Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Demons are Real. So are Angels.
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The other day, I wrote that many of us are usually ready for Lent to be over at about this time. And I must admit that that includes me. Today I was reminded of all that again, when a snowstorm on the last day of winter interfered with an event important to me as well as a beautiful church service I’d planned to celebrate…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Back to Greek
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It’s been fifteen years since I did formal study of Ancient Greek. I’ve been wanting to get back to it for a long time now. So on the recommendation of learned friends, I got myself a copy of Greek: An Intensive Course by Hansen and Quinn. I also pulled out my two volumes of Athenaze by Balme and Lawall. (Old notes from 1999 fell…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
"Who Shall I Be at Pascha?": The Cross at the Crossroads
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Today is exactly the halfway point between the beginning of Great Lent and the holy day of Pascha (Easter), the Feast of Feasts. It is usually right around now, three and a half weeks in, that many of us begin to be ready for Lent to be over. But the fast is only halfway through. We have two and a half weeks of Lent…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Ego Patricius peccator rusticissimus
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My name is Patrick. I am a sinner, a simple country person, and the least of all believers. This photo was taken in the summer of 2001 during a nearly month-long pilgrimage I took to Great Britain and Ireland. It was a dreary day in Downpatrick (and the photo was taken with real film! remember that stuff?), the place where St. Patrick returned to…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
"Aslan is on the move"
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I took this photo today during a brief walk with my family and posted it on Facebook. One commenter captioned it thus: Aslan is on the move. With as much suffering as has come during this Lent for me and for many in my flock, it is good to remember that Aslan is, indeed, “on the move.” Spring is coming after the winter. The…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Lenten Evangelism #7: The High Priest on the Cross
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Sunday of the Adoration of the Holy Cross, March 15, 2015 Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. The cross which we adore today, the third Sunday of Lent, is most often discussed in the Orthodox tradition in terms of the conquest of death by Jesus Christ. It…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
On What is Happening in the Middle East
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My bishop recently asked me to assist him in putting together a statement on the killing of Christians in the Middle East by takfirist groups such as ISIS. Here’s an excerpt: In recent months, images and stories of Christians being killed for their faith in the Middle East have flooded our news sources and dominated our social media. We see beheadings and shootings, sometimes…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
"Everyone was a saint there": Who are we in worship?
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In a conversation I was having with my wife yesterday, she was reflecting on the funeral of a dear friend we attended recently, especially how, surrounding the funeral services, the love people showed each other and the bereaved was so deep and palpable (she didn’t use that kind of language, but that’s my “translation”!). And then she said this: “It’s like everyone was a…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
St. Gregory the Great: The Sincere and the Insincere
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Today is the feast of St. Gregory the Great (called in the East “Gregory the Dialogist”), pope of Rome. He is mostly known in the Orthodox Church for his association with the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts (with which, it is my understanding, he probably didn’t have any real connection). One of his most beautiful gifts to posterity is his work Pastoral Care…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
"We had the one, and we lost him": Fr. Matthew Baker's Significance in Orthodoxy
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Several times now I have been asked by folks who were not at Fr. Matthew Baker’s funeral this past Saturday to write something about it. I have to admit that I do not really want to. I am a bit exhausted. But I will at least mention that it was beautiful—not merely in an aesthetic sense, though of course it was, with the roughly…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
"God will make him a saint for you": On Rigidity
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I spent the day yesterday at St. Tikhon’s with some of my fellow clergy from the Lehigh Valley Orthodox Clergy Brotherhood, and we shared a beautiful day of brotherhood as guests of the monastery. In one of our conversations, one of the priests was relating time he had spent with a holy elder in Greece (who is still living, though not in good health),…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Preaching and the Bond of Love
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I am on a day trip today to St. Tikhon’s with the Lehigh Valley Orthodox Clergy Brotherhood, so I don’t have much time to write this morning, but I wanted to write a few thoughts here about something that I have thought of off and on. I once had the experience where I gave the same talk twice within a week to two different…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Lenten Evangelism #6: St. Gregory Palamas and the Paralytic
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Sunday of St. Gregory Palamas, March 8, 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 second Sunday of the Great Fast, we celebrate St. Gregory Palamas, that 14th century ascetic and archbishop whose contributions to Orthodox theology and life were so profound that he not only…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Today, We Bury a Friend
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The Lord said to those Jews which had come to him: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The Church is Love: More on the Legacy of Fr. Matthew Baker
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It’s been astounding over the past few days to watch the fundraising campaign for Fr. Matthew Baker’s widow Presbytera Katherine and their six children raise so much in such a short time. (And if you are able to give, please do. That may look like a lot, but the Bakers will be dealing with a loss of income that will affect them for many…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Remembering Matthew: On the Death of a Man, by Fr. Joseph Lucas
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I was sent this remembrance today of Fr. Matthew Baker from Fr. Joseph Lucas, another priest-scholar and friend of Fr. Matthew. These words resonate with me, as well. Manhood was something that Fr. Matthew talked about a good bit in his private conversations with friends, and it was something that he helped other men to build. Fr. Joseph is a priest of the Orthodox…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Fr. Matthew Baker: Priesthood and Sacrifice (Homily for Sunday of the Holy Cross)
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I committed to blogging every day for 40 days this Lent, but I have to admit that I don’t feel like writing about almost anything right now except trying somehow to keep my friend Fr. Matthew in my immediate memory, as if that somehow holds off the reality of his shocking departure from this earthly life. (For more on Fr. Matthew and also for…
Nearly Orthodox
Charity.
