Fr. Joseph Huneycutt: The Priesthood as Penance

 Over the years I’ve come to have profound respect for clergy who can keep their mouth shut and carry on serving God and Man with love and joy. Believe me, it would be much easier to become resentful, bitter, and mean. Even worse, the priest could become an old gossip, letting junk just fall out of his mouth with ease. The temptations are always there. 

One priest told me told me of his inaugural conversation with his bishop wherein he expressed interest in ordination. The crusty old man looked him straight in the eye and said, “Boy, do you pray?” 

“Why yes, I pray every day . . .” 

“Pray to God you don’t have this curse!” said the bishop. 

I think the old man had let the vocation get the better of him. It happens. Or, as one priest said: “I wanted to be a priest out of arrogance; God allows me to be one as a penance.”

+Fr. Joseph Huneycutt, from One Flew Over the Onion Dome, Chapter 17 Concerning the Clergy

Fr. Joseph Huneycutt: Our changing yet unchanging Church

 An old and successful parishioner once told me: “One of the keys to successful living is being able to adapt to the changes." Change is inevitable. Yet just as “Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Heb 13:8)  - so shall the Church be. A rudimentary study of Byzantine history reveals many changes wrought by fallible humans throughout that era in the Church. Yet the same Church now being found by American converts, reverts, and retreads - founded by Christ upon the Apostles - is the same Ark of Salvation that found our Byzantine brethren Within her embrace many years ago. It is the same faith being experienced anew in Russia. It will endure throughout all time. For now, its witness is a fledgling mission in America. Should the Lord tarry, there will inevitably develop an “American expression" of the true faith in a land populated With immigrants from many nations. In the meantime we may all look a

bit crazy, flying over, while praying Within, that onion dome. Glory to God for all things!

+Fr. Joseph Huneycutt, from One Flew over the Onion Dome American Orthodox Converts, Reverts & Retreads