Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Christmas is About Death
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In 1980, my great-grandfather Fred Isleib died on Christmas day at the age of 83. I was five years old and too small to remember being able to feel sad. I scarcely remember even impressions of him. I do remember a little about his funeral, mainly running and jumping between the gravestones where his remains were placed. But the idea of losing someone on…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
O Dark Dark Dark
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Today being the winter solstice, the shortest day here in the northern hemisphere, I thought I would point to this bit from T. S. Eliot that I always think of on this day: O dark dark dark. They all go into the dark, The vacant interstellar spaces, the vacant into the vacant, The captains, merchant bankers, eminent men of letters, The generous patrons of…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Sneak Preview of My New Book: "Bearing God"
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Since I know you are full of God I have exhorted you briefly. Remember me in your prayers so that I may attain to God, and remember the church in Syria, from which I am not worthy to be called. – St. Ignatius of Antioch, To the Magnesians 14 In honor of the feast today of of one of my favorite saints, Ignatius the…
With Lamps in Hand
Being Yourself Before God
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I once heard humility defined as being yourself before God. I mentioned it last week in the context of holiness, and I’ve been thinking more this week about what it means in the context of sin. These days, authenticity is arguably the highest cultural value we hold. There is a general expectation that we are free to be who-we-really-are without hesitation and without apology. We are so averse to phonies and charlatans that it’s hardly…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
What Do I Want for Christmas This Year?
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It’s a question we get asked a lot, and it’s a question that gets harder to answer as I get older. I have an Amazon wishlist, of course. But, really, I do know what would make me feel like it was a really good Christmas. I know exactly what I want. I’m afraid it’s a long list. Here’s what I want: I want for…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Jesus Is Not Part of the Christmas Story
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Sunday before the Nativity, December 18, 2016 Hebrews 11:9-10, 32-40; Matthew 1:1-15 V. Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. We are now one week away from celebrating a great mystery of the Christian faith—the birth of the God-man Jesus Christ into this world. Yet as we approach…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
An Opportunity of Revelation
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One of the issues that occupies my thoughts frequently is how we know what we know, especially how we apprehend the revelation of God. I do not think it is something that can be laid out in mechanically reproducible ways, but I do believe that there are many ways of speaking of it that are all true in different ways. And I find that…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
I Can't Always Fix the Broken, But I Can Do This
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From today’s epistle reading: For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. (I Timothy 4:4-5) In our zealousness to be righteous or pure, we can be tempted to forget this basic truth, a truth that everything God created is fundamentally good. It…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Is It Wrong to Learn About Other Religions?
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In response to my recent posts (here and here) where I talk about the research I’ve begun into Mormonism, I’ve gotten several comments urging me to reconsider, not to learn about Mormonism. Most comments have gone the other way, encouraging me to keep going and to write on this subject. But several have come from folks concerned that either I will be led astray…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
This Thing Decreased My Stress as a Pastor
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This week an article about pastors quitting ministry and even Christianity itself circulated among some of the clergy I know. I see articles like this all the time. Among this one’s ominous passages is this one: [ExPastors.com] conducted a 2015 survey that found 60 percent of pastors consider themselves overworked and 81 percent feel unable to meet the demands of their jobs, Atkinson said…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The One Thing Every Christian Must Know
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Being a believing Christian is not a moment to moment existential crisis of wondering whether everything we think we believe is really true. Just like most things in life, we spend most of our time functioning as though what we believe is true and proceeding from there. But we still have every right to ask whether it is indeed all true. And we also…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Stop Using "Religion" to Mean Bad Religion
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Risen from the ashes of his Mars Hill Church career and now nesting in greater Phoenix, “Young, Restless and Reformed” pastor and author Mark Driscoll tweeted the following this past weekend: Religion is rules without relationships. #PrayLikeJesus — Pastor Mark Driscoll (@PastorMark) December 10, 2016 This idea that religion is about “rules” is not unique to Driscoll, of course, nor to his followers, who…
Nearly Orthodox
Advent: Noetic Fire
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This whole month so far is a blur. So, what else is new, right? I keep telling myself that at some point in my life I’m going to get my crap together and sit in some silence during this Nativity Fast. I keep thinking that tomorrow I’m going to get it all done and find that silent time and just breathe a little deeper. Tomorrow came and went. Now it’s already just…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Heaven is Like Good Company
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Sunday of the Forefathers, December 11, 2016 Colossians 3:4-11; Luke 14:16-24 Very Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. What is the Kingdom of Heaven like? In our time, a lot of people if asked what Heaven is like would probably give answers that are not very compelling—we…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
A Church Cannot Just Keep Existing
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It has been said that freedom in America is only ever one generation away from extinction. It seems to me that the same could be said of American churches. Over the past couple of days, a number of the ministry leaders in our parish gathered together to ask a couple sets of questions. The first set was last night following a potluck meal, and…
With Lamps in Hand
Holiness Is Not One-Size-Fits-All
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I’ve never really understood the concept of one-size-fits-all clothing. I mean, unless it’s a scarf, I don’t think it’s possible to legitimately make an article of clothing that fits anyone no matter their body type. Somehow, though, I had myself convinced for a long time that holiness was like one of those stretchy shirts from the nineties intended to fit every woman. Sure, you might look better or worse in it depending…
With Lamps in Hand
Are You the Lord's Handmaiden?
