Having more enemies, I believe, will sharpen my mind to the reality that in this new year I will have many fights that I must fight and also many opportunities to become perfect in the way that God alone has set out—by loving my enemies. How are your New Year’s resolutions going? I rarely make [...]
As you celebrate New Year’s Day remember that for one thousand years the welcoming of a new year was not just a calendar event, but a culturally religious event which linked the renewal of nature with the redemption of the world. Some atheists, Muslims, and Christian fundamentalists like to grumble and gibe that the celebration [...]
Think that Franklin and Jefferson celebrated the victory at Yorktown with a cheap jug of Wal-Mart red? Or signed the Declaration of Independence with a few six-packs (even of Sam Adams beer)? If so, you may be reading the wrong online journal. When celebrating anything important, for dinner-parties or even just drinking with friends, it [...]
The new year always makes us yearn for the “new”—and when we say “new” we mean a fresh start. Yet this desire often blots out what God has already given us. My last name, “Nee,” is quite odd—terribly short and simple and, yet, somehow often mispronounced (it’s just like “knee,” by the way, and should [...]
Stay yet, my friends, a moment stay— Stay till the good old year, So long companion of our way, Shakes hands, and leaves us here. […]
The faith of our students has a Spartan or Roman openness to it, something Magian, that deeply respects the full reality of things. They understand that our deepest analogy to God is submission to the truth, but they know from this education that seeing the truth of God’s will in crucial decisions might require patience [...]
We ought to come up with a better way to bring in the new year than singing John Lennon’s “Imagine,” which asks us to imagine what our country would be like if we could jettison the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bible. Once again this New Year’s Eve, if you were tuned in [...]
As we enter 2022, we must face a “not-normal” world that shows no signs of returning to order. Having the right “improvise-and-dare” attitude will enable us to survive. The beginning of the New Year should be a time of reflection and resolution. It is a turning point to consider where we have erred during the [...]
As New Year’s 1788 approached, two Orthodox Christians visiting from London arrived at Mount Vernon to visit George and Martha Washington. This married couple, who were to spend the next few days with the retired General, were an unusual pair with unique transatlantic connections. The husband, John Paradise, spoke ancient and modern Greek, Latin, Turkish, French, [...]
If we can look at the world as God sees it and declare, as He did, that it is good, we should be cheerful, even in the face of great darkness. There is no doubt that things are looking grim and that they seem to be getting worse. The forces of hatred have been unleashed. [...]
An Internet-free Sunday honors the Sabbath and allows us to leave our daily rat-race for at least one day, to ponder and prepare for the week ahead. It is a perfect occasion to visit and converse with others. Last year, I made a New Year’s resolution that I would make my Sundays Internet-free. It was [...]
Both Pyotr Tchaikovsky (in 1840) and Johannes Brahms (in 1833) were born on May 7. That little coincidence didn’t help endear Brahms or his music to Tchaikovsky, however, as the Russian called the German “a conceited mediocrity” and “a giftless bastard.” But then one day, the two men met at a dinner and had drinks [...]