Nearly Orthodox
Day Twenty-Three: Christmas Trees
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There’s a lot of discussion about how early people are beginning to decorate for the holiday season. I know people who put the tree up the moment the Thanksgiving turkey is cleared from the table and I know people who wait and bide their time where this is concerned. We always wait but it’s not for any deep or metaphorical apprehension of the season. It’s because I kill trees. I kill trees…
Nearly Orthodox
Day Twenty-Two: St. Nicholas
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Being raised Catholic, when I think of the Feast of St. Nicholas I am always reminded of chocolate coins. Every December 5th we’d pull out the Christmas stockings and hang them on the mantel and in the morning we’d wake to find the stockings filled in the night by “St. Nick.” There were stickers and markers and bags of chocolate coins. Though many people think first of Santa Claus and “Jolly ol…
Nearly Orthodox
Day Twenty-One: Gifts
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“…gifts bespeak relationship. Not just the simple binary relationship of two men in a cafe, either, nor that of friends and lovers: gifts do not just move, they move outward into some larger circle.” -Lewis Hyde “The Gift” We don’t need any more stuff. It could be that I’m overwhelmed with house rehab or the weight of the season or the simple truth that gift giving has never been my forte but…
Nearly Orthodox
Day Twenty: Incense
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Incense is a trigger. Usually my fainting spells are spurred by the smell of hospital rooms or the sight of needles or blood but incense has become a trigger too. For a number of years I could not enter a Catholic church when incense was being used without getting light-headed. I’d spent a great deal of my grade school years greeting the marble floor of the church with my skull, my limp…
Nearly Orthodox
Day 19: Handel's Messiah
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Messiah is not a typical Handel oratorio; there are no named characters, as are usually found in Handel’s setting of the Old Testament stories, possibly to avoid charges of blasphemy. It is a meditation rather than a drama of personalities, lyrical in method; the narration of the story is carried on by implication, and there is no dialogue. — Christopher Hogwood Oratorio (n.) “long musical composition, usually with a text based on…
Nearly Orthodox
Day Eighteen: Feet
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A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. Rev 12:1 In an alcove at St Teresa of Avila Church stood a statue of Mary. She wore blue robes over her white tunic, hands outstretched and smiling serenely. Her head was crowned with a circle of stars and she stood upon a globe, one…
Nearly Orthodox
Day Seventeen: Holiday Depression
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Last night after packing and sorting things in the formerly flooded basement I flung myself on the couch. The idea of dinner loomed in my head and the kids began to make noises about “being bored.” They’ve had the last five days off school and Dave and I spent those days cleaning up the basement to be ready for the rehab to come after that water leak from the refrigerator upstairs destroyed…
Nearly Orthodox
Day Sixteen: Feast of St. Andrew
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Let us gaze upon these stars and marvel at their brilliance! When Andrew, whom we commemorate today, found the Lord of all, he cried to his brother Peter, “We have found the Messiah!” -St. John Chrysostom The icon shows him later in life, white hair and long beard but he was young and working as a fisherman with his brother, Peter, when they met Christ on the shores of Galilee. It is…
Nearly Orthodox
Day Fifteen: Avarice (love of money)
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“And so the house came to be haunted by the unspoken phrase: There must be more money! There must be more money! The children could hear it all the time though nobody said it aloud. They heard it at Christmas, when the expensive and splendid toys filled the nursery. Behind the shining modern rocking-horse, behind the smart doll’s house, a voice would start whispering: “There must be more money! There must be…
Nearly Orthodox
Day Fourteen: Giving Thanks (as a nation)
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Our trip to New York this past summer was a whirlwind. We saw an opportunity to go with very little notice. Dave had a client meeting in the area and the flights were cheap and available. We packed up everyone, made a hasty plan, booked a room and embraced the adventure of it all. With three days in the city we stayed in the heart of Times Square and made that our…
Nearly Orthodox
Day Thirteen: Eucharist
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Eu·cha·rist Origin late Middle English: from Old French eucariste, based on ecclesiastical Greek eukharistia ‘thanksgiving,’ from Greek eukharistos ‘grateful,’ from eu ‘well’ + kharizesthai‘offer graciously’ (from kharis ‘grace’). I could toss around the word, “transubstantiation” all day long. The word clung to me for years as I wandered from my Catholic upbringing. I can remember key historical dates, some stories of the Saints, major doctrines of the church and the idea of…
Nearly Orthodox
Day Twelve: Vestments
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I’ve written already here about my resistance to being told what to wear. It’s that inner punk rocker having a tantrum. When I saw the topic for today that was my first thought. Tossing it aside to see what else I could find in my brain to write about I came next to the idea of writing about what my boys wear to church every week. It might be the same “nice”…
Nearly Orthodox
Day Eleven: Turkey
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There are some memories I have to fact check with my mom, my brothers or my sister because they are so strange and outrageous that I cannot imagine it’s actually true. This is one of them. We were one of the first people on our street to bring home a microwave. The Amana Radarange had a dial-centric control panel and lots of chrome. We were just grazing the start of the 80’s…
Nearly Orthodox
Day Ten: Words
