Time Eternal
Timely Tuneup: Infant Loss, Theoretical Physics, Imposter Syndrome
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Hi Time Eternalites! Before October is done, I just wanted to post a few links to some of the latest TE content that hasn’t yet made its way to the blog. Imposter Syndrome as an Orthodox Writer Yesterday on Ancient Faith’s Behind the Scenes blog, I talked about how my struggle with imposter syndrome and strategies I use to deal with…
Faith Encouraged
Imitators and Examples
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“Early is on time. On Time is late. Late is unacceptable!” These were my words, but they were coming out of my daughter’s mouth! She was giving a friend of her’s a hard time about being late to dance practice. We don’t “do” “Greek time” or “Country time” or any other ethnic excuse for being late in our house. That’s not how we treat other people or ourselves. Needless to say, I…
The Morning Offering
The Heart
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An ignored heart is a lost heart It is important that we direct all our thoughts, all our actions, and all our desires towards a burning love for God. Our heart must become inflamed with the love of God, and all our intellectual and emotional striving must be directed towards the development of the heart. The Kingdom of God is…
Behind the Scenes
3 Ways to Manage Imposter Syndrome as an Orthodox Writer
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One morning earlier this week, I woke up to four or five messages from new readers who had some positive things to say about my work at Ancient Faith, specifically my book, Time and Despondency: Regaining the Present in Faith and Life. There was nothing excessive about these notes–they were polite and positive and encouraging, by all accounts just the kind of thing an author likes to receive from time to time.…
Faith Encouraged
The Path OUT of Prison
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“Well, you should have known better!” Oh, how I hated hearing that from my mom. It was the tone in her voice as well as the words. You know the one. The tone that communicated disappointment, disapproval, AND frustration all at the same time! Oh, I HATED it! But what made things worse was she was right! I SHOULD HAVE known better. In fact, I did know better and yet, there I…
The Morning Offering
The Search for Truth
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A search that must lead toward Absolute Good As we search for a meaningful life, we should avoid the mirages in our world that lead to short term fulfillment. Our goal should be to avoid the illusory pleasurable life that leads to despair and melancholy. A life centered on striving toward Absolute Good, leads to fulfillment in an encounter with…
The Morning Offering
Chaplains
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A monastic as a police and fire chaplain It has been a great blessing for me to have been serving as a police and fire chaplain for the past eleven years. My interest in chaplaincy began when I was asked by a number of inmates to serve as their Orthodox chaplain in one of the state’s prisons. Spending one full…
Eastern Christian Insights
Faith Beyond Words: Homily for the 22nd Sunday after Pentecost and the 7th Sunday of Luke in the Orthodox Church
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Galatians 6:11-18; Luke 8:41-56 What does it mean to have faith? What do we want from religion? What can we hope for from God? These are the kinds of questions that we tend to overlook because they threaten to take us out of our comfort zones. Many people do not want to think about “the big questions” too much because they can easily make us uncomfortable and…
The Morning Offering
The Enemy of Faith
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The enemy of faith is our pride The absolute necessary element for salvation is faith. Faith alone will save us, for only faith brings us into communion with God. Faith is a free gift, for nothing we can do can save us. No good works can save us. Being a good person will not save us. Only faith in Christ…
Faith Encouraged
People Talking Without Speaking…
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At a recent spiritual retreat, I was asked to conduct, I was asked how one should prepare to deal with questions about the faith when others ask about it. Usually, many of our Orthodox brothers and sisters get very nervous when somebody asks them about our Orthodox Faith. It’s a good question, but it points to a deeper challenge – like most good questions do! While it may be satisfying to get some basic…
The Morning Offering
Being a Christian
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The Christian life requires work and effort Every priest can tell you that he’s had his share of people who don’t think he understands the difficulties they face with their jobs, families, and spouses. Many people think their priest expects too much of them, and they ignore the homilies that challenge them to go deeper into their faith. They drop…
Faith Encouraged
Prayer = Watchfulness!
