The Morning Offering
Be Yourself
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Don’t shelve the part that makes you unique When we enter into communion with one another in the life of the Church, we come broken, and far from the image and likeness that God intended when He created us. We, to a one, are in need of the healing that comes from a life in Christ. Yet we often hinder…
No Other Foundation
Sacred Sex
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As the clergy reading this blog may perhaps attest, it is always interesting when a parishioner presses a book into your hand with the request, “Father, would you please read this and tell me what you think?” The book in question is rarely something like Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man, or Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, or (to bring it up to date a little more) David Bentley Hart’s Atheist Delusions. The last time…
The Morning Offering
Balance
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The balance between rejoicing and repenting Within the self there is a battle being waged between good and evil and we endanger our soul if we start to treat God as though He were a sweet old grandpa who will love us regardless of what we do. His love does reign supreme, but so does His righteousness. He desires to…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The Visitation of God
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Father Bill's Blog
147. More Questions you've always intended to ask about Orthodox worship but never got around to - Part Two
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Today: Why do we sing so much? Why only males in the Altar? Why no pipe organs? Why do we sing so much? It’s hard to find anything in Orthodox worship which isn’t sung. This is because traditional Jewish services were (and are) sung. The Apostles were Jewish, and that’s how they grew up worshipping, so naturally that’s how early Christians worshiped. Orthodox Byzantine chant must have developed out of Hebrew chant.…
Faith Encouraged
I Need A Guide!
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OK, so I have a hard time asking for directions. But, hey, since the invention of the GPS, I don’t have to! My man’s ego is protected by technology once again! Seriously, I do admit to not being crazy about asking for help. It feels like weakness to me and that plugs into my own weakness and pride. I guess that’s why I keep getting into situations where I have no choice…
The Morning Offering
No Looking Back
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Don’t hold on to guilt and shame There are many people who cling to memories of past sins, holding on to guilt and shame, reliving things long ago confessed, as though they happened yesterday. They struggle with regrets, often revisiting shame as though they were archeologists, digging for historical artifacts that must be preserved. Such is not the case with…
A Light So Lovely
Artefact Institute: Don't Look for Good Culture, Go Make it!
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True it is we have seen better days, And have with holy bell been knolled to church, And sat at good men’s feasts, and wiped our eyes Of drops that sacred pity hath engendered.” – As You Like It, William Shakespeare This incredible quote, a jewel among many jewels in Dr. Anthony Esolen’s book Out of the Ashes, is in many ways an encapsulation of what we have lost in our culture. There is…
Faith Encouraged
The Futility of Their Minds
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Think about the word “Appropriate.” What a powerful idea! If something or someone is “appropriate” then that thing or that person or that situation is laudatory, worthy of emulation, and creates a space where there is a sense of well being. In other words, the complete opposite of the current American election for president! OK, no politics, but seriously, dear ones, can this society support even the vestiges of the concept of…
The Morning Offering
Focusing On One's Own Sins
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If you are to win the battle, focus only on your own sins When we take our eyes off our own sins we focus only on the sins of the other. As we allow their sins get our attention, we fail to struggle with the passions that keep us from the wholeness that God intended, and we move ever closer…
A Light So Lovely
Talking Culture Creation, Storytelling, and the Artefact Institute on the Areopagus Podcast
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Last week I had the great pleasure of being hosted on the Areopagus podcast: Some of the things we talked about culture creation for a… pre-Christian America? religion in Star Trek what’s the deal with my novels? self-referential so-called Christian culture this odd and wonderful thing we’re doing in Louisville in 2020 called Artefact Institute. Click here to go the podcast website, or download the episode in any podcast catcher. I also…
Walking an Ancient Path
Little Plastic Cups and Motley Communion Experiences
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Glory to God for All Things
Tolkien's Long Defeat and the Path of History
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“Actually I am a Christian,” Tolkien wrote of himself, “and indeed a Roman Catholic, so that I do not expect ‘history’ to be anything but a ‘long defeat’— though it contains (and in legend may contain more clearly and movingly) some samples or glimpses of final victory” (Letters 255). +++ History as a long defeat – I can think of nothing that is more anti-modern than this sentiment expressed by J.R.R. Tolkien. It…
Faith Encouraged
Countless Guides, But Not Many Fathers
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We have over 30 families going through our A Journey to Fullness class at the parish and they keep hearing me say “This is a family, not a corporation or a club.” One of the key aspects of Orthodoxy that drew me to the Church was this mindset away from church as a religious club and a serious commitment to an actual community. In a society that is increasingly gripped in the…
The Morning Offering
Does God Exist?
