Saints, Seasons, Society, Sins, plus Travels mostly to Greece and who knows what next? by Father Bill Olnhausen
Humor When I first went to college, a church of my denomination sponsored a supper for us newcomers. As we ate, one guy made a cute (clean!) remark. We laughed. The pastor looked at us severely and said: “Life is a serious matter. We should not make jokes about it.” We never went back. I […]
Read More »Let’s jump back to July 27, his feast day. Panteleimon, the Great Martyr and Unmercenary Healer How to pronounce Παντελεήμων? Not easy unless you’re Greek. Say “Pahn teh LEH-EE mohn” a few times slowly, and you’ll probably have it. It means “all merciful”. A “Great Martyr” (Μεγαλομάρτυς) is a martyr who has undergone dreadul tortures, has […]
Read More »July 20 is the feast day of Mother Maria who died in 1945, seventy five years ago, in a Nazi gas chamber. On February 10, 1943, she was arrested by the Gestapo at her “monastic” house in Paris. While she had been traveling, the Nazis had arrested Yura (son of Maria and her second husband) […]
Read More »The quote above is from a 1967 Paul Newman movie, “Cool Hand Luke”, about a Florida prison chain gang. You younger people probably remember neither 1967 nor Paul Newman nor chain gangs. (Indeed a cool movie. Look it up.) I think the line is still fairly common, because it applies to so many situations. For example, […]
Read More »Someone said “Everybody listens to advice. Nobody ever takes it”. But, oh, I hope you take this advice from the Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko. So my advice is: Put his Maxims in an icon on your computer screen, labeled in capital letters so you will see it and open it often. Or print out the Maxims and […]
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