As a Protestant, I found this talk very inspiring and (mostly) actionable. I may not be ready for an icon corner, or long liturgical services standing up, but there is so much here that I can and should embrace. Thanks for making it available to all.
An extension of the idea of going outside would be to take on the role of caregiver in creation. Gardening is a good step and so is generally going for walks. From my experience, living in one place allows you to observe animals & birds and develop relationships with them. You learn their calls, where they nest, what they eat. You watch trees thrive or die over the years, creeks alter courses after floods, and see the consequences of your actions when you move rocks or build something. Being enchanted is really about positioning yourself for revelation.
Thank you for bringing up pilgrimage! I had a rough time after getting divorced. I bicycled across Colorado to a monastery and stayed for seven months! If not for Covid and my 9 year old daughter, I would have tried hard to stay indefinitely. Nature, pilgrimage, and the incessant Jesus pray with bear and cougar while camping in the mountains will change your life! Thank you father, I needed a little re-enactment today!
This entire video really resonated with me. Just focusing on Orthodox practices, I think that little "traditions"/expressions of piety and other practices that we can engage in during services (and in our homes) help us understand and interact with space and time as being sacred - so that we have a greater perception/experience of existing in sacred space and sacred time. I do think it's better to know the "why" behind the practices though, so that they don't become little empty rituals or superstition. The "why" should always point us towards God. Father Andrew, it would be really cool if you should ever decide to post some shorts teaching us about some basic Orthodox practices that we can engage in upon entering a church, during services - at various parts of the services, and at home. This might seem nonsensical to people who are not Orthodox, but for me, the little things we do are full of heartfelt experience of the sacred - little things like remembering to cross yourself when you walk across the nave and past the tabernacle, remembering to bow or cross yourself at various points in the service when the priest blesses or censes you, not engaging in behaviors that are overly distracting to others - because the way we behave really does help or hinder how easily others can more palpably experience the sacred in church. If you are blessed to attend a Liturgy in your own language - listen to the words, you are being bathed in scripture, and be aware that it's a privilege. All of us who can attend church in peace and safety are living in a state of privilege. Be attentive the entire time that the chalice is out for communion. Be careful with antidoron as blessed bread - be careful of the crumbs. Be careful with all blessed items - don't put them on the floor, don't let babies play with them like toys. These are things that, imho, it might seem silly or unimportant or even legalistic or mean or "just for show" to some - but I disagree: they are simply an acknowledgement of invisible realities - and as small as they may seem, I think these are the types of little practices that increase your mindfulness to the sacred. It's like learning to cross yourself - at first you might feel odd, or even unworthy - then you might feel mechanical...but eventually, you find that it is heartfelt, and a prayer all on its own. You've got to practice it to experience it. I am not suggesting that everyone does everything to the max, like robots or imitators or be harsh/judgemental to those who do things differently - or to overlook that other aspect of reality that we are all imperfect, make mistakes have accidents, etc. and shouldn't be harsh or scandalizing about it. But I do think these little acts can be very helpful ways for us to participate and engage in the sacred reality around us. I think for many secular Americans, though I am not sure about the younger generations, the closest thing they might relate all of this to would be standing and placing our hands over our hearts for the National Anthem - you feel it viscerally when you see someone refuse to do that. Another example is how there are various practices you are supposed to follow if you want to fly an American flag, or even handling a US flag, how you don't let it touch the ground. These practices actually cultivate a sense of respect within you. I have met people from other countries who are amused by these things - or even disgusted or appalled by them. For my part, I am glad that I was given the opportunity to understand something that they just don't get - I see it as their loss and my gain. Sometimes I think that when people see the church as a refuge, they subconsciously conflate that with their living rooms, the great escape of the American household. But church can be much more than that - each service can be a pilgrimage. I realize the reflexive response from some will be to say that I am being a humbug or a stickler, or a judgemental pharisee - like some kind of parish police - I promise you, I'm not, I'm just sharing my thoughts if they are helpful, if they are not, disregard them. But it is my view that we can actually just increase our mindfulness through these small practices, until