The Beginning of Baptism

Sunday after Theophany, January 12, 2014 Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick A recording of this sermon can be heard via Ancient Faith Radio. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Today is the Sunday after the Great Feast of Theophany, and even though the feast is now past, we are still within the…

Why I Love (True) Religion Because I Love Jesus, Redux

This coming Sunday, Jan. 12, will be the two year anniversary of the post that has inexplicably (to me) probably been the most-read thing I’ve ever written. It’s always somewhat odd to me to note the things that get the most hits. They’re almost invariably stuff that’s more off-the-cuff than much-deliberated (like this silly post of coffee and theology jokes). (Kind of depressing, really.)…

A Tolkien-Shaped Mind

I do not know how aware most folks are of what books shape their basic imaginations—the formation that to a large part determines what brings them delight, what strikes them as worth attention, what gives them a vocabulary for the world. For me, there are really two sources that give me that shape—the Bible and the fiction works of J. R. R. Tolkien. This…

Fall Speaking Engagements: New Jersey, Georgia, SE Pennsylvania

I’ve got several upcoming speaking engagements this Fall. If you’re in the area, I’d love to see you: October 19: Sharing Orthodoxy in the New World: Conversations on Faith with Family and Friends (a conference on Orthodox evangelism) at Assumption Orthodox Church in Clifton, New Jersey. October 26: The Church in the Bible & The Church After the Bible (two separate talks) (event page…

Thoughts from just south of Dunder Mifflin

I watched the series finale of “The Office” (US) last night (yes, after watching the entire series). And I have to admit that I got a little sentimental at all the Jim/Pam stuff of the last few episodes. I very much appreciated that, during the course of their marriage, the writers gave them some real problems and that Pam even says in the final…

A Decade that Belongs

Ten years ago today, Nicole Ann Boury married me. After ten years, I’m still not entirely sure why she did it. I know I haven’t always made her happy. I know I’ve many times made her unhappy. But even through all the uncertainty and instability of the past ten years—which is not very much for some, but is for us—we still belong. Over this…