The Song of Wandering Aengus

I went out to the hazel woods,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;
And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in the stream,
And caught a little silver trout.

When I had laid it on the floor
I went to blow the fire aflame,
But something rustled on the floor,
And some one called me by my name:
It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.

Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands
I will find out where she has gone
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck til time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.

--by William Butler Yeats, 1897

From Here.

A Great Game - Degrees of Wikipedia

Here is a game which just popped into my head a few minutes ago. I am pretty sure someone else has thought of it already, somewhere, but I don't know of it if has been thought up.

Start at one Wikipedia article, and get to another wikipedia article by following only the links in the articles.

It's kinda Like Six Degrees, but modern!

For instance, this is how you get from "Firefox" to "Abraham Lincoln":

• Mozilla Firefox
  
• Firefox (Disambiguation)
  
• Firefox (novel)
  
• Cold War
  
• United States
  
• President of the United States
  
• List of Presidents of the United States
  
• Abraham Lincoln

From "Lego" to "Second Vatican Council":

• Lego
  
• Czech Republic
  
• Roman Catholic
  
• Second Vatican Council

And, here is a hard one: "John Calvin" to "Eggo" (as in "L'eggo my Eggo"):

• John Calvin
  
• Easter
  
• Easter Egg and be credited for that.
  
• egg
  
• meat
  
• food
  
• Category:Lists_of_foods
  
• List of Breakfast Cereals
  
• Kellogg Company
  
• Eggo

By the way, the credit for finding these goes to my brother.

So, there you go. If you want to try one for yourself, try this one: "Sloth" to "Wasabi"

If you like this game, please give a link to this page to your friends. In the unlikely case that I am the first one to think of this game, I would like to know.

If you have any challenges for paths, please feel free to post them in the comments.

Good General Introduction to Orthodoxy Books

• The Orthodox Church - Bp. Timothy Kallistos Ware (can be found online here)
  The Orthodox Way - Bp. Timothy Kallistos Ware
  
• Eastern Orthodox Christianity: A Western Perspective - Daniel Clendenin
  
• The First Two Volumes of Pelikan's Series "The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine"
  
  • Volume 1: The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600) - Jaroslav Pelikan
    
  • Volume 2: The Spirit of Eastern Christendom (600-1700) - Jaroslav Pelikan
• The Rainbow Series - Fr. Thomas Hopko
  

Other books:

• Father Arseny, 1893-1973: Priest, Prisoner, Spiritual Father, translated by Vera Bouteneff
  
• Father Arseny: A Cloud of Witnesses, translated by Vera Bouteneff
  
• The Arena, by Bp. Ignatius Brianchaninov
  
  • I've been told that Fr. Thomas Hopko recommends this book for everyone.
• The Way of the Ascetics, by Tito Colliander (can be found online here.)
  

Also, I would recommend that you check out the many programs at Our Life In Christ. They are a very good resource to learn about Orthodoxy.

For more information, there are a number of online resources for studying or learning about Orthodoxy. A number of Orthodox blogs are listed on the sidebar to the left of this site. Out of these sites, in addition to the ones already referenced above, among my top recommendations are:

• the writings of Fr. Stephen Freeman
  
• the Word from the Desert blog
  

In the end, though, one can only learn about Orthodoxy through these sources. What is more important is first-hand experience of Orthodoxy, and this comes from taking part in the life of the Church. (attending church, fasting, praying, etc.)


EDIT 9-10-07: Added reference to sidebar links; added "Other Books" section
EDIT 6-18-07: Added Link to Online text of Ware's "Orthodox Church"

News and Updates

Well, I'm still around.

I just got back from a weekend retreat to this monastery with some men from my church. It was a good time of examining my life and my relationship to God. I learned a lot about what healthy spirituality can look like, about healthy masculinity, and what serving others in love is like. It was a very helpful experience, and I am considering spending a few weeks there later in the year.

Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. I still need a lot of God's grace.

---

In a few days I have jury duty. We'll see how that goes.

In a few weeks, I'll ship off to be a counselor at a summer camp near Dunlap. I'll be doing that for almost the whole month of July.

---
A few prayer requests:
-Please pray for me, that I would not let what I have learned at this retreat to go to waste.
-Please pray for my time as a camp couselor, that it might be a fruitful and God-glorifying time.
-Please pray for those people who are moving to a new stage of their lives right now. Many are going from Junior High to High School, or from High School to College, or from College to the Working World. And, many of these transitions are difficult. Please pray for all of us.

Also, a special prayer request for a very good friend of mine. She's dealing with a major transition (or a few transitions) in life right now. Pray that God helps her be where she is supposed to be in all aspects in her life.

Lord have mercy on us all.

For Grochol

http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/WritingVietnam/readings/tob_true_war.html