eventually the knowing becomes visceral. I did not grow up with a disenchanted worldview - my world was enchanted. So, from my perspective, what you need to do is increase your mindfulness to everything that's already out there - or in the face of worldly distractions, you simply change your focus - block one thing out in order to let more of the other in - and notice how it all points towards God. If this doesn't help you, or merely confuses or distresses you, please disregard my message. I'm not your priest! :-) One last thought - about how Father Andrew says that this is about expanding our attention outside of ourselves - to experience life in a world that is larger than us. He uses nature as one example - appreciating the beauty and complexity of nature surely points us towards God. This makes me think of something that I have noticed lately. I seem to hear a repeated Christian story about how God saved a person from a terrible situation, and that's when they really learned to appreciate God. I honor those stories as true....but I have also sometimes heard an expectation for this to the standard narrative for any genuine Christian - as though God has to rescue you from some terrible circumstance, possibly caused by your own sin, before you can "truly" become a Christian, as though we might expect this from every generation - expect every generation to fall away from Church, or not properly latch on, until some terrible experience that God can rescue them from - in order to make Christ "personal" to them. I once tried to listen to a Christian radio station, but in addition to not liking the music, the lyrics were unbearable. The songs by women sounded like they were dating Jesus, the songs by men sounded like they'd been shot in both legs and were dragging themsleves along the side of a highway with one arm while lifting up the other towards God. So this seems like it's a "thing". This makes me sad because I think there are so many other ways to appreciate God before we fall into some great sin or tragedy - ways that can help us avoid some of these sins and tragedies. I'm only mentioning this here because that narrative, even when true, perhaps reveals this very self-oriented type of spiritual path - when in reality, the entire natural world around you (for starters) points towards God and can drive us towards knowing, appreciating, and worshiping God - not just the ways in which God bails us out of our own humanly flawed or tragic circumstances. I am not denigrating or belittling the latter in any way - but when it is focused on to the exclusion of the former, it sounds like either a symptom or cause of a disenchanted life. I think that an important part of the way my own mother raised me in an "enchanted world" had to do with her innate appreciation of nature, how she felt connected to it, and how she felt it was connected to God - she shared her appreciation, wonder, and certitude about these things frequently - whenever it rained (she grew up in India, where the rain was needed to cool the temperatures down and she was well aware that it was needed for crops), or whenever she saw a beautiful animal. These things were true and pointed towards God regardless of whether her own personal circumstances were good or bad. That all encompassing constancy was important.
Thank you Father! This is great. I think this talk would resonate with our teens and young adults to get them back to the Liturgy, back as valuable and invested members of the Church, and talking with genuine interest among themselves about these topics.
100% accurate. I always struggled with this desire to be creative yet make money in my career. It’s the arts that bring back the re-enchantment in my life. What a journey it is…
Fall of Civilisations podcast is one of the best in the genre. It has the effect of showing the how small we are, how things we take for granted can disappear forever.
Television destroyed the existence of a front porch across the southern United States where people would sit in the evening and greet their neighbors walking by. No porch no walking neighbors.
I miss walking the aisles of used bookstores as they have diminished across America. And now living in Georgia And unable to read the Mkhedruli alphabet I miss it even more. And I really agree with you about travel and discovery and exploring the world by the grace of God I've been able to visit orthodox churches on 4 continents. I feel a little spoiled.
Thank you, Father. You really helped me set my head straight in many ways. I can see how I’ve been sidetracked. The bad enchantment avenues can be very deceptive and alluring. It was especially good to be reminded of a foundation of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. I needed to hear every word you said. Many thanks and blessings 🌼
Like you said, America really has reduced this to just ‘me and God’ or just ‘me.’ But we humans crave a connection to the spiritual world. And when people go searching for it, they often fall into the spiritual new age stuff, which is the wrong way to re-enchant your life. Thank you for this
An excellent message! Thank you Father Andrew. Book recommendations: Arthurian tales, an amazing reinterpretation of them is Stephen R Lawhead’s Pendragon Cycle (except the very last one), Byzantium, the Cele De trilogy. I haven’t read any more of his work, though. Very Christian and I would say very well written.
