Before I became Orthodox, I had heard several sermons about someone being foolish in the eyes of the world in order to serve God. The Scripture most often quoted was from Saint Paul: Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that […]
Archives for 2009
What are your favorite, uhm, sarcastic sayings?
On a post a couple of days ago, people started quoting different slightly sarcastic sayings or “laws.” I ended up having enough fun reading them that I thought I would repost them here and ask whether you have some favorite slightly sarcastic sayings. If you do, would you post them here? The real difference between […]
An incredibly good question
The note below is from the New York Times, from an opinion blog posted there. A fellow priest noticed this article and posted it on his Facebook page. Father Orthoduck found the question asked in the blog to be quite insightful as well and thought he would pass it on. Father Orthoduck encourages you to […]
Is the budgetary glass half-full or half-empty?
Father Orthoduck would like to remind his readers about the glass half-full or glass half-empty saying we have in this culture. It is meant to remind us that sometimes our outlook on a situation can vary depending on our background, etc. It is an old joke about the difference between an optimist and a pessimist. […]
Walmart caskets
Looking to save money on your casket? Well, this Halloween, you can get a great deal on a Wal-Mart casket. Yes, Father Orthoduck would not mislead you. Go to Wal-Mart, where you can buy your very own casket and beat the funeral home rip-off. If interested, please go here. Actually, Father Orthoduck thinks that this […]
Five Types of Christians
Mother Maria Skobtsova, a martyr of the Nazi concentration camps, and an early 20th century intellectual and nun, wrote an insightful essay entitled, “Types of Religious Life.” In it she articulates five ways of being religious: the “synodal,” the ritualist, the aesthetical, the ascetical as well the ideal way, the “evangelical” (or “way of the […]
We have met the enemy and he is us, part 02
. . . drop themselves into the sea. The final enemy is the one to which we tend to historically pay the least attention, and that is the flesh. And here is the key to what kept the monastics and the Amish from straying into the legalism and the lack of balance of the separatist […]
Vilification as a modern tool
Below is a good quote from a Baptist pastor who is reliably known as a theological conservative. I think it needs no further comment and it invites us to think: The reason conservatives and progressives can’t talk to one another are the tactics of vilification. We turn to them too soon. We use them without restraint. We […]
We have met the enemy and he is us, part 01
I have been talking about the Anabaptists–or at least those descended from the English Separatists–and the early monastics. I have mentioned how the monastics were kept from falling into the same trap as the Anabaptists. But, let me put it another way that may help you to see it better, and it has to do […]
How monks avoided becoming fundamentalists
Yesterday I asked the question about why the early Christian monks did not fall into the trap of the modern separatist fundamentalists. After all, if you read Church history, the monastic movement started from some of the same concerns the Anabaptists had about the purity of the Church and the failure of Christians to practice, […]
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