March 19, 2023
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...
April 18, 2017
If you’re not Orthodox, it can be hard to understand what your Orthodox Christian friends have been doing for the last week, or why they’re so bleary-eyed today. Let me see if I can explain it. To imagine Pascha, think of what it would be like if you combined the...
March 25, 2017
It’s the Annunciation! Today, we celebrate the moment that time, space, all that is and was and will be, turned inside out, and the uncontainable God was contained in a virgin’s womb. It was His choice, of course, to enter into space and time, to take on flesh, to...
March 17, 2017
Today is the feast day of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. It’s a feast that nearly always falls during Lent. We have these feasting-fasting days from time to time. And special traditions grow up around them, to honor both the feast and the fast. We eat fish...
February 15, 2017
We had our house blessed on Saturday. For most Orthodox Christians, the house blessing is an annual event. Some time between Theophany and the beginning of Lent, your priest comes to your home. There are prayers at your icon corner. Then the family and the priest...