The reason that used bookstores are so very alluring is because so many bookstores now have canned, similar content, and many libraries have gone after digital content and de-accessed many of their best books--in a used bookstore you can enjoy once again the lost art of browsing, with its wonderful discoveries. Daily browsing in libraries (as an academic librarian's child) helped make me into a writer, and I'm sure it was essential to many another future poet or novelist. On a related topic, I think it's rather a shame that no Orthodox publication has a mission to support bookstores run by Orthodox owners (like the charming Goldberry Books in Concord, NC, helmed by David and Bethany Kern) or to feature Orthodox poets and novelists. It's too bad Orthodox Arts Journal hasn't chosen to cast an even wider net, or that we don't have a journal like First Things that aims to showcase poetry, or that one of the larger Orthodox publishers hasn't gone fishing after contemporary poetry and fiction. p. s. Thank you for Lord of Spirits! It rearranged my mind....
Something else I would point out to anyone else out there who may be a natural homebody (which I totally understand) - going to church, socializing (e.g. coffee hour), and going on pilgrimage opens you up to experiences that will help renchant your world. More experiences are possible when you go out and do these things - the people you meet can tell you their own experiences of miracles, pilgrimages, and the unseen world, you will encounter clergy, monastics, and laypeople with whom you yourself may have experiences of miracles, intervention, God's mercy, etc. - and of course, even on your own, you can have meaningful experiences that tie you closer to God, not just what you intended from attending services or venerating icons and relics, but unexpected experiences and insights that will further your spiritual journey. If you stay focused, flexible, and perceptive (not simply thinking or talking about worldly things - which is entirely possible if you aren't mindful) you will have enough observations and experiences to fill a journal :-) Your pilgrimages can change your experience of attending services back at home, of your relationships with the saints, your experience of reading the Bible - they can deepen and heighten your spiritual journey with and toward God.
To the list of fantasy/magic realism authors I would add John Crowley, particularly 'Little, Big'. Russell Hoban is also a writer whose works I enjoy. The many writings of Lord Dunsany aren't always easy to get hold of, but worth the effort. And as a reminder that not all enchantment is good enchantment, the ghost stories of M R James are essential reading.
What would you say about traditions for children such as Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, the Easter hare, etc.? My children love these traditions and they don't yet know that it's actually me that plays the role of these figures. I''m not quite sure how I am going to tell them the whole story when they are a bit older. I feel like the reason I carry out these traditions is to support their sense of enchantment, but how to put that into an age-appropriate discussion when the time comes...?
Could you elaborate on pilgrimage opportunities in North America? I live in the country, and so I am blessed to be near nature, but the meaningfulness of place is very personalized and so I’m guessing pilgrimage helps direct that.
You can at the very least incorporate some of their apolytikia into your daily prayer rule -- there are plenty of free online sources for this. I also recommend asking your priest to celebrate services for saints you may especially be drawn to.
As an extension of spending more time with nature, I would add staying away from anything that is synthetic including food, medicine, clothing, furniture, etc.. Any thoughts?
I do not feel I am ready for Liturgy if I am not at Orthros. I look forward to kissing the Gospel almost as much as taking Communion. But I feel in my personal prayer that it is a chore, even though I love it when I am praying, it is just hard to get started. I want to look forward to it. It is definitely a struggle for me, I have bad health and do not sleep well, I think that has a lot to do with my feeling like it is a chore. So it becomes part of the sacrifice. What can I do to approach personal prayer with more joy?
I msde my living as a farmer and I always felt it was priestly. And I always felt it important to make a dining room area beautiful because of the connection between the ground beauty truth and life. There should be a Canon law against coming to church looking like a hobo or a beachgoer covered in logos of the fantasy world like. Mickey Mouse and Donald. We are icons not for carrying graffiti.
What do you suggest, Father, for those who are unable to attend Divine services regularly due to disability, distance/transportation issues, caring for medically fragile family members, or other valid reasons? Thank you!
You didn't mention the works of Stephen R. Lawhead. The Winter of the World trilogy (The Anvil of Ice, The Forge in the Forrest and The Hammer of the Sun) relates to Jonathan Pageau and Richard Rollin's Universal History poscasts.
