A friend told me about Fr. Apostolos Hill, a Greek Orthodox priest in Denver who has recorded three CDs of Byzantine chant. Fr. Hill’s clear voice rings out with little adornment and solemn passion, and in his American vibratto I think I can hear a hint of evangelical background (but I could be wrong about that). As I was listening to his recording of the 17th Kathisma from the Daily Office, I heard the stray line “For I have become as a bottle in the frost.”
Elsewhere those words from Psalm 119 are translated “like a wineskin on the smoke,” but that does not have the effect. “As a bottle in the frost.” One can picture the cold glass, constricted, the little cracks in the surface ready to multiply at the slightest touch and shatter the bottle. A striking image for a weary soul waiting on the Lord’s relief.
While I have you, can I ask you something? I’ll be quick.
Twenty-five thousand people subscribe to First Things. Why can’t that be fifty thousand? Three million people read First Things online like you are right now. Why can’t that be four million?
Let’s stop saying “can’t.” Because it can. And your year-end gift of just $50, $100, or even $250 or more will make it possible.
How much would you give to introduce just one new person to First Things? What about ten people, or even a hundred? That’s the power of your charitable support.
Make your year-end gift now using this secure link or the button below.