The Morning Offering
Sunday
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June 26, 2011 2nd Sunday after Pentecost. All Russian Saints. Tone one. Apostles’ (Peter & Paul) Fast. Fish Allowed All venerable and holy Fathers of the Holy Mount Athos (movable holiday on the 2nd Sunday of Pentecost). All venerable and holy Fathers of Bulgaria (movable holiday on the 2nd Sunday of Pentecost). “Kaluga” Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos (1771)…
The Morning Offering
Saturday
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June 25, 2011 2nd Week after Pentecost.Tone eight. Apostles’ (Peter & Paul) Fast. Fish Allowed Venerable Onuphrius the Great (400). Venerable Peter of Mt. Athos (734). Opening of the relics (1650) of St. Anna of Kashin (1338). Venerable Arsenius, abbot of Konevits (1447). Venerable Onuphrius, abbot of Malsk (Pskov) (1492). Venerables Bassian and Jonah, monks, of Petroma (Solovki) (1561). Venerables…
Glory to God for All Things
The Mystery of the Fullness
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One of the most common words used in Orthodoxy, drawn very much from the writings of the New Testament, is the term “fullness” (pleroma in the Greek). St. Paul uses it to mean something that is in its completion or its final state, transcending things as we often know them. Because the term often refers to things at the End of all things, or to realities that are greater than the reality…
The Morning Offering
Friday
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June 24, 2011 2nd Week after Pentecost. Tone eight. Apostles’ (Peter & Paul) Fast. By Monastic Charter: Strict Fast (Bread, Vegetables, Fruits) Venerable Barlaam of Khutyn (1192) (movable holiday on the 1st Friday of Apostles’ Fast). “Tabynsk” and “Kursk-Root” Icons of the Most Holy Theotokos (movable holiday on the 9th Friday of Pascha). Holy Apostles Bartholomew and Barnabas (1st c.).…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The Voice and the Silence
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Behold Elizabeth as she speaketh with the Virgin Mary: Wherefore art thou, the Mother of my Lord, come unto me? Thou carriest the King, and I the soldier; thou the Giver of the Law, and I the expounder of the Law; thou the Word, and I the Voice that shall proclaim the Kingdom of the Heavens. (Theotokion of the Aposticha, Nativity of the Forerunner…
The Morning Offering
Thursday
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June 23, 2011 2nd Week after Pentecost. Tone eight. Apostles’ (Peter & Paul) Fast. Fish Allowed Hieromartyr Timothy, bishop of Prusa (362). Finding of the relics (1609) of St. Basil, bishop of Ryazan (1295). Synaxis of All Saints of Riazan. St. John Maximovitch, Metropolitan of Tobolsk (1715). Synaxis of All Saints of Siberia: St. Innocent, bishop of Irkutsk (1731); St.…
The Morning Offering
Wednesday
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June 22, 2011 2nd Week after Pentecost. Tone eight. Apostles’ (Peter & Paul) Fast. By Monastic Charter: Strict Fast (Bread, Vegetables, Fruits) St. Cyril, archbishop of Alexandria (444). Venerable Cyril, abbot of White Lake (Byelozersk) (1427). St. Alexius Mechev, priest of Moscow (1923). Venerable Alexander, abbot of Kushta (Vologda) (1439). Five nuns beheaded in Persia: Martyrs Thecla, Mariamne, Martha, Mary,…
Nearly Orthodox
Theodora...
