358. A Strong Intelligent Young Woman: the Virgin Martyr Katherine of Alexandria

I’ll try to keep this short. This is Thanksgiving week. You probably don’t have much time to read, and I don’t have much time to write, because all our family will soon be here. _______________________________________ Feminine Weakness? Occasionally in our Orthodox hymns for certain female martyrs, we give thanks that they bravely overcame their “feminine […]

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357. Hierarchs who have challenged Christian Civil Authorities

If you don’t know where this Post is headed, you haven’t been following the news. 1.  Saint Athanasios the Great, Archbishop of Alexandria (AD 298- 373) “Athanasios against the world”, people said. Athanasios was Patriarch for 45 years – 25 of which were spent in exile – in Rome and with the monks in the […]

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356. The Nativity Fast – which we’ll come to if you just keep reading long enough

A Meandering * Introduction Did you know that word came from the Meander (now “Menender”) River in Asia Minor which meanders its way toward the Aegean Sea, and this is it: So now you’re prepared for what follows. This morning my wife asked me what I’ll write about in the Blog this week. I answered […]

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354. Ghosties and Ghoulies and Long-leggety Beasties and Things that go Bump in the Night

It’s Hallowe’en! Let’s begin with a little something to get you in the mood.   It’s alright, folks. That was taken from (would you believe?) a 1940 Walt Disney movie: “Fantasia”. The music “Night on Bald Mountain” was composed by Russian Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839-1891), inspired by a short story by Nicholas Gogol. Here’s how it was […]

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283. 2020 Orthodox Statistics in America: Bad News and Good News

If you hate statistics, you may want to stop reading now. Come back next week. However, a better choice: If you want to find out what’s going on, you can do so the easy way. I’ll begin each section with a headline. Read those, at least. And out of the goodness of my computer, I’ll […]

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