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
For many years I felt slightly whiplashed by this First Sunday of Great Lent. For a week we’ve been in the the Lenten Fast with its liturgical color: a sombre violet. Then suddenly and seemingly out of context, on this First of Sunday of Lent here comes the gold for the “Sunday of Orthodoxy” and […]
Read More »You get to write this Post. Or at least most of it. Did you watch last Sunday’s Super Bowl? – great game! said he who doesn’t much like football. Did you see the commercials? If you watched very closely, in between the likes of: and perhaps you noticed two short commercials, one of which concluded […]
Read More »Before we get started on Saint Meletios: Does the Orthodox Church celebrate Saint Valentine’s Day? Yes, three times for three Saint Valentines, commemorated on October 24, April 24 and July 6. Hooray for love! but (Saint) Valentine’s Day on February 14 seems to derive from a Roman pagan holiday of love, originally celebrated on February […]
Read More »Yes, already. We just celebrated the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple – a “flashback” to Christmas and Christ as an infant. However, the Troparion of the Feast concludes like this: “Rejoice, O righteous Elder; you received in your arms the Redeemer of our souls, Who grants us the Resurrection.” And with […]
Read More »Next Thursday, February 2, is the famous festival of the Holy Groundhog, more properly titled the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ in the Temple. I wrote a Post about both these celebrations some years ago, titled “The Groundhog who stole Candlemas”, which (if you’re interested) can be […]
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