June 2026 – An Orthodox Priest Abroad

Holiness is Hard

Holiness. Today I would like to talk about holiness. We hear the word all the time, but do we know what it means? Do we know what the implications of holiness are? Of achieving it or not? Of course, you could look up “holiness” in the dictionary, but then you’d likely find the kind ofContinue reading “Holiness is Hard”

Not All Changes are Good

On this date in 1971, on the right bank of the Ohio River in the baseball stadium where I would eventually watch my first big league games, one of the finest lineups in baseball—the Big Red Machine—failed to get a hit against Cubs pitcher Ken Holtzman. Holtzman had already pitched two of the nine completeContinue reading “Not All Changes are Good”

Close but No Cigar

If you were to go to Meteora, Greece, ascend the spire atop of which is the Great Meteora Monastery, and then followed the monks into their katholikon to attend evening vespers, you would walk by a remarkable fresco surrounding the door. It depicts pagan philosophers Solon, Sybil, Socrates, Plutarch, Homer, Thucydides, Plato, and Aristotle (amongContinue reading “Close but No Cigar”