Time Eternal
No, I'm not Dead: and a sneak peek at my next book
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Christ is risen! I hope by now, everyone has recovered from Holy Week and Pascha and has survived the first fasting day (yesterday) after Bright Week! Things have been (and will continue to be) a little quiet around here, but I wanted to assure you all that I’m still alive! Just very quiet. The reason I’ve been keeping…
Grace Here and Now
Enter Ye Into The Quiet
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Yesterday, I was taking a walk and this story (parable? fable?) came to me out of nowhere so I came home and wrote it all down, and it made me feel brave and hopeful. Once upon a time there was a town that had fallen into horrible disrepair. The houses were crumbling from neglect, enormous potholes had rendered the roads nearly undrivable, lewd graffiti covered every square inch of the great town…
Walking an Ancient Path
Christ is Risen! Now What? Three Lessons from Lent
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Faith Encouraged
Time to Shake Things Up!
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Christ is risen! T.S. Eliot, one of the 20th century’s major poets, said: “And they write innumerable books; being too vain and distracted for silence: seeking every one after his own elevation, and dodging his emptiness.” It strikes me as significant that an author would write something like that. And, in my heart of hearts, it strikes me as painfully accurate, especially during an election season that presses the thoughtful to places…
The Morning Offering
The Evilness of Pride
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Pride destroys virtue and renders it useless The absolute necessary element for salvation is faith, and the enemy of faith is pride. Our faith in Christ will bring us into everlasting life, because faith brings us into communion with God. Pride destroys faith because it makes us believe we do not need God, and pride is what leads many into…
A Light So Lovely
Why Digital Minimalism Is Integral to Culture Creation
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It’s rare that a book grabs hold of you and doesn’t let go. It’s even more rare when that book is, essentially, a self-help book. But what if that self-help manual tells a profound truth about one’s culture and times in a way that no one else seems to be able to? Then it becomes a manifesto, a call to a new way of life. This is exactly what Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism is.…
Faith Encouraged
Run to the Light!
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Christ is risen! We’ve heard so much about “light” and “darkness” and stories of people having near-death experiences and seeing a “light” at the end of a tunnel and being drawn to that “light.” And not to mention the common fear of children of the dark, the popularity of “night lights” (we even have a night light that has a “stained glass” version of an icon of the Theotokos in our daughter’s room).…
The Morning Offering
Divine and Human
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The two natures of the Church image the two natures of Christ Christ, the God-man, was equally divine and human, and His Church is an image of this dual nature. Since we are not fully realized as the children of the Most High, journeying, as we are, to the Kingdom that is within, our human nature is still sinful and…
Glory to God for All Things
Ninety Percent of Orthodoxy Is Just Showing Up
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Sometime back, I was asked about “being present.” The question was rooted in the problem of a “wandering mind.” My answer was simple and straight-forward: “You are always present. It comes with having a body.” We speak of the mind “wandering,” and it is a colorful metaphor, but it’s not true. The “mind” hasn’t gone anywhere else, it is simply thinking about something other than where your body is, or, it’s not…
Faith Encouraged
That Heavenly Vision
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Christ is risen! Did you know that today is the day we commemorate a miracle? Well, technically we commemorate a miracle every day. Every day is an invitation to know God deeper! Today we remember the appearance of the Holy Cross over the city of Jerusalem. St. Cyril writes “At about the third hour of the day, an enormous Cross, formed of light, appeared in the heaven above holy Golgotha and reaching…
The Morning Offering
Death
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Thinking upon our own death Saint Sisoes, the great ascetic, standing before the tomb of Alexander the Great, beheld the skeletal remains of one who was once covered in magnificent garments. Astonished, the saint mourned for the vicissitudes of time and the transience of glory, and tearfully proclaimed, “The mere sight of you, tomb, dismays me and causes my heart…
Faith Encouraged
To Repent is to Refresh!
