I love books…

Well actually I love knowledge… and learning and growing.   In the end I desire what all of us truly desire and that’s: wisdom. “Books” just so happens to be one, of many ways, that wisdom and knowledge are shared today.  iPhones, ipads, Kindles and Nooks are certainly giving paper a run for its money… but in the [...]

Read Full Post »

“No.” Mr. Obama. “No.”

The canonical Orthodox Bishops of North American stand firmly and boldly with apostolic and holy tradition.  We stand together with the Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church…  We will either be standing together on the great doctrines of the sanctity of life – or we will find ourselves standing alone against a world set on [...]

Read Full Post »

Sobering words from the Bishop of Rome

First thing I read this morning…  Sobering, prophetic, honest, and most likely true….  in these last days the Church will return to its beginnings.  Reviled, scorned, ridiculed… and the faithful remnant now, like the martyric remnant then, in apostolic times, will shine and burn brighter than ever. May God make us worthy of the hard work [...]

Read Full Post »

Marriage, Family, Sexuality

The word Orthodox means “straight” (ortho) doctrine or “right” teaching; it can also mean “right/straight” worship as the Greek (doxa) has two implied meanings: doctrine and worship.  Belief and practice, faith and action, teaching and worship – each belongs intimately together in one symbiotic union, each an expression of the other, each a black and white [...]

Read Full Post »

Canadian Idol

More signs that our generation perhaps is nearing the end…?  and entering a time when …men will become lovers of vain and foolish things…  like in Vancouver.   Over what?  A game.  A game on ice, with blades, a rubber puck, wood sticks and a net… Oh that we would put such passion, emotion  and energy into following [...]

Read Full Post »

From Emergent to Orthodox

Yet another fascinating account of an “emerging/emergent  non-denominational Christian” who has come home to the Church.  The truly fascinating part is that this journey from being ‘hip‘ and ‘relevant’ to ‘historical’ and ‘orthodox‘ (or better yet ‘catholic’ and ‘apostolic’) is happening almost daily in these times of consumer, me-centered, faith as therapy, make me feel good Christianity.   Welcome home. [...]

Read Full Post »

Amusing Ourselves to Death

In these last days, men will give themselves up to foolishness and frivolity, to vain pursuits and various and sundry lusts of the flesh, unable and unwilling to control their unbridled passions, walking into death traps without even knowing it.  Save but for the Divine gifts of repentance, contrition and the mercy of God… there [...]

Read Full Post »

Become a real man.

It’s never by accident or coincidence that we come upon holy writings from the Scripture, or from the pens and minds of holy saints over the millennia that, not so amazingly, speak pointedly to the issues of our own times.  This ‘catholicity‘ – the shared fullness of faith from the ages – is why in order not [...]

Read Full Post »

Tradition?

Recently a personal friend started questioning the whole idea of “Church Tradition”, or as the Orthodox call it, “Holy Tradition“.  The gist of my friend’s point was this:  …the problem with the whole ‘ancient church – Orthodox’ thing is the you guys are stuck… stuck in ritual, and mindless traditions – not relevant – not [...]

Read Full Post »

Just say no.

These days it seems as if more and more men (and the women who conspire with them) are falling from grace into shame and regret due to basic issues:  lack of control, the inability to say ‘no’, foolishness in their thinking and hardness of heart.  Some say they are ‘powerful’ people.  But in fact who among us is ‘powerful’?  Who among [...]

Read Full Post »

To Kindle or Not to Kindle?

To Kindle or not Kindle:    That is the question. “So what do you think?”   “Do you prefer ‘books’, made of paper and ink, or reading machines made of steel, glass, silicon chips, and pixellated pixels?” Consider the book. It has extraordinary staying power. Ever since the invention of the codex sometime close to the birth [...]

Read Full Post »

Rob Wins. Or does he?

An Orthodox response to “Love Wins“, the Rob Bell book/personal conjecture, which questions the existence of hell, and whether God would be so mean as to allow anyone, no matter who they are or what they believe, to spend eternity  there….is quite simple.  In many ways Orthodoxy may seem deep and complex, and yet in other ways, like when [...]

Read Full Post »

Of Hospitals and Emergency Rooms

This past Sunday April 24 Pascha Sunday, the day of Resurrection, 60 Minutes aired a marvelous and very well done video documentary on the Holy Mountain, Mt. Athos, in Greece.  Mt. Athos is the heart, the center, the core, the spiritual hub, the catalytic center, and source of Orthodox piety, wisdom and holiness for more [...]

Read Full Post »

One Church: 42,000 Different Ways?

Jesus said, I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent me… John [...]

Read Full Post »

In Praise of Less

I work in an industry that publishes ‘words’. Lots of words.  And occasionally, even a few good ideas.   Those occasional combinations of words  that will actually stand the test of time. Have you noticed that the ‘soap box’ in our culture has grown to epic proportions?  Seems everyone these days has a ‘book’ to write, and some do.   Even guys [...]

Read Full Post »

Cure for “The Shallows” – The Monastery

 In a previous post I mentioned and commented on a very fine book recently published called, The Shallows.  A book  that puts forth the provocative proposition that the ‘medium’, or the technological apparatus that are used to transmit information to us today, are not, as some people have mistakenly thought – neutral.  But evidence now strongly suggests that the [...]

Read Full Post »

The Shallows

I am reading an important and provocative book right now.  One could also call it sobering, others might call it alarming, still others might say, “…nothing but the uneducated fear mongering of technology haters…”    However you think about it, there is no doubt, that everyone should read it. The Shallows And whatever your analysis of [...]

Read Full Post »

Think Before you ‘Tweet’

St. Seraphim of Sarov Some call it  ”Quick finger syndrome“, others “Twitter Regret”,  but whatever you call it, the ‘twitter twitch’ of our present culture  is hurting people, and diminishing civility and kindness.  How often we hear today of a mean-spirited and quickly composed Twitter that is nothing more than venom, gossip, and mean-spirited messaging about someone, to everyone else?  [...]

Read Full Post »

‘relevant, intelligent, engaging’

January 5th 2011, is the Eve of the Theophany of Jesus Christ, a great feast in the Orthodox Church (perhaps the third most important after Pascha, and Pentecost),  and a great day for me…a humbling and beautiful day.   Today begins my journey with Baker Publishing Group.  Baker is an exceptional publishing house.  A rarity [...]

Read Full Post »

Feel good music…

  This music just feels good.  But it sounds even better. And whatever your troubles may be – music like this seemingly and miraculously can make anything bad immediately better. It’s a classic art form that has been lost for many years, and yet is making a strong comeback in our simulated, noisy, virtual, cyber-techno [...]

Read Full Post »