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If you’re online, into social media and Orthodox you might already have heard about the sudden loss of Fr Matthew Baker from Norwich, CT. I did not know Fr Matthew but a number of my online acquaintances did know and love him. I am struck by the terrible loss his passing brings in the lives of his friends and his beautiful family. I cannot even imagine the space he leaves and how…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
"We need more spiritual brothers": Losing Fr. Matthew Baker
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I awoke this morning hoping that it wasn’t true, that somehow, the nightmare of losing my friend of ten years so instantly had just been a dream. But it wasn’t. Fr. Matthew Baker is dead. And I realized that I have to write something about him, to capture for just a moment something of what he meant to me. Promising. Brilliant. Down-to-earth. Genius. Important.…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Lenten Evangelism #5: "Come and See" (The Sunday of Orthodoxy)
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Sunday of Orthodoxy, March 1, 2015 Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. “Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’” This phrase, which we hear in today’s Gospel, has come to be something of an evangelistic watchword among English-speaking Orthodox Christians. “Come and see.” It is used especially…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Is Orthodoxy "Christianity, Only Tougher"?
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Particularly during this season of Great Lent with all its fasting and services and so forth, Orthodox Christians who live in a multi-religious society may be tempted to think or say something like what you see in this image here: “Orthodoxy: Christianity. Only Tougher.” On its face, there is of course a lot of truth to that characterization. Being a faithful Orthodox Christian is…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
St. Raphael and Me: On the 100th Anniversary of His Repose
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Fifteen years ago, in the month of May, I drove with two of my friends from Raleigh, North Carolina, to St. Tikhon’s Monastery in South Canaan, Pennsylvania, for the canonization services of a new saint. I knew almost nothing about him at the time. I had been an Orthodox Christian for only two years, I was still a bit starry-eyed about the faith (and…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Prayer for the Dead and Family Process
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Ccontinuing on some of the thoughts I mentioned in my Tuesday post on the occasion of six months since my mother’s passing, I wanted to explore some of these issues further in a more general way, meditating on a few related questions. I’ve actually gotten a couple of private notes from folks concerned that, from what they read, I was “repressing” my emotions regarding…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The Gospel of Fastnachts, Pączki and Pancakes
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On the calendar of Western Rite Orthodox Christians (who probably number a few thousand people within the canonical Orthodox Church, out of a couple hundred million or so, which is why they are unknown to most Orthodox Christians), today is Ash Wednesday. So yesterday was their Shrove Tuesday, also known as Fat Tuesday (in French, Mardi Gras). And of course, these days were last…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Processing the Death of my Mother
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Today is six months since my mother’s passing on August 24 from a suddenly appearing aggressive brain cancer. I normally wouldn’t focus on stuff here that’s so personal, but perhaps my working out of some of these things may be helpful to folks in similar situations or who know people affected in this way. Even though it’s been half a year, it’s still hard…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Should religion be physical?: Great Lent and Polycarp the Palpable
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Today is the beginning of Great Lent for most Orthodox Christians (a handful of Western Rite Orthodox Christians will begin with their Ash Wednesday the day after tomorrow), and I’ve decided to try my hand at doing 40 days of blogging—posting at least once a day from today through the Friday before Lazarus Saturday. This is my first post for Great Lent. Today I…
Nearly Orthodox
Beginning Clean (book excerpt)
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Beginning Clean (on fasting and failing) Let the mouth also fast from disgraceful speeches and railings. For what does it profit if we abstain from fish and fowl and yet bite and devour our brothers and sisters? The evil speaker eats the flesh of his brother and bites the body of his neighbor. —St. John Chrysostom The Lenten journey is not about what you cannot eat. It’s about what you pray from…
