Father Bill's Blog
571 FOLLOWERS
A Smorgasbord: Saints' Stories, Seasons, Society, Seven Sins, plus Travels mostly to Greece and who knows what next? by Father Bill Olnhausen.
Father Bill's Blog
6d ago
My wife and I love to watch old movies and television shows. The humor is always funny, the drama always exciting. This spring you’ll get the same opportunity with this Blog. Occasionally you’ll see some “re-runs” of previous Posts – revised just a tad. The reason: We are about to move from the house we ..read more
Father Bill's Blog
1w ago
In today’s Post I am plagiarizing myself. I’ve written so many Posts that often I can’t remember them. I had a vague memory of writing long ago about forgiveness, so I looked back and, sure enough: Post 55. It was like reading someone else’s writing. I thought some of it (forgive my pride) was really ..read more
Father Bill's Blog
2w ago
This Post contains small portions from the excellent book In the Heart of the Desert: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, published here with the generous permission of the author, the Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis, Archdeacon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. I think it’s appropriate reading as we near our annual passage through Great ..read more
Father Bill's Blog
3w ago
The word in New Testament Greek is άσωτος/asotos, “dissipated, debauched, dissolute”. The old English word for this was “prodigal”. This guy who has wasted his life on nothing, worse than nothing, thrown away his family inheritance on pig’s slop. What kind of fuzzy-minded liberal would forgive somebody like that? I still remember my granddad feeding ..read more
Father Bill's Blog
1M ago
Last week we began to tell the story of this humble, quiet, unobtrusive, remarkable parish priest – this Saint of the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries. As I began, I feared there wouldn’t be enough to say about him to fill a Post – and to my surprise here we are in Part Two ..read more
Father Bill's Blog
1M ago
Old age mind fog has caught up with me. Here it is only mid-February, and I have prepared a Post for a saint whose feast day is not till March 2, Ah well, we’ll certainly be prepared for it. Saint Nicholas Planas Introduction I love that in our Orthodox churches we have icons in all ..read more
Father Bill's Blog
1M ago
Commemorated on February 6 That rather complicated title above is fitting for a man who led an extremely complicated life. Poor Saint Photios. What he wanted was a scholarly, contemplative, perhaps monastic life. What he actually got was a lot of trouble. Caught up against his will into the midst of great turmoil in the ..read more
Father Bill's Blog
1M ago
Because today, February 2, is the great Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, perhaps you might enjoy reading my slightly silly but actually very serious old Post relating the true story of … 49. How the Groundhog Stole Candlemas ______________________________________ Now to today’s subject: Saint Brigid (or Bridget or Bridgit or Brid ..read more
Father Bill's Blog
2M ago
The title of this Post makes no sense. Saint John Chrysostom is departed this earth for some seventeen centuries now – as you can see below. We can know much about him, but that’s obviously not the same as knowing him. Oh, before we go any further, I should explain my reason for writing this ..read more
Father Bill's Blog
2M ago
Last week when I began to research the Flight into Egypt, I knew nothing about the subject, except what I had read in Saint Matthew. (How could I have been so ignorant all these years?) I found so much material that was completely new to me that I didn’t know how to process it all ..read more