A journal of byzantine digressionS
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Friendship & Ascesis
A meditation on the struggle in the context of friendship. It’s not go for the man to be alone.
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Shattering
How our Lord enters in an changes us. From the inside out.
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Joey, Joe, or Joseph?
This is an edited repost from 2021. THERE IS A TRADITION that St Joseph was much older that the Blessed Virgin when they were betrothed. One saint suggests that Jesus’ Foster Father was 91 when he married the Blessed Virgin! Other teachers, suggest mid-fifties. The reason for this tradition is generally understood to be the
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Sunday b4 Nativity
Vlog post: reflections on the Sunday of the Forefathers, the genealogy of Jesus, the Hypostatic Union, and the “war on Christmas.”
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Ecclesiology Trouble
In a week where Syria falls, Christians are being rounded up, and most of America is Holiday Stress Eating, a little news item seems to be sliding by without much comment: The official calendar for the 2025 Holy Year includes an event for an Italian organization called “Jonathan’s Tent” which “to the welcoming, training and
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90 Days at the Gym
A vlog about my weight-loss journey and 90 Days of Gym Membership. Things mentioned:
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Vlog: So Mysterious
If you’re Byzantine Catholic or Eastern Orthodox you’ve heard or maybe even said, “The Eastern Church is so mysterious” or “mystical”. This video is a mediation on that claim.
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Liturgical Theology
Thoughts on liturgy, theology, and prayer. How can we pray if we do not have the Liturgy, and how can we get the Liturgy at all when most of us do not experience it fully?
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Friday Night, T2
You conceived the Logos without seed, and gave birth to the one Christ; for you bore a new Child, your Creator. Wherefore, we magnify you, О Theotokos.
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Thursday Night, T2
Your Virgin Mother, beholding You, О Christ, stretched out dead upon the Tree, said, weeping bitterly: “O my Son, what is this strange mystery? How is it that You Who grant life everlasting to all, of Your own will, have died a shameful death upon the Cross?”
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Wednesday Night, T2
By your prayers, О pure Ever-virgin, grant me divine entry, and, having broken asunder the bonds of my cruel passions, free me from the flame which is to come.
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Tuesday Night, T2
We magnify you, O Theotokos, crying aloud: you are the un-burnt bush, wherein Moses beheld as a flame the Fire of the Divinity.
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Monday Night, T2
Looking upon the grievous slothfulness of my soul and the utter weakness of my heart, О Mother of God, heal me by your supplications and grant me the portion of the saved, delivering me from darkness and torment, in that you alone are my hope and consolation.
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Never Skip Thorns
Jesus heals everyone… except St Paul. Why?
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Sunday Night, T2
As the wellspring of loving-kindness, О Theotokos, grant mercy unto us. Look upon the people who have sinned, and show forth, as ever, your power; for, trusting in you, we cry to you: Rejoice!’’, as once did Gabriel, the supreme commander of the incorporeal beings.
Orthoparadoxy 