Glory to God for All Things
And Now for Something Completely Different...
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[vodpod id=Video.2162156&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26] The God Gene, posted with vodpod
Glory to God for All Things
Face to Face
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There are few joys of a blogosphere writer greater than to meet face-to-face with his readers. Such has been my experience at my time at the 16th All-American Council of the Orthodox Church in America. To embrace someone who can say that my articles on the death of my parents helped them to endure the death of their own parents is beyond anything I can express in words – for the love…
Nearly Orthodox
momentum...
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I’m headed down to Nashville next week. I’m hoping for a week to catch up with friends, do a lot of writing and to visit St John’s. And it’s an interruption in momentum. Stupid momentum. I’m hoping to visit one more community before I go. This one is very small, much like St John’s. I’m a little wigged about it. Small crowds make me nervous. I can hide in big crowds, in…
Glory to God for All Things
Reading Rightly
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The course of your reading should be parallel to the aim of your way of life…. Most books that contain instructions in doctrine are not useful for purification. The reading of many diverse books brings distraction of mind down on you. Know, then, that not every book that teaches about religion is useful for the purification of the consciousness and the concentration of the thoughts. St. Isaac of Syria quoted in The Spiritual…
Nearly Orthodox
reformation...
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One year ago today, on Reformation Sunday, I sat in the congregation of the Presbyterian church I’d been attending and had myself a revelation. I heard the pastor preach about the value of the Reformation and even get a bit teary eyed about the whole thing. I realized, just then, that I was not a protestant, that I’d never really been a protestant. I’d been attending catechism classes and Vespers services at…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Speaking of Books reviews Orthodoxy & Heterodoxy
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Nearly Orthodox
slaying the dragon...
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I spent a couple of hours last night at a bible study. Bible studies are not my usual bag. Don’t get me wrong, I love to study the bible, it just that the “group bible study” aspect hasn’t been part of my normal gig. I spent 12 years in Catholic schools and contrary to popular protestant belief, we do actually read and study the bible. So, over the years whenever presented with…
Glory to God for All Things
Pilgrimage to Seattle
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I fly Saturday from the beautiful autumn leaves of Appalachia and make a pilgrimage to Seattle. Every three years the Orthodox Church in America has an “All-American Council,” in which we conduct a certain amount of Church business, pray some, and do the sorts of things you do at conventions. St. Gregory the Theologian thought that Councils were a waste of time, “producing only anger and rancor.” He was correct, of course,…
Praying in the Rain
Priests and Prophets; Bishops and Charismatics
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One of the mysteries of the Church throughout the ages, Old Covenant and New, is that God has set up at least two sources of authority among His people. In the Old Covenant these were often typified by the priest and the prophet, in the New Covenant this same reality, this same tension, is seen in the bishop and the charismatic. The priest/bishop and prophet/charismatic are both sources of authority in the…
Glory to God for All Things
Is the Bible True?
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There is a fundamentalist anxiety that I hold in great sympathy. My sympathy is driven by the fact that I lived for many years under the burden of that very anxiety. It is the hidden fear that possibly, despite all faith exercised in the opposite direction, the Bible may not, in fact, be true. A great deal of energy is spent in maintaining the integrity of the dike that withstands this anxiety.…
Praying in the Rain
Freely Give
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Jesus commanded us to give freely, to lend expecting nothing in return. This applies to all of our life, not just our money. How often do we give expecting certain results? We give kind words, we help, we give time, money, labor; we do all this expecting some kind of result. We “minister” in various ways–of course it is not really ministry, for if it were, we would merely be doing our duty,…
Nearly Orthodox
water...
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I need to work out more often and I need to drink more water every day. I can feel the cumulative effects of stress and aging on my body. I can feel the winter coming, the absence of moisture in my skin. I know I need to work out. I know I need to drink more water. In some moments I remember to do these things and I also make time to…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Is the Rapture (really) today?
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The following is a somewhat expanded and revised version of a post I made five months ago, the last time the Rapture didn’t happen. From suggestions that we should all release blow-up dolls filled with helium at exactly noon on May 21, to an invitation on Facebook for post-Rapture looting (here’s the Oct. 21 event; after all, many cars will be “unmanned,” you know),…
Praying in the Rain
More Spacious Than the Heavens
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The icon of the Mother of God, More Spacious Than the Heavens, is found on the wall above and behind the Altar in most Orthodox Churches. This icon shows Mary interceding for the universe with Christ inside her (in some versions of this icon, Christ is surrounded by a circle of sorts, indicating that He can only be seen by faith). So in a mystery, Christ God in the heart/womb of Mary…
Glory to God for All Things
The Geography of Heaven and Hell
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I noticed tonight in a Facebook discussion a reference to this article – thus I thought a reprint might be timely. I continue to be amazed at the literalism that infects the minds of many Christians. Just because Scripture uses the language of geography to describe something does not at all mean that we should assume that it is referring to a literal geography. Those whose imaginations are filled with various versions…
Praying in the Rain
On Trying Harder
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One of the characters in Dicken’s Dombey and Son, Mr. Dombey’s sister, often comments that people would not suffer as they do if they would only put forth a little more effort. I am afraid that I too am sometimes tempted to reduce the suffering and failings of others to such a simplistic condemnation: If only they’d make an effort. Can you imagine the outcry if someone said publicly, “Terry Fox…
Nearly Orthodox
dress code...
