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.
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.
We’re delighted to share this year’s edition of Fr. Jonathan Bannon’s wonderful “Journey to Pascha” chart. This chart can be used like a map of Lent, marking off the milestones along the way and providing a suggestion for personal spiritual practice for each week. Last year, the original edition of this chart traveled around the world. It was even translated into other languages. Glory to God! Fr. Jonathan came up with the…
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.
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.
When I was 25 years old, I was working full-time as a Montessori assistant in a Kindergarten classroom. During morning circle time, I would take little notes on our scrap paper about what the head teacher was sharing with the 5-7 year olds. No holds barred, this teacher, a life-long lover of learning, poured into these children rich details about complex ideas and precise nomenclature. I love the Montessori concept of the…
Grace is not a concept or a declaration of innocence; rather, it is the uncreated life of God that flows from Him naturally and eternally. It is a real and concrete participation in the divine life that God has desired to share with us from the beginning.