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…
Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy
Tributes to Priest-Scholar Fr. Matthew Baker Pour In
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It’s been about 36 hours, but we’re still stunned at the death of Fr. Matthew Baker, the promising and brilliant priest-scholar who somehow seems to have been the friend of so many, beloved by so many, and called “the next Florovsky” by so many. With so many who connected so deeply to him, there have been many tributes being written in remembrance…
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.…
Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy
Fr. Matthew Baker: Memory Eternal!
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Friends, We just learned the very sad and shocking news that Fr. Matthew Baker, a promising, brilliant scholar and priest who has contributed a number of articles to this site and is the close friend of a number of us, passed away in a tragic car accident this evening while traveling home from his parish assignment in Connecticut. The following message has…
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…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Lenten Evangelism #4: Forgiveness and the Expulsion from Paradise
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Sunday of Forgiveness, February 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. Today we complete the pre-Lenten period of the Triodion with the Sunday of Forgiveness. That is the general name for this Sunday, but we also commemorate another theme this Sunday, and that is the expulsion…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Lenten Evangelism #3: The Last Judgment
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This sermon can be heard as an audio recording via Ancient Faith Radio. Sunday of the Last Judgment, February 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. Today our series on preaching the Gospel—evangelism—continues with the Sunday of the Last Judgment, commonly called “Meatfare Sunday,” because we…
Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy
Is Liturgy Magic? A Response to Peter Leithart's Puritan Sacramentalism
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I must admit that it always bugs me a bit when someone tells me what I believe, especially when I do not actually believe it. And so the bug in my bonnet buzzed again a bit when I read Peter Leithart’s latest musings on liturgy over at First Things. In this piece, Leithart lets the Orthodox, Roman Catholics and other “high church”…
Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy
On Leithart's Puritans and the Purity of Sacraments
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Introduction In a recent article at First Things, Peter Leithart laments the “high-churchism” of non-Protestant celebrations of the Eucharist. For Leithart, the essential difference between “high” and “low” liturgies is that of the preparatory rites—not necessarily the external ornaments of incense, bells, and vestments. Beyond mere simplicity, the Protestant or “Puritan” sacramentalism was one that eschewed excessive and unnecessary foreplay: The low-church Reformers…
Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy
Is Orthodoxy Really United?: A Question from a Reader
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I recently received the following question from a reader (slightly edited to remove identifying details): I am aware of one Orthodox church parish leaving one Orthodox group to go to another Orthodox group because of some issue. Doesn’t this kind of dispel the idea of the Orthodox being a unified church organization as it is in the case of the Roman Catholics?…
Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy
Grace and Wrath in the Orthodox Tradition
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Eric Jobe’s recent series on justification (Part I, Part II, Part III) has spurred some discussion regarding the role of divine wrath in Orthodoxy. To simplify: Some readers seemed to believe that there was no place in Orthodoxy to speak of the wrath of God at all. Our salvation, to them, has nothing to do with deliverance from God’s wrath. Rather than…
Nearly Orthodox
Lenten fasts for the cooking impaired
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Lent is coming. I dread it every single year. I don’t dread the practice of fasting or the season Lent. In fact, I really dig it. The trouble comes in the fact that a)my family is picky and unaccustomed to the vegan thing and b)I’m a terrible cook. I need handlers. This is what I need. I need to be Oprah during long fasting periods. I could be awesome if I…
