prayer Archives — Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick

The Struggle for Prayer

April 23, 2019April 23, 2019 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick

Prayer is a struggle. You know this if you have tried it, especially if you have tried to do it every day or even every week or every month. It is a struggle to pray every morning, to pray every night. It is a struggle to come to church every Sunday, to come to other services.

No Love? No Church. No Christianity.

July 3, 2018 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick

Ss. Cosmas & Damian of Rome / Fifth Sunday of Matthew, July 1, 2018 1 Corinthians 12:27-13:8; Matthew 8:28-9:1 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. What is love? If you grew up when I did, you probably now have that 1993 Haddaway song in your head. But if you don’t know what…

The Prodigal’s Prayer and Repentance: A Single Movement

February 7, 2018 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick

Sunday of the Prodigal Son, February 4, 2018 2 Corinthians 6:12-20; Luke 15:11-32 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. When I was on the Holy Mountain of Athos over the past couple of weeks, I asked the question and heard others ask the question of what we are to bring back with…

Shouldn’t This Thing Just Work? An Intentional Christianity

November 29, 2016November 29, 2016 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick

I get frustrated at machines sometimes, especially computerized machines. They do the most inexplicable things at times. When I was a stagehand, we called this IWF (Intermittent Weird Failure). IWF when I was a stagehand was eminently addressable—in most cases, we just switched out the offending part and went on with our lives. But I don’t always have that option out in the world…

A Failure at Prayer: On the Publican and Pharisee

February 21, 2016 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick

Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, February 21, 2016 2 Timothy 3:10-15; Luke 18:10-14 Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Is it possible to be a failure at prayer? The answer is “yes,” and today we’ll talk about two failures at prayer, depicted for us in…

St. Paisios and Salvation from Distraction

July 13, 2015July 13, 2015 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost / Sixth Sunday of Matthew, July 12, 2015 Romans 12:6-14; Matthew 9:1-8 Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Today we have a rare privilege in church life in that today is the very first time the feast of a saint is celebrated—St. Paisios…

“God will make him a saint for you”: On Rigidity

March 10, 2015March 10, 2015 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick

I spent the day yesterday at St. Tikhon’s with some of my fellow clergy from the Lehigh Valley Orthodox Clergy Brotherhood, and we shared a beautiful day of brotherhood as guests of the monastery. In one of our conversations, one of the priests was relating time he had spent with a holy elder in Greece (who is still living, though not in good health),…

Prayer for the Dead and Family Process

February 26, 2015February 26, 2015 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick

Ccontinuing on some of the thoughts I mentioned in my Tuesday post on the occasion of six months since my mother’s passing, I wanted to explore some of these issues further in a more general way, meditating on a few related questions. I’ve actually gotten a couple of private notes from folks concerned that, from what they read, I was “repressing” my emotions regarding…