Blog — Page 2 of 65 — Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick

No, the Paschal date difference is not about Passover (and other Orthodox urban legends)

April 17, 2022May 10, 2022 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick

Orthodox Christians should find their identity in Christ and in the saving dogmas proclaimed about Him universally in Orthodox tradition. How we calculate Pascha (which was not set by the Apostles) is not one of those things.

The Martyrs’ Blood Against the Demon Hordes: A Reflection on the Akolouthia of the Three Martyrs of Vilnius

April 14, 2022April 13, 2022 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick

The Scriptures and all the liturgical services of the Orthodox Church include the theme of spiritual warfare, but it is particularly prominent in the liturgical services for the martyred saints.

Is There a Triumph of Orthodoxy?

March 13, 2022March 11, 2022 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick

Ten years ago, I was present at a sermon on the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy given by the late Fr. Thomas Hopko, three years before he died. The title he gave the sermon was “What Triumph of Orthodoxy?” And he said that there never really was such a thing.

Purification for Pascha

February 14, 2022 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick

Why not just ask to enter into the Great Feast of Pascha, into the Kingdom of God, without having to go through this purification? Why won’t God just open the door and say, “Come on in” to everyone?

Ignored by God

February 8, 2022February 8, 2022 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick

Real love for God is when we can begin to pray without expectations, without conditions that we lay down for God, willing to accept whatever God is going to give us. A true child of God will fall down at the Master’s feet and say, “Lord, help me.” It doesn’t matter what then happens.

The City Which is to Come

January 31, 2022 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick

We don’t get caught up in the endless controversies and pursuits of this world. Let such dead ways of living bury themselves, because death is their aim. Here we have no lasting city. We seek the City which is to come.

The False Virtue of Woke Puritanism

January 25, 2022January 25, 2022 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick

Here in 21st century America, the only truly unforgivable sin — in many cases, the only sin — is having the wrong opinion.

The Lady at the Center of a Christian People

December 26, 2021December 24, 2021 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick

A friend of mine likes to say that no nation or people is truly a Christian nation or people until it has a nationally-venerated icon or shrine of the Theotokos. This is not a doctrine of the Church, of course, but it is a cultural observation that rings true in a certain way. There is something about how a Christian society works that almost inevitably results in having a veneration for the Lord’s mother at the center.