Category: Personal Life

Seeds for a Church: The Three Martyrs of Vilnius

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Having an ethnic heritage that was not actually passed down to me as an inheritance seems like another exercise in that odd, defamiliarized life that Third Culture Kids can never quite escape. And what’s more, being an Orthodox Christian has in many ways felt like an exercise in the same narrative. A people who were not my own have become my people.

The Paralysis of Life on the Go

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Sunday of the Paralytic, April 29, 2018 Acts 9:32-42; John 5:1-15 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Christ is risen! Something happened in my life this past week that for years I wasn’t sure would ever happen. And it’s something that hadn’t happened in my life for almost 20 years. On Friday,


20 Years of Being Orthodox: 6 Things I’ve Learned

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Today marks the 20th anniversary of my reception into the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church — the Orthodox Church. I was just 22 years old at the time and still in college (I had something of a “career” in college, accumulating one BA, most of another, and three minors, all while working to support myself). In 1998, April 19 was Pascha, and at


How My Mother’s Life Interprets Mine

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The following is an excerpt from a longer talk, titled “We’re All Absalom: Emerging Into Adulthood Alongside Our Parents,” which can be heard on Ancient Faith Radio. I delivered the talk at the 2017 Antiochian Archdiocese Convention for the Young Adult Ministry. The photo above is of my mother on her wedding day in 1972. Her name was Sandy, and my mother was always


A Shakespearean Thanksgiving

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Since most Americans are relaxing at home today, I thought I would shift gears a bit and share a little humor with you. For several years now, I’ve been collecting quotes from the works of William Shakespeare that amuse me to misconstrue as being applicable to Thanksgiving. Here’s the full collection: Shakespeare’s militant vegetarian complaining about the other guests eating turkey for Thanksgiving: “Why