Category: Language

“Blessing”: Does It Actually Mean Anything?

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost / Sixth Sunday of Matthew, July 8, 2018 Romans 12:6-14; Matthew 9:1-8 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Today I would like to speak about blessing and cursing. Our epistle reading from Romans 12 ends with this verse: ā€œBless those who persecute you; bless, and do not curseā€ā€¦

Do Orthodox Christians Have Jesus in Their Hearts?

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Sunday of the Canaanite Woman, February 14, 2016 II Corinthians 6:16b-18, 7:1; Matthew 15:21-28 Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. ā€œYou are a temple of the living God, even as God has said: ā€˜I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be theirā€¦

Do We Preach “Orthodoxy”… or Christ?

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
In her review of Kyriakos Markides’s Gifts of the Desert, Frederica Mathewes-Green says she had a hard time finding Jesus in the book: Markidesā€™ previous book, ā€œThe Mountain of Silenceā€ (2001), was read eagerly by those interested in Orthodox spirituality, chiefly because he had faithfully transcribed taped conversations with a monk trained on Mt. Athos, Father Maximos. Though Markides himself seemed not wholly onā€¦

Back to Greek

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
It’s been fifteen years since I did formal study of Ancient Greek. I’ve been wanting to get back to it for a long time now. So on the recommendation of learned friends, I got myself a copy of Greek: An Intensive Course by Hansen and Quinn. I also pulled out my two volumes of Athenaze by Balme and Lawall.  (Old notes from 1999 fellā€¦

Can the Virgin Mary “save” us?

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Today I read the comments on this YouTube video. I know, I know—YouTube comments generally are the lowest form of discourse on the Internet, and I wasn’t terribly surprised to see that someone thought that the musical line “Most Holy Mother of God, save us” was “blasphemous.” (He preferred to hear his blasphemy in Latin, apparently.) I must admit to being a bit baffled,ā€¦

Jennifer Aniston Goes Makeup-Free. Liberation Ensues.

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
I read this morning that actress Jennifer Aniston (whose family name is Anastasakis and whose godfather is Telly Savalas) had declared that going makeup-free in her new film Cake was “dreamy and empowering and liberating.” I don’t normally bother with celebrity news, but of course when using social media, it’s hard to escape it. This caught my eye, though, because it struck me asā€¦

“We speak one language: Antiochian”: More Thoughts on the Future of the Antiochian Archdiocese and Orthodoxy in America

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
If you’ve done any reading from modern Orthodox saints, you know that there is a certain tone among the holy elders of Greece, another from Russia and so forth. Each culture enculturates the Gospel in its own authentic way and speaks of the truth of Jesus Christ with its own voice. One of the things which makes the particular Antiochian voice distinct—although it isā€¦