The Morning Offering
·
The Saint Herman of Alaska Pilgrimage An Akathist to Saint Herman of Alaska was chanted in Holy Resurrection Orthodox Cathedral in Kodiak. It was followed by the Archbishop’s Tea, with Metropolitan Tikhon and Archbishop David. Friday August 9, 2019 / July 27, 2019 8th Week after Pentecost. Tone six. Fast. Food with Oil Holy Great-martyr and Healer Panteleimon (305). Commemoration…
The Morning Offering
The Caregiver
·
My dear mother was diagnosed with dementia, back in 2003. Soon after the diagnosis I moved her from Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho, and into an assisted living place on Vashon Island, where I could be involved in the supervision of her care. The dementia progressed for the next four years, and almost from the beginning, she needed me to be…
No Other Foundation
Personalism, Small Churches, and Building Community
·
When was the last time you heard a sermon or read an article or blog post on Romans chapter 16? Apart from Rom. 16:1, which describes Phoebe as “a diakonos of the church which is at Cenchrea” (the darling verse of those advocating the restoration of an order of deaconesses), most people pretty much ignore the whole chapter, which consists largely of a list of names of people in the Roman church…
Glory to God for All Things
Mary: The Blessing of All Generations
·
In my childhood, it was not unusual to hear someone ask, “Who are your people?” It was a semi-polite, Southernism designed to elicit essential information about a person’s social background. The assumption was that you, at best, could only be an example of your “people.” It ignored the common individualism of the wider culture, preferring the more family or clan-centered existence of an older time. It was possible to be “good people”…
Faith Encouraged
There is ALWAYS an Escape
·
Sin is boring! It really is. Because of my ordination and the blessing of the bishop, I am blessed to hear confessions from the faithful. Hearing confessions, I confess, is one of the most wonderful, challenging, and rewarding part of my priesthood. And the reason is I get invited into the lives of people I genuinely love and respect. And I get to hear from them about their struggles. And I get…
The Morning Offering
The Priest
·
The chief sign of a priest If a priest is not himself filled with the Holy Spirit he will be unable to impart genuine Orthodoxy to others. If a priest is not working on the acquisition of a humble and contrite heart, he will have failed in his priestly ministry, and will betray himself, and fail in his ministry to…
Remembering Sion
What Modern Churches Are Missing
·
Recently, a well-known Orthodox monastic and academic shared some of her thoughts on 1 Corinthians 5:9-13, which passage I will now quote: I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually-immoral people; not at all meaning the sexually-immoral of this world, or the greedy and robbers, or idolaters, since then you would need to depart from the world. But rather I wrote to you not to associate with any…
Faith Encouraged
Not Myths, But Eyewitnesses
·
“Do you pray to Zeus?” What? Yep, the lady was serious when she found out I was a Greek Orthodox priest, she wondered if we prayed to Zeus! Holy Moly! “No, ma’am” I said. “We are lovers of Jesus Christ, and actually we are the first Christians.” She was amazed. She said “I’ve never heard of you before.” “Yes, ma’am, I know. We have to do better at letting our neighbors know…
The Morning Offering
Orthodox Evangelism
·
Imparting the faith as a missionary people The first missionary monks to the North American came to a land where Orthodoxy had never been. Their encounter with the native peoples was one of mutual respect. They did not greet their new neighbors as pagans, but as a people who’s experience with God was limited, but who nevertheless held to certain…
Grace Here and Now
To Shine Again
·
Let’s Remake the World with Words by Gregory Orr Let’s remake the world with words. Not frivolously, nor To hide from what we fear, But with a purpose. Let’s, As Wordsworth said, remove “The dust of custom” so things Shine again, each object arrayed In its robe of original light. And then we’ll see the world As if for the first time, As once we gazed at the beloved Who was…
The Whole Counsel Blog
Tabor and Hermon
·
In the celebration of the Feast of the Transfiguration in the Orthodox Church, much attention is paid to the revelation of Christ’s glory as uncreated light. This is fitting, as this element of the event and of the feast became critically important to later doctrinal disputes within the East and ultimately between East and West. There are, however, other important elements of the event and feast relating to the revelation of Jesus as not only Christ but as God which may be all too quickly passed over as a result of this emphasis. Certain liturgical elements of the feast and of scriptures telling of the event give clues to these other elements if they are followed through attentively. One of…
Glory to God for All Things
The Scandal of the Transfiguration
·
My Archbishop (Alexander Golitzin) shares the story of a young man whom he taught some years ago. He was Orthodox from Estonia. He grew up in the Soviet era and had come to hate all things Russian, including the Orthodox Church. Nevertheless, he saw an Orthodox procession in the streets of his city one year, a procession that included the Russian bishop (whom he also hated and believed to be a KGB…
Faith Encouraged
Be Holy!
