Father Bill's Orthodox Blog – Orthodoxy from the Third Coast
A Variety of Topics: Saints, Seasons, Society, the Moral Life, plus Travels mostly to Greece, and more, by Father Bill Olnhausen
James died, a martyr, on October 23, AD 62. His titles puzzle some people. Those who believe Mary is “ever virgin” wonder: How could Jesus have a brother? Those who think bishops were a later corruption of the Gospel, ask: Why do we call James “Bishop of Jerusalem””? Well… the Orthodox Church was there […]
Read More »“And now for something completely different.” Or maybe not – since Saint Francis didn’t lend money. He didn’t possess any. Usury: lending money at interest I was visiting family this week, so I took this an as easy topic: I’d just find the Scriptural and Patristic references to Usury and copy them here. Wrong! I found […]
Read More »What was it Francis “almost made”? He “almost made it” onto the calendar of the Orthodox Church. Why didn’t he? 1 Because he missed the deadline! It was not Francis’ fault, of course, that he was born in 1182, but unfortunately the year 1054 is the cut-off, the officially accepted date for the split between […]
Read More »What we’re talking about is Anselm’s misunderstanding of how Christ saves us – which, combined with a little mistranslation by Saint Jerome, led finally to Protestantism. But a lot happened in between, and we’re getting ‘way ahead of the story. Why this topic today? Because of this next Sunday’s Epistle reading (Galatians 2:16-20), which in […]
Read More »That ought to keep us busy for today! I’ve been working up to this for a while. What brought it on now was a September 1 Message from His All-Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew, regarding the Protection of the Environment. I know, I’ve quoted the Ecumenical Patriach frequently – but every time I read something by him […]
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