Tag: liturgical time

Keeping Time When Socially Isolated

· Nicole M. Roccas
This past Sunday was the first Liturgy in my parish since our bishop (like many others around the world) officially closed church gatherings to the public. We are making do with a “skeletal” liturgy (attended in person only by our priest and cantor) and live-streamed to the rest of the parish (and anyone else who wishes to visit).…

Work as a Path to Prayer in St. Basil’s Longer Rules

· Nicole M. Roccas 2 Leave a Comment on %s
This semester, I’m excited to be co-teaching a course called the Sanctification of Time at the Orthodox School of Theology in Toronto. It revolves around the various liturgical and prayer cycles of the Church and how they are lived in time. One of the first texts we are reading is an excerpt from  St. Basil’s Longer Rules on…

5 Ways the Divine Liturgy Connects Time, History, and Eternity (Infographic)

· Nicole M. Roccas
I recently finished reading the recently updated version of Benjamin D. Williams and Harold B. Anstall’s Orthodox Worship: A Living Continuity with the Synagogue, the Temple, and the Early Church (check it out on the Ancient Faith site here). Part Church history, part explication of the liturgy, the book introduces readers to the legacy of Jewish Temple worship…

Two Orthodox Devotionals I’m Reading in 2019

· Nicole M. Roccas 6 Leave a Comment on %s
How are we holding up, Time Eternalites? It’s kind of an interesting point in the Nativity Fast–the messy middle is slowly starting to give way to something else. The light at the end of the tunnel can be seen–for better, for worse. The “crunch time” of holiday deadlines is becoming real, but so too is the immanence of…

Blessed is the Kingdom: Pre-Conversion Reflections on Faith, Time, and Liturgy

· Nicole M. Roccas
A month and a half ago, I was searching for something on my computer and randomly came across a mysterious file folder labeled “Conversion Notes.” After clicking on the folder, I was inundated by a cache of reflections I DON’T REMEMBER WRITING but which were all evidently penned during the first 6 months I started attending an Orthodox…

40 Days of Divine Liturgy: Marking Time during the Nativity Fast (Guest Post)

· Nicole M. Roccas
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…

What Does it Mean to Be Human? Engaging Orthodoxy Panel Discussion

· Nicole M. Roccas
Hi Time Eternalites! Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving to all! May we be creatures of response and thanksgiving to God for His seen and unseen providence in the moments of our lives… This past weekend, I was blessed to participate in the third annual Engaging Orthodoxy panel discussion held at North Park University in Chicago. This year’s topic was “What does…

Time and Children’s Books (Guest Post)

· Nicole M. Roccas 1 Leave a Comment on %s
Today I’m thrilled to offer a guest post from author Angela Isaacs, author of one of my favorite Orthodox board books,  Goodnight Jesus.  Her most recent book, I Pray Today, has recently been released. Below, she shares more about her new book and the role of time in children’s books. *** When my daughter was little, she didn’t have a…

Spending the Feast of the Elevation of the Cross at a Funeral Home

· Nicole M. Roccas 1 Leave a Comment on %s
First of all, some context: I am currently co-teaching a course with Fr. Geoffrey Ready about death in the Orthodox tradition. One of the things we come up against in this course is the fact that death in our culture is kind of a black box–people go in, they die, a bunch of paperwork (right?), then there’s a…

When Your Lent Was Not Instagram-Worthy

· Nicole M. Roccas 12 Leave a Comment on %s
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…