Last week, on 21 November, we celebrated the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple, one of the Twelve Great Feasts. On this day, Mary’s parents Joachim and Anna brought their three-year-old daughter to the Temple and dedicated her to God. She was raised in the Temple until she came of age and had to […]

I haven’t blogged for a month or so, but it’s been an eventful time. Isaac and I took a weekend trip to St. Gregory Palamas Monastery in Ohio. I liked the community a lot. The monks seemed humane, peaceful, warm, with good humor. The worship was beautiful. It was almost entirely in English. Apparently it […]

It snowed most of the day yesterday. Around 2 or 3 we lost power, and when I got to vespers at 4 the whole church was lit only by candlelight. I wish we sung vespers that way all the time! By the end of the service, the snow had stopped. I took a few pictures […]

Upon thy first visit, Moses,
Thou led the flock of thy father
When Elohim appeared to thee
In the bush burning but not consumed.
“I must turn aside,” you said,
Ever-curious and wondering at such light.
You met there the God of your fathers,
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
And He promised to go with thee.
You asked His name, the Unnameable,
And […]

Listening to Thomas Hopko’s talks on the Lord’s Prayer, I recalled Augustine’s words: “Love God, and do what you will.” In the past I have always related this to Paul’s freedom from the Law under grace. But more important is to relate them to our efforts to find God’s will in our lives. “Shall I […]

The forecast last night was for 3–6 inches of snow, so I didn’t drive down to Emmaus. I thought I might drive to Wilkes-Barre in the morning if it wasn’t bad, but when I woke up this morning, it looked like this:

The snow was deep enough that I went to the monastery church. It was […]

This weekend Fr. Ted asked me to stay home, since he was worried about the roads between here and Emmaus. But it turned out the weather was quite good, and Saturday evening Dn. Andrew asked me to join him at St. Philip’s. I was happy to go. I spent the night at his place, and […]

I finished finals yesterday. Now that it’s all over, I am hoping to attend to some errands and then tomorrow (weather permitting) drive to St. Gregory Palamas Monastery. It snowed last night, but it has stopped now. The trees out my window are like silver. Sadly, this picture does not do them justice:

My last assignment of the semester was a presentation on St. John Chrysostom’s thirteenth homily on Genesis.

Paragraphs 1–2 begin with encouragement and exhortation.
Paragraphs 3–11 discuss Genesis 2:7: God made man.
Paragraphs 12–15 discuss Genesis 2:8: God made man’s home.
Paragraphs 16–18 conclude with more encouragement and exhortation.

I said that the theme of St. John’s text was God’s […]

Here is one other item, something from back in October, that I’d like to have in the searchable text of this blog, rather than just in my handwritten journal:
Three different formulas about God use the word “οὐσία”:

The Trinity is one οὐσία and three ὑπόστασες.
Jesus has a divine οὐσία and a human οὐσία.
God’s οὐσία is unknowable, […]