The Sunday after the Exaltation of the Cross The Cross: A marketer’s nightmare On the morning of the feast (Friday morning), I challenged you to think and pray on the implications of having the Cross as our standard. It isn’t the kind of thing that a marketing team would come up with. After all, who […]
Homily Outline – Sunday after the Nativity of the Theotokos
September 22, 2013 By
Yesterday we celebrated a birthday! 1. Miracle. Joachim and Anna. We forget how great a miracle all conceptions and births are. 2. Her life (segue – her age!) We rejoice with the angels at the life of Mary. Chaste. Pure. Devoted. 3. Through her salvation has come into the world. Miracle. Chastity. Life given to […]
Homily: Threading the Needle
September 15, 2013 By
Homily on St. Matthew 19:16-2615 September 2013 And that thou mightest learn, that not by addition but by taking away this evil is stayed; if thou hadst ever had an absurd desire to fly and to be borne through the air, how wouldest thou extinguish this unreasonable desire? By fashioning wings, and preparing other instruments, […]
Homily: On (not) Giving Clergy their Due
September 8, 2013 By
Homily on 1 Corinthians 9:2-12 Who ever goes to war at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock? (Excerpt) Pani and I went on vacation this past weekend. I spent part of that […]
Podcast: 20130807 Being a Hero and Moral Psychology
August 8, 2013 By
This podcasts begins with advice for young people to become heroes. The rest is devoted to introducing listeners to some findings in moral psychology and their relevance to Orthodoxy (hint- it’s about ritual/Orthopraxis). Lord willing, I’ll be devoting more podcasts to devloping these themes. Here are the notes for the moral psychology talk (alas it […]
“Children are not our future – they are our present!”
June 30, 2013 By
Homily in Celebration of our Children and Youth (All Saints Day, 2013) “Children are not our future – they are our present!” These words of our beloved Metropolitan Constantine of blessed memory are not a call to put our children and youth on some kind of throne, but to expect and allow them to join […]
Homily: How to be a Man
June 16, 2013 By
Homily: advice to my oldest son, graduating from high school Introduction Be a hero – the right man in the right place at the right time, prepared to get things done. But how do you do that? It doesn’t just happen on it’s own. Too many men are too lazy or vice-ridden to step up […]
Homily – The Blind Man, Mythology, and Tradition
June 9, 2013 By
The Man Born Blind – on mythology and truth (St. John 9:1-38) I love mythology. I love the stories, the heros, their virtues, their flaws, and the different messes they try to work themselves out of. From the strength of Hercules and the passion of Achilles; to the asceticism of Qui-Gon Ginn, the optimism of […]
Homily – The Enlightened Moral Psychology of the Samaritan Woman
June 2, 2013 By
Homily Notes: Samaritan Woman St. John 4:5-42 “He told me all I ever did.” (St. John 4:29) This is not new for God. His omniscience has long been recognized. The prophet David proclaimed it in song in Psalm 138, which includes these words (7-12); Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I […]
Homily – Our Broken Moral Psychology (and how to heal it… and the world)
May 26, 2013 By
Memorial Day, The Raising of the Paralytic, the raising of Dorkas, What effect do you have on others? Is it like St. Peter’s? Do you walk in the midst of broken people bringing them healing? Do others, recognizing the potency of your peace, go out of their way just to be in your shadow? Have […]