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My daughter sits in front with me in the car many times as I drive. And she is old enough now to notice that daddy sometimes has a challenge with patience with other drivers! She’s learned my “triggers.” Well, yesterday, she looked over at me when a person in front of us didn’t move when the light turned green and she said: “that person isn’t paying attention, is she, daddy?” It’s tough…
The Morning Offering
The Domestic Church
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The incubator for a life of righteousness Prior to electricity and central heating, most families gathered in parlors, spending evenings with reading, sewing, and family conversations. The notion that everyone would retreat to bedrooms, kitchens, or dens, separating themselves from other family members, was unthinkable. The communal nature of the family was natural. I can remember, as a child (this…
Father Bill's Blog
89. Demons
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Demons! Terrifying Destructive Evil Spirits! Now that we have your attention… let’s begin more gently and work up (down) to demons, the devil and the dark side. Hallowe’en Modern Hallowe’en has Christian origins. November 1 in Western Christianity is the feast of All Saints (“All Hallows” in old English), probably intended to counter a pagan day the dead, which took place at this time of year. Here in the mid-latitudes of the…
Glory to God for All Things
Existential Despair and Moral Futility
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A couple of years back, a comment was posted on social media that described my writing as consisting of “existential despair” and “moral futility.” It was not meant with kindness. However, after I reflected for a while, I realized that it was not only accurate but quite insightful. It also made me say, “I have become Dostoevsky!” This tenor in my work does not come from careful planning or systematic thought –…
Faith Encouraged
Good Fathers Give Bread
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One of the greatest revelations I had in my journey to Orthodox Christianity was the powerful theological truth preserved in the timeless Christian tradition of calling our clergy “father.” You may object by telling me that Jesus commanded “Call no man ‘father’” in Matthew 23:9. And on the surface that might seem to be the end of the discussion but you may want to sit down here! If this were truly an absolute prohibition then I…
The Morning Offering
Lust
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Waging war against the flesh Since the eyes and the ears are the doors of the soul, an Orthodox Christian must not leave the body without attention. Unlike the religion of Gnosticism, which teaches the separation of soul and body, with the physical world being evil and something to be overcome, historic Christianity teaches the unity the body and soul,…
The Whole Counsel Blog
Jacob I Have Loved, Esau I Have Hated
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The story of twin brothers Jacob and Esau, or Israel and Edom, represents a major portion of the patriarchal narratives in Genesis. St. Paul returns to this story in his Epistle to the Romans, chapters 9 through 11 in answering a particular situation in the life of the Roman church. This major passage, separated from its original context in the Epistle to the Romans, the New Testament, and the scriptures as a whole, as well as from its historical context, has become one of the primary bases for an entire stream of Western thought regarding election and its relationship to the salvation of the human person. In order to properly understand what St. Paul is teaching in the Epistle to…
Faith Encouraged
Not Man’s Gospel
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I’ve always been fascinated by philosophy and logical argument constructs. It seems to me that the ability to use one’s intellect to worship God through excellence and discipline is a very great accomplishment, one I’ve always lacked the patience and strength to fully embrace. One particular part of a philosophical argument that grabs my attention is the various logical fallacies that we humans use to “prove” our points or “win” arguments. I…
The Morning Offering
This Life
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A time of preparation for the next life Everything in this life is transitory and can disappear in a moment of time. Even our own life can end abruptly and without warning. Yet as Christians we keep moving forward, embracing whatever God has placed before us. Worrying about the future keeps us from focusing on the horizon and trusting that…
Faith Encouraged
The Delusion of Pride
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There is a powerful word in the wisdom of the Orthodox Faith that acts as a real warning to you and me. It is the word “prelest.” It literally means “the state of spiritual delusion or deception.” This is a great spiritual illness in the teaching of the Church and is to be recognized and dealt with as quickly and as often as possible in relationship to a spiritual father. St. Ignatius…
The Morning Offering
The Holy Oblation
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The place where heaven and earth are united As a priest, I bear the awesome burden of offering the Holy Oblation before the Throne of God, on behalf of all the people who’s names are submitted to the monastery, and who are Orthodox. I offer for my spiritual children, and even for the whole world. I commemorate my own beloved…
Glory to God for All Things
Groundrules for the Blog
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The rules below have been a posted part of this blog for years. From time to time, I repost them so that readers might remember them. The rule of kindness might need some expansion. Remarks that infer personal flaws are inappropriate. Likewise, sarcasm is not acceptable. Such writing is abrasive and makes for unpleasant reading. It never makes a conversation better. Comments that are submitted without conforming to the rules for the…
The Morning Offering
Poustinia
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The importance of the desert to the inner life The Russian word, “Poustinia”, means “desert”, and the importance of the poustinia to the inner life can not be dismissed. If we are to hear the voice of God speaking to us, we must listen to His silence. If we are to learn to hear His voice, we must learn to…
Time Eternal
Death and Fire: An Icon of Modern Mortality
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In the class I co-teach on death in Orthodox Tradition, last Thursday I lectured on the medicalization of death in the 20th century. To give us all a kind of anchor in the many complexities that affect how people die in modernity and beyond, I selected one of my favorite works of art as a kind of symbol…
The Morning Offering
The Banquet of the Lord
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The importance of preparing for the Divine Liturgy That the Church requires us to prepare to receive the Holy Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ, prior to the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, by saying the Pre-Communion Prayers, is a given. The Church also requires us to fast from midnight on, abstaining from either food or drink, until…
No Other Foundation
Love, Peace, Joy - 3
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In the two last blog posts we looked at love, peace, and joy as the defining components of a Christian life and the essence of the Kingdom of God. Last week we examined what peace was; finally we examine the nature of joy. As with the concepts of love and peace, so the concept of joy has undergone some redefinition and is misunderstood. Many today understand joy as an emotion, a feeling.…