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How do we find God in an unbelieving world? God is a merciful God, quick to forgive, quick to show mercy, quick to embrace us when we turn to Him. In all of eternity our God chose to create humankind in His image and likeness, offering His creatures the opportunity to commune with Him in the endlessness that is time.…
No Other Foundation
Comfort in Affliction
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Earth is very dangerous planet to live on—at least under the present circumstances. One day, in the age to come, the wolf will lie down with the lamb, the nursing child will play over the hole of the asp, and they shall not hurt or destroy in all God’s holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:6-9). But…
Faith Encouraged
Hey, You Don't Belong Here!
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I was embarrassed. I was ashamed. I had wandered into the wrong place. Everything about me screamed, “he doesn’t belong here!” And it was confirmed when a waiter came to escort me out! There is nothing quite as cutting to anyone than to be made to feel unwelcome or unwanted. The stigma of being the “outsider” is a heavy burden to bear. This is especially true when all those “insiders” have their own…
The Morning Offering
Strife and Division
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And the workings of the Enemy of the Church Recent disturbing events within the life of the Church have left many, including some clergy and monastics, with the sense of gloom, wondering what’s coming next. During times like this it is good to remember that nothing has changed during the two thousand years of our Orthodox Christian faith. There have…
Glory to God for All Things
The Best Place - The Worst Place - Orthodoxy in Location
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From time to time, I read articles on the “10 Worst Cities in America,” or the State. There are similar articles on the “best.” The thoughts offered remind me of the article published earlier this year in which the Orthodox (worldwide) were described as the “least happy” people of any religious group. If you scratch the surface of these musings, you quickly discover that the scale of best and worst, happy and…
Faith Encouraged
The Head Over ALL Things
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He told me “Never say ‘never.’” Of course, at the time I missed the humor in that contradictory command. But, still, there is wisdom there. Whenever I counsel couples or anyone having challenges in their relationships (aren’t we all?), I tell them “Avoid the words ‘always’ and ‘never.’” And that’s because those statements are “usually” untrue, and relationships never get healed in the middle of falsehood. But there are times when words…
The Morning Offering
Becoming a Philanthropist
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The act of giving can change everyone’s life for the better As any history buff knows, these times we are living in can sometimes seem like reruns. News reports are filled with stories of wars, disasters, dictators, attacks on the innocent, increased crime, and the ever present persecution of Christians in various parts of the world. We’ve witnessed increased attacks…
Remembering Sion
On Obedience and the Gifts of God
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In the Gospel reading appointed for this Sunday, we hear a story of the greatest importance, both for ourselves and for all Christianity: we hear the story of the beginning of the conversion of the holy chief of the Apostles, St. Peter himself. This was not the first encounter of St. Peter with Christ; his brother, St. Andrew, had brought St. Peter to Jesus in Bethabara and told him that he was…
Eastern Christian Insights
How the Worst Day of a Widow's Life Became "The Day of Salvation": Homily for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost and the Third Sunday of Luke in the Orthodox Church
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2 Corinthians 6:1-10; Luke 7:11-16 The widow of Nain certainly had no expectation that the day of her son’s death was “the day of salvation.” It was surely been the worst day of her life, for in that time and place a widow who had lost her only son was in a terrible state. She would have had no one to provide for her or to protect…
The Morning Offering
Prison Ministry
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I was in prison and you came to Me (Matthew 25:36) I served eight years as a volunteer Orthodox chaplain within three Washington State Prisons in Monroe, WA. With the goal of bringing the love of Christ to those, who, for whatever reason, found themselves serving hard time, I found my eyes opened to the importance of truly believing in…
The Morning Offering
The Struggle Between Two Worlds
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The democratic tradition and the world of submission The world is in a new struggle not unlike that which happened during the Soviet Union and the cold war that was brought on after the fall of the Royal House of Romanov. This was followed by World War II when we saw the struggle between the free world and the fascism…
A Light So Lovely
What Art Can and Cannot Do...
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This past weekend, I was honored and pleased to take part in Doxamoot, the first ever (as far as I know) Orthodox conference on the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. My talk, titled “Why Becoming a Storyteller is the Most Important Thing You May Do With Your Life,” will be available as an audio download at some point soon. Stay tuned. It was an exciting moment of culture-making, where people who…
Father Bill's Blog
146. Questions you've always intended to ask about Orthodox worship but never got around to it - Part One
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I originally intended this to be a short introduction to a new series on the Divine Liturgy, but somehow it got out of control, so we’ll make this an article by it’s own, and we’ll talk about the Divine Liturgy later. 1 Is Orthodox worship really “unchanging”? Today, yes. But long ago, no. Obviously how Our Lord celebrated his Last Supper with his disciples on Holy Thursday night was very different from…
