our life. When we practice examination of the heart, we do so with the knowledge that there is no spiritual…
Roads from Emmaus
Feed Your God or Be Fed by God
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Time Eternal
5 History Books that Changed How I See Time
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I’m trying to put together a reading list of books across fiction and nonfiction genres that have somehow shaped the way I perceive and think about time, not just spiritually but intellectually and creatively. When it’s finished in the coming months, I’ll post the list here and on Goodreads–perhaps we can start a Time Eternal book club! I’ll…
Walking an Ancient Path
The Sign of the Cross: A Neglected Weapon of Prayer
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I saw it happen on television and in movies, but never in real life. The characters, male and female, young and old, and often in period costumes, hurriedly tapped themselves—forehead, sternum, left shoulder, right shoulder—during moments or fear or confusion. The presence of a dead body was often involved. These people who crossed themselves were often portrayed as ignorant, possibly uneducated, and definitely superstitious. They were secondary characters—not the heroes, and…
Faith Encouraged
I Was Born This Way!
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A famous pop music singer came out with a song called “Born This Way.” Lady Gaga struck a nerve with many with her lyrics about struggling with her distinctives that made her feel “different.” Her anthem declared “everybody is special and they were born this way.” Of course, in our ego-driven fallenness, so many interpreted the words of the song as saying it’s OK to affirm your own “specialness” regardless of the…
The Morning Offering
Hospice or Hospital?
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Spiritual pain control or spiritual healing? Since the Church is a hospital for the soul wherein we come for healing, it is important that we take full advantage of all the resources the Church offers us for such healing. Frequent confession, where we bare our sins before God with the priest as the witness is an important beginning to the…
Faith Encouraged
I Don't Believe in Fairness
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I don’t believe in “fairness.” Really! I really don’t believe in it at all. Oh, I get the concept, don’t get me wrong, but I simply don’t believe humans are capable of it. At least not yet, anyway. Frankly, I’m convinced the Evil One uses our innate knowing that fairness SHOULD exist AND our inability to produce it to enslave us to perpetual agitation or despair! Look at our lesson today in…
No Other Foundation
The Fathers of the Church and the Creation Stories
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No one interested in the history of Biblical interpretation can ignore the role of the Fathers of the Church. It seems clear that many (though not all) of the Fathers of the Church interpreted the narrative of Genesis literally, as sequential history, and that accordingly most of them regarded the world—including the sun, moon, and stars—as no more than about 6000 years old. They also believed that the sun revolved around the…
The Morning Offering
The Holy Cross
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The Procession of the Life-Creating Cross The Procession of the Venerable Wood of the Life-Creating Cross of the Lord is a feast of the Church that has it’s roots in Constantinople, because of the illnesses that occur in August. It was customary, in former times, to carry the Venerable Wood of the Cross through the streets and squares of Constantinople…
Faith Encouraged
Where 2 or 3 Are Gathered
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“Those that don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” So goes the saying that came to my mind as I considered today’s lesson. You see we humans are easily conned into believing “bigger is better.” We think that if some church has a lot of people then it must be successful. But how many times do we have to see these large groups disintegrate after a leader experiences some scandal…
The Morning Offering
Creating Harmony
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Creating harmony out of chaos The inevitability of death is particularly difficult to face for most Americans, as we’ve become a people that eschew traditional funerals, preferring to “celebrate the life of our loved one, while disposing of the body, and banning any sign of death from the memorial service should we even decide to have a service. Yet the…
The Morning Offering
My Alaskan Pilgrimage Continues
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Saint Paul Island in the Bering Sea I’ve just returned Anchorage after journeying to Kodiak, Spruce Island, and Saint Paul Island. As my regular readers know, while on Saint Paul Island, I was without cell phone service and WiFi, so it will be a slow return to offering my daily postings, given my state of exhaustion. I’m going to share…
Time Eternal
Time Eternal: A Visual on the Orthodox Understanding of Time
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Faith Encouraged
Humility Leads to Greatness
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The words of Jesus often strike us as paradoxical: To be free, you must be a slave, to live you have to die, to be great, you must be humble! Hundreds of books have been written trying to understand the paradox of Jesus and His influence on humanity. The fact is His life shouldn’t have mattered much at all when you think of the millions of lives lived of just religious philosophers…
Eastern Christian Insights
Even Small Offerings Produce Abundant Blessings: Homily for the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, the Eighth Sunday of Matthew, and the After-Feast of the Transfiguration of Christ in the Orthodox Church
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1 Corinthians 1:10-17; Matthew 14:14-22 In one way or another, we are all pretty good at letting ourselves off the hook. There are pressing matters that require our attention, but we would rather ignore them so that we do not have to go to the effort of actually doing something about them. We easily find ways to justify leaving it to others to do the heavy lifting…
The Morning Offering
A Society in Decline
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Let us be the Light of Christ in the midst of a world in darkness One of the most beloved movies ever made was Frank Capra’s, “It’s a Wonderful Life”. Staring Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey, the movie tells the story of an ever optimistic man, who, while facing life’s hardships, set aside his own dreams in order to help…
Time Eternal
35% off Time and Despondency this weekend only!
