Praying in the Rain
Loving Yourself Best of All
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In Dostoevsky’s short story, “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man,” (and yes, it is actually short) a typically Dostoevskian manic is about to commit suicide late one night. But before he picks up the revolver to pull the trigger, he falls asleep in his armchair and has a dream. In his dream he is transported to an Eden-like world of love and understanding. Unfortunately, after a little while his presence in this…
Glory to God for All Things
Icons and Words
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With this post I want to make a link between my last article, on how we “see” icons, and an earlier article, “Doctrine and Opinion,” in which I quoted the late Fr. Georges Florovsky who said, “Doctrine is a verbal icon of Christ.” I noted then that this presented a very different approach to doctrine and the usual reasoned treatments that accompany it. Human reason has a very vital role to play…
Glory to God for All Things
Icons - Beauty and the Salvation of the World
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“God will save the World Through Beauty.” This saying, often attributed to Fyodor Dostoevsky, never occurs in precisely this form in his novels – though the idea is present in such a strong sense that the phrase is correctly attributed to him. It is a phrase that is easily misunderstood. For Dostoevsky, in good Orthodox fashion, beauty is far more than a matter of aesthetics – it is the very goodness of…
Glory to God for All Things
To See An Icon
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My previous post spoke of the world existing “iconically” rather than “literally.” I do not mean that the world cannot be seen in a “literal” fashion – only that the world will not be truly seen if seen only in a literal fashion (there is probably a better word than “literal” to describe this secularized form of experience). The seeing which sees in a “literal” fashion, assumes that things are only things,…
Glory to God for All Things
Is the World Literal or Iconic?
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What do you see when you see the world and how do you see it? I have written much about the secular character of our culture and its “literal” view of the world. The world is what you see and nothing more. Significant events take their significance from their own relation to other literal events. Much that passes for Christian theology or “thought” belongs to this world-view today. Thus those who concern…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
For us, there is only the trying
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Among other saintly commemorations today, we remember Ninian, the Enlightener of Scotland. From all apparent worldly analyses, St. Ninian was something of a failure. He’s called the Enlightener of Scotland, because he first brought the Christian faith there in the final years of the 4th century, but he wasn’t terribly successful. He never saw the astounding conversions the way Columba did nearly 200 years…
Praying in the Rain
The Living Temple of God
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The Church often refers the Mary as the Living Temple of God because, like the temple of the Old Testament, her womb was the place where the Glory of the Lord dwelt. However, unlike the temple—made of inanimate stones and wood and covered in gold—Mary is the Living Temple of God. Although she has experienced death, she is still the Living Temple because, as Christ said, “all who live and believe in…
Glory to God for All Things
Memory Eternal
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A personal note: I received news this evening (September 14) of the falling asleep of my mother, Nancy Freeman, in her home in South Carolina. Her passing was peaceful and marked with words of love. My heart is very full. Earlier today I had given thanks for this 5th anniversary of my parents’ reception into the Orthodox faith. It seems significant to me that on this date my mother is now received…
Glory to God for All Things
The Precious and Life-Giving Cross of Christ
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The Mystery of our Salvation is contained within the Cross of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. And it is correct to say the “mystery of our salvation,” for what is contained there is more than a cosmic transaction (Christ pays for our sins): it is also the whole of our way of life. It is truly the mystery of our salvation. The extent of this mystery is hinted at in Christ’s…
Glory to God for All Things
A Mother's Word
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Praying in the Rain
The Heart of the Matter
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It says of Rehoboam that “he did evil because he did not direct his heart to seek the Lord.” So much of what we do or do not do, especially what may have eternal significance, depends on where our heart is directed. The Judgment of God, at least as it is recorded in Matthew 25, says nothing about our hearts, but only speaks of actions. And yet it is the direction of…
Glory to God for All Things
The Religion of the Mind and the Religion of the Heart
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I write frequently about what I term the Religion of the Heart. Archimandrite Meletios Webber has a short piece on what can be called the Religion of the Mind. The distinction between mind and heart is not a distinction between thought and feeling. Rather it is a distinction between the mind (seat of thoughts and feelings) and the heart (the seat of a deeper awareness – sometimes called the nous in Orthodox…
Praying in the Rain
A Rebel With A Cause
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When Israel rebelled against Judah, Jeroboam against Rehoboam, it is with Jeroboam that I have the most sympathy, although it is to Jerusalem that “those who had set their hearts to seek the Lord” continued to come to offer their sacrifices. Jeroboam had only asked for what was reasonable. After the great achievements of Solomon in the areas of architecture and the building up of cities, achievements accomplished by the almost slave…
Glory to God for All Things
Doctrines and Opinion
