Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind by Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou  A Book Review by Catherine Kostyn I must start this review by saying that I wish this book had been in print 20 years ago when I entered the Orthodox Church, it would have likely saved me some struggle, or not, but […]

In response to our recent survey, there were mixed comments about featuring personal stories in the blog. One of our survey responders suggested that we “Highlight/feature the parishioners in our congregation [because] we are such an eclectic bunch!” Another was not as keen. Since the response was mixed, we decided to continue occasional stories about […]

“He who is able to pray correctly, even if he is the poorest of all people, is essentially the richest. And he who does not have proper prayer, is the poorest of all, even if he sits on a royal throne.” – St John Chrysostom Preface In a previous blog we presented an overview of […]

Nothing Will Separate Us: Working Through the Suffering and Death of a Loved One by Frederica de Graaf  (Mother Macaria says this one is excellent) “How do we respond to a patient or loved one facing death with all of our mind and heart, yet without trying to feel pain or emotions that are not […]

St. John Climacus is honored by the Church as a great ascetic and as the author of a remarkable work entitled, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, and therefore he has been named “Climacus,” or “of the Ladder.” There has been very little information preserved about his origin. Tradition tells us that he was born in around […]

Although St. Ephraim is commemorated before the beginning of Great Lent, he is more particularly remembered during this time in connection with the well-known prayer he composed: ” O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, despair, lust of power, and idle talk. But give rather the spirit of […]

His Eminence Metropolitan Maximos of Pittsburgh Fasting, in our days, has become one of the most neglected spiritual values. Because of misunderstandings regarding the nature of fasting, because of confused and reversed priorities in its use, many of today’s Orthodox Christians fast very little, or disregard fasting altogether. Fasting was practiced by the Lord Himself. […]

“The Nativity of Christ. — He has come upon earth, He Who in the beginning created us from earth and breathed His Divine breath into us; He has come Who “giveth to all life, and breath, and all things” (Acts xvii. 25.); He has come, He Who by a single word called all things visible […]

“Hey Man, What’s Up?”, a true story by Mike On Tuesday, December 8th, 2020 I left work and locked the front door at around 8:20 p.m. I noticed that there was a car about halfway across the parking lot and there were a couple of people outside of the car.  That is not too unusual and […]

A book review by Randy Hay Have you ever wondered what would happen if an Orthodox book managed to cross over to the mainstream market…and reveal our strange world in which fact is often stranger than literary fiction?  What if The Gurus, the Young Man, and Elder Paisios or Father Arseny skyrocketed up the New […]