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This essay first appeared in the Ruminate Magazine blog earlier this year. In this season of waiting, examination and hope it felt right, when given the “choice” of topic for the blog challenge to pull this one out. Also, I’ve been a little cranky lately. ………………. Better safe than sorry… The word was out of my mouth before I had a chance to think, before I had a chance to choose carefully…
Nearly Orthodox
Day Nine: Sabbath
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One thing we’re discovering about owning a Leopard Gecko as a pet is that not only do you keep a reptile, you also keep crickets and mealworms. It’s like a whole “circle of life” thing over here. At first, Scully ate small crickets, about the length of my fingernail. They were small, quiet and fast. I’d find escapees randomly hopping along the floor from time to time. Now that he’s older, Scully…
Nearly Orthodox
Day Eight: Canned Goods
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I have a habit of asking “why.” I’m convinced that a big part of the length of my three years as a Catechumen was due to this habit. It ought to be noted then, that when the prompt for today came down the pike from Fr John Peck at the Preacher’s Institute it was a stretch to not question the thinking there. Canned goods. Was it just a whim? Was it something…
Nearly Orthodox
Day Seven: Holy of Holies
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When the Israelites wandered in the desert they carried the Spirit of the Lord with them. Shored up on poles and trudging through the heat they would carry the Ark of the New Covenant which housed the ten commandments given to Moses. They would follow the cloud by day and the column of fire by night and when they stopped to rest, they would lay down the Ark and make camp. The…
Nearly Orthodox
Day Six: Glory
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Who is the King of Glory How shall we call Him? He is Emmanuel the promised of ages. When I hear the word, “Glory” this old song is what comes to mind first and it’s appropriate, this being the Nativity Fast and all. When I was a kid, we sang “The King of Glory Comes” during Advent for the most part. It felt ancient, almost tribal and it stuck to me somehow. Because the…
Nearly Orthodox
Day Five: A Good Work
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“He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.” -Phillipians 1:6 We made the transition from homeschooling to “real” schooling this year for all four of the kids. As much as I hate to admit it, I’m the helicopter mom now. When we homeschooled I was all about adventure and self-directed learning and following instincts, sending them to “real” school has shown me to the be the…
Nearly Orthodox
Day Four: Choice
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In ancient Rome there was a poem About a dog who found two bones He picked at one He licked the other He went in circles He dropped dead Freedom of choice Is what you got Freedom of choice! -“Freedom of Choice” Devo The topic for today’s blog challenge was left up to the writer, an open theme, write what you like and that kind of sucks frankly. I’ve typed and backspaced…
Nearly Orthodox
Day Three: Vanity
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I began coloring my hair when I was 14. The house we lived in had belonged to my grandparents and my grandmother left a bottle of her “Fanci-full” temporary hair color under the sink. My pre-teen hair color stared me in the face every morning before school. My grandmother called it “dishwater blonde” and that term came first to mind as I stared into the mirror to begin another day in middle…
Nearly Orthodox
Day Two: Fasting
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In the middle of summer there is no better place to be than Margie’s Candies. If you live in Chicago then you may already know this. If you travel to Chicago you should not miss this neighborhood treasure. When we moved back to Chicago from Nashville two years ago it was one of the first places I brought the kids. It was a celebration after a rough road home. The trip to…
Nearly Orthodox
Day One: Beards
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It’s not cheating for me to post an excerpt from my book, “Nearly Orthodox” (coming soon from Ancient Faith Publishers!) Ok, it’s a little bit cheating but when I read about the prompt from the Preacher’s Institute for today’s topic it jumped into my brain. So, there’s that. ………. The first time I rode a two-wheeled bike it was with my older brother J.D. standing behind me, both hands on the back…
Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy
"A Sign of Contradiction": A Forgotten Reflection by Florovsky on the Pope and the Patriarch
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Upon his election to the chair of bishop of Rome in March of this year, Pope Francis announced his intention for a personal meeting with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople in the Holy City of Jerusalem for the coming year of 2014. Although the trip has not yet been confirmed, the event is intended to commemorate the meeting of Patriarch Athenagoras and…
Nearly Orthodox
30 (40) days of blogging...
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With the Nativity Fast upon us I’ve taken up a challenge set forth from the folks at the Preacher’s Institute to write posts every day for the length of this fast. Now, considering I’m not a preacher it might seem a strange fit but I threw my hat into the ring and they answered with “yes” so there you have it. Beginning tomorrow I’ll post a short piece based on the writing…
Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy
Do Atheist "Mega-Churches" create the same effect as Christian ones?
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Hundreds of atheists and atheist-curious packed into a Hollywood auditorium for a boisterous service filled with live music, moments of reflection, an “inspirational talk” about forgotten — but important — inventors and scientists and some stand-up comedy. During the service, attendees stomped their feet, clapped their hands and cheered as Jones and Evans led the group through rousing renditions of “Lean on…
Nearly Orthodox
in lieu of certainty...
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Thoughts on faith and truth and the dangers of certainty on Mrs Metaphor today…
