Category Archives: Uncategorized

  Every so often I’m brought up short by the profundity that lives in Byzantine hymnography. Amidst the poetic hyperbole and grandiloquence, deep truths and observations are nestled like gems. As I was rehearsing the choir for the Wednesday presanctified … Continue reading →

From the doxasticon for Lent III, Veneration of the Precious Cross: Burning with boundless love for man, You took the quill of the Cross in Your hand; dipping it in ink of royal crimson, You signed our release with blood-stained … Continue reading →

This has been an eventful and difficult year for me. Which is why I haven’t written. I probably shouldn’t be writing now because I’m not sure that my mind is right. But I have some thoughts to share, only slightly … Continue reading →

I listened to a lecture by Fr. Robert Taft (the renowned Byzantine Catholic liturgical scholar) in which, discussing relations between Catholics and Orthodox, he opined that the Orthodox habitually highlighted the differences at the expense of the commonalities, that differences … Continue reading →

One of my favorite lines from the psalms is from Psalm 84:5-7 –  Blessed is the man whose strength is in you, Whose heart is set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baca, They make it a … Continue reading →

“The time is coming – and now is – when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth.” Christians must return to this saying of the Lord again and again. We must “examine ourselves” to see … Continue reading →

At our parish, as with most Orthodox parishes, we sing the Paschal hymn, “Christ is risen,” to several melodies. Our favorite by far is a Galician tune that has rhythm, a definite meter and repeated bits of text. We don’t … Continue reading →

As I write this, it’s mid-summer, and for some reason I’m surfing a Chaldean Church of the East website. Actually, it’s not odd. It’s Transfiguration, and I was looking for hymns on the subject, and, lo! up came this site. … Continue reading →

“We must play.  But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously – no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.” — C. S. Lewis, … Continue reading →

  So, what does the Tradition demand?  What is ostensibly maintained and cultivated by those in the strict camp, guaranteed by reproducing the past?  What are those of us who are not in strict practices to do?  We say we … Continue reading →