Blog Posts
On Gregorian calendar Good Friday this year, our blogger and board member Judith was invited to give a talk I gave at a friend’s church about the second of the “Seven Last Words of Jesus. The icon you see here that she refers to is Ethiopian, from the Alamy collection.
Seven last words: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
I’d like to begin this meditation showing an icon from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
Seeing this icon from Ethiopia, we affirm the ancient Christian religion, birthed and shaped in Africa. It gives us time to rest a while with the sacredness and emotions of the Crucifixion.
The first post in this two-part blog considered Joachim and Anna's sacrifice of their daughter to the Temple and how it was women's veneration that turned its commemoration into a feast day. Here is the second part of that meditation.
Wrapping up this week's series on giving, here is the first part of a meditation on Joachim and Anna's sacrifice of their long-desired only child.
Our blogger Judith has written in recent months about both the woman with a flow of blood and Jairus’ daughter. In a recent family conversation, both of them came up again, and the discussion would have evolved differently if I hadn’t had Judith’s thoughts in mind. It certainly went to places we weren't expecting!
Once when I was in a difficult situation, I couldn't think of a saint who was known for help with traveling on planes. So I appealed to a saint who rode a horse instead. It worked.
In 1992, I was flying home on standby due to a domestic emergency. All the seats were taken. I prayed to St. Menas with fervor.
Suddenly, a soldier walked up behind me in the line at the airline counter. I stepped aside, as she seemed important. She said to the flight attendant, "I believe I need to be put on this flight. Here are my credentials."
Our blogger cosiders ways that people have found to deal with spiritual and physical turmoil during times of war or pandemic. The icon above appeared at the Mirozh monastery in the year 1198. When a plague hit the city of Pskov during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, there were reports that the icon streamed myrrh from both eyes that healed many.
I’m part of an upcoming conference that has to do with Evil and Spiritual Combat in a Time of Pandemic, so I’ve been thinking about those things lately. I shuddered when I heard the words “evil” and “combat.” “Evil” struck me as archaic and overdrawn and “combat” as too militant.
I had the honor and pleasure of moderating a panel of Orthodox women in the workforce earlier this month, the first of several planned virtual events sponsored by Axia Women. The panelists were (top) Lijin Hannah Thomas and Christine Kelly and (bottom) Katherine Demacopoulos, and myself.