Glory to God for All Things
The Quiet Work of God
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Now Moses built an altar and called its name The-Lord-My-Refuge; for with a secret hand the Lord wars with Amalek from generation to generation  (Exodus 17:16 LXX). After a number of decades as a Christian pastor, I am convinced that most of what God does in our lives and in our world remains hidden. I have many thoughts as to why this is so – but that it is so, I have…
Praying in the Rain
The Jesus Prayer and Pentecostals
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I ran across a blog this morning by “Orthodox Monk” in which the author recommends that Pentecostals not practice the Jesus Prayer because it may be spiritually dangerous. On the one hand, I agree that practicing the Jesus Prayer is dangerous–for anyone, especially someone who is not under the guidance of a spiritual father who has spent years practicing (himself under the guidance of a spiritual father) the prayer. The greatest danger…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Hussedaag
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Some years ago a resident of Emmaus said to the writer in her native dialect [Pennsylvania German], “Heit iss der Hussedaag” (Today is Huss Day). I asked her what that meant. She did not know, but said that they always sowed their turnip seed on that day. Thus did the memory of John Huss, the great pre-Reformation reformer, find a place in our local…
Glory to God for All Things
Right, Wrong and the Image of God
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I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:1-2). St. Paul calls the Christians in Rome (as he would Christians…
Glory to God for All Things
Restful Beauty
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Glory to God for All Things
Time and History
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Christianity is sometimes referred to as a “historical” religion – its beliefs are specifically tied to events which have taken place in space and time. The crucifixion and resurrection of Christ are events which have taken place in space and time or Christianity is not true. No matter how noble or inspirational its teachings – the space-time reality of Christ’s death and resurrection are fundamental to the faith. Those who deny that…
Glory to God for All Things
Humility and Spiritual Warfare
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From the Elder Sophrony’s Wisdom from Mount Athos: Thus the whole of spiritual warfare wages round humility. The enemy fell from pride, and would draw us to perdition by the same means. The enemy praises us, and should the soul listen to his praise grace withdraws until she repents. Thus throughout her life the soul is occupied with the lesson of Christ-like humility. So long as she has not humility wrong thoughts and…
Glory to God for All Things
Giving and Receiving
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In the immense cathedral which is the universe of God, each man, whether scholar or manual laborer, is called to act as the priest of his whole life – to take all that is human, and to turn it into an offering and a hymn of glory. Paul Evdokimov in Woman and the Salvation of the World +++ Abba Zosimas used to say: “We have lost our sense of balance.” Reflections, XI,…
Praying in the Rain
Saint Myron
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Most of the saints that we know about were monks. This is probably for two reasons. First, monks, in the best of circumstances, live a lifestyle that enables them to pay attention to their inner life in ways that are difficult for married people with children. Second–and I think this perhaps is more to the point than the first–for most of history only monks could read and write, and so most of…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The God in the Bread
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Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (Lammas), August 1, 2010 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Today, let’s spend some time thinking about bread. I don’t think we have any British wheat or grain farmers here, but if you were such a person, you would probably be working right around this time of year…
Praying in the Rain
The Science of Transformation
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The word in the New Testament that we translate “kingdom”–as in Kingdom of God–is interesting in that it is not a reference to the realm (the place, the geography, the property), but to the rule. That is, those who have the Kingdom of God–as in “theirs is the Kingdom of God”–are those who are ruled by God. That is the blessing of the Beatitudes: to be ruled by God. On the one…
Praying in the Rain
Pierre's Happy Insanity
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Just before the Epilogue in War and Peace, the character Pierre, who has gone through the life changing experience of his suffering as a POW and his recuperation afterward, accidentally meets Natasha again, the only woman he has ever loved. Natasha is staying with Princess Marya, the sister of her fiance Andrei, who was mortally wounded in the only major battle before the capture of Moscow and who slowly dies as Natasha…
Praying in the Rain
Happy Anniversary!
