winter Archives - Time Eternal

Reading St. Athanasius in Advent

December 4, 2017 · Nicole M. Roccas

Some people get into the “Christmas spirit”–however hokey that phrase is–by decorating, others by buying gifts or making cutout cookies or visiting or knitting. I dabble in all of the above, but what most ushers me into the unique and solemn joy of these short weeks before Christ’s birth is reading–or rather, rereading. Along with all the other…

The Apostles Fast: Bridging the Paschal with the Ordinary

June 19, 2017June 21, 2017 · Nicole M. Roccas 4

Well, it’s finally here. We’re in the thick of the Apostles’ Fast–a fasting period that begins the day after the Sunday of All Saints (the Sunday immediately following Pentecost) and culminates in the feast of Sts Peter and Paul (June 29). The fast goes back at least to the fifth century, and probably a bit earlier (there…

Adventures in Holy Water: What a leaky font taught me about sacramental reality

January 6, 2017 · Nicole M. Roccas 4

Note: This essay was originally written in January 2015, after a particularly memorable Eve of Theophany. For Orthodox families like ours, today is Theophany: the commemoration of Christ’s baptism. Liturgically, it marks the end of Christmas, and the beginning of something new—a turn from Christ’s infancy and towards His life on earth. And so, we’ll take down the lights,…

The love of God and the calendar of shame

January 4, 2017January 4, 2017 · Nicole M. Roccas 15

Happy (belated) New Year from Time Eternal! There are few times of the year that carry more collective hope and shame than the beginning of January. On the one hand, hope. That magnitude of stepping into a fresh, brand-new year summons within us a surge of new hopes and expectations. Like clockwork, we find ourselves inspired to be(come)…

Why we might want to stop blaming 2016

December 29, 2016December 29, 2016 · Nicole M. Roccas 6

I don’t know when it started, maybe all the way back last January when Alan Rickman and David Bowie died. Personally, it didn’t hit my news feeds until sometime this summer, when the election cycle was spinning off into utter absurdity (not that it had been particularly sanity-inducing before that). Whatever the case, at some point it became…

January 1: a new/old new year’s

December 28, 2016December 28, 2016 · Nicole M. Roccas

Well, I was just about to wish you a Merry Christmas and now… New Year’s is just around the corner! For me, it’s always a kind of humbling experience to write the old year for the last time, and write the new year for the first time. It is just this amazing sign of something bigger and beyond…

Christmas Eve with Dietrich Bonhoeffer

December 24, 2016June 21, 2017 · Nicole M. Roccas 2

Well, Saturday is upon us and this evening, we will embark on the Great and Holy Feast of the Nativity of Christ. Call me crazy, but there’s always a bit of grief when you know a fast is ending. Believe me I’m looking forward to Christmas and all that entails (cough Bacon cough). But the fasts are always such a…

Christmas Cookies for a Jehovah’s Witness

December 13, 2016December 13, 2016 · Nicole M. Roccas 5

Addie (not her real name) is my neighbor. She lives down the hall of our apartment building. Our first real conversation happened last year. As I recall, it was Boxing Day (Dec 26). Between church and family gatherings, my husband and I had amassed more yuletide sweets than we could eat in a lifetime. I thought of…

On the Feast of the Presentation: Being a Modern Woman in an Ancient Calendar

November 21, 2016November 21, 2016 · Nicole M. Roccas 1

Several events coincided this morning: 1.) I woke up, for the first time this year, to snow on the ground (cue the coziness). 2.) I also woke up to find that a Time Eternal podcast episode I produced in tandem with my friend, Angela Doll Carlson, had been posted. It’s entitled “Being a Modern Woman in an Ancient Calendar.”…