Welcome to Day 14 of the Nativity Fast (NC)! (Has it really only been two weeks?) In this morning’s edition of the blogathon, Richard Barrett, executive director of AGES Initiatives, shares with us what he’s learned in recent years about the tradition of Saranteleitourgo. If you have no idea what that means, keep reading–you won’t be disappointed. ~*~ Three…
As I wrote Monday, I’ve been reading Alexander Elchaninov this Nativity and have found his meditations to be a great source of encouragement. In that post, I reflected on Elchaninov’s words about living life as it actually is, in the present, rather than retreating into our constructed notions of past or future ideals. Today I am sharing a…
This morning I am delighted to introduce one of my good friends and music aficionado, Sarah Bereza. She’s going to tell us a bit about how she adopted a morning prayer and singing routine with her toddler… ~*~ Do you wish you prayed every morning? Or most mornings? Or at least, some mornings? For a long time, I didn’t pray…
What are you reading this Nativity? In the past, I have shared the books I frequently return to this season (here and here). This year, I’m also reading through The Diary of a Russian Priest (SVS Press, 1967), a gathering of reflections by Fr. Alexander Elchaninov. This is a perfect book for devotional reading because it consists of brief, poignant observations,…
Now that US Thanksgiving has passed, we are really heading into the Christmas season. Everything around us seems to remind us that Christmas is coming–the dull weather, the cold temps, and the Christmas music blaring from store speakers. For many of us, December is not so much a high point of Christian joy but of spiritual despondency. This…
Hi Time Eternalites! Happy Black Friday to all who observe. Perhaps appropriately, we’re back to the topic of death today as I share another excerpt from Fr. Philip Roger’s thesis entitled “What is death?” We left off yesterday with the point that Christ’s death revealed to humanity the true gravity and tragedy of death. We’ll shift focus slightly and…
Happy Thanksgiving! I can think of no topic more appropriate for this day than a good ol’ conversation about death and dying. Just kidding–I’m not trying to be metaphorical. It’s not a holiday up here in Canada and when I was planning this blogathon, I completely forgot to develop a post about US Thanksgiving. Generally you folks don’t…
Honestly, I’m kind of bracing myself for the annual Christmas wars. Any day now, people will start populating their newsfeeds with the frantic mantra to “Keep Christ in Christmas!” It’s not that I wish to minimize the importance of Christmas or that I’m unconcerned about religious liberty. In this case, though, I wonder if we actually recognize what…
Welcome to the next installment of the Nativity Blogathon on Time Eternal. This morning, I am SO EXCITED to introduce you to my beloved spiritual father, Fr. Steven Kostoff. _Time and Despondency_ readers may recall from its sporadic references to him that Fr. Steven has been lending his pastoral guidance to my despondency almost as soon as I…
This past weekend, I had the delightful privilege of giving the keynote address at the first-ever Ancient Faith Women’s Retreat (you can listen to the talk here and see my slides here; I’m working on producing a transcript of this talk sponsored by my Patreon supporters, so stay tuned for that!) In today’s installment of the Nativity Fast…