“Beauty is a terrible and awful thing! It is terrible because it has not been fathomed, for God sets us nothing but riddles. Here the boundaries meet and all contradictions exist side by side.” — Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov Have you ever considered what beauty is? So have many philosophers. Let me give you […]
Archives for June 2011
Make yourself responsible for all the sins of men
“There is only one salvation for you: take yourself up, and make yourself responsible for all the sins of men. For indeed it is so, my friend, and the moment you make yourself sincerely responsible for everything and everyone, you will see at once that it is really so, that it is you who are […]
There is no I in Church
From The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky: “Once upon a time there was a peasant woman and a very wicked woman she was. And she died and did not leave a single good deed behind. The devils caught her and plunged her into the lake of fire. So her guardian angel stood and wondered what […]
Southern Baptists pass resolution to help settle immigration debate
From the Associated Press: NASHVILLE, Tenn — (AP) – The Southern Baptist Convention has passed a resolution advocating a path to legal status for illegal immigrants. The resolution was passed on Wednesday at the annual meeting of the nation’s largest protestant denomination in Phoenix. It also calls on Southern Baptists to reject bigotry and to minister […]
Christians, vaccinations, and herd immunity
A devout Christian heard an urgent news report on his radio that a flash flood was within minutes of entering the peaceful valley where he lived. Immediately he went to his knees and prayed for safety. The words were still on his lips when he became aware that water was gushing under his door. He […]
Adventurers and relief valves
Adventure, pioneering is held in high esteem–because, as a wise reformer on old Earth once said, it keeps the adventurers far away from home. — Elizabeth Moon. “New World Symphony,” Moon Flights. Ed. Marty Halpern. San Francisco: Night Shade Books, 2009. This phrase in a science fiction book set Father Orthoduck to thinking. It is not the […]
Scouting and ghost stories
OK, how many of you can remember going on a Boy Scout or Girl Scout or Campfire Girls or Royal Ambassadors campout when you were a child and hearing ghost stories around the campfire? If the tale teller was very good, he or she would have you precisely in the condition pictured above. Of course, […]
Synaxarion of Pentecost 2011
Excerpts below are from Holy Transfiguration Monastery: After the Saviour’s Ascension into the Heavens, the eleven Apostles and the rest of His disciples, the God-loving women who followed after Him from the beginning, His Mother, the most holy Virgin Mary, and His brethren-all together about 120 souls returned from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem. […]
Atheist and tracts
Father Orthoduck saw this cartoon on another of his favorite bloggers, Orthodixie. He had quite a laugh over it. Then Father Orthoduck looked at it some more and realized that while the cartoon is funny, it actually is not fully truthful. Atheists have put out many pamphlets and even books. For instance, Bertrand Russell, a […]
The heresy of positive thinking
Positive thinking in the correct sense is good; no one wants to be around a chronic complainer, but XXXXXXXX’s [name removed by Fr. Orthoduck] idea is far different. He promotes the “pull myself up by my own bootstraps so I can be all that I can be” stuff. In his sermons he never mentions sin and […]