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Bonnie and I had a wonderful “Day Holiday” in Vancouver. We stayed at a very nice hotel near Stanley Park and brought our bikes to ride around. The first trip around the park at about 1:00 PM on Wednesday was terrible. There was a 5K long traffic jam of tourists and Japanese school children wobbling awkwardly along on rented bikes. I was so stressed out that when we got back to the…
Glory to God for All Things
The Transfigured Beauty of the Crucified God
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On the Mountain Thou wast Transfigured, O Christ God, And Thy disciples beheld Thy glory as far as they could see it; So that when they would behold Thee crucified, They would understand that Thy suffering was voluntary, And would proclaim to the world, That Thou art truly the Radiance of the Father! Kontakion of the Feast of Transfiguration It is inevitably the case that no matter how much a man may write and offer…
Glory to God for All Things
Knowing God
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The knowledge of God, generally spoken of in a very experiential manner, is an absolute foundation in Orthodox theology. Nothing replaces it – no dogmatic formula – no Creed – not even Scripture – though Orthodoxy would see none of these things as separate from the knowledge of God. But the questions I have received are very apt. In a culture that is awash in “experience” what do we Orthodox mean when…
Praying in the Rain
A reflection, not quite a poem, on the beatitudes
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Blessed are the… What does it mean to be blessed in a world of death? Jesus told us. First, let go; be poor. Receive the Kingdom of Heaven. This is where blessedness is found: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. And mourn. The world really is a sad place. And yet, not so sad that there is no comfort. We fight and lie and cheat…
Glory to God for All Things
The Mystery of the Mother of God
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The 15th of August is the Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God (her death). Orthodox Christians fast for two weeks prior to this great feast and celebrate it with great solemnity. A question was recently placed by a reader about the “perpetual virginity” of Mary. I am offering this small post to address that question and to look at the place of the Most Holy Theotokos in Orthodox faith…
Praying in the Rain
A Little Yeast
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From Our Thoughts Determine our Lives: The Life and Teahings of Elder Thaddeus of Vitonvinica. An old lady asked elder Thaddeus what she should do so that her grandchildren might become pious. The elder answered that she should always be meek and good; let her never be angry but always happy. Let her obey everyone, since no one will obey her. Perhaps her grandchildren will not become pious, but one day they…
Praying in the Rain
Pierre Finds Peace
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In War and Peace, the character Pierre undergoes a profound transformation through suffering. Although not in the military, Pierre is taken as a POW by the French occupying Moscow in the late summer of 1812. Driven from Moscow with the fleeing French troops, Pierre survived (barely) the privation of adequate food and shelter that resulted in the death of most of the POWs and, eventually, almost all of Napoleon’s army. Pierre is…
Glory to God for All Things
The Double Mystery of the Cross
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St. Gregory Palamas, in his Homily on the Precious and Life-Giving Cross (Homily 11), makes reference to what he calls the “double mystery” of the Cross. He cites St. Paul’s statement, “The world is crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14). The first mystery is embodied in our denial of the world – the second mystery in our denial of ourselves. The great saint also sees the Cross as…
Praying in the Rain
On Guilt and Cluelessness
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In my previous blog entry, I said that guilt functions as a red flag for the clueless. I was thinking that someone might think that “the clueless” was referring to someone other than myself.  No such luck. I am often clueless and blundering into sin here and there, and it is only the crude prod of guilt that awakens me to my folly. However, having seen my drift away from attention to…
Praying in the Rain
Peace Despite Pain Overcomes Sin
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Someone has asked me to rephrase the “Overcoming Sin by Not Hiding” entry. I don’t think I can, exactly. I’ll try. Let’s start by unpacking the guilt-leading-to-sin-leading-to-guilt syndrome. Certainly guilt is necessary when it functions as a red flag for the clueless that they have so wandered from God in their heart that they are breaking the law. That is, the mind having wandered from attention to God in the heart is…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The Gospel's Good Soil
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In my experience, adding new members to the mission is best accomplished by keeping current members healthy. I think our mission has come to believe that ultimately it is God who plants new seeds in our mission, and that our responsibility is to provide good soil. We can get the word out there, we can advertise and announce our presence, but, generally, the folks…
Glory to God for All Things
The Daily Battle
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More thoughts on the struggle with the passions: One of the essential understandings of the passions within the fathers of the Church is that they are not inherently evil. Gluttony may be a passion, but the desire to eat is a gift of God. Fornication is a sin, but the marriage bed is blessed, etc. Passions are our natural desires manifested in a disordered state. This is an important understanding – for…
Praying in the Rain
Marriage Will Reveal Your Sins
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In one of the workshops I attended during the Archdiocese Clergy Symposium last week, the Fr. George Eber said, “Marriage will reveal your sins.” That sure is true! I think one of the reasons why marriage is one of the only two paths the Church recommends as lifestyles leading to salvation (the other being monasticism) is because in marriage, it is impossible to hide our weaknesses. (By the way, people who are…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The Worship of God
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Both parts of my talk “The Worship of God” are now available via Ancient Faith Radio here and here as part of the Roads From Emmaus podcast. My approach in this talk reflects one of my ongoing concerns—preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, of the Holy Trinity, in a world that increasingly is either totally ignorant of its Creator or only takes a sort…
Praying in the Rain
Overcoming Sin by Not Hiding
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In response to a comment to the blog entry “The Loving Act of Saying No,” I say the following: We don’t realize how much God loves us–not as abstract human beings, but as distinct persons. We are all sick and need to be healed and cleaned up (so to speak), but we must never lose sight of the fact that it is us whom God saves. When we get to heaven, God…
