A journal of byzantine digressionS
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What is a Week End?
THE DOWAGER COUNTESS of Downton Abbey rather famously asked, “What is a Week End?” Ascending high enough up the ladder of nobility, at a certain point the difference between work and life no longer matters: one is always The Dowager Countess of Downton even when other folks have “down time”. Vocation is like that: one
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Orange Class Playlist
OUR HEBREW CLASS at Citizen Cafe uses a LOT of music. I’m sure this playlist will grow (we’re only halfway through the term) but it’s fun learning a language with Pop Music. These are not religious songs at all, but each is sung in the modern form of the language of the Prophets, Lashon Hakodesh
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Missed a 12 Mile Day
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A Child’s Autumn in Wurtsboro
Two essays from September of 2000. They are nearly as old now as I was removed from my childhood when I wrote them. The “45” in the first graph has been changed to reflect today rather than the original Y2K date. I was already living in SF at that time, before 9/11 changed the world.
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Tonight’s Playlist
#mood There was this song I remember singing as a child (maybe 3 or 4). It’s still 100% true. Even when I forget. Jesus loves you too. What we all need… Ending where our brother Aaron began above.
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Po-Mo Exegesis
This post is from 17 Sep 2002. Still relevant, it seems. I’d been Orthodox for maybe 4 months by that time – and still struggle with some of the things referenced here. THERE’S A SONG BY THE EAGLES that I heard on the radio today that put a lot in perspective for me. The thing
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By Way of Update
LAST WEEK WAS filled with what could be called “emotional labor”. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, and my pastor has called out “maintaining particular relationships” as a hallmark. On top of that, my own devotional life is swirling around seeing Christ in each and every person. Pope St John Paul II wrote, “Jesus
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Showing your work
For the first assignment in homiletics we were to read the book Elements of Homiletic: A Method for Preparing to Preach by Otis C. Edwards. Then we were to put the method in play using a randomly assigned Gospel pericope. My passage was the Wedding At Cana, St John 2:1-11. The method, by the way,
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Sorrowful Mysteries of Virtue (repost)
DURING THE SPIRITUAL STRUGGLE (ascesis, podvig, jihad) to acquire the virtues there are three opponents that must be defeated: the world, the flesh, and the devil. In the course of this battle, the self is also conquered, but it cannot be so until the other three are defeated. Of course none of these can be
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How to Treat the Richest 1 Percent
The Readings for the Memorial of St John Chrysostom, Doctor24th Tuesday, Tempus per Annum (C2) As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. I Corinthians 12:12 TODAY is the Memorial of St John Chrysostom. By many lights, he
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Wrong Communion
The Readings for the 23rd Saturday, Tempus per Annum (C2) The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?l I Corinthians 10:16 (NABRE) THIS IS NOT REALLY ABOUT The readings (for Saturday,
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Sheer torture
I need to do all of my homework from here.
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Memory Eternal.
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It’ll All Work Out
The Readings for the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin23rd Thursday, Tempus per Annum (C2) We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 (NABRE) THERE ARE THREE people in the Western Christian Tradition whose birth is commemorated: John the
Orthoparadoxy 