Readers and Writers Archives - Behind the Scenes

The Body Grateful: A Review of Garden in the East: The Spiritual Life of the Body by Angela Doll Carlson (audiobook)

May 30, 2019 · Brandi Willis Schreiber 2

“The body is a garden,” proclaims Angela Doll Carlson in the opening lines of her book, Garden in the East: The Spiritual Life of the Body. It is a declaration that should make any reader pause, particularly anyone who has ever struggled with body image, chronic illness, or immobility. It’s the line that immediately pulled me into the rest of Carlson’s poetic exploration of the relationship she has with her body and…

Using A Child’s Guide to Confession with My Kids: A Review

May 23, 2019 · Nikki Johnson

My kids especially appreciated the self-examination questions, which help with introspection and examination of conscience and focus first on love and our failures to love perfectly, rather than on sin.

A Simple Way to Write an Effective Book Review

May 1, 2019 · Melinda Johnson

When you read a book you value, the best thing you can do to support the author and publisher is to write a review. The interconnected digital conversation that swirls around us daily is the modern equivalent of village talk around the well or in the marketplace. A good word passed from one villager to another will always be the most effective way to share news. A review is that good word!…

Orthodox Worship: Changing the Way I Approach the Divine Liturgy

April 8, 2019April 8, 2019 · Brandi Willis Schreiber 1

As I read, I compared my former attitude, approach, and rational understanding of worship to what the authors explained was really happening on a deeply spiritual level, and I have to say, it transformed the way I participate in services.

Writing an Akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos, Healer of Hardened Hearts

April 5, 2019 · Bev. Cooke 3

I had to write it three or four times, each time healing somewhat from my own hardened, bitter heart and getting closer to what I wanted to say in it.

Writing the Akathist to St. Mary of Egypt

April 3, 2019April 3, 2019 · Bev. Cooke

St. Mary of Egypt is one of the most important saints on the calendar – so important she gets an entire Sunday in Lent dedicated to her, in addition to her feast day of April 1. She’s a major part of the Canon of Repentance that’s said at the beginning and ending of Lent. So why write an Akathist to her, since we already have so much about her? Around the turn…

Orthodox Worship: “Now I Understand Why”

March 11, 2019March 11, 2019 · Athanasia Trudy Ellmore

I must confess that I laughed out loud at the first sentence in the Introduction, “…the first experience of the Divine Liturgy will be a stunning surprise.” What an understatement that was for me at my first Divine Liturgy in 2004!

Choosing to Read The Wilderness Journal

January 16, 2019 · Kristin Somich

I was scared of this book. It arrived, fresh and lovely…and thick. I thought, “Oh, I will never find time for this. I am already so busy with work, with children, with church, with life…” The book continued to sit at my desk, and I continued to avoid it. Then, things got worse.

A Year of Tending the Garden

January 15, 2019January 15, 2019 · Kristina Wenger 1

Had I known, when I received it a year ago, what all Elissa’s message would have entailed, I’d have said yes on the spot, without thinking about it for a few days.

3 Ways to Manage Imposter Syndrome as an Orthodox Writer

October 29, 2018 · Nicole M. Roccas, PhD 6

One morning earlier this week, I woke up to four or five messages from new readers who had some positive things to say about my work at Ancient Faith, specifically my book, Time and Despondency: Regaining the Present in Faith and Life. There was nothing excessive about these notes–they were polite and positive and encouraging, by all accounts just the kind of thing an author likes to receive from time to time.…