Father Bill's Blog
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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
Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker Bishop of Myra December 6, 343 Saint Nicholas was Bishop of the city of Myra on the south coast of Asia Minor (now Turkey) in the Fourth Century, back in the days when the Greek-speaking world stretched across much of the eastern Mediterranean. * He is perhaps the most popular, most ..read more
Father Bill's Blog
1w ago
I promised you a re-run this week, and here it is. This is Post 93 from November 24, 2018 (slightly updated) – part of my series on The Seven Deadly Sins. OK, so it’s cruel, just cruel, to talk about gluttony on the day after Thanksgiving *, our annual eat-too-much-and-get-indigestion-and-take-Di-Gel-or-ginger tea-or-whatever festival. I also ate ..read more
Father Bill's Blog
1w ago
Notice above: In iconography for this Feast, the Virgin Mary is always depicted symbolically as a three year old “adult”, already full-grown spiritually. Before we talk about this lovely celebration, first let’s demolish a couple of objections to it. 1 It’s not Scriptural. This is the big Protestant objection. It troubled me before I became ..read more
Father Bill's Blog
3w ago
Alright, class, please hold up your hands: Who among you will be keeping the full Advent (Nativity) Fast, which begins today, November 15 and lasts till Christmas? As set forth by my Antiochian Archdiocese, the rule is as follows: Throughout this period, we abstain from meat, poultry, eggs and dairy. According to the Patriarchate of ..read more
Father Bill's Blog
1M ago
Today is the Feast of the Bodiless Powers of Heaven, the Holy Archangels. I’m not going to talk about that today, but at the very bottom of this Post you can access two Posts I wrote about them seven years ago. ____________________________ I’d like to drop this subject, but after all I wrote last ..read more
Father Bill's Blog
1M ago
Enough! In my commentary, I always intend to work right up to the edge of politics, but never jump into the chaos down there. I have political opinions, of course, but that’s not my area of expertise. However morality is. And the political immorality, cruelty, crudity, vulgarity, lying, distortion of truth this year have gone ..read more
Father Bill's Blog
1M ago
Hallowe’en… Despite what some misguided folks say, Hallowe’en has nothing to do with Satan and his cohort. I’m just using Hallowe’en as an excuse to talk about the Evil One. Hallowe’en itself is a harmless holiday…promoted by dentists? or so I’ve always suspected. Back in my day, Hallowe’en consisted only of kids in costumes going ..read more
Father Bill's Blog
1M ago
What? a Friday Post arriving the following Tuesday? I’m sorry if I’ve thrown the cosmic calendar out of whack. All I can say is that recovering from surgery (which is going very well, thank you) seems to have thrown me out of whack. God and the angels willing, this week’s Post will arrive this Friday ..read more
Father Bill's Blog
2M ago
In Cedarburg, Wisconsin, my hometown, there are signs pointing to “Cedarburg’s Historic District”. Here is our old mill which dates back to the 1840s, not quite two centuries ago, as do other parts of the downtown. “Historic”, eh? Below is a picture of what remains of the holy Patriarch Abraham’s historic home town, Ur of ..read more
Father Bill's Blog
2M ago
I had no idea recovery from surgery would be so much busier than real life. I tried to get working on a fresh new Post for this week, but was continually getting interrupted – sometimes by needful exercise, often by kind people, sometimes by falling asleep. Therefore, here comes another rerun, a tad improved: originally ..read more