help

How to keep a priest humble

Do you want to know how to keep a priest humble? Make sure to have him read the Fifth Prayer that comes after the Fifth Gospel during the Service of Holy Unction that takes place on Holy Wednesday evening. Do you want to know what the priest must pray about himself? [Praying to God, the priest says] . . . who also hast called me, thy humble and sinful and unworthy servant, entangled in manifold sins... [Read more]

The (ab)use of Easter

Noted Evangelical author Rick Warren said, in a recent article in The Christian Post: Use Easter to Break a Growth Barrier Every church hits a wall in growth, that attendance barrier your church can’t seem to get past. Maybe it’s 50, 100, 1,000, or 10,000. It doesn’t matter. One of the best chances you’ll have all year to pass that barrier is at Easter. . . . Leverage the day. Make sure you’re... [Read more]

suggest

A real life example of our current healthcare system and our “Christian” response

In the discussion of healthcare changes, one of the most often made arguments is that somehow God “hates” forced charity–despite the fact that the Old Testament Law specified quite a few taxes and Jesus said that we need to pay Caesar’s taxes without complaint–and that the Church is the one who ought to handle works of mercy. Well, let me give you a real-life example... [Read more]

jobs

Tony Campolo, Glenn Beck, and heresy

Over the last couple of days Father Orthoduck and I have been discussing short-term missions, theology, and social justice.  Let me now return to short-term missions with a quote from the article by Tony Campolo that was cited earlier. In this quote, Tony Campolo provides the link between Glenn Beck’s disdain for government and private donations to organizations that serve the poor. And, if... [Read more]

research

Short-term missions, social support, and Tony Campolo

I am a supporter of short-term missions. However, my blog post of the day before yesterday did not make that clear. I have seen at least two people called to long-term missions because they served on a short-term mission team. My problem is not with short-term missions per se. My problem is with under-trained teams who come over and cause multiple problems to the missionaries in residence and who expect... [Read more]

Learning about whom we visit in short-term mission

In January of 2009, I posted a blog on what we can learn from the poor. I talked about Fr. Alejandro Mesco and what he had taught me about sharing the good things that the Lord gives us. Just today, I read an article in Mission Frontiers which is a magazine of the US Center for World Missions. It is found in the column titled Further Reflections and the particular article is called, Learning the Lay... [Read more]

The poor teach us

Fr. Alejandro Mesco The poor teach us. No, no, no, I am not talking some of the sloppy sentimentality that passes for serious thinking in too much of the Hollywood set. Rather, today I am thinking about the example of a friend of mine. In southern Peru, I was field director of a region. I had two indigenous priests under my care. Both of them lived out in the shantytowns, one by choice, and the other... [Read more]

But, Holy Tradition does exist

I was fortunate to have a theological professor who pointed out that every decision of an ecumenical council, whether dogmatic or disciplinary was introduced by words similar to those found in Acts 15, that is, it seemed good to us and to the Holy Spirit, with the addition of a phrase about being in accord the the teaching of the Fathers. In spite of that, while no dogmatic decision has ever been... [Read more]

marketing

Not everything is Holy Tradition

“Custom is the plague of wise men and the idol of fools” — Thomas Fuller One of the mistakes that is common in liturgical groups is to mistake anything which has been done for a while with Holy Tradition. Even among the Orthodox, there is a common tendency to see what is as what must be kept. This becomes particularly visible in a pan-Orthodox congregation. This past Palm Sunday,... [Read more]

Can a heretic be saved?

St. Augustine refuting heretics Since the Middle Ages, it is quite common to assume that if one is a heretic, then one cannot be saved. This is not surprising, since it seems that one of the favorite words of the Roman Church was ”anathema” (or accursed) in those days. Meantime, the Reformers did their own bit of burning and cleansing. [Mind you, the Orthodox threw a couple of pogroms... [Read more]