Elissa Bjeletich is the mother of five daughters, and serves as the Sunday school director at Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church in Austin, Texas. Find more information on her website: elissabjeletich.com
Blessed Holy Week! Our parish will be doing the same retreat we did in 2016, the all-ages Great & Holy Friday Retreat on the seven things Christ said on the Cross. As we prepare, we’ve reworked the old retreat, adding more questions to get everyone talking, and adding some wonderful details. If you were planning to do that retreat (as it is posted on our Curriculum page), you might want to download…
Our Psalter Group will begin praying the Psalter tomorrow. We each pray a kathisma per day, and we finish by praying a Lord, have mercy for each person in the group. I always find that it’s a great blessing to me — both praying the Psalms themselves, and feeling the prayers of the group as I work my through the challenges every fast brings. I am thinking about how amazing it is…
I have a new podcast on Ancient Faith Radio, and I’m pretty excited about it. I’ve done a lot of writing and talking about youth ministry, but especially these days, when the world seems dark and people are so divided, I feel like we are all needing the same things we used to say the kids needed. We need connection. We need to feel connected to God and to the Church and…
A friend of mine recently contacted me, wondering where they could buy just the ornament set for the Welcoming the Christ Child book (yes, it’s already that time of year!) and I realized — there are stores which sell just the book, and stores that sell the book and ornaments as a set, but if you already have the book and would like to add the ornaments, none of the online stores…
Here in Texas, we finally have a cold front, and just past the midpoint of October, Fall is finally arriving. What a much-needed relief from the very hot summer we just experienced… but Fall’s late arrival means that I am only now realizing that the Advent Fast begins in just over three weeks (on the New Calendar)! If you’ve been following me for a while, you know how I mark this fast.…
After church this Sunday, I was sitting with one of my favorite college kids, when she realized that her friend had never heard of Be the Bee, or its host, Steven Christoforou. She was flabbergasted. How can an Orthodox teen miss this? As we chatted, she realized that I know Steve. Personally. Her flabbergast increased to crazy proportions. A lot of us Orthodox writers and podcasters know each other, and there’s a…
