Here are pictures of the Sitka Icon’s visit to our church.
I’ve been thinking about the icon again today, and about the wonderworking things we believe in in the Orthodox Church. It’s possible and so easy to take them wrong, to believe in them just because you want — everyone wants — magic pills, curative […]

So I went and saw.
I’ll be honest. I didn’t note a miracle during the service, unless it was that the choir sang almost continuously for 25 minutes and didn’t lose pitch. But then, as I said, I’m not always sure what I’m supposed to be looking for.
On the other hand, it is a beautiful […]

The Senate confirmed Roberts! Well, hoo-ray for not dragging this thing out any longer. I thought I had read something this morning that was floating out the other F-word — filibuster. But maybe everyone thought better of it. And anyway, they’ll have another candidate in a few days, and goodness knows they’ll have plenty of […]

Well, since the quote from yesterday opted to show up as a post and not just go straight into “A Word” on the right column (oh goody! Another thing I don’t understand about how to work my own blog!), I’ll take the opportunity to fill in a little bit more.
Here’s the entire quote, which I […]

I have to leave shortly for a special Akathist we’re holding to venerate the Wonderworking Sitka Icon. Our church is blessed to be one of those chosen as a stop on its pilgrimage from Alaska through the “lower 48.”
As a convert, things like this make me feel like I have to run to catch up. […]

A man may seem to be silent, but if he condemns others in his heart, he is babbling ceaselessly.
– Poemen the Shepherd

“It looks like the Houston and Galveston area has really lucked out,” said Max Mayfield, director of the hurricane center.
That came from this article about Hurricane Rita, and now we know for sure that racism played a factor in the paths of the hurricanes. Whites were spared in Texas; blacks weren’t in Louisiana. […]

Stand by for the firestorm that’ll follow this story: Pope Benedict is expected to ban gay seminarians.
Sort of stands to reason, doesn’t it? In a more reasonable age, no one would have to defend the ban in the wake of the recent reports of abuse. If you were inclined to view homosexuality as benign, couldn’t […]

There’s was lots for everyone to be talking about last Monday, so it’s probably fine that we all missed the fact that Cindy Sheehan has given up any pretense of being a grieving mother standing with a fist and has just gone totally insane, calling for the US military to pull out of “occupied” New […]

I’m not usually a C-SPAN watcher, because it’s impossible for me to hear something that sounds that much like a really, really long business meeting without my mind wandering badly. (”Oh look, a senator is saying something. I wonder what their chairs are like. Gotta be leather. I like leather chairs. Am I out of […]