BJohnD’s comment here about the prayer “Most holy Theotokos, save us” (what I’ve heard called the Scary Mary Prayer) seemed to merit its own entry by somebody who really knows what they’re talking about. What I really hope is that somebody like that sees this and writes one, because I wouldn’t mind seeing it myself. […]

When I wrote back here that Fr. Thomas Hopko was saying that the liturgical response “Lord, have mercy” wasn’t a penitential request, I said that I would try to transcribe the exact words sometime later. Well, Father Elias needs his CDs back (hey!), so ’sometime later’ just became now.
Here’s the section I was talking […]

The senseless have vain and false hopes,
and dreams give wings to fools.
– Sirach 34:1
Hopefully I don’t sound like I’m being harsh to quote this passage from the apocryphal book of Sirach. I’m a bit of a dreamer myself (and I have the C grade average to prove it), so I have nothing but good things […]

Sen. Patrick Kennedy says he wasn’t drunk when he nearly missed a Capitol police cruiser, crashed into a barricade and then got out staggering and talking about being late for a Senate vote at about 3 a.m. Thursday morning. The Capitol police officers couldn’t perform a breathalyzer test on him before an officer or two […]

“Our greatest enemies are the demons, who fight to conquer us through our passions. The most powerful weapon against all of their evil machinations, snares and arrows is humility. They are the creatures of pride, and are able to conquer those who — in their own pride — think that they can do battle with […]