Many of you remember sermons in church, statistics in political arguments, etc., that said that 1 out of every 2 marriages ends in divorce. In 1981, the vancouver family law firm reported that the number of marriages was 2,438,000 while the number of divorces was 1,219,000 or a rate of 10.6 marriages per 1,000 total […]
Archives for June 2014
Saint Ernest of Mecca or of Zwiefalten
Saint Ernest of Mecca – Abbot of the abbey of Zwiefalten Died 1148 AD in MeccaFeast November 7 Saint Ernest (died 1148) was the abbot of the Benedictine Zwiefalten Abbey at Zwiefalten, Germany during the 12th century. He participated in the Second Crusade fought by Christians between 1145 and 1149 to regain the Holy Land, […]
Yes, I have the same question!
There are days when I have the very same questions that the little girl above has. There are many terms floating around for people born in either Central or South America. If you add in to that mix people born in Spain, one can have an interesting challenge in deciding what terminology to use. The […]
Viet Nam memories of Iraq
Classic Doonesbury (1975) by Garry Trudeau Reading about what is happening in Iraq with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria brought back certain memories. I was drafted in 1971 during the Viet Nam War. I was in the barracks on 23 January 1973 when President Nixon announced the Paris Peace Accords that would supposedly […]
Women, protection, and the law
“If a young woman who is a virgin is betrothed to a husband, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry […]
Suffering and Christianity
From the website of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in America: Suffering is not a problem, but an unfathomable, theoretically incomprehensible mystery. We should not try to explain suffering or construct theories about the reasons for suffering in the world and systematic explanations that seek to reconcile innocent suffering with belief in a good and all […]
Lions, tigers, and heretics, oh my!
The word “heretic” is indeed used too frequently nowadays. It has a definite meaning and function, to distinguish new teachings from the Orthodox teaching; but few of the non-Orthodox Christians today are consciously “heretics,” and it really does no good to call them that. In the end, I think, Fr. Dimitry Dudko’s attitude is the […]
Post about artistic creativity on the Orthodox Christian Network
When I write on the Orthodox Christian Network, I cannot repost it on this blog. This is not because of the OCN. Rather, it creates a problem with Google. Why? Well, as you all know, Google uses algorithms in order to page rank. But, when the same post is seen, word for word, on multiple […]
Excellent questions for the VA
I am listening live to a House of Representatives committee interviewing various VA officials. I have heard a couple of questions that are really excellent. My favorite one has to do with Information Technology. My second favorite one has to do with standardization. Mr. Matkovsky, of the VA, was asked about the current state of […]
A little phrase that I really like
Every saint has a past, and every sinner a future… – Oscar Wilde Oscar Wilde’s life was both enigmatic and scandalous. In fact, his life has the makings of many a past and future Ph.D. thesis. He was sentenced to two years in jail for the charge of homosexuality, and shortly after release died from […]
