Category: Church

362. 1) From Saint Nicholas to Santa Claus in five images, 2)  Six Surprising Ways Jesus Changed the World, 3) Nativity Poems by Saint Ephrem the Syrian and by G K Chesterton

Posted on by Fr. Bill

1.  Santa Claus! And now you know why Santa Claus is dressed in red. 2. Six Surprising Ways Jesus Changed the world by John Ortberg, Senior Pastor, Presbyterian Church, Menlo Park, California My notes:   This article was written during the 2012 Presidential campaign. I left it unaltered, except for two explanatory footnotes. We hear much […]

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361. Orthodox Music for the Nativity of Our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ

Posted on by Fr. Bill

Here is the entire Christmas story in one icon. Have you heard some of the following music on this Blog before? Probably. No matter. At this time of year, Christians everywhere love the same old songs – sing them and listen to them again and again. And now we can even see them. Here I’ve […]

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360. A Saint too great to be ignored: Ambrose of Milan

Posted on by Fr. Bill

However, we Orthodox have often ignored Saint Ambrose. Why? First, because he is commemorated on December 7, only a day after the feast of Saint Nicholas of Myra *, who is ultra-popular among us. In the Roman Catholic Church, Nicholas has been reduced to a minor commemoration. And also because he wrote in Latin – […]

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

Posted on by Fr. Bill

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

Posted on by Fr. Bill

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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