What a great video. Great advice overall, especially for believers. Love this talk of flattening, I speak about this on my channel Navigating Patterns all the time. Love the flattening via us to God through the Bible, with removal of other access mechanisms. Constant removal of attention from the natural world is also related to cognitive overload. Also, I suspect that one key cause is our ability to poetically inform the world means we cannot look up and down properly - then we have to focus on our individual center. Consider that inability to poetically interact with the world means we are unable to understand symbolism (which we talk about in our Language of Creation book club, also on my channel) and then we can only make a flat world. Would love to talk to you about this in detail, my thesis is that there is a different effect for crisis of faith people (more your audience, I suspect) vs. Meaning Crisis folks.
The attraction to and desire for enchantment defines in sociological terms a movement toward cult, as opposed to sect. This is a good strategy for a church which wants to grow. Rodney Stark’s study from 1996, The Rise Of Christianity discusses the appeal of early Christianity in the Roman world of late antiquity, where the cult of Jesus rose at a rate of growth approximating 40% every decade, an exponential rate that resulted in about 56% of the empire’s population being baptized by the time Emperor Constantine’s edict of toleration was promulgated in 312. Stark shows how the Christian religion, as the cult of Jesus appealed to people from all walks of life who wanted more out of life and an experience of the Divine that paganism and Orthodox Judaism could not provide. Understanding this religious thirst is perhaps a key to orienting a church toward growth in the contemporary epoch. The Mormons and Moonies do it effectively, all that is required is a religious vacuum for the cult to fill.
As a Protestant, I found this talk very inspiring and (mostly) actionable. I may not be ready for an icon corner, or long liturgical services standing up, but there is so much here that I can and should embrace. Thanks for making it available to all.
An extension of the idea of going outside would be to take on the role of caregiver in creation. Gardening is a good step and so is generally going for walks. From my experience, living in one place allows you to observe animals & birds and develop relationships with them. You learn their calls, where they nest, what they eat. You watch trees thrive or die over the years, creeks alter courses after floods, and see the consequences of your actions when you move rocks or build something. Being enchanted is really about positioning yourself for revelation.
Thank you for bringing up pilgrimage! I had a rough time after getting divorced. I bicycled across Colorado to a monastery and stayed for seven months! If not for Covid and my 9 year old daughter, I would have tried hard to stay indefinitely. Nature, pilgrimage, and the incessant Jesus pray with bear and cougar while camping in the mountains will change your life! Thank you father, I needed a little re-enactment today!
This entire video really resonated with me. Just focusing on Orthodox practices, I think that little "traditions"/expressions of piety and other practices that we can engage in during services (and in our homes) help us understand and interact with space and time as being sacred - so that we have a greater perception/experience of existing in sacred space and sacred time. I do think it's better to know the "why" behind the practices though, so that they don't become little empty rituals or superstition. The "why" should always point us towards God. Father Andrew, it would be really cool if you should ever decide to post some shorts teaching us about some basic Orthodox practices that we can engage in upon entering a church, during services - at various parts of the services, and at home.
This might seem nonsensical to people who are not Orthodox, but for me, the little things we do are full of heartfelt experience of the sacred - little things like remembering to cross yourself when you walk across the nave and past the tabernacle, remembering to bow or cross yourself at various points in the service when the priest blesses or censes you, not engaging in behaviors that are overly distracting to others - because the way we behave really does help or hinder how easily others can more palpably experience the sacred in church. If you are blessed to attend a Liturgy in your own language - listen to the words, you are being bathed in scripture, and be aware that it's a privilege. All of us who can attend church in peace and safety are living in a state of privilege. Be attentive the entire time that the chalice is out for communion. Be careful with antidoron as blessed bread - be careful of the crumbs. Be careful with all blessed items - don't put them on the floor, don't let babies play with them like toys. These are things that, imho, it might seem silly or unimportant or even legalistic or mean or "just for show" to some - but I disagree: they are simply an acknowledgement of invisible realities - and as small as they may seem, I think these are the types of little practices that increase your mindfulness to the sacred. It's like learning to cross yourself - at first you might feel odd, or even unworthy - then you might feel mechanical...but eventually, you find that it is heartfelt, and a prayer all on its own. You've got to practice it to experience it. I am not suggesting that everyone does everything to the max, like robots or imitators or be harsh/judgemental to those who do things differently - or to overlook that other aspect of reality that we are all imperfect, make mistakes have accidents, etc. and shouldn't be harsh or scandalizing about it. But I do think these little acts can be very helpful ways for us to participate and engage in the sacred reality around us.
