I love the posts people share in this penitent, but expectant time of the church year. I have recently re-tagged all of our posts shared in the past around Advent and Nativity. I invite you to share some of your own favorite blog posts in the comment section below that we may be mutually encouraged by one another’s faith.
Blessed and fruitful time to all in preparation our Our Lord Jesus Christ’s Nativity in human flesh!
First Day of the Nativity Fast
Commencement of Advent in the Orthodox Church
For the rest of the country,
Black Friday
I refuse to add to the growing litany of bloggers who want to end the atrocities of our over-driven consumerist culture. While I mostly agree with their criticisms, I don’t think it works to curse the darkness without lighting a candle. And the candle of prayer that I wish to light on this commencement of Holy Advent is a plug for a very potent service of prayer.
Continue reading
There is a joke among recovering fundamentalist Christians. It goes, “Why is pre-marital sex so wrong? Because it might lead to dancing.” While most Christians can agree with the former prohibition against sex outside of marriage, the latter taboo has brought frustration to many a footloose Christian who begs for a definition of exactly what kind of dancing leads to moral degradation. As for this recovering fundamentalist, I have never been happier than the first time I witnessed centuries-old folk dancing going on right in the fellowship hall of an Eastern Orthodox church. You can even say it was one of the things that led me to the Church. Continue reading
New Movie on the Life of Rich Mullins
I first heard his music in a Christian bookstore back in the eighties when the only way to listen to new music was to sample it in the store or hear it in church. Christian Contemporary music (CCM) did not have the advantage of its secular counterpart: playtime on multiple radio stations, so songs and singers were far less known. Oh the hours I spent in my favorite Christian superstore looking for deep theological reflection and profound devotional commitment… mostly to no avail. More often what I heard was pop cultural leftovers, bands that were supposed to be the “Christian equivalent” of bands in the world, but were merely derivative and therefore inferior to what the world produced. I was lost in this sea of spin-off artistry, desperate to find an authentic voice, someone who did not have to imitate the world and sprinkle their lyrics with God-speak to sell records to gullible, culture-starved believers. And that’s when I heard Rich Mullins, who not only inspired me with his authentic witness for Christ, but showed me the way home into apostolic Christianity. Continue reading
Our family had the great fortune already this fall of attending two celebrations of the harvest with many more to come. The first was a long-standing tradition we have had of going with St. Herman Christian School to our favorite fruit farm in Northborough, MA. The second was a new tradition that we intend to repeat with my parents who now live in the area: the yearly harvest of the largest producer of cranberries in the world, right here in New England! Continue reading
Want to share this link for those who might be interested in seeing my talk on the big screen. I shared an audio version and written version of my talk previously. Now if you wish, for a few well spent bucks, you can see it in living color! Just click on the link below for me and many other amazing speakers. I recommend especially Socrates Meets Jesus.
For our annual back-to-school post, I would like to highlight a new homeschool program we have joined that has brought back great memories for me of learning things by heart when I was a young man. Congratulations to all students on the commencement of a new academic year, and kali dynami or good strength to all in your studies!
Finish this verse: “Watch that wobble, see that wiggle…”
“Cool and fruity, jello brand gellatin…”
If you could complete this little ditty or many others like it without even thinking about it, you have become an unconscious evangelist for a marketing campaign. And if we are so good at unconscious proselytizing for products, could we not consciously put to memory songs and words which ennoble our souls and not just fatten our bodies? Continue reading
And what of us in the West, and particularly in America? Do we have any image that explains our situation as well as Gulag does that of Russia? I am afraid there is an image, most unflattering to us, which is almost our equivalent of Gulag. It is “Disneyland” an image which exemplifies our carefree love of “fun” (a most un-Christian word!), our lack of seriousness, our living in a literal fool’s paradise, unaware or barely aware of the real meaning and seriousness of life.
— Blessed Fr. Seraphim Rose
On Maintaining an Orthodox Worldview (excerpt)
I have labored for years to understand this word of wisdom from one my most formative of spiritual fathers. The truth of it resonated deeply upon first hearing it, but I have had great difficulty articulating the opinion to those outside of Orthodox Christian influence. After all, Disney means more to us Americans than just another movie theater company. It is a whole experience, a place of pilgrimage, even a complete view of the salvation of mankind, and this was finally made much clearer to me recently by Disney’s own excellent apologetic for its dogma, Saving Mr. Banks. Continue reading
Please check out the new page created highlighting our favorite media from year’s past. Hope it will help you and yours to be inspired as we have been by these superior works of cinematic and literary art.
Love this post from my boss about some of my favorite Anglicans, especially John Mason Neale, whom I mentioned last year on his feast day. Forgotten heroes and forgotten spiritual practices/treasures go hand in hand.
Sermon for Sunday, July 27, 2014
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
“Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”
I’m going to begin today’s sermon with a car. My first car was a 1977 Chevette that I bought when I was in college for $100 from a music professor at Carleton College. The best I can say about that car is that the price was right, and that it made me forever grateful for cars that start and get me where I need to go. The stories I could tell about that car stalling in the middle of nowhere in Minnesota… To try to better care for that car and restart it when it stalled, I began purchasing tools and also a toolbox that…
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