Nearly Orthodox
moving...
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“Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’” Isaiah 58:9 My icons have been stacked neatly on the countertop for 2 days now, laying there in the bubble wrap, waiting for the hammer and nails that hide somewhere in a box. I keep thinking the next box will hold the tools I need to get the altar hung and give the…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The Springtime of Repentance
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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 the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Today we remember a woman who walked out into the desert and repented there for more than forty years. On this fifth Sunday of the Great Fast, the Church celebrates St. Mary…
Nearly Orthodox
take and eat...
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“Now therefore, listen to me, my children, For blessed are those who keep my ways.” Prov 8:32 When I was a kid I used to play Mass in my backyard. I found the Mass so beautiful I wanted it to touch every part of my life and I did not know how else to incorporate what I saw there except to mimic it myself. I used Wonder bread, smashed and cut into…
Nearly Orthodox
the last supper...
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Reposted from Mrs Metaphor… the last supper…. via the last supper….
Nearly Orthodox
the clay...
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He answered, “The man who is called Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash’; so I went away and washed, and I received sight.” John 9:11 “You’re going to have a hard time being Orthodox and being a liberal” he told me, and I did not disagree. I knew that he was right. I had just witnessed some political observations on Facebook, where…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
"Who is a Christian?": Ancient Faith Today with Kevin Allen (May 12)
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Update: The recording of the discussion is here. On May 12, 2013, at 8-9:30pm EDT / 5-6:30pm PDT, I’ll be appearing on the live call-in show “Ancient Faith Today with Kevin Allen.” The topic: “Who is a Christian?” “Ancient Faith Today” (AFT) is Ancient Faith Radio‘s live call-in show streaming via the Internet, covering multiple topics, from pop culture to politics, from an Orthodox…
Nearly Orthodox
Great Lent...
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Great Lent is breathing down my neck. It flashes on my calendar each morning, bold and ready, announcing the start of the new season, this vital bit of what it means to be a follower of Christ. Without Pascha what reason do we have to engage in this constant struggle? Great Lent offers a keen reminder of this. I welcome it even as I shrink away from the calendar each morning as…
Nearly Orthodox
high ground...
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So when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not (let the reader understand), “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Mark 13:14 Liturgy is the mountain for me. It is the higher ground to the rising water of my everyday life. This quiet place, so heavily scented with incense that I can see it hanging there in the…
Nearly Orthodox
offerings...
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And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. Mark 12:33 I lose track of the days. I lose track of the hours. It may be that parenting does this but if it wasn’t parenting, it’d be career or something else. Time always seems…
Nearly Orthodox
taste and see...
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“Someone who has tasted the truth is not contentious for truth. Someone who is considered among men to be zealous for truth has not yet learned what truth is really like: once he has learns it he will cease from zealousness on its behalf.” St. Isaak of Syria I have this vision of myself and I am calm, untroubled, slow to anger and quick to offer love and compassion. I have this…
Nearly Orthodox
be grateful...
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“Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe…” Hebrews 12:28 I don’t often have nightmares but when I do they usually revolve around some insecurity or another and for the most part they involve my children. They address my fears, my doubts, my shortcomings. Last night I dreamt I was sitting in a comfortable chair in…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
"Orthodoxy & Heterodoxy" in Houston, Feb. 9, 2013
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Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The Tolkien Legacy
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It’s a rare, if not exceptional, case. In an era where most people would sell their souls to be talked about, Christopher Tolkien has not expressed himself in the media for 40 years. No interviews, no announcements, no meetings — nothing. It was a decision he made at the death of his father, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973), British author of the hugely famous…
Nearly Orthodox
by the teeth...
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But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. 2 Timothy 2:3 Because of the rise of social media I now have the chance to argue politics and religion with people most any day, any hour. That being said, I love social media. I love it a lot. For an introvert it’s like heaven on earth. I can engage or not engage. I can watch. I can listen. I can…
Nearly Orthodox
considering hate...
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Beloved, we love God because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. -1 Jn 4:19 Miles says he hates his brother but I know this isn’t…
Nearly Orthodox
resolutions...
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Beloved: We receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us. Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them, and the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit whom he gave…
Nearly Orthodox
staccato...
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Sometimes when we go for weeks with illness and travel like this I think the kids probably believe we’re back off the wagon where church is concerned. Their experience of church is haphazard, bouncing from place to place, staccato. This morning when I told them that Henry and Miles’ coughing mixed with their father out of town and my own exhaustion from travel would keep us home they looked at me with…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
What Does "Orthodoxy" Mean?
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The following is an excerpt from the beginning of one of my lectures that I’ve also posted on my parish website. It is well-known among Orthodox Christians that the word orthodoxy—often used as a shorthand for our faith—has two parallel meanings. It is composed of two Greek words—orthos and doxa. Together, they form orthodoxia, rendered into English as orthodoxy. The word orthos literally means…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Where was Christ in the Newtown Massacre?
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As I am sure many clergy throughout America did this past Sunday, I preached about the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Connecticut that occurred on Friday, December 14. Update: If you would like to hear the recording of this sermon as it was preached, go here. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one…
Nearly Orthodox
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For the course of Advent I’ll be posting some reflections here… 😉
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The Election's Over: Let's All Work Together?
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I was never going to be happy with the results of yesterday’s election. The leadership of both major American political parties is deeply compromised by corporatist interests who are served by an inflationary monetary policy managed by people who largely used to work for those interests and/or will do so again. Both major candidates are representatives of this entrenched political class. So there was…
Nearly Orthodox
The shore...
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It never fails, really. The moment I step into Divine Liturgy I am flooded with ideas; things to write, things to ponder, things to clean, things to buy. Some are good ideas. Some are so good it’s almost physically painful for me to stop myself grabbing my phone to make a note or scribbling a word, thought, phrase on a napkin in my purse. At some point in my life I have…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Institutionalizing the Revival: The Culture of Revolutionary Christianity
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Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The Temple of the Living God
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Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, September 30, 2012 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. “You are a temple of the living God.” We hear these words today from St. Paul’s second epistle to the Corinthians, and they are followed by exhortations from Paul, quoting from the Old Testament, that the Christians of Corinth…
Nearly Orthodox
Queen of the May...
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an excerpt from a longer piece I’m writing … Mary, Queen of the Universe stares down at me from her perch high above, near the alcove, next to the altar. Her hands held out from her sides, showing her clean, white skin, perfect nails, fingers soft and unscathed. Mary, Queen of the Universe was never my role model, I prayed instead the prayers of St. Jude, patron saint of hopeless cases. I…
Nearly Orthodox
oil and water...
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I believe, O Lord, and I confess that thou art truly the Christ, the Son of the living God, who didst come into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. And I believe that this is truly thine own immaculate Body, and that this is truly thine own precious Blood. Wherefore I pray thee, have mercy upon me and forgive my transgressions both voluntary and involuntary, of word and…
Nearly Orthodox
complete...
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If all goes well, if everything goes to plan, then I’ll be chrismated on September 8th. For whatever reason every time I look at the calendar I find myself lost in the little boxes, lost in the numbers. I cannot seem to do the math on how far or how close it is. After nearly two years on this bumpy road I find myself looking ahead and seeing the next milestone I’m…