I think for many secular Americans, though I am not sure about the younger generations, the closest thing they might relate all of this to would be standing and placing our hands over our hearts for the National Anthem - you feel it viscerally when you see someone refuse to do that. Another example is how there are various practices you are supposed to follow if you want to fly an American flag, or even handling a US flag, how you don't let it touch the ground. These practices actually cultivate a sense of respect within you. I have met people from other countries who are amused by these things - or even disgusted or appalled by them. For my part, I am glad that I was given the opportunity to understand something that they just don't get - I see it as their loss and my gain.
Sometimes I think that when people see the church as a refuge, they subconsciously conflate that with their living rooms, the great escape of the American household. But church can be much more than that - each service can be a pilgrimage. I realize the reflexive response from some will be to say that I am being a humbug or a stickler, or a judgemental pharisee - like some kind of parish police - I promise you, I'm not, I'm just sharing my thoughts if they are helpful, if they are not, disregard them. But it is my view that we can actually just increase our mindfulness through these small practices, until eventually the knowing becomes visceral. I did not grow up with a disenchanted worldview - my world was enchanted. So, from my perspective, what you need to do is increase your mindfulness to everything that's already out there - or in the face of worldly distractions, you simply change your focus - block one thing out in order to let more of the other in - and notice how it all points towards God. If this doesn't help you, or merely confuses or distresses you, please disregard my message. I'm not your priest! :-)
One last thought - about how Father Andrew says that this is about expanding our attention outside of ourselves - to experience life in a world that is larger than us. He uses nature as one example - appreciating the beauty and complexity of nature surely points us towards God. This makes me think of something that I have noticed lately. I seem to hear a repeated Christian story about how God saved a person from a terrible situation, and that's when they really learned to appreciate God. I honor those stories as true....but I have also sometimes heard an expectation for this to the standard narrative for any genuine Christian - as though God has to rescue you from some terrible circumstance, possibly caused by your own sin, before you can "truly" become a Christian, as though we might expect this from every generation - expect every generation to fall away from Church, or not properly latch on, until some terrible experience that God can rescue them from - in order to make Christ "personal" to them. I once tried to listen to a Christian radio station, but in addition to not liking the music, the lyrics were unbearable. The songs by women sounded like they were dating Jesus, the songs by men sounded like they'd been shot in both legs and were dragging themsleves along the side of a highway with one arm while lifting up the other towards God. So this seems like it's a "thing".
This makes me sad because I think there are so many other ways to appreciate God before we fall into some great sin or tragedy - ways that can help us avoid some of these sins and tragedies. I'm only mentioning this here because that narrative, even when true, perhaps reveals this very self-oriented type of spiritual path - when in reality, the entire natural world around you (for starters) points towards God and can drive us towards knowing, appreciating, and worshiping God - not just the ways in which God bails us out of our own humanly flawed or tragic circumstances. I am not denigrating or belittling the latter in any way - but when it is focused on to the exclusion of the former, it sounds like either a symptom or cause of a disenchanted life. I think that an important part of the way my own mother raised me in an "enchanted world" had to do with her innate appreciation of nature, how she felt connected to it, and how she felt it was connected to God - she shared her appreciation, wonder, and certitude about these things frequently - whenever it rained (she grew up in India, where the rain was needed to cool the temperatures down and she was well aware that it was needed for crops), or whenever she saw a beautiful animal. These things were true and pointed towards God regardless of whether her own personal circumstances were good or bad. That all encompassing constancy was important.
Thank you Father! This is great. I think this talk would resonate with our teens and young adults to get them back to the Liturgy, back as valuable and invested members of the Church, and talking with genuine interest among themselves about these topics.
100% accurate. I always struggled with this desire to be creative yet make money in my career. It’s the arts that bring back the re-enchantment in my life. What a journey it is…
The Chronicles of Narnia are wonderful to read.
