Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The Fruit of the Spirit Who is God: St. Ambrose on the Spirit's Goodness
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St. Athanasius of Mt. Athos / Fifth Sunday of Matthew, July 5, 2015 Galatians 5:22-6:2; Matthew 8:28-9:1 Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. On the fifth of July, we celebrate St. Athanasius the Athonite. This is not the same Athanasius whose theology won the day at the…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
How I See Things After the SCOTUS Ruling on Marriage
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It’s late, and this may be a bit incoherent. Sorry in advance. Sometimes I stay up late writing something so that it’s not on my mind when I go to sleep. I have to be honest here: I find the public debates over sexuality (every kind) really, really tiresome. There is a part of me that feels like so much of what is being…
Nearly Orthodox
In praise of Coffee Hour
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Last night I had the great opportunity to visit an Orthodox church in the suburbs, Saints Peter and Paul Greek Orthodox Church in Glenview. I was there to hear one of my favorite living theologians speak, the awesome Met. Kallistos Ware. If you’ve never had the chance to hear him speak, do it. I confess that when I saw him I just wanted to run up to him and hug him.…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Hearing and Doing God's Law in the Information Age
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Second Sunday after Pentecost / Second Sunday of Matthew, June 14, 2015 Romans 2:10-16; Matthew 4:18-23 Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. St. Paul, in his words from the second chapter of Romans which we heard today, has something to say about what we’re supposed to do…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Do We Preach "Orthodoxy"... or Christ?
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In her review of Kyriakos Markides’s Gifts of the Desert, Frederica Mathewes-Green says she had a hard time finding Jesus in the book: Markides’ previous book, “The Mountain of Silence” (2001), was read eagerly by those interested in Orthodox spirituality, chiefly because he had faithfully transcribed taped conversations with a monk trained on Mt. Athos, Father Maximos. Though Markides himself seemed not wholly on…
Nearly Orthodox
Lessons in publishing...
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Nearly Orthodox has been published a year this summer … this is on my mind today 🙂
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Pentecost is the Re-Creation of Mankind
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Sunday of Pentecost, May 31, 2015 Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. On this great feast of Pentecost, the “last feast” of the Paschal mystery which began for us with the Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee four months ago, we experience the final fullness of the…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The Christianity of the Ascension: Our Potential in Christ
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Sunday after Ascension, May 24, 2015 Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. From middle school all the way through high school, if you could chart a single theme in the comments that teachers would make to my parents, whether in parent-teacher conferences, report cards, or notes sent…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Why did God make him blind?
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Sunday of the Blind Man, May 20, 2015 Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Christ is risen! On May 29, 1453, after a fifty-three day siege, the capital of the Roman Empire, the center of the Orthodox Christian world, founded by and named for the first Orthodox…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
What Do You Hold Sacred? Christ and the Woman at the Well
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Sunday of the Samaritan Woman, May 10, 2015 Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Christ is risen! In this beautiful story appointed to be read on the Fifth Sunday of Pascha, the conversion of the Samaritan Woman by the Lord Jesus—who is later known to the Church…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Thomas Sunday: Death, Resurrection and Daily Life
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Thomas Sunday, April 19, 2015 Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Christ is risen! Here we stand, at the end of Renewal Week, also called Bright Week, and it is Thomas Sunday. We gather with the eleven disciples in that room with the doors shut, and the…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The Power of Resurrection
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I wanted to offer a few words as Orthodox Christians around the world are experiencing Paschal joy, rippling across the time zones with shouts of exultation in the glory of Christ’s rising from death. I’m not sure why, but this year in particular I have strongly felt a sense of the pervasiveness of the power of the resurrection of Jesus. Perhaps it is because…
Nearly Orthodox
For those who have fallen- Lenten Regrets
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Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again; for forgiveness has risen from the grave. —St John Chrysostom It is always here, in the dark of Good Friday just before Pascha, that I find all the regret I have stored up over the years. It’s a pressing lie, heavy and persistent. It sounds right to me in the dark. It sounds reasonable and clear, repeating over and over,…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Lenten Evangelism #10: Palm Sunday and the City of Man
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Palm Sunday, April 5, 2015 Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Today, the tenth and final Sunday of the Triodion, Palm Sunday, we complete our series on evangelism. And I would like for us to put a capstone on what we have been building for the past…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The Final Day of Lent: Reflecting on 40 Days of Blogging