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I’ve been writing a lot lately on my other blog about being the river, being the mountain, being the forest. As Mrs Metaphor I guess it comes naturally to me to see myself not as being outside of nature but as being fully engaged in it, being a part of everything that breathes and so it seems right that I stumbled upon a story today about Theodora of Vasta. It is said…
Praying in the Rain
Praying With The Heterodox
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I received a question from a convert living at home with his heterodox Christian family. He had been advised by a monastic not to pray with heterodox. Obeying this was causing problems at home especially around table grace. Should he say grace before meals with his heterodox Christian mother? Here is part of my response: The Church’s relationship with the heterodox is not nearly as monolithic as you seem to think. Keep…
The Morning Offering
Tuesday
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June 21, 2011 2nd Week after Pentecost. Tone eight. Apostles’ (Peter & Paul) Fast. Fish Allowed Translation of the relics of Great-martyr Theodore Stratelates (319). St. Theodore, bishop of Rostov and Suzdal (1023). Finding of the relics (1501) of Sts. Basil (1249) and Constantine (1257), princes of Yaroslavl. Venerable Ephraim, patriarch of Antioch (546). Venerable Zosimas, monk, of Phoenicia (Syria)…
Praying in the Rain
Learning To Be Like Abigail
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“For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:2) In many ways, the story of Abigail is the story of every Christian, or at least the story we are called to live out. Just as Abigail is introduced to us married to Nabal (in Hebrew nabal means fool), so we all begin our life married to a fool. The fool each…
The Morning Offering
Monday
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June 20, 2011 2nd Week after Pentecost. Tone eight. Beginning of Apostles’ (Peter & Paul) Fast Martyr Theodotus of Ancyra (303). New Hieromartyr Archbishop Andronicus of Perm, Alexander, Alexis, Alexander, Valentine, Benjamin, Viktor, Alexander, Paul, Vladimir, Ignatius, Michael, Nicholas, Paul, Alexander, Nicholas priests, Gregory deacon and Martyrs Athanasius and Alexsander (1918). New Hieromartyrs Nicholas and Peter priests (1919). Hieromartyr Marcellinus,…
Praying in the Rain
The Stumbling Block of The Bible: Seeing Myself in King Saul
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“The very stumbling-block of the Bible is its utter simplicity: the mysteries of God are framed into the daily life of average men, and the whole story may seem to be all too human. Just as the Incarnate Lord himself appeared to be an ordinary man.” George Florovsky I am rereading the biblical history books (1,2 Samuel; 1,2, Kings [=1,2,3,4, Kings] and 1,2 Chronicles) in the Septuagint translation (Orthodox Study Bible). It’s…
The Morning Offering
Sunday
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June 19, 2011 1st Sunday after Pentecost. All Saints. Tone eight.Eve of Apostles’ (Peter & Paul) Fast. Icons of the Mother of God “the Consoler of angry hearts” and “the Unbreakable Wall” (movable holiday on the Sunday of All Saints). Venerable Bessarion the Wonderworker of Egypt (466). Venerable Hilarion the New, abbot of the Dalmatian Monastery (845). Venerable Raphael confessor…
The Morning Offering
Saturday
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June 18, 2011 Adoposis of Pentecost. Tone seven. Fast-free Week. Fast-free Hieromartyr Dorotheos, bishop of Tyre (361). New Hieromartyr Michael priest (1931). New Hieromartyr Nicholas priest (1943). Translation of the relics of the Blessed Igor-George, tonsured Gabriel, great prince of Chernigov and Kiev (1150) to Chernigov. Blessed Constantine, metropolitan of Kiev (1159). Repose of St. Theodore Yaroslavich (1233), brother of…
The Morning Offering
Friday
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June 17, 2011 Afterfeast of Pentecost. Tone seven. Fast-free Week. Fast-free St. Metrophanes, first patriarch of Constantinople (325). New Hieromartyr Peter priest (1918). New Martyrs: Archbishop Andronicus of Perm (1918) and Archbishop Basil of Chernigov (1918). Venerable Methodius, abbot of Peshnosha (1392), disciple of St. Sergius of Radonezh. Martyrs Frontasius, Severinus, Severian, and Silanus of Gaul (1st c.). Martyr Concordius…
Praying in the Rain
Logocratic Tendencies
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A Greek priest in Athens with whom I have been corresponding recently noted that Protestant converts to Orthodoxy have a “logocratic” mentality. He went on to suggest that this logocracy keeps them from entering very deeply into the Mystery of the Faith. “Logocracy” means rule of or by words. I thought some of my blog readers might be interested in reading my response: Dear Fr. C. Christ is in our midst! Thank…
Praying in the Rain
A Parable: by an Orthodox Christian priest who has just returned from an ecumenical gathering of largely Evangelical clergy
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Once there was a starving man who found a field of potatoes, and finding the potatoes, he found life. Potatoes alone were enough to keep him alive. One day a family took a drive out into the countryside for a picnic and happened across the man saved by potatoes. He was a gaunt and sickly man with little strength, but he was alive and thanked God for his potatoes. “What are all…
The Morning Offering
Thursday
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June 16, 2011 Afterfeast of Pentecost. Tone seven. Fast-free Week. Fast-free Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos “Surety of Sinners” in Korets (1622) (movable holiday on Thursday of the 1-st week of the Pentecost). Martyr Lucillian and those with him at Byzantium: four youths — Claudius, Hypatius, Paul, and Dionysius; and Virgin Paula (270). New Hieromartyr Cyprian (1934). New Hieromartyr…
Praying in the Rain
What is Not-Church?