Fall of Civilisations podcast is one of the best in the genre. It has the effect of showing the how small we are, how things we take for granted can disappear forever.
Television destroyed the existence of a front porch across the southern United States where people would sit in the evening and greet their neighbors walking by. No porch no walking neighbors.
I miss walking the aisles of used bookstores as they have diminished across America. And now living in Georgia And unable to read the Mkhedruli alphabet I miss it even more.
And I really agree with you about travel and discovery and exploring the world by the grace of God I've been able to visit orthodox churches on 4 continents. I feel a little spoiled.
Always a pleasure to learn from you, Father!
Just what I needed this morning, as though you were speaking to me personallyf. Thank you.
Thank you, Father. You really helped me set my head straight in many ways. I can see how I’ve been sidetracked. The bad enchantment avenues can be very deceptive and alluring. It was especially good to be reminded of a foundation of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. I needed to hear every word you said. Many thanks and blessings 🌼
Thanks again Father Andrew.
Like you said, America really has reduced this to just ‘me and God’ or just ‘me.’ But we humans crave a connection to the spiritual world. And when people go searching for it, they often fall into the spiritual new age stuff, which is the wrong way to re-enchant your life. Thank you for this
I looooved these practical tips!
Bravo Fr Andrew!!! Thanks for the encouragement.
An excellent message! Thank you Father Andrew.
Book recommendations: Arthurian tales, an amazing reinterpretation of them is Stephen R Lawhead’s Pendragon Cycle (except the very last one), Byzantium, the Cele De trilogy. I haven’t read any more of his work, though. Very Christian and I would say very well written.
Thank you, Father! God bless!
The reason that used bookstores are so very alluring is because so many bookstores now have canned, similar content, and many libraries have gone after digital content and de-accessed many of their best books--in a used bookstore you can enjoy once again the lost art of browsing, with its wonderful discoveries. Daily browsing in libraries (as an academic librarian's child) helped make me into a writer, and I'm sure it was essential to many another future poet or novelist. On a related topic, I think it's rather a shame that no Orthodox publication has a mission to support bookstores run by Orthodox owners (like the charming Goldberry Books in Concord, NC, helmed by David and Bethany Kern) or to feature Orthodox poets and novelists. It's too bad Orthodox Arts Journal hasn't chosen to cast an even wider net, or that we don't have a journal like First Things that aims to showcase poetry, or that one of the larger Orthodox publishers hasn't gone fishing after contemporary poetry and fiction.
p. s. Thank you for Lord of Spirits! It rearranged my mind....
And Urban planing is more than one think very entanglement with spiritual and philological wellbeing
Highly recommend Paul Kingsnorth's work.
Something else I would point out to anyone else out there who may be a natural homebody (which I totally understand) - going to church, socializing (e.g. coffee hour), and going on pilgrimage opens you up to experiences that will help renchant your world. More experiences are possible when you go out and do these things - the people you meet can tell you their own experiences of miracles, pilgrimages, and the unseen world, you will encounter clergy, monastics, and laypeople with whom you yourself may have experiences of miracles, intervention, God's mercy, etc. - and of course, even on your own, you can have meaningful experiences that tie you closer to God, not just what you intended from attending services or venerating icons and relics, but unexpected experiences and insights that will further your spiritual journey. If you stay focused, flexible, and perceptive (not simply thinking or talking about worldly things - which is entirely possible if you aren't mindful) you will have enough observations and experiences to fill a journal :-) Your pilgrimages can change your experience of attending services back at home, of your relationships with the saints, your experience of reading the Bible - they can deepen and heighten your spiritual journey with and toward God.
To the list of fantasy/magic realism authors I would add John Crowley, particularly 'Little, Big'. Russell Hoban is also a writer whose works I enjoy. The many writings of Lord Dunsany aren't always easy to get hold of, but worth the effort.
And as a reminder that not all enchantment is good enchantment, the ghost stories of M R James are essential reading.
I was about to recommend John Crowley's work when I saw your post. Absolutely top-notch!
Go Pack !
What would you say about traditions for children such as Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, the Easter hare, etc.? My children love these traditions and they don't yet know that it's actually me that plays the role of these figures. I''m not quite sure how I am going to tell them the whole story when they are a bit older. I feel like the reason I carry out these traditions is to support their sense of enchantment, but how to put that into an age-appropriate discussion when the time comes...?
