Nearly Orthodox
Gift of God
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Three years ago this week I was welcomed into the Orthodox faith. It’s a sort of a happy accident that the date also coincided with my “name day” on September 11th. I’d been fidgeting with the schedule for months, trying to get a date on the books. I was tired of waiting. I hate waiting. I had my nose pressed up against the glass of Orthodoxy for so long, looking in like…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Warnings at the Wedding Feast
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Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost / Fourteenth Sunday of Matthew, September 6, 2015 II Corinthians 1:21-24, 2:1-4; Matthew 22:2-14 Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. The Gospel passage this morning is one that we do not hear every year in our lectionary. It is appointed for the Fourteenth…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The First Fruits of Achaia: Setting Ourselves for the Ministry of the Saints
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Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost / Thirteenth Sunday of Matthew, August 30, 2015 I Corinthians 16:13-24; Matthew 21:33-42 Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Many times when we’re reading something, we come across a phrase or two in parentheses, and we might skip over that part because it’s…
Nearly Orthodox
The Body is a Garden
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The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. -Isaiah 58:11 When I took my certification exam for the American Council on Exercise in 1998, I was on crutches. I’d just torn my ACL (ligament at the knee joint) and had it surgically repaired. I signed up…
Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy
Why Would a Calvinist or a Baptist do Confession?
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A friend shared this article today, in which one of the writers at The Gospel Coalition (a generally Reformed bunch of Evangelicals) laments the lack of confession in (his?) church: It is puzzling to see one of the defining marks of a Christian’s identity quietly disappear from a church’s worship. I’m speaking, of course, about confession – a time when the church…
Nearly Orthodox
On Blank Pages and Passion Planners
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And in this I give advice: It is to your advantage not only to be doing what you began and were desiring to do a year ago; but now you also must complete the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to desire it, so there also may be a completion out of what you have. For if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
What is the Secret to Eternity?
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Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost / Twelfth Sunday of Matthew, August 23, 2015 I Corinthians 15:1-11; Matthew 19:16-26 Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. “What good deed must I do, to have eternal life?” So asks the rich young man who approaches Jesus. He is looking for the…
Nearly Orthodox
Doughnuts to Donuts: The Cost of Comparison
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Or, comparison is the thief of joy…. The feeling that swept over me was familiar, too familiar. I read the post on Facebook and that feeling wriggled up from my gut, through my chest, clutching my throat and scraping the sides of my trachea til it reached my brain. I hate that envy. I hate it a whole lot. But I have it. I hold it deep in the recesses of my…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
"Off For More Adventures": An Alaskan Family Connection
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Last week, I had the great blessing to speak on St. Ignatius of Antioch (AUDIO) at the Eagle River Institute at St. John Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral in Eagle River, Alaska. Since it was my first time in Alaska, I prefaced my talks with the following notes, delivered on Saturday, August 1st. Before I begin speaking about one of my favorite subjects, St. Ignatius of…
Nearly Orthodox
On Moving and Standing Still
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This morning I am pleased to be sitting in a quiet, sunny living room in Middle Tennessee. The vacation house is intimately familiar as I lived in this log home for five years when my children were very young. We turned it into a vacation home a few years ago, when we moved back to Chicago. I cannot remember it ever being this quiet. In those years, they would wake me up…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
From "Membership" to Ministry: Feeding the Five Thousand
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Feast of St. Paraskeva / Eighth Sunday of Matthew, July 26, 2015 Galatians 3:23-4:5; Matthew 14:14-22 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 all familiar with this account from the Gospels of the Feeding of the Five Thousand. Though we read today from Matthew 14, this…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Not Abolition, But Fulfillment: Reading Everything in the Light of Christ
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Fathers of the 4th Ecumenical Council, July 19, 2015 Titus 3:8-15; Matthew 5:14-19 Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. I would like us to hear the short text of today’s Gospel again, because this is what we will speak on today. These are the words of the…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Do You Have to Read the Fathers to be Orthodox?
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I recently posted the following on Facebook and thought I might put it here, as well: I have sometimes seen the sentiment expressed that authentic Orthodoxy means everyone reads the Fathers (perhaps “graduating” out of everything else). But that’s really a historical impossibility. Access to the writings of the Fathers for most people is a recent phenomenon that is only due, ironically, to the…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
St. Ignatius of Antioch and the "Upstairs/Downstairs Church"
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The following is an excerpt from a series of lectures I am soon going to deliver on St. Ignatius of Antioch. Men of flesh cannot act spiritually, nor can spiritual men act in a fleshly way, just as faith cannot perform deeds of unfaith or unfaith those of faith. But what you do in relation to the flesh is spiritual, for you do everything…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
St. Paisios and Salvation from Distraction
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Sixth Sunday after Pentecost / Sixth Sunday of Matthew, July 12, 2015 Romans 12:6-14; Matthew 9:1-8 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 a rare privilege in church life in that today is the very first time the feast of a saint is celebrated—St. Paisios…
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…
Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy
The Rejection of Universalism in the Triodion
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One of the big problems with an Orthodox Christian embracing universalism is that he has to reject a large portion of the liturgical tradition of the Church in order to do so. The eternality of the punishment of the wicked is ubiquitous in the services of the Church. This may be less apparent if one does not have access to frequent church…
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.…
Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy
The Pastoral Malpractice of Preaching Universalism
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Let us struggle with all our powers to gain Paradise. The gate is very narrow, and don’t listen to those who say that everyone will be saved. This is a trap of Satan so that we won’t struggle. —St. Paisios the Athonite We began a series on universalism here at O&H with Fr. Stephen De Young’s piece from the Biblical record. He…
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…
Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy
Hell (Unfortunately) Yes: Why I Can't Be a Universalist
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I would very much like to be a Universalist. In terms of my Christian hope, in terms of my emotional attachments, I would love to believe that in the end, no one would harden their heart against the Love of our Lord Jesus Christ, all would repent and believe, and all would find salvation in the age to come. I believe that…
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…
