Bethsaida Praise

2009 December 31
tags: , ,
by Pete

inspired by Mark 8:22-26, the Blind Man, and the Explanation of the Blessed Theophylact

Go not back to thy village

but straight home instead

it is thy heavenly dwelling

and the Word hath commanded thou thither


Detour not, old soldier

for a world of liquid fire awaits thee

and thou shalt surely face

the wrath of the villagers there


Thy home becomes thy innermost room

a cell within His glory

a particle of His unoriginate light

a place of undistraction


flee there

The Kursk-Root Icon comes to my church — Akathist

2009 December 20
by Pete

Official website of the Eastern American & New York Diocese — ROCOR — www.eadiocese.org

The Kursk-Root Icon comes to my church — Moleben

2009 December 20
by Pete

Official website of the Eastern American & New York Diocese — ROCOR — www.eadiocese.org

Miracles abound

Then, now, there & far abroad

Our Lord Jesus Christ

and His glorious saints

through the prayers of Theotokos

A window undo God

Praise of No Marbles

2009 November 20


On the way to market

Young Jung lost all his marbles.

The little ones laughed him to shame

while the Big Boys forgot his name.

Then came the long day after

and everyone stood in one line.

YoungJung got everything & then some,

while the hucksters got less than none.

Praise of God-Stardom

2009 November 14
by Pete

The star of God

knoweth not the rush of applause

the flash of small suns,

the purr of pampered angels –

but the splash of a small stone

lunging into

an infinite sea

Weapons Praise

2009 October 31
tags: , , ,
by Pete

And now shall I praise His name

with this most simple word:


Lord Jesus rode into town

with God’s most awesome sword –

Neither a knife of slashing, nor

a weapon for a war

Nor a horse for trampling down

some misbegotten Moor


But a song of love most divine,

a Cherubic Pastoral:

Indeed His Son amongst us is

God’s best weapon of them all.

Martyrs’ Praise

2009 October 23

He powered them with Comfort

that they could bear

the awful things

the devil orchestrates.

The jeers of men, the fangs,

the claws in cage,

the human rage;

the demon potentates

The mobs had racked up all their

limbs for the stretch –

the grinding wheel

pulled by tormentors’ zeal.

They burned them and they boiled them

They made Saint Stew

they shut their eyes

forever with godless glue

But Satan could not prevail

by breaking backs

(for body is myth

but faith the stuff of facts).

And in the final inning

the devil lost the match;

for each time a martyr dies

his soul doth Jesus catch!

The Three Hermits

2009 September 14
by Pete

Three hermits dwelt atop

a brooding forest glen

For sixty years they dwelt there,

praying without end

Nary a soul could seek them,

and fewer even cared

For men had lost their eyeballs

from thorns in sins ensnared.

More on Orthodox Salvation

2009 September 8
by Pete

I am not writing this myself, instead I defer to this excellent video post somewhere on the Web. The text is written and read by a woman named Molly Sabourin a freelance writer and Orthodox Christian.

Pure in Heart Praise

2009 August 18
by Pete

As I venture into later years
the words of God come clearer
Find joy and peace in gospel truth
And don’t daydream in a mirror.

But the Master said that we’d be blessed
if our thinking became cleaner
Blessed be the pure in heart
when the world outside grows meaner.

Seeing God is the next, best thing
to meeting Him in heaven.
But seeing Him in others first was
perhaps God’s intended lesson.