Tag: Pascha

Hades is Embittered

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
I have been criticized a number of times recently because my approach to this pandemic has not been “How do we keep doing business as usual in face of all these obstacles?” but rather “Given that we have this problem, what do we do in the midst of it?” To me, though, the question is whether I believe this present state of things is given to me for my salvation.

The Three Ways Christians Approach the World

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
There are generally three approaches that Christians have taken when it comes to their surrounding cultures: 1) Rejection, resistance, and hostility: This approach sharply distinguishes the Church from the world, emphasizing that the Church is so much “not of this world” that the world must be fled and an alternate community established. It is a posture that is fully closed to the world —


The Descent of God as Fire: Pentecost and the Exodus

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Sunday of Pentecost, June 4, 2017 Acts 2:1-11; John 7:32-57, 8:12 Very Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. In his commentary on the events of that first Pentecost, the Venerable Bede, who was an English saint and Biblical scholar and commentator in the early eighth century, makes


The Power of Resurrection

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
I wanted to offer a few words as Orthodox Christians around the world are experiencing Paschal joy, rippling across the time zones with shouts of exultation in the glory of Christ’s rising from death. I’m not sure why, but this year in particular I have strongly felt a sense of the pervasiveness of the power of the resurrection of Jesus. Perhaps it is because


Bright Week Debrief

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Like most of the rest of the Orthodox Christian presbytery this time of year, I am currently in post-Paschal recovery mode. Lent, Holy Week and Pascha always take a lot out of us Orthodox Christians, and the clergy stand at the center of the liturgical, spiritual and emotional maelstrom that this season swirls us through. But I quote a certain theologian and philosopher when