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Orthodox Christians affirm that Orthodoxy is the True Faith: That the Orthodox Church is the True Church. Many heterodox Christians are offended by the exclusivity of such a claim. I suggest that they are offended because they think we mean by such a claim what they would mean if they made a similar claim. I do not think we do. Of course, among Orthodox Christians there exists a range of opinion…
The Morning Offering
Wednesday
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June 15, 2011 Afterfeast of Pentecost. Tone seven. Fast-free Week. Fast-free St. Nicephorus the Confessor, patriarch of Constantinople (829). Great-martyr John the New of Suceava, at Belgorod (Cetatea Alba) (1332). Finding of the relics (1815) of St. Juliana, princess of Vyasma (1406). “Kiev-Bratsk” Icon of the Mother of God (1654). New Martyr Demetrius of Philadelphia (1657) (Greek). Hieromartyr Pothinus, bishop of…
Glory to God for All Things
Existence, Choice and God
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I recall a conversation with a Russian parishioner some years back. She had been baptized as an adult (by me) and I referred to her as a “convert” in the course of conversation. She bristled slightly at my comment and said, “I am not a convert. Converts are people who choose.” She went on to explain that although she had never been baptized, she was, nonetheless Orthodox, and would not have considered…
Nearly Orthodox
no room...
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There is no room in my life for Orthodoxy. My life is simply not organized in such a way as to really allow me to engage this practice- to make time to pray, to find a community, to commit to new people…even to attend Liturgy. I just don’t have the room for it. I don’t have the space for it.  And this is the reality of my situation. It’s distressing. I’m distressed.…
The Morning Offering
Tuesday
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June 14, 2011 Third Day of the Holy Trinity.Tone seven. Fast-free Week. Fast-free Martyr Justin the Philosopher, and those with him at Rome: Martyrs Justin, Chariton and his wife Charita, Euelpistus, Hierax, Peon, Valerian and Justus (166). Venerable Dionysius, abbot of Glushitsa (Vologda) (1437). New Hieromartyr Basil priest, Virgin-martyr Vera (1940). Glorification (1990) of Righteous John of Kronstadt (1908). Venerable…
The Morning Offering
Monday
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June 13, 2011 Day Of the Holy Spirit. Tone seven. Fast-free Week. Fast-free “Tupichevsk” and “Cyprus” Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos (movable holiday on the Day Of the Holy Spirit). Apostle Hermes of the Seventy (1st c.). Martyr Hermias at Comana (160). New Hieromartyr Archpriest Philosoph Ornatsky with his sons Boris and Nicholas, in St. Petersburg (1918). New Hieromartyrs…
The Morning Offering
Sunday
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June 12, 2011 Pentecost – Trinity Sunday. “Lesna” Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos (1696) (movable holiday on the Trinity Sunday). Holy Fathers and Mothers of Atchara (18th c.) (movable holiday on the Trinity Sunday) (Georgia). Venerable Isaac, founder of the Dalmatian Monastery at Constantinople (383). New Hieromartyr Basil priest (1942). Martyr Natalius. Martyrs Romanus, Meletius and Euplius. St. Macrina,…
Glory to God for All Things
Babylon and the Trees of Pentecost
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From the Feast of Pentecost The arrogance of building the tower in the days of old led to the confusion of tongues. Now the glory of the knowledge of God brings them wisdom. There God condemned the impious for their transgression. Here Christ has enlightened the fishermen by the Spirit. There disharmony was brought about for punishment.// Now harmony is renewed for the salvation of our souls. +++ The first time I…