Thank you father! Concise video 😊
Gotta say all these stuff can be done outside the states too 😁
Could you elaborate on pilgrimage opportunities in North America? I live in the country, and so I am blessed to be near nature, but the meaningfulness of place is very personalized and so I’m guessing pilgrimage helps direct that.
Father, how do we celebrate the daily feasts of saints we may know but especially don’t know when there is no service?
You can at the very least incorporate some of their apolytikia into your daily prayer rule -- there are plenty of free online sources for this. I also recommend asking your priest to celebrate services for saints you may especially be drawn to.
As an extension of spending more time with nature, I would add staying away from anything that is synthetic including food, medicine, clothing, furniture, etc.. Any thoughts?
I do not feel I am ready for Liturgy if I am not at Orthros. I look forward to kissing the Gospel almost as much as taking Communion. But I feel in my personal prayer that it is a chore, even though I love it when I am praying, it is just hard to get started. I want to look forward to it. It is definitely a struggle for me, I have bad health and do not sleep well, I think that has a lot to do with my feeling like it is a chore. So it becomes part of the sacrifice. What can I do to approach personal prayer with more joy?
Phantastes by George MacDonald is a wonderful fantasy novel!
I msde my living as a farmer and I always felt it was priestly. And I always felt it important to make a dining room area beautiful because of the connection between the ground beauty truth and life. There should be a Canon law against coming to church looking like a hobo or a beachgoer covered in logos of the fantasy world like. Mickey Mouse and Donald. We are icons not for carrying graffiti.
What do you suggest, Father, for those who are unable to attend Divine services regularly due to disability, distance/transportation issues, caring for medically fragile family members, or other valid reasons? Thank you!
@@PokrovDiaries Have a conversation with the local priest about what would work best in particular cases.
Can you give us a separate pod cast on "Political Idolotry" ?
You didn't mention the works of Stephen R. Lawhead. The Winter of the World trilogy (The Anvil of Ice, The Forge in the Forrest and The Hammer of the Sun) relates to Jonathan Pageau and Richard Rollin's Universal History poscasts.
Your beard is enchanted.
Can you inherit demonic contracts or "curses" on your life when your born from generational sins (ex: from parents, grandparents etc.) ?
Anyone needing to garden to re-enchant their life, I have out of control weeds.
“Mutatis mutandis” confirmed the way to reenchant my life is to speak Latin
Is that a flag of Middle Earth behind you?
12:00 ideolatry
What a great video. Great advice overall, especially for believers.
Love this talk of flattening, I speak about this on my channel Navigating Patterns all the time. Love the flattening via us to God through the Bible, with removal of other access mechanisms. Constant removal of attention from the natural world is also related to cognitive overload. Also, I suspect that one key cause is our ability to poetically inform the world means we cannot look up and down properly - then we have to focus on our individual center. Consider that inability to poetically interact with the world means we are unable to understand symbolism (which we talk about in our Language of Creation book club, also on my channel) and then we can only make a flat world. Would love to talk to you about this in detail, my thesis is that there is a different effect for crisis of faith people (more your audience, I suspect) vs. Meaning Crisis folks.
The attraction to and desire for enchantment defines in sociological terms a movement toward cult, as opposed to sect. This is a good strategy for a church which wants to grow. Rodney Stark’s study from 1996, The Rise Of Christianity discusses the appeal of early Christianity in the Roman world of late antiquity, where the cult of Jesus rose at a rate of growth approximating 40% every decade, an exponential rate that resulted in about 56% of the empire’s population being baptized by the time Emperor Constantine’s edict of toleration was promulgated in 312.
Stark shows how the Christian religion, as the cult of Jesus appealed to people from all walks of life who wanted more out of life and an experience of the Divine that paganism and Orthodox Judaism could not provide. Understanding this religious thirst is perhaps a key to orienting a church toward growth in the contemporary epoch. The Mormons and Moonies do it effectively, all that is required is a religious vacuum for the cult to fill.
Re-enchant? I'm still trying to figure out how to reach-my-aunt....