Before you become worried, the image at the right has nothing to do with the latest Ku Klux Klan meeting. It is actually from a Lenten tradition found in several parts of the non-Orthodox world. The people you see pictured there are penitents, and their practice dates from several hundred years before the presence of […]
Weird Lenten musings
On Friday, after the Liturgy, our parish had a Lenten supper to commemorate the end of Lent, and the beginning of Holy Week the next day with the celebration of Lazarus Saturday. The service and the dinner was actually poorly attended because the tornadoes that rolled through the South that day chose to go very […]
The results of fasting — St. John Chrysostom
Yesterday finished the last service of Lent. Today begins the first service of Holy Week. Lazarus Saturday liturgy is not celebrated in purple, but in gold. It is an anticipation of the Paschal service of next week. We need the strength of Lazarus Saturday to remind us that the end is coming, for we are […]
Saint John Climacus on humility
The quote below is from Saint John Climacus: A man who takes pride in natural abilities — I mean cleverness, the ability to learn, skill in reading, good diction, quick grasp, and all such skills as we possess without having to work for them — this man, I say, will never receive the blessings of […]
Saint John Chrysostom on fasting
Here are a couple of quotes from Saint John Chrysostom on fasting: Fasting is a medicine. But medicine, as beneficial as it is, becomes useless because of the inexperience of the user. He has to know the appropriate time that the medicine should be taken and the right amount of medicine and the condition of […]
Wisconsin and calculating a living wage
Yesterday I commented that an answer to calculating a living (or “just”) wage is found in one of the place where people least tend to look, and that is at missionary societies who send workers overseas. Why these missionary societies? Let me speak out of personal experience as a former multi-term missionary. Missionary societies have many […]
Oh, how we delude ourselves
The comic above is from my favorite cartoonist Pithless Thoughts. As he says, it is a reprint of a “classic” and classic it is. During this period of Lent, we are called to examine ourselves and to stop deluding ourselves. And it is so easy for me to do that. Every year most Orthodox parishes […]
On Wisconsin and a living wage
Father Jensen’s answer to my post included so many references to a living wage, that I urge you to go back to my post, “The withheld wages cry out . . . ,” and re-read his comment. Let me again state that it is very good. As Father Jensen deals with the idea of a […]
Cell phone fail
I had to adopt the practice of making sure to leave my cell phone in the sacristy, even though I had had it on vibrate. You see, back when I had not realized that the buzzing of vibrate could actually be heard through a cassock. And, it is no the least bit helpful if during […]
Medical errors and approaches towards workers
This post is an aside from the ongoing discussion of Wisconsin and Catholic Social doctrine, but one that will perhaps feed into it. You may not know that since 10 years ago, there has been a significantly increased emphasis on patient safety in hospitals. A study published back then, Crossing the Quality Chasm, began a […]
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