The task of wisdom is to prompt the intelligence to strict watchfulness, constancy, and spiritual contemplation. -St. Hesychios My back hurts thinking of standing at the door and watching. The pain resides in my lower back and climbs up my spine to the upper back. My shoulders round forward, protective. I want to roll forward, stretch that spine, fall to the floor, take a nap. When we stand, though, and train ourselves…
“Poetry is when language attains a degree of opacity, and you can’t see right through it.” This quote came from my pal, Scott Cairns when I asked him to talk about the intersection of poetry and liturgy. I was fortunate to have gathered a small posse of smart Orthodox poet-types and ask them questions at the Festival of Faith and Writing in Grand Rapids . Much wisdom came forth from Scott, Gaelan…
Sunday of Forgiveness, February 26, 2017 Romans 13:11-14:4; Matthew 6:14-21 Very Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. The Lord said: “If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive…
Well, hello, Lent. Our journey to the resurrection has begun. We’ve asked for the doors of repentance to open to us and are once again intensifying our focus on trusting in the Lord and not on our own strength. It’s not easy work, dear ones. Especially if you’re like me, and you tend to run on your own steam and effort a lot of the time. In fact, our Lenten disciplines can be…
This post has been re-written like twelve times so far. I’m wrestling with the post because all I can think about are cupcakes. True story. When I went to Panera Bread this week the sign on the door informed me that all of their ingredients were now “clean.” I thought to myself, “I hope they have cupcakes and I don’t care how ‘clean’ they are.” I do care, though, a little. If…