Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
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It’s over. Halloween has come and gone. All the ghosts, goblins, zombies, witches and super-heroes are back snug in their dens and trunks for another year. The election is over too. Maybe no more political calls for at least another month. The stores are jammed full of as much as they can get on their shelves for Christmas. Thanksgiving Day is coming Thursday. As I sit here in my home office, writing this article for the Faith page of our local newspaper, I cant help but wonder about how quickly this year has seemed to have passed. I also have...
A little more than 2,000 years ago, a young Jewish man – born in Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth – began the life of an itinerant preacher. He chose 12 men to assist him in this work and many others chose to follow him. He preached repentance for sin and claimed to be the Son of God who had come to call sinners into a renewed unity with their Creator. During his lifetime and in the years following his death, his followers preached his message in the then-known parts of the world, which we now call the Middle East. They went from Jerusalem wher...
A few weeks ago, in the Holy city of Jerusalem, at the Church of Holy Sepulcher, an historic meeting took place. It was hosted by His Beatitude, Theophilos III, Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem. The meeting was a 50th anniversary commemoration of the meeting of His Holiness, Pope Paul VI, Pope of Rome and His All-Holiness, Athenagoras, Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople. At that meeting both the Pope and the Patriarch had discussions that resulted in the mutual lifting of the anathemas that divided their churches since year 1054....
As I sit here in my office, trying to put together a column for this newspaper, I wonder what I should say. A great many things are happening in the world in religious circles. Those Orthodox Christian Churches who use the Julian or Old Style Calendars in two days will be wrapping up their Christmas Season and celebrating the Octave of the Feast of the Epiphany or Theophany. The Feast of the Circumcision which was celebrated on our January 1st commemorates Jesus’ dedication to God as the first born son of Mary. It was also the day when Jesus r...
This is the title of one of the chapters of the Rule for Monks written by St. Basil the Great. St. Basil (+390) is an early Church Father from Cappadoccia. His Rule for Monks inspired St. Benedict of Nursia and others who would write rules for monks in the western church. No one can find adequate words to describe all the wonders or gifts of God to mankind. But He gives us gifts daily in each of our lives. He created us not because He needed us but rather out of Love, because He is Love. He doesn’t ask much of us in return. He gave Moses 10 r...
Today the orthodox churches celebrate the “meeting” or “encounter.” Other churches refer to it as the presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple. Under Jewish law, it was a custom and a requirement that the first born male child should be brought to the temple to be dedicated to God and the requirement under that law that mothers be purified forty days after the birth of a child. The Purification Rite was required at one time in some Christian churches as well. It was used to re-establish the woman into the temple community, as giving...