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Today is the fortieth day of Great Lent. Tomorrow, we enter into the transition weekend between Lent and Holy Week—Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday. And this is also my fortieth daily post in a row since Lent began. When I committed to blog every day for forty days, I have to admit that I didn’t think it would be as it has been. I…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Making Some Noise: Anticipating Holy Saturday and the Harrowing of Hell
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So, who’s ready for Holy Week? When I first learned of the practice of making noise during the “Arise, O God” of Holy Saturday (which is in imitation of the uproar of hell as Christ enters into it and destroys the power of death), I thought, “This is awesome!” And then I thought, “How would you ever introduce such a practice into a parish?”…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Mary of Egypt and the Springtime of Repentance
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Since today is the feast day of St. Mary of Egypt, I thought I would repost for you here one of my favorite homilies about her. I preached this two years ago on the Fifth Sunday of Lent. Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt, April 21, 2013 Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Don't Blog Angry
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One of my favorite moments in the film “Groundhog Day” is when Bill Murray says to Punxsatawney Phil “Don’t drive angry.” I was reminded of that today when I was thinking about what to write for my daily blog post. Why? Because this has not been my day. I won’t go into the details, but this has been one of those days when every…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Lenten Evangelism #9: The Journey of Mary of Egypt to the Cross
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Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt, March 29, 2015 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 almost done with our ten week series on evangelism during this holy season of the Triodion! Just today and next week left to go. Today is the Sunday of…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Synaxarion for the Saturday of the Akathist
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I’m off to Philadelphia for much of the day today to give a couple of talks at one of the churches there, so I thought I would leave you with this today, the synaxarion for the Saturday of the Akathist, the Fifth Saturday of Lent, which is today: On the fifth Saturday of the Great Fast, we celebrate the praise of our Most-holy Lady,…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Sweet Partings: The Final Akathist
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We now come to the part of Lent where we begin to say farewell to various services that have accompanied us on the journey. Today is the Fifth Friday of Lent. In the practice of my archdiocese, we celebrate the Small Compline service with the Akathist Hymn on the first five Fridays of Lent. On the first four, the akathist is divided into quarters,…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Worlds Next to Worlds: A Curious Ecumenism
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Lunch today was with a good friend I have locally, who describes himself as “Post-Charismatic” and “Ortho-Curious.” He is seminary educated and works in the teaching staff at a mini-mega-church (basically the same style as a mega, but without the thousands of people). We eat lunch and drink coffee together regularly, watch movies together, and he has been to my house many times. It…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
"Immensity, cloister'd in thy dear womb": John Donne on the Annunciation
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Students of Renaissance English poetry all get to know John Donne, that 16th/17th century priest and poet who vacillated painfully between whether to remain with the Church of England or to be a Catholic. He also vacillated between a life of devotion and the passions which afflict us all since the Fall. And his poetry reflects all this struggle. To my mind, perhaps his…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The Great Canon and St. Mary of Egypt: Impressions
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Take heed, then, often to come together to give thanks to God, and show forth His praise. For when ye assemble frequently in the same place, the powers of Satan are destroyed, and the destruction at which he aims is prevented by the unity of your faith. – St. Ignatius of Antioch, “To the Ephesians” Yesterday evening, for the first time in its history,…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
"Happily Ever After"? Yes, Really - Movie Review: Cinderella (2015)
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Yesterday afternoon, my two older children and I went to go see the new, live-action Disney film Cinderella, directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Lily James as Cinderella and Cate Blanchett as Lady Tremaine (the Stepmother). And I wanted to say a few things about it. (I’m not a professional movie critic, so this will not be the usual review. And yes, there are…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Lenten Evangelism #8: Renunciation of the World and Evangelism
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Sunday of St. John of the Ladder, March 22, 2015 Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. What does a sixth century monk living on Mount Sinai have to teach us about evangelism? That is the question I asked as I pondered the continuation of our series on…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Haphazard Reminiscence and Gratitude
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Forgive me a bit of rambling reminiscence and reflection, if you don’t mind. I guess this is one of the hazards of committing to blogging every day for forty days. I’m not sure why, but I’ve been remembering some things from more than twenty years ago lately, from shortly after my family moved to North Carolina, three weeks after I graduated from high school…
