The rain is delightful right now. The temperatures dropped from the unseasonably high 80’s back to the jes’ fine 60’s. It’s gray and damp out now, but the showers let up from time to time and then a cardinal immediately starts singing. The lawn looks about an inch higher than yesterday and the weeds are […]

If you’re in charge of France (don’t panic — this is just a rhetorical question) and you want to restore your nation to greatness, what would you do?

(a) Tell the French know-it-alls to stop pontificating to the world

(b) Tell the French slacker-class to pull up their socks and get to work

(c) Stop posturing around […]

My priest, Fr. Elias, loaned me this series of CDs to listen to. It’s a 10-lecture series from Fr. Thomas Hopko on The Lord’s Prayer, and I’m hooked after listening to the first three lectures. (I think that everyone already knows this, but if you ever have a chance to borrow a Fr. Hopko lecture […]

Can you tell I’m catching up on the blogosphere after being too busy with services and celebrations? I’m figuring everyone else is in about the same boat.
And this is one of those selfish times when I’m quoting an article just because I want to know where I can lay my hands on it when […]

I haven’t had to argue with anyone who thinks that “The Judas Gospel” is worth serious consideration, but I’m reading up on stuff all the same, because you never know. Thought this article on the Antiochian Web-site made some excellent points:

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the media is fascinated by Gnostic ideas that were popular in the days […]

Let’s avoid looking stupid this Paschal season. If a jubilant stranger comes up to you and says “Harisutosu Fukkatsu!” what are you going to say? “Back atcha, buddy.” “Domo origato, Mr. Roboto.” “I have mace and I’m not afraid to use it.”
No, of course not. You snap back with the Japanese response to the “Christ […]

How long have I been doing this, and yet I still didn’t remember (or didn’t know) all the stuff in Orthodixie’s list of Bright Week practices?
Specifically:

During Bright Week, our prayers in church and at home are sung and not read as we sing all week the feast of the risen Christ: Christ is risen!
During Bright […]

So this evening at the Rush service, we see the priest vest in the lightened vestments of Pascha. Already the gloom is beginning to lift. Already, night is turning into everlasting day.
Here at chez Grace, I have poured out the soy milk.
Alleluia. Thine the glory. Amen.

One filled with joy preaches without preaching.
– Mother Teresa

It is possible to grieve for our own sins and yet to rejoice in Christ.
– St. John Chrysostom