When I feed the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor are hungry, they call me a communist. — Dom Helder Camara “When ecclesiastic love waned, when waves of capitalistic greed surged across Christian Europe, when starving masses cried out bitterly in the slums, the promise of their salvation came […]
Archives for August 2011
Illogical college students
Sadly this comic is actually accurate. As many of you know, I am an Adjunct Professor at an university. One of the things my wife has heard me rant about is the lack of logic, the lack of ability to reason that is found in so many college students. But, it is not merely in […]
Islam compatible with freedom? — Orthodox Christian Network
This week the Orthodox Christian Network is having a podcast discussion on whether Islam is compatible with freedom. I do not know what they will say, but OCN is a reliable source of Orthodox thought. So, let me recommend that you may wish to listen to that podcast. You can see the details here. Let […]
St. John the Compassionate needs your help
One of the compassionate works that I keep up with is St. John the Compassionate Mission in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They are engaged in God’s work in many areas as part of the Carpatho Russian jurisdiction in Canada. They feed the poor, but they train as well. For instance, they run St. John’s Bakery, a […]
Discontent in Great Britain
As we all know, there has been rioting in England for the past several days. About 1,000 people have been arrested thus far with more to come. Besides having a son-in-law stationed with the Air Force in England and our youngest daughter over there with him right now, I also have several friends. Two days ago I was chatting […]
Missionaries and various cultural adjustments
Yesterday I posted on how we should be cautious as to how we preach about arriving on time. I pointed out that the concept of “being on time” is somewhat cultural. In Anglo-Saxon and Germanic cultures, being on time means that one arrives no later than the time appointed, and in reality it really means […]
Being on time
I found this cartoon from England to be quite funny. There is a perpetual joke in both Greek and Antiochian circles about Greek time or Arab time. I have not heard quite as much of it among the OCA folk, but it is there as well. Before anyone comments anything, NO NO NO do not […]
Loaves, fishes, and artoclasia
The homily below was given on 7 August 2011 by Fr. Demetri Tsigas of Saint Katherine Greek Orthodox Church in Melbourne, FL. He e-mailed it out to various people and I am including it here because it is such an excellent sermon and a good explanation of the bread, wine, oil, and wheat ceremony celebrated […]
Synaxarion of the Transfiguration
Tomorrow, really beginning tonight at Vespers, is the Feast of the Transfiguration, one of the 12 Great Feasts of the Church. Below is the reading for the day from the online Chapel of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. Our Lord had spoken to His disciples many times not only concerning His Passion, Cross, and Death, but […]
Harry Potter philosophical camps
I read an interesting article by Terry Mattingly, the Orthodox journalist and religion writer. In it he summarizes the various camps that have developed around the Harry Potter books, or perhaps I should say the corpus. As you know, the release of the Harry Potter books triggered a large debate among various Christians about whether […]
