Author Archives: frdavid11

Before I was deployed with ships I pastored a small group of Orthodox Christians stationed in Okinawa, Japan, where we had our own dedicated Orthodox Christian chapel as part of the U.S. Navy Chaplain Corps facility there. Instead of daily evening prayers, like during shipboard life, I shared weekly devotional thoughts with my congregation viaContinue reading “Daily Prayer, 27 January”

It didn’t take the crew long to catch on that I’m a baseball fan. I do have more stories from Major League Baseball than other sports, but to be fair most of our deployments were during baseball season, so the “on this day in history” website I often used for prompts had more baseball itemsContinue reading “Daily Prayer, 26 January”

A Sailor’s time at sea is spent largely on two efforts, repair and maintenance of the ship and practicing how to fight the ship. To the latter end drills are conducted almost daily, both combat drills to exercise the weapons systems and the Sailors who operate them, and damage control drills to exercise the crew’sContinue reading “Daily Prayer, 25 January”

From time to time I would read to the crew from some of my favorite poems. They would have to be either relatively short or I would omit portions to fit the time allotted time (which the XO on my second ship reminded me once or twice was longer than he’d expected.) If there wasContinue reading “Daily Prayer, 24 January”

I chose to leave this evening prayer mostly as it was shared shipboard. I think it’s a good reflection for everyone and could have been edited to be more widely applicable, but I want to share through this project some of what a shipboard chaplain’s concern is for his crew. So, for those who mayContinue reading “Whom We Defend”

In the mid-third century, in the Thebais region deep in the southern part of Egypt along the Red Sea, lived a monk by the name of Makarius. Even though he was a young man, his devotion to study and prayer gave Makarius a level of wisdom and piety that eventually began to draw people fromContinue reading “Take the Hoe.”

In 1863, the greatest conflict visited upon the North American continent was in its second year with no obvious end in sight. So, President Abraham Lincoln issued the following proclamation as an offering of hope. These are the words of the 16th Commander-in-Chief: The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled withContinue reading “Happy Thanksgiving!”