Wake Up! - A Good Read

My wife has been waiting with bated breath for me to post something new to my blog. It seems the stare of Dieter Philippi from the previous post has been boring holes into her blog's sidebar for nearly two months, and the time has come to see something different ... please.

I've had little time to pay attention to my blog (just when it was getting interesting, too). However, I read this and thought it was a good thing - even if you're not Orthodox.

It is entitled "On Becoming and Remaining Orthodox." Here is an excerpt:

Some people can be so full of themselves! Some people can be very self-important and very puffed-up. They will first tell you - if you let them - their detailed life-stories and then all the latest gossip about Priest X, Bishop Y, and then Jurisdiction Z. Even though they do not know the ABC of the children's Faith. The thing is though, that Christianity, and that is what we are about, is about none of these things. If you don't have contact with reality, then you will never learn about real things. Church life is not about any of that nonsense. There is nothing so boring as discussing the personalities and activities of various clergymen or laymen, except of course sin, because sin is always boring, always the same thing. Ask anyone who hears confessions.

Church life is about: Who will make the coffee? Who will do the washing-up? Who will do the flowers? Who will cut the grass? Who will bake the prosphora? Who will clean the toilets? St Nectarios performed the latter task when teaching in Athens, even though he bore the mighty title of 'Metropolitan of Pentapolis'. So why should we object? It is after all one of the first obediences given to novices in monasteries.

Of course, these are not the main tasks in Church life. Let us go on: ...