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It would be easier to just go back to being Catholic. That’s a known quantity. Why not just go back to being Catholic? It’s tempting. I won’t lie. I’m pretty sure all I’d have to do is catch up on my Easter Duty…go to confession, go to Mass. By Easter I’d be Catholic again. I already know all the words, the doctrine, the stand-sit-kneel combos. Why not just go back to being…
Glory to God for All Things
In A Strange Land
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It seems to me that life carries us into strange places on occasion – places where I have not been before. Such experiences can be quite distracting. In very strong instances such experiences can threaten to take over our lives and redefine everything around us. Living as a Christian in a strange land is difficult. Abraham leaves his own home, complete with its own struggles, and travels to a strange land. The…
Nearly Orthodox
giant in the road...
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I co-led a retreat this weekend. It’s a retreat that I developed and organized called The Wise Woman. I’ve been leading this a couple of times a year for the last 5 years and it has always been intense, difficult, rewarding and spiritually focusing for me. The retreats in Chicago are mainly driven by a friend of mine and I come in and do my “thing.” I read a lot of my…
Glory to God for All Things
Fasting without Force
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The following is taken from Wounded by Love: the Life and Wisdom of Elder Porphyrios You don’t become holy by fighting evil. Let evil be. Look towards Christ and that will save you. What makes a person saintly is love – the adoration of Christ which cannot be expressed, which is beyond expression, which is beyond… And such a person attempts to undertake ascetic exercises and to do things to cause himself…
Nearly Orthodox
Groundwork
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The plumber came today. There’s water dripping from the shower into my kitchen so the landlord sent Constantine by to have a look. I was out at the time. Dave was here with the kids. When Constantine walked through the kitchen he stopped near my prayer corner. He said to Dave in his thick Greek accent, “Are you Greek?” Dave answered, a little confused, “no, Swedish.” Constantine persevered, “your wife?” “No, German…
Praying in the Rain
Christians and Halloween
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I have been on all sides of this. I have advocated both a Christianizing strategy and an ignore it strategy. The ignore it strategy is based on the reality that no matter what Halloween may or may not have been in the past, it is certainly not a Christian holiday today. Therefore, it should be treated like all other non-Christian holidays: ignore it. When I have adopted a Christianizing strategy, I have…
Glory to God for All Things
Knowing the Beautiful God
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We prove God’s existence by worshiping him and not by advancing so-called proofs. We have here the liturgical and iconographic argument for the existence of God. We arrive at a solid belief in the existence of God through a leap over what seems true, over the Pascalian certitude. According to an ancient monastic saying, “Give your blood and receive the Spirit.” Paul Evdokimov in The Art of the Icon: A Theology of…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
"We have to begin building our own institutions."
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October 9, 2011 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. I have a friend who is a Ph.D. student at a university in New York City. He is a brilliant, traditional Orthodox Christian who is serious about his faith in Christ and also serious about doing real scholarly work. He is also possibly…
Glory to God for All Things
Change and the Mystery of God
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A body changes in its activity as a result of contact with another body. How therefore could there be no change in someone who with innocent hands has touched the Body of God. St. John Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent, 28. +++ I am the father of four adult children, all of them married. In the course of my life-time I have seen them change from infants to people of maturity and…
Glory to God for All Things
The Kingdom of God and the Texture of Life
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There is a “texture of life” that cannot be reduced. It has a richness that rational descriptions cannot capture. Though we battle with powerful forces that draw us towards the destructiveness of sin – there is written deep within us a hunger for wholeness and the capacity for God. In the words of St. John, “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4).…
Nearly Orthodox
tethered...
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I was up late last night. At 3am I was washing the dishes and the countertops after the last guest left our housewarming. Everyone was asleep already and I was tired but awake. When I looked at the clock and saw it was 3am my first thought was, “that’s got to be wrong” and my second thought was, “I wonder if it’s daylight savings time.” I’d wanted to go to Liturgy in…
