The week begins the fast of the Dormition of the the Theotokos. I confess, my track record historically with keeping the fast, this or any other, has been sketchy at best. It’s less an intentional slight and more a lapse in memory. I just cannot seem to keep my focus long enough to remember to abstain. It’s a habit I hope I’ll grow into over time, that’s the plan anyhow. Rather than…
The following is an excerpt from the beginning of one of my lectures that I’ve also posted on my parish website. It is well-known among Orthodox Christians that the word orthodoxy—often used as a shorthand for our faith—has two parallel meanings. It is composed of two Greek words—orthos and doxa. Together, they form orthodoxia, rendered into English as orthodoxy. The word orthos literally means…
It never fails, really. The moment I step into Divine Liturgy I am flooded with ideas; things to write, things to ponder, things to clean, things to buy. Some are good ideas. Some are so good it’s almost physically painful for me to stop myself grabbing my phone to make a note or scribbling a word, thought, phrase on a napkin in my purse. At some point in my life I have…
This morning I uncovered the real reason I waited so long to bring my children to Liturgy. Certainly, my long-held notion that I was still working it out for myself was spot on. I did want to get a feel of the flow, a lay of the land. That was not the only motivation though. This morning for whatever reason I was thinking about food. Maybe it’s because I’m fasting, sort of.…
If it’s not bad enough that everything is new in this ancient tradition it’s also in a language I don’t know. There’s an app for that. I downloaded it. What I’d really like is a babblefish in my ear. (google: hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, babblefish) I actually downloaded three apps. One I paid for, two were free. Some of the phrases in one of the “free” apps was “I’ve been watching…