Killing time over at the Antiochian Orthodox Website(*), I came across a 2006 essay from Terry Mattingly called “What do the Converts Want?”(**) It struck such a resonant chord that I was tempted to give an amen out loud.
Which would have been relevant, given at least one of the major points the author makes: The […]

The quote in “Daily Lives” was really spot on for me this morning:
When Christ the Savior Himself was obedient, it was not for a brief period of time, but unto death. Therefore, if we are always obedient, we will always be happy. But to our sorrow, the cruel passion of self-love has made our will […]

Father Elias took the time to give a short talk at the end of church, and I’m so glad he did. He was reminding us to take communion with the utmost care and come forward to the cup prepared, or don’t come up. But he also touched on a subject that has started to weigh […]

Just looked over a press release for a parents’ publication that we help put together. The subject line was “Discipline without punishment or rewards: A four-hour workshop led by [So-and-so], PhD.”
Four hours? I can do it in five minutes or so, and I don’t have a PhD or a kid.

You don’t want to be the […]

We’ve had a deliciously mild summer so far, but August seems intent on making up for lost time. So when I take Clementine for the late afternoon walk, I’m all for being focused and brief with our attentions to all the familiar landmarks. But what can you do with a scent hound? Clementine caught scent […]

From this morning’s reading in “Patristic Theology” by Fr. John Romanides:
“For real equality to exist, the human personality must first be healed. If it is not healed, any ideological system whatsoever, no matter how perfect it may be, cannot be implemented, because instead of genuine representatives of the ideology working for the system, those looking […]

From a recent morning reading. This one stayed with me.
As a furnace tests a potter’s vessels,
So the test of a man is in the way he reasons.
As fruit reveals how a tree is cultivated,
So a man’s reasoning reveals his heart.
Do not praise a man before he reveals the way he reasons.
For this is the way […]