Charlotte’s Blog
Almsgiving and the Annunciation
When we celebrate the Annunciation, we celebrate the moment when God, the King of heaven and Creator of all, saw Himself as a homeless person and made Himself a beggar. All of heaven was His throne, and the earth His footstool. And yet He asked a human being, a young...
Relics of the True Cross
First published May 21, 2016 In the Orthodox Church, we celebrate the holy and life-giving Cross with a Great Feast in mid-September, and again on the third Sunday of Lent. The Finding of the True Cross The Great Feast commemorates the finding of the True Cross: After...
After St. Gorgonia’s funeral
St. Gorgonia was born in Nazianzus, Cappadocia, in the early part of the fourth century. She was the daughter of St. Gregory the Elder and St. Nonna and the sister of St. Gregory Nazianzen and St. Caesarius. She had at least two sons, along with three daughters, whose...
Catherine’s Pascha: Reviews
When I couldn't find the Pascha book I wanted for my children, I realized that I would have to write it myself. So I wrote Catherine's Pascha. It was the book I wanted my children to have. I love it. I think you'll love it, too. But I feel really weird reviewing my...
Saints of Advent and Christmas
Advent is such an incredibly busy time for so many of us. If you are looking for small ways to increase your prayers and your piety during this holy time of preparation, consider spending just a little bit of time with the saints of Advent and Christmas. You can find...
Review: Dorotheos of Gaza: Discourses and Sayings
If you’re a reader, you know that writers often refer to characters and stories that came before them. Tolkein didn’t have to make up dragons from scratch. He expected that his readers would have read other stories about dragons, especially the dragon from Beowulf,...
Celebrate Pascha with your godchild
When you became a godparent, you assumed responsibility before God to bring the child up in the Orthodox faith. You pray for your godchildren, of course. You light candles for them every time you enter a church. But if you mean to ensure that your godchild loves the...
The Grace of Being There: Stories of saints and single moms
What do the saints have to do with being a single mom? Some of the saints were single moms. I remember being told, years ago, that the Orthodox Church lays out for us two paths to holiness: marriage and monasticism. God, of course, wouldn’t send you to hell if you...
Living in Christ by Mother Raphaela
I’ve never been a book club person. When my kids were young, I didn’t have the time or energy for a book club. There were years that I barely had time to read at all. Those were hard years. My kids are all grown now, and even though a couple of them still live at...
If you don’t know what to do, be kind
I said this on my Facebook page a few years ago, and it seems worth saying again: If you can't think of anything else to do right now, be kind. Find one or two or five organizations that feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, shelter the homeless, minister to...
Halloween hospitality
This morning's Gospel was the story of a poor man named Lazarus and a rich man whose name we don't know. Or, rather, we know his name all too well. It's my name. It's yours. We, all of us, are the rich man. And it's such an interesting story to fall today, on...
A History of Words: Pascha and Easter
Why do Orthodox Christians call Easter Pascha? For all Christians, Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant, the heart of our faith is the Resurrection of Christ. At first, the celebration of the Resurrection was called Pesach, the Hebrew word for Passover, because the...
THE MAGIC OF BOOKS
Share the joy of the Pascha through the magic of a book: Catherine's Pascha.
