Just before the beginning of Great Lent, I was thumbing through my library wondering again what would be the best thing to read in this season of the fast. It is a good and pious practice during the forty days of fasting not only to increase prayers and attendance to church services but to practice some form of media fast and engage instead in one good spiritual book that will help one reflect on the life of Christ and repent of sinful habits. It was then that I came across an article which highlighted the book or rather set of plays that C.S. Lewis frequently read during Lent. This and the name Dorothy Sayers both caught my attention. Sayers is popular for her saying that “the dogma is the drama”; i.e., contrary to popular opinion that learning right doctrine is for dull and doltish people who like dusty libraries and don’t know how to have a good time, the dogma of the Church, relating first and foremost to the identity and work of Jesus Christ as He reveals the worship of the All-Holy Trinity, is rather for those who wish to engage in the greatest of all dramas.
Continue readingCategory Archives: Media Reviews
Orthodox Byzantine Music Concert in Montreal, April 20
I don’t usually use this blog to advertise upcoming events, but I thought that since some of my subscribers might be local to Quebec, it would be good to hear in advance about an opportunity our little Boston Byzantine Choir of St. Mary Orthodox Church in Cambridge has had to go international (well, okay, just across the border to Canada, but French Canada at least). Announcing a Lenten musical pilgrimage concert entitled From Adam to Christ: A Story of Rebellion to Redemption featuring our own choir and the parish choir of St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church of Montreal. The concert will take place in two weeks on the Saturday before the Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt, April 20, 7:00 pm, at St. George’s, so if you are local, plan on swinging by to hear some extraordinary and otherworldly music. Click on the flier pictured left for more detailed information and stay tuned for at least one blog post from me in retrospect of the event. I can’t imagine visiting a world class city like Montreal and not having something to say about it!
God Taking out an Ad in the Paper
Besides having a compelling title, a new book I am poring over is exceedingly engaging. The ho-hum geometric cover just does not do it justice, and had I not read this great review from World magazine, I might never have made it past the cover.
Now, rather than give you, dear reader, another overview that you might read at the book’s website, I prefer to dive in to one of the funniest bits so far. Continue reading
Being Told What to Read
No one, including yours truly, likes it very much, but without it, our respective worlds would become incredibly cramped and selfishly narrow. I am personally very grateful tonight for some Russian friends who have been telling me for years to read Russian books by Russian authors, even if I have to succumb [temporarily] to the English translations. For a long time, I fought every Dostevsky novel, every Gogol compendium, every maddening Chekov anthology. Even now that I am married to a Russian, I still resist. But little by little, by obeying the advice of my Russophile friends, my resistance is wearing thin. Continue reading
An Unexpected Journey to the Movies
Went to opening night of the new Hobbit movie. There is only one other movie I have seen on opening night in my life, and that was the second installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Can’t say much now because I am exhausted, but oh it was worth every minute and penny spent on the experience. Continue reading
Tap Dancing the Orthodox Way
When I first came to Boston several decades ago, I was a newly minted college grad sent on a mission to enlighten the world with my presumed wisdom. In fact, one of the ways I hoped to make my living teaching others with something I thought I knew well was through tap dancing. Growing up in a podunk town in the Midwest, I nevertheless somehow managed to receive instruction in the modern art and rose to a level I felt was proficient enough to make me a teacher. Do not presume to be teachers, my brethren, for the man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. Continue reading
Extended Family in Hollywood Pictures
In Sochi now long enough to reestablish our usual family patterns. It is interesting how much our daily routine is tied up so much with the place in which it happens. When that place changes, an inevitable alteration in routine results to adapt to the new setting. We have been staying with aunt and uncle and will move down the street to make room for the arrival of cousins tomorrow. It has been good to get our own family patterns established in this new place before we intersect with our cousins’ family patterns.