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Father Bill's Blog
138. Why do we honor the Mother of God? Because the Bible says so! - Part One
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The Virgin Mary…? Those of you who were raised Orthodox or Roman Catholic cannot imagine how hard it was for most of us former Protestants to accept the Mother of God. I know, because when we try to describe it, you just look at us with puzzled looks on your faces! For most Protestants Mary is tabu. There’s no other word for it. She is just unacceptable, forbidden for reasons that cannot be…
A Lamp for Today
The Demolition of Death: the Resurrectional Hymns in the Seventh Tone
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Ezekiel 7, Jeremiah 7, Psalm 125 (MT 126) A demolition is not usually an occasion for joy. The summer before I turned eleven, I stared forlornly out the kitchen window with my mom onto what had been my haven since moving into our new house: an abandoned and perfectly wonderful apple orchard. That past year I had explored every nook and cranny of the orchard, and taken to disappearing up a large…
Faith Encouraged
Dear St. Matthias!
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“We have an eye witness.” Well, that got his attention. You see I was helping with an investigation with a recent spate of home burglaries in the area and we had caught a suspect in one of the neighborhoods where this was happening. This young man had been very successful in avoiding being seen or caught in the act until he robbed a house next door to a stay at home mom.…
The Morning Offering
The Saint Herman of Alaska Pilgrimage continued
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The Saint Herman of Alaska Pilgrimage continued Please forgive me for not writing a blog article, but the pilgrimage is taking it’s toll on my aging body. I am, however, posting the saints of the day, along with the scripture readings. Hope you enjoy these latest photos. Tomorrow we head to Spruce Island, and will celebrate a Hierarchical Liturgy in…
Time Eternal
Under the Laurel Tree: The Story of My Next Book
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Four years ago, I found out that something I assumed would be a given–something I had grown up staking my heart on–may never come to be. Until then, I had never really faced a struggle that was truly insurmountable. For the most part, whatever challenges came my way were resolved by extra studying, diligent research, a better-paying job,…
Faith Encouraged
Who Do You Love?
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Telly Savalas was one of my favorite actors as a kid. I loved his “Who loves ya, baby” catchphrase when he played detective Kojak on his TV show! Wait, you don’t know who Telly Savalas is? Well, I am an old man, so perhaps he was before your time! What isn’t before anybody’s time is the whole idea of love. Most of our movies are about this one way or another. Most…
The Morning Offering
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The Saint Herman of Alaska Pilgrimage An Akathist to Saint Herman of Alaska was chanted in Holy Resurrection Orthodox Cathedral in Kodiak. It was followed by the Archbishop’s Tea, with Metropolitan Tikhon and Archbishop David. Friday August 9, 2019 / July 27, 2019 8th Week after Pentecost. Tone six. Fast. Food with Oil Holy Great-martyr and Healer Panteleimon (305). Commemoration…