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From the Desert Fathers: Malicious sceptics visited Abba Agathon to see if they could annoy him. They had heard that Agathon possessed great discretion and self-control. They spoke directly to him, “Agathon, we heard that you are an adulterer and full of pride.” He answered, “Yes, that’s true.” “Are you the same Agathom who gossips and slanders?” “I am.” “Are you Agathon the heretic?” “No, I am not a heretic.” “Why did…
Praying in the Rain
Nakedness and Masks in Marriage
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I have noticed that when my heart is upset (anger, confusion, frustration, depression, etc.) and I speak unguardedly, I don’t say what I mean. Now here when I say “heart,” I don’t mean the heart of man as the Fathers speak of the heart; rather, I mean what most English speakers mean when they say heart: their feelings, their inner emotional selves. Particularly in the relationships I care most about, I must…
Glory to God for All Things
The Nativity of the Theotokos
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Today marks the birth of the Mother of God on the calendar of the Orthodox Church (New Calendar). It is one of the twelve major feasts of the year. It is also a feast which shares a great deal in common with many other events in the course of Scripture – all of which emphasize the character of our salvation. The story of Mary’s conception and birth, as received by Tradition in…
Glory to God for All Things
The God Gene
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Praying in the Rain
Getting to Know Our Mother
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“Thy womb has offered to Christ, the Lamb of God, our substance to be His fleece; therefore in our hymns we all honour thee on this day of thy nativity from Anna.” (Canticle one, second canon, 4th verse, from Matins for the Birth of the Mother of God, by St. Andrew of Crete) Many converts to Holy Orthodoxy have trouble making a personal connection with Mary, the Theotokos. They understand and accept…
Glory to God for All Things
Prayer - It's Something Personal
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I have long been intrigued with the notion of our common responsibility, or rather, that I am “responsible for the sins of the whole world.” I think I first came across the notion in a quote from the Elder Zossima in The Brothers Karamazov. And even there, Dostoevsky was only putting on the lips of his fictional Elder the sentiments of the saints and the common teaching of the Church. At one time…
Glory to God for All Things
Revisiting the Great Crisis
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As a companion to the recent post on the Death of Christ – the Life of Man – I offer this reprint of a short article on “the Great Crisis.” The Great Crisis, if I can coin a term, is the threat of non-existence, or relative non-existence. Classical Orthodoxy, following St. Athanasius, does not see humanity threatened with pure non-existence, but with a dynamic movement towards a “relative” non-existence, which some have…
Glory to God for All Things
Winners and Losers
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We are a great society for competition – and America is not unique in this. What America thinks is competitive in her “Super Bowl,” pales in comparison to the frenzy engendered elsewhere by the “World Cup.” Several years ago I was in London when England was playing Ecuador in the World Cup. It was a Sunday afternoon. With my companions we walked across London heading to the museums, assuming that the afternoon…
Glory to God for All Things
My Sins Pour Out Behind Me
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Abba Moses [one of the desert fathers] hesitated to accept a summons to be part of a council that would pass judgment on a brother who had committed a sin. A delegation approached him insisting that all the others were waiting for him. Reluctantly, he got up and went with them. He took a jug of water that leaked all along the path. The council came outside to greet him. Puzzled by…
Praying in the Rain
Spiritual Disciplines
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“God will not judge us about psalmody, nor for the neglect of prayer, but because by abandoning them we have opened our door to the demons.” — St. Isaac the Syrian The Church has taught us to discipline ourselves through prayer, fasting and almsgiving. These three are really categories of disciplines that the Church recommends to us as means to “acquire the Holy Spirit”; that is, to be continually full of the…
Glory to God for All Things
Short Prayer for Enemies
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These two petitions are found in Orthodox Daily Prayers. Both give a model for our prayers on these topics: Save, Lord, and have mercy on those whom I have caused to stumble, turning them away from the path of salvation and leading them to evil and unseemly deeds. Return them to the path of salvation by thy Divine Providence. (a prostration is made) Save, Lord, and have mercy on those who hate…
Glory to God for All Things
In Him We Live And Move and Have Our Being
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St. John of the Ladder wrote: Every free creature lives in God. God is everyone’s salvation. God loves believers and unbelievers, the just and the unjust, the pious and the impious, those free of passions and those subject to passions, monks and those living worldly lives, the educated and the illiterate, the healthy and the sick, the young and the old. God is like an outpouring of light, a glimpse of the…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Barton Decker, barber
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This past Friday, I made another assay into the streets of and around Emmaus to find myself a decent barber shop. My first haircut experience in Emmaus, to put it frankly, hurt. I have no idea exactly why that gent had such a need to dig the clippers with such fervor into my neck, but, suffice it to say, once I did my fiduciary…
Glory to God for All Things
The Death of Christ - The Life of Man
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A recent comment posed a fundamental question with regard to the Christian faith: Why do we believe that Christ had to die? What is the purpose of His death on the cross? Preliminary Thoughts Part of the information accompanying the question was the experience (of Mary K) with teaching on the atonement that centered largely on the wrath and anger of God. (I paraphrase and summarize) We sinned  (both ourselves and Adam…
