“Earthly Life Ceases”
I came across the phrase “earthly life ceases” at the beginning of an explanation of Holy Week written by the…
Reflections in Christ
Palm Sunday: Where are You in the Crowd?
Come away with me; let us leave our world and travel back together to the first Palm Sunday in the first…
Keeping Our Souls
Iceland has been in the news lately. For one thing, it has been named by the World Happiness Report as the…
Through the Cross… Joy!
“For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comprehension” [2 Corinthians 4:17]. ...
It is Time for the Lord to Act: The Significance of Assembling
According to the official OCA service book, the Divine Liturgy begins when the deacon “bows his head to the priest and says, ‘It…
Great Lent and Fasting in the Age of “the Screen”
“Enlighten me through prayers and fasting” [Forgiveness Vespers]. Within the context of Great Lent and our…
The Language of Unworthiness
In his first epistle to Timothy, Paul wrote, “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus…
“Now is the Acceptable Time”—Lent as “Beginning”
A “good beginning” to Great Lent can go a long way toward a “good ending.” Today, on “Pure Monday,” it certainly may seem premature…
Bright Sadness
The American poet and Orthodox convert, Scott Cairns, writes in a chapter of God For Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Lent and Easter...
A Lenten Reading List
I thought to compile a list of more-or-less Orthodox “lenten classics” upon which you may want to draw as Great Lent…