I realized yesterday that we’re coming to the end of the period when we get to watch our daylilies bloom, and so I thought I’d do a little Georgia O’Keeffe imitation.

No, that’s not quite right. How about …

No, not even close. Pretty, though. Of course, it doesn’t help things any that I’m not taking the […]

A book I’m reading about confession touched on the need to help others and do good works, and the author included this quote without telling its source:
“Lord, you can see that my hands are clean of sin,” said a soul to the Lord.
“Clean, but empty,” replied the Lord.
In the many ripples of thought that came […]

Greg and I were somewhat ambivalent on whether to buy fireworks this year. Since coming from the parts of California where a sputtering hand-held sparkler is regarded as an invitation to wildfire to the parts of the Midwest where blowing your hand off with a mortar rocket is regarded as a ritual of manhood, we […]

All right, I’m not at all prepared to take the time to try to investigate this further, but I did happen to read something this morning that offered a clue as to my question about why saints who are physicians that didn’t charge received a special classification — “unmercenaries.”

I’ve been reading Fr. Alexander Schmemann’s “Historical […]

“On this day, we commemorate the holy and wonder-working Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian, who were perfected in martyrdom in Rome.”
This is how today’s synaxarion begins the reading about the saints of the day. I wasn’t too familiar with these saints, other than that “unmercenary” means that they were doctors who practiced their healing arts without […]