Barnabas Powell's Blog, page 25
December 13, 2022
The Hard Work of Being “Fair”
“Well, to be fair…” I cringed when I heard these words because I knew what followed was an attempt by the speaker to shut down the discussion. After all, everyone wants “to be fair,” don’t we? Ah, but what is “fair?” Of course, we want to be “fair.” It seems to be an ingrained and foundational “sense” we humans all share. This idea that there should be equality of treatment no matter…
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December 12, 2022
Sunday Homily – You Are Invited to Commune
Where does our desire, across all cultures, to prepare food and celebrate with family and friends? Why does every culture have focused etiquette about formal dinners and responding to invitations? We are hard-wired to be in community. And this flows from the fact that God created us and now invites us to return to serious and joyful communion with God. What will your answer be?
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Jesus Speaks the Plain Truth
Today is the Feastday of St. Spyridon, the Wonderworker, and I always love the common scripture passages the Church gives us during these commemorations of the heroes of our Faith. Mainly because I get to learn about the saint remembered and I get to revisit familiar scriptures in light of the life of the saint! Because we must ALWAYS REMEMBER that the wisdom of scripture is always about how it forms and…
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December 9, 2022
Rejoice O Barren Woman…
It’s always so fascinating to me to see the wisdom of the Orthodox Church year. Here we are approaching the birth of the Messiah, the God-Man, the Savior of the World, and today we celebrate the miraculous Conception of the Theotokos by St. Anna, her mother. Of course, you know this story. It is a familiar one to anyone who has read the Old Testament: An elderly couple has never been blessed…
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December 8, 2022
Leaders, Be Serious!
Bookstores all across the country have hundreds of books in the “Business” sections talking about how to be a good leader. They have lists and lists of characteristics and behaviors that a “good” leader has or needs. And they sell well because most of us who are leaders really do want to be successful in being leaders. And, to be sure, many of these books offer helpful advice. But what about a…
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December 7, 2022
Created To Be A Copycat! Sunday Homily
The hunger hardwired into each of us for community or intimacy AND the opposite fear of intimacy are at the root of our internal and even external conflicts in our lives. Until we understand how to tame our desires and our natural tendency to mimic others is solved in our following Christ, we will continue to be in turmoil. The evil one wants to “disintegrate” our lives and our societies. The Lord…
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Wage the Good Warfare
Let’s face it, we live in a society that has exalted radical uncertainty to a virtue. Where the “really sophisticated” people pride themselves on being able to “see all sides” of an issue without ever coming down clearly on a position. Modern thinkers fear being labeled “fundamentalists” or “close-minded” and fear this so strongly that they fundamentally refuse to hold a position on anything except that they refuse to hold a position…
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December 6, 2022
St Nicholas, the Servant-Leader
“I’m their leader! Which way did they go?” I have a cap with two bills on it, one in the front and one in the back with that slogan on it. It’s funny because it’s so often true. Leadership is always such a rewarding and challenging calling. In fact, if you could get most leaders to share their deepest and most honest feelings, you would find that most leaders feel quite inadequate…
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December 5, 2022
All Things
I remember the look on his face when I told him that Orthodoxy is “maximalist, not minimalistic.” And then I reminded him of years of government promotion of the “minimum daily requirements” of this or that vitamin to be healthy. He slowly began to understand what I meant when I added “We don’t treat spiritual illness with an aspirin. We use the full dose of timeless wisdom.” The light turned on in…
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December 2, 2022
The Flattery of Imitation
One of the Substacks I read regularly is Common Sense, and recently they had an article by Luke Burgis entitled “Why Everyone Wants the Same Thing.” It was absolutely brilliant. Sadly, it’s behind a paywall but the gist of the article is “Human beings are expert imitators (mimetic comes from a Greek word meaning “to imitate”). Science has shown that we are the most imitative creatures on the planet, and we imitate…
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