The Ultimate Blog Compliment

A couple months ago Michal Kalina who is on the staff of the Polish Orthodox website emailed me and asked permission to translate Orthographs into Polish.  Between his studies and webmastering he has recently put up a batch of them on their website HERE   This is what an Orthograph looks like in Polish. 

Test życia duchowego   

Wszystkie diagramy są autorstwa Stevena Robinsona

This is about the coolest "comment" I've ever gotten on the blog.  Now, if you will excuse me, I need to go widen the door to my office so my head will fit through it now. 

Don't Ask Me....

Ask THIS GUY

Orthograph #34 - Can't Get No....

Orthograph #33 - Ye Are the Light of the World

Orthograph # 32 - The Potter and the Clay

We used to sing a song based on Romans 9:16 "Have Thine own way, Lord, have Thine own way. Thou art the Potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me after Thy will, while I am waiting, yielded and still".  I sang it earnestly and sincerely.  Sometimes we're surprised that God might take us at our word.  

How Big is a Virus?

Check out this illustration.  Just slide the bar at the bottom of the drawing and be amazed.

Orthograph #31 - The Value of Opinions

First Time for Everything

I never get sick.  Almost never.  I think I had perfect attendance through high school except for one day when I got 4 teeth pulled for my braces.  So I go to the doctor once a decade whether I need to or not, just to see if I'm still alive.  In the interim, I read the obituaries in the morning paper to see if I'm in them, if I'm not I go to work.

Well, since I've turned 50 I've been to the doctor more times than the rest of my life, partly because I have a wife who wants me around for some reason and insists I get things checked like my blood pressure (it's high), that 6 month old spreading growth on my foot (it wasn't cancer), my "30 years of fast food for lunch cholesterol rating" (it's a tad high, but not worthy of the title "Whopper"), and other various *ahem checks* that I can't illustrate and keep this PG-13.

Yesterday I woke up feeling crappy but went and did an emergency roof repair anyway. By the end of the day my throat was killing me and I was having trouble swallowing.  I came home and called the doctor and got a late appointment.  Viral something.  "Contagious for four days, you'll feel like crap for a week to ten days."  No anti-biotics, just OTC stuff and go to bed. The Wifey came home and said, "You went to the doctor on your own?? You MUST be sick!"    

So here I am....well, there I go.  Off to fill my prescription. 

Orthograph #30 - Better Discussed Over a Beer

Orthograph #29 - Experience and Priorities

Orthograph #28 - Assessments, Critiques and Prognostications

Orthograph #27 - Does God Speak to Your Heart?

Orthograph #26 - Haiti and the Theologians

Orthograph #25 - True Confessions, Part 2

Orthograph #24 - Calendars Part 2

Musical Jeep

Some people play guitars, some people play cars. 

Orthograph #23 - Old and New Calendars Part 1

Orthograph #22 - Toll Booths?

Beauty Will Save the World: Theophany

The Blessing of the Water, the Blessing of the Earth

A Theophany Meditation by Fr. Antony Hughes

There is a beautiful quote from Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh of blessed memory that goes like this.

"Unless we look at a person and see the beauty there is in this person, we can contribute nothing to him. One does not help a person by discerning what is wrong, what is ugly, what is distorted. Christ looked at everyone he met, at the prostitute, at the thief, and saw the beauty hidden there. Perhaps it was distorted, perhaps damaged, but it was beauty none the less, and what he did was to call out this beauty."

This conveys the meaning of the service of the Great Blessing of the Waters. We are calling out the beauty of the water, of the world and of the whole of creation. This, in fact, is the mission of Holy Orthodoxy, to bring out the beauty in all things, to bless all things and by doing to participate with God synergetically in the recreation of the universe.

We have no time to meditate on darkness or on the evil that lives in this world. That is the work of the devil. We have the heart only to see goodness and to rejoice in it. This is the meaning of the scripture that says, “To the pure all things are pure.” Impure hearts rejoice in darkness. Let that not be so of us.

Let us participate every moment of our lives in the calling out of the beauty of creation, of our neighbors, of our friends and our enemies and yes, even our own beauty. “How glorious is God’s Name above all the earth!”

H/T Allan Boyd

The Holiest House Blessing

...let the demons flee from a house blessed by a pure heart. Can he come bless my house?



H/T: Orthodixie & Byzantine Texas

Orthograph #21 - Signs and Wonders

Right Wing Prof Reposes in the Lord

Fellow Orthodox blogger and commenter here, RightWingProf, reposed in the Lord early this morning after a battle with lung cancer. Please keep him and his family in your prayers.

May his memory be eternal.

Orthograph #20 - My Journey

Orthograph # 19 - Beginners

Orthograph #18 - Who is that Masked Man?

The Jesus Movies

I couldn't find these in the archives, so I'm re-posting them for James the Thickheaded.  I don't know which is campier, the voice overs or the original movie...

Orthograph #17 - Internet Orthodoxy

Try to Not Think About This...

...the next time you have a Bishop's visit. (Mitre/Tip to "Bob")



(One of my favorite sayings from MP Jonah is, "You take a man, stand him in the middle of a Church, dress him up like a Byzantine emperor and tell him you want him to live forever... it's no wonder Bishops get screwed up.")

Orthograph #16 - Let Us Complete Our Prayer to the Lord...

Grandson Meets Moo

First, we make friends with the Grandson.

I hear tell thar's a Turtle in Phoenix that ain't never been rid yet.... until now.

Orthograph #15 - When Convert Priests Meet

Click on image to embiggen.

Old Hippies Live Here

My house is, how do Designers say... Eclectic.  My wife has long learned to not even try to imagine what I'm talking about when I describe what I have in mind.  Ryan noticed the kitchen cabinets in the background of my video of breadmaking with my Grandson.  Here's some more pictures of the kitchen

These are a couple of detail pictures of the cabinet faces.

 
This is the "Pot Rack".  We had one of those plastic lens covered recessed lights in our kitchen ceiling. I took out the plastic lenses, painted the recess red, painted some rebar green and some cattle fencing yellow. I drilled holes in the sides of the recess and put the rebar in then tied the cattle fence to the rebar frame with colored electrician's wire. I put some hooks in the ceiling and suspended "S" hooks with colored wire. Mexican Cantina Pot Rack.

...and the staircase that goes down to my "basement catacomb studio" where all this stuff happens. The carpet was getting really ratty and I was too lazy to tile it and had kitchen paint left over.

Delight in Destruction

There's something in our human nature that even a two year old delights in the destruction of something someone else has built.