Tag: Great Lent

Got askesis envy? Advice from a desert monk

· Nicole M. Roccas 1 Leave a Comment on %s
In the Orthodox Church, Great Lent is enriched by the memory of the most celebrated monastics of Christian memory–St. Andrew of Crete (who got his start as a hierarch and hymnographer in a monastery near Jerusalem), St. John of the Ladder, and St. Mary of Egypt, to name a few.   Surrounded by these virtuous souls, it’s easy…

When Your Lent Was Not Instagram-Worthy

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12:30PM on Lazarus Saturday. I’m still in bed, my limbs weighed down by the ache of sleeping in too late. Barely awake, I pull off my eye mask and instinctively reach for my phone to see if I’ve missed any important messages. Just one text from my husband, 57 minutes ago: “Things I never thought I’d say to…

“Desiring the Kingdom” in Lent: A Book Review

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If you’ve listened to the most recent episode of Time Eternal, you’ll know I’ve been reading James K. A. Smith’s Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation during Lent. Here, I’m posting a full review of the book. To summarize, I found this a really worthwhile read. Smith comes from the Reformed tradition, but so many of his insights…

Looking Back on Lent: A Lesson at the Gym

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The last few days of Lent are winding down, and it’s usually at this time I find myself looking back on the last 40-odd days and wondering where it all went. Often, regret tinges my memory of Great Lent–I never feel like I quite “Lented” enough. This year, though, I find myself with a different–I daresay even uplifting–perspective.…

What Writing and Working are Teaching Me This Lent

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O Lord, grant me to greet the coming day in peace. Help me in all things to rely upon Your holy will. In every hour of the day reveal Your will to me. Bless my dealings with all who surround me. Teach me to treat all that comes to me throughout the day with peace of soul, and…

(Re)Reading Rilke on the Way to Lent

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I am praying again, Awesome One. . . . It’s here in all the pieces of my shame that now I find myself again. I yearn to belong to something, to be contained in an all-embracing mind that sees me as a single thing. Rainer Maria Rilke   Last week, I realized something startling: it seems no one…

The Holy Friday of Christmas? What we remember when Christmas falls on a Sunday

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Christmas being on a Sunday this year is kind of messing with my sense of time–I keep thinking it’s holy week. On this last day of the work week (perhaps last working day of 2016), time feels quiet, still and contemplative, like things are winding down. Like we are in the sad but peaceful eye of a storm…