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When the angel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary that she was the bear the Son of God, Mary, a young girl perhaps no more than sixteen, was drawing water from a well. It was during this mundane act in the midst of the hustle and bustle of Nazareth that the most profound decision was ever made: a woman accepted to have God dwell in her. With complete trust and courageous strength,…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Hearing from Mormons and Ex-Mormons
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For my post today, I just briefly wanted to comment a bit on the response I received from yesterday’s piece where I described why I was researching Mormonism. In the roughly 24 hours since I made the post, I not only got a lot of comments on social media but have been contacted by at least a half-dozen people privately, mostly ex-Mormons who are…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Recent Research: Exploring Mormonism
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The book and podcast Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy has become the work most associated with me outside of what is really my normal life—my family and my parish. It’s not the only thing I’ve done, but it does seem to be the one I’m most known for now in my little corner of the Orthodox Anglophonic world. There was a while where I wished that…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The Eucatastrophe of St. Ambrose
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The term eucatastrophe was coined by Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien to refer to a sudden turn of events that makes for a happy ending. It’s not the same as the deus ex machina of classical theatre, which quite often is really almost a non sequitur that ends a tale in some entirely implausible way. I thought of this word today when reading…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
St. Nicholas and the Battle Against Idolatry
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A couple brief incidents from the Life of St. Nicholas of Myra in Lycia, whose feast we celebrate today, which are perhaps less well-known than other tales of the Wonder-worker: After the persecution of the Church was lifted in AD 313, St. Nicholas began to travel freely throughout his diocese of Myra in Lycia. He found that there were many altars built throughout his…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
From Darkness, Light
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At this time of year, we Christians begin thinking about the shining of the Light in the darkness. The Lord Jesus will soon be born in our festal calendar, and He is lauded in our hymns as the Sun of Righteousness, the Orient from on high Whose coming at this moment begins to enlighten the nations. And this lines up poetically quite beautifully with…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Children of Abraham or Religious Consumers?
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Ss. Barbara of Ba’albek and John of Damascus / Tenth Sunday of Luke, December 4, 2016 Galatians 3:23-29, 4:1-5; Luke 13:10-17 Very Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Today we have two readings from the Scripture that mention something similar. In the epistle reading from Galatians 3,…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Christians are Naturalized Citizens
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The following is the naturalization oath that makes someone a citizen of the United States when immigrating from another country: I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Some Encouragement, O Christians!
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Sometimes, Christian exhortation can get you down. It’s not that it’s not edifying when received well, but sometimes we don’t receive it well. If we’re not ready to receive the exhortation, we feel judgment. And of course an encounter with God’s word is always a judgment, because it reveals who we are. We should be receiving God’s word with joy, because it’s good news,…
Nearly Orthodox
God Planted a Garden in the East
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Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Gen 2:8-9 The ink is…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The Struggle of True and Pure Citizenship
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With the national election now (mostly) in the rearview mirror but yet not so distant, we are again in a time of reflection on national service and what it means to be a citizen, most especially on our duties to our fellow citizens. Unfortunately, most of the reflection is of a rather cynical and externalized sort, trying to figure out why this candidate won…
