Fr. Bill's Orthodox Blog – Orthodoxy from the Third Coast
Saints, Seasons, Society, Sins, plus Travels mostly to Greece and who knows what next? by Father Bill Olnhausen
The Gospel for the Fourth Sunday of Great Lent: Mark 9:17-31 At that time, a man came to Jesus kneeling and saying: “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a dumb spirit; and wherever it seizes him it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and […]
Read More »Iconoclasm, the Seventh Council, and after that According to the story, it was during the Iconoclastic controversy that the monk Stephen saw soldiers trampling on an icon. When he objected they told him it was ok: it was only a picture. So Stephen took an image of the Emperor on a coin and trampled on […]
Read More »In today’s Post I am plagiarizing myself. I’ve written so many Posts that often I can’t remember them. I had a vague memory of writing long ago about forgiveness, so I looked back and, sure enough: Post 55. It was like reading someone else’s writing. I thought some of it (forgive my pride) was really […]
Read More »This Post contains small portions from the excellent book In the Heart of the Desert: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, published here with the generous permission of the author, the Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis, Archdeacon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. I think it’s appropriate reading as we near our annual passage through Great […]
Read More »The word in New Testament Greek is άσωτος/asotos, “dissipated, debauched, dissolute”. The old English word for this was “prodigal”. This guy who has wasted his life on nothing, worse than nothing, thrown away his family inheritance on pig’s slop: What kind of fuzzy-minded liberal would forgive somebody like that? I still remember my granddad feeding […]
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