·
“Being precedes doing!” I heard the phrase and thought to myself “I’m not sure I understand what that is suppose to mean?” And, as I listened to the speaker longer, my confusion just grew. I think what the professor was trying to say was our actions flow from who we really are. And he was trying to get us to understand that it is the interior battle of slaying the “dragons” inside…
The Morning Offering
Helping the Vulnerable
·
With authority comes responsibility When people are hurting, and seeking professional help, they are vulnerable, and the trust they place in the professional makes them particularly open to exploitation. This is why we must have institutions and lines of authority that hold professionals accountable. We can not allow anyone who is vulnerable, be they a child, or an adult, to…
The Morning Offering
Pilgrimage to Alaska
·
With the blessing of Archbishop Kyrill of San Francisco and Western America, I have accepted the invitation of Archbishop David of Sitka and Alaska, to participate in the Saint Herman of Alaska Pilgrimage, and to deliver the Pastoral Retreat for his clergy. This trip to Alaska will be my first, and the knowledge that I will finally be able to…
Eastern Christian Insights
Transfigured Sight and Speech: Homily for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost and the Seventh Sunday of Matthew in the Orthodox Church
·
Romans 15:1-7; Matthew 9:27-35 It has never been hard to find people who view Jesus Christ in a many different ways. Some use His name as a curse word or otherwise mock Him. Some make Him in their own image as an advocate of whatever agenda they prize most in life. Some view Him as a teacher or prophet to be admired, but not as the Son…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Why Orthodox Christians Can Love Tolkien and Other Imaginative Fiction
·
The Morning Offering
Dressing for Church
·
Proper attire in the House of God The Church is our home, a place where we should feel comfortable, and at ease. It is also God’s house and is a temple set aside for worship of the Holy Trinity. Although times have changed and we have become a very casual society, this attitude can not be allowed to influence how…
The Whole Counsel Blog
Atonement for the Whole World
·
First John 2:2 states that Christ has offered himself as an atoning sacrifice “not only for our sins but also for the whole world.” For most of Christian history, this verse has been used as a football in various theological disputes. First, it was used as a proof text against the Donatists who saw their churches in North Africa as the totality of the church of Christ. Second, it was debated in regard to the condemnation of apokatastasis or universalism. Beginning in the period of the Protestant Reformation, it became a key text in the debate surrounding the Calvinist doctrine of limited or particular atonement. While what St. John has to say to the Johannine community in 1 John may…
Father Bill's Blog
137. The Transfiguration - The Other Great Forgotten Feast
·
The Holy Transfiguration, August 6, is one of the Great Feasts of the Church – but I’ll bet if you asked Americans, “What is the Transfiguration?”, ninety nine out of a hundred would say “Eh?” Or maybe some might think it was the latest super-hero movie. This is our second forgotten Feast. The first is the Epiphany (I’ve complained about this before – see Post 46), which gets ignored because it comes…
Faith Encouraged
The STONE the Builders Rejected!
·
Welcome to the second day of the Dormition Fast! The wisdom of the fasting disciplines of the Church are meant to reinforce the reality that unless the faith is holistically practiced, that is it affects every aspect of your person, the real danger of compartmentalization exists! I know this is a constant temptation for me! This idea that the faith is only one part of my life. When, in fact, the Faith…
The Morning Offering
Reverence in Church
·
God’s temple must be entered with awe and fear We must practice reverence in the temple, whether during services or when we step into the church to light a candle and venerate the holy icons. The temple is the place set apart for the worship of the Holy Trinity and is the place where the Bloodless Sacrifice is offered before…
Behind the Scenes
Schedule for the 2019 Ancient Faith Women's Retreat
·
What can you expect when you come to the Ancient Faith Women’s Retreat? Good teaching, good company, good food, and spiritual refreshment are all on the list! As we look forward to this year’s Retreat, which will take place on November 14-17 at Antiochian Village, we invite you to review the daily schedule for this event. Notice that free time for rest and reflection is built into the schedule! To learn more…
Time Eternal
Meeting Mrs. D and Remembering My Existential Childhood...
·
It was a hot, muggy morning last week, the final day of my month-long vacation in Wisconsin, and my abdomen was in a state of turmoil. I’d later realize my stomach tumult was not indigestion but a bilious stone in the gallbladder I should have had removed years ago. I tried to focus on the task at hand…
Faith Encouraged
It Is TRULY Right!
·
Everybody else was squirming. They were obviously having a hard time with the information and seemed to rather have been elsewhere. But I was at peace. It just made sense to me, I guess. Some of you know the story of how I entered the Orthodox Church. I was a pastor of a growing Pentecostal church in the Metro Atlanta area, and my best friend and I were really interested in Church…
The Morning Offering
Stop Complaining!
·
Complaining is in opposition to the message of the Gospels A bad attitude has the ability to keep us from growing spiritually, and can even impact the way we live, and hurt those around us. It is therefore important that we learn to keep a positive attitude, for negative thinking will not make anything better. Complaining is in opposition to…
No Other Foundation
The Wrath of God and Christian Apologetics
·
Many people today feel that the notion of a wrathful God is unworthy and should be scrapped. In particular, they feel that the notion that God could be wrathful means that God is somehow touchy, irritable, easy to alienate, and profoundly unloving and, well…unlovable. That is because we all know of all people who are broken like this and who are touchy, irritable, easy to offend, judgmental and unloving, and they are…
