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…
Glory to God for All Things
Another Look at the Passions
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I have recently been reading Fr. John Chryssavgis’ In the Heart of the Desert, an excellent introduction to the teachings and spiritual practices of the desert monastics. His comments are interwoven with sayings from the Desert Fathers (and Mothers). I share here some of his work on the passions, very apropos of our conversations here over the past week or so. +++ When passions are distorted, then our soul is divided and…
Praying in the Rain
Letter to a Protestant Inquirer
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Letter to a Protestant Inquirer You are right. It is difficult to be an Orthodox Christian, because Orthodoxy requires that one be a Christian. However, the difficult part is not what you think. The fasting, long services, and prayers are tools. The real struggle is to repent. Repentance is not something one did in the past, repentance is an attitude toward life. One must be constantly turning away from self-centered and sinful…
Glory to God for All Things
The Truth as it is in Christ
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In the Gospel record of Christ’s trial before Pontius Pilate, we are told that Christ said He had come to bear witness to the Truth. Pilate, in what he must have thought was a clever response, says, “And what is Truth?” We know from elsewhere in the Gospel that Christ explained, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” It is a statement that is easily tossed about – to settle…
Praying in the Rain
The Application of Holy Words
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[At Pittsburg Airport] When we speak of spiritual matters, we like to quote the fathers who have been helpful to us. We like these fathers because the way they talk about their inner life helps us identify what seems to be going on in our own inner life. For most of us, these fathers are not men whom we know personally; that is they are not spiritual fathers or confessors to whom…
Glory to God for All Things
Everywhere Present
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Everything you do, all your work, can contribute towards your salvation. It depends on you, on the way you do it. History is replete with monks who became great saints while working in the kitchen or washing sheets. The way of salvation consists in working without passion, in prayer…. May God give you the strength to keep your spirit, your mind, and your heart in the spirit of Christ. Then everything that…
Praying in the Rain
Boring Icons
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[From the Antiochian Village in Pensylvania after a glorious game of soccer that was worth the pain] All that the Church does is iconic. In fact, all of creation is iconic, and the Church functions as our teacher helping us learn how to read with the inner eye the Word of God that surrounds us. This reading with the inner eye is commonly called contemplation. The Fathers of the Church teach us…
Praying in the Rain
It's Just Not Fair
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[From Pennsylvania] Last night at dinner, one of the priests around the table had written an essay, originally for publication in a U.S. journal, in which he suggested the following: Since it is claimed that the Angel Gabriel is the one who appeared and spoke to Mohammed telling him that God had no son, and since the Gospels asserts that it was the Angel Gabriel who appeared to the Virgin Mary telling…
Glory to God for All Things
You Are Not a TV Show
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The modern world, with the advent of technologies such as the internet and other instantaneous forms of digital creation, has created what is easily described as a virtual world. In digital comprehension, a virtual world is not a real world, but increasingly feels like one and, to some extent, can be experienced like one. Doubtless, human experience has known a variety of experiential worlds, but this latest, the virtual world, stands perhaps…
Praying in the Rain
The Loving Act of Saying No
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Love has boundaries. Sometimes we have to say no to those we love because to say yes would create a condition in which we are no longer ourselves and no longer able to love. Most of us have experienced the pain of having to say no to someone we love. As young adults, many people who love and respect their parents beyond words have to suffer through the anxiety and sometimes misunderstanding…
Praying in the Rain
Two Women Who Made A Difference
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There are two more people I remember from my days as a “disturbed” child, both women. The first woman is Mrs. Srpage (one of the very few names I remember). She was the morning staff person responsible for getting the boys in my wing of the dorm up and dressed and out to breakfast most mornings. She was also responsible for washing our clothes. Washing and cleaning was a gift of love…
Praying in the Rain
Counsellors And A "Disturbed" Boy
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Thinking about my past has opened a floodgate. I hope you don’t mind. It feels good for me to write these things down. Perhaps it will help someone. In the institution for “disturbed” children there were, as far as I could make out, two kinds of staff: counsellors and high-level counsellors. I say “high level” because these were the ones you very seldom saw except by appointment (these were probably the staff…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Behind the Barricades
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A somewhat bizarre and truly sad story has unfolded here in Emmaus. It seems that the president of the Emmaus Historical Society recently became embroiled in controversy within the society, and finally stepped down as president yesterday, just before the election for the presidency scheduled for this evening, leaving his opponent in the election uncontested. Today, the former president barricaded himself into a barn…
Glory to God for All Things
The Mystery of Goodness
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Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God (3John 1:11). One of the most common affirmations in Orthodox services is the goodness of God. Many services conclude with the blessing: “For He is a good God and loves mankind.” The goodness of God is utterly foundational to our faith – and yet…