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Christ is risen! I like this quote: “A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you’ve been taking.” Yep, I bet you know that feeling of being so fed up with the everyday activities of life that you say “STOP!” And yet, why is it that too many of my vacations have been as stressful or more stressful than my regular schedule? It’s because an actual “refreshing”…
The Morning Offering
Peace of Heart
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Disappointments are meaningless with peace of heart We often find ourselves disappointed in life. The job we really wanted is given to another person. An associate at work doesn’t invite us to the dinner party, yet invited a coworker and his wife. A person we’d love to have as a friend shows no interest and we feel rejected. The music…
The Morning Offering
It Begins With Me
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Blame for all that is wrong with the world rests with me “Our life depends on the kind of thoughts we nurture. If our thoughts are peaceful, calm, meek, and kind, then that is what our life is like. If our attention is turned to the circumstances in which we live, we are drawn into a whirlpool of thoughts and…
Eastern Christian Insights
Bearing Witness to the Resurrection in our Bodies: Homily for Thomas Sunday in the Orthodox Church
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Acts 5:12-20; John 20:19-31 Christ is Risen! Today we continue to celebrate the glorious resurrection of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ on the third day. He is our Pascha, our Passover, from death to life, for Hades and the grave could not contain the God-Man Who shares with us His victory over death. He has made even the tomb a pathway to the glory of life eternal. As He said…
The Morning Offering
Your Best Friend
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Your closest friend should be yourself If you have never learned to accept and love yourself, you will never be able to love another person. If you don’t learn to forgive yourself, you will never be able to forgive another person. You must learn to be your own best friend. To love yourself is not about narcissism, an excessive focus…
Father Bill's Blog
124. How Saint Nicholas Founded Saint Nicholas Church, Cedarburg
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Christ is risen! Truly he is risen! What? Saint Nicholas in May? I explained this last year, but in case you’re new here: May 9 is a lesser feast of Saint Nicholas. Actually Nicholas is an ever-present, ever-relevant saint to us Orthodox, not confined to December 6 – or to December 25. By the way, who exactly is this fat jolly old elf who sells cars on TV and has stolen the…
Glory to God for All Things
You Belong Here - And It's Beautiful
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Among the most uncomfortable feelings is that of “not belonging.” It is one of the forms of shame, for, when we do not belong or are “out of place,” we feel exposed and inherently vulnerable. It is not a feeling that we sustain for any length of time without engaging in behaviors designed to make it go away. Strangely, this is an aspect of ugliness (in its many forms). Just as we…
No Other Foundation
The Mathematics of Misery
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One of the many memorable lines from the classic The Princess Bride says it admirably. In that film, the then-mysterious Man in Black says to the Princess, “Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.” This is not cynicism, but consensus, for it expresses a universal feeling. Life is filled with pain and loss, with sickness, bereavement, and death. And, to put it in historical perspective, let us remember…
Faith Encouraged
Bright Friday - ZEAL!
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Christ is risen! “What would Jesus do?” That phrase was popular a few years ago, and I confess to being amused by this fad of “easy religion.” One of the main reasons was that the life of Jesus is not easily categorized as the comfortable “Jesus” we moderns would prefer. You know the “Jesus” I’m talking about: The “meek” Jesus that pats everyone on the head and tells them they are “OK,…
The Morning Offering
Spiritual Adulthood
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Those occasions when we mature into spiritual adulthood There are those times in our lives when God seems distant, even absent from us. These are usually times when our faith seems weak and we struggle to believe God really cares for us, or perhaps we begin to question whether God even exists. In Western Christian tradition these moments are often…
Faith Encouraged
Bright Thursday - REFRESHING!
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Christ is risen! Ah, the beauties of Springtime! And the hay fever! For those of us susceptible to the reign of terror that is pollen season; the watery eyes, the stuffy nose, basically all the bad stuff on all the commercials we see for medicine to combat this scourge of this wonderful season; we love and hate this time of year! Especially when the wind is blowing around all that yellowish-green pollen…
The Morning Offering
Becoming Whole
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Embrace your material self, together with your soul Unlike angels, who are entirely spiritual beings, God has made each of you as creatures dwelling in a material world. To be whole, you must worship God both in body, soul, and spirit. This teaching is central to our Christian faith and is an affirmation of the sacramental nature of this material…
Behind the Scenes
A Simple Way to Write an Effective Book Review
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When you read a book you value, the best thing you can do to support the author and publisher is to write a review. The interconnected digital conversation that swirls around us daily is the modern equivalent of village talk around the well or in the marketplace. A good word passed from one villager to another will always be the most effective way to share news. A review is that good word!…
Faith Encouraged
Bright Wednesday - SEEKING!
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Christ is risen! “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” This startling quote from the great American poet Henry David Thoreau captures an insight into the challenge of our human lives. All too much of the time I find myself asleep to the true dignity and purpose of these years granted me by my Creator. And what’s worse, there are moments…
The Morning Offering
The Monk
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And the acquisition of a humble and a contrite heart When the monk attempts to rely on his own strength to do battle with his fallen nature, he will be defeated. The arena, his field of battle, takes place in his own heart, and will be a life long battle. The monk must manifest his word in deeds, and his…
Walking an Ancient Path
Theology in Color: Truths Proclaimed in the Icon of the Resurrection
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Christ is risen! Truly He is risen! As we exchange this joyous greeting through Pentecost, celebrating Jesus’ triumph over death, let’s take a fresh look at the icon of the Resurrection. This beloved icon, also known as “Christ’s Descent into Hades” or “Anastasis,” is a wonderful example of “theology in color” because of the depth of instruction it contains. As writer Jeremiah explains in his blog Orthodox Road: Rediscovering the Beauty…
