551. Four Days on the Holy Mountain: Part Two (a rerun)

  Please pray for the suffering people of Ukraine and the Palestinian people of Gaza and the West Bank. Please give through International Orthodox Christian Charities. iocc.org These Posts, first published back in 2020, are reprinted here while I’m recovering from Covid. They follow the daily journal from my trip to Athos in 2002. If […]

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550. Four Days on the Holy Mountain: Part One (a rerun)

  Please pray for the suffering people of Ukraine and the Palestinian people of Gaza and the West Bank. Introduction Why a rerun? Because I’ve spent the week dealing with a nasty case of the Covid, and I’m just not up to producing a fresh Post. (Though hardly anybody is paying attention, Covid is making […]

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545. My First Trip to Greece: Part Three – The Return Home: Saint Nicholas takes charge.

  Pray for the suffering people of Ukraine, Gaza and the West Bank. ______________ I know, you long-time readers have heard this story before. So have I! I’m telling it again 1 So you newer readers will hear it. 2 Because all good stories deserve re-telling. Why do you suppose the Church year repeats itself over and […]

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541. My First Trip to Greece, Part Two – 1) Popular Orthodoxy. 2) The Face of Saint Nicholas.

  Pray for the suffering people of Ukraine and Gaza. _________________ A Week on a Greek island The conference ended and with my wife’s leave – I have a wonderful wife – I had something I had long wanted: a week to bum around on a Greek island. I felt prepared. I had learned enough […]

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540. My First Trip to Greece: Part One – at the end of which, Saint Nicholas begins to make his move.

  Pray for the people of Ukraine and Gaza.   I’m old, now. I won’t see Greece again. Nevertheless, I often still go there. On my trips I kept a daily travel journal. I wrote one time: “Why am I keeping this journal? So when I get old and can’t travel here any more, I’ll […]

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