Blog Posts
In this piece, we have a rare example of an Orthodox writer giving us a look at how the events of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection might have been felt by someone who had been healed by Him:
When she met Him, she had not seen light since a year after she inherited her estate in Magdala, when her grief had been assuaged at long last by its roses and citrons and dill and olives and the little goats that leapt when she walked by. Then came the jealous rivals and the curses. Then the demons. Her bright world had disappeared. She saw as if through foul water. Her old nurse bound her in linen cloths and walked her all the way to Jerusalem to see the priests and offer her goats for her healing.
We want to tell you about some changes to our Board.
Dr. Gayle Woloschak has come to the end of her three-year term as our Senior Advisor. We have benefited immeasurably from her wisdom and the depth of her expertise in starting and running non-profits, especially in the Orthodox sphere. Gayle, you have been a true blessing and we are so glad you will be staying with us as advisor emerita!
This fall, in the middle of October, our family went to Chicago to see the Broadway production of the musical Wicked. The tickets were purchased as a gift for our daughter’s sixteenth birthday. She is crazy about musicals, and was anticipating this event with the highest expectations. I, on the other hand, went along without any specific hopes for the show.
For years I’ve thought that Catherine of Alexandria was an intriguing figure. Perhaps it was the painting I once saw of her in beautiful medieval garb next to the terrifying spiked wheel. More recently, I began to think about what her life might tell me about making choices.
Slowing down has long been an essential part of my spiritual practice–and yet it’s the most challenging. Why? I am an extravert who loves connecting with people. Plus I have an active body/mind which gets revved up by our fast-paced, razzle-dazzle society, which seems intent on keeping me distracted. These formidable conditions make living a quiet, calm, contemplative spiritual life so very difficult. I am often left exhausted and overwhelmed by work, meet-ups, coffees, and events, and tired of trying to cope. A number of years ago, I finally decided that if I am to get closer to God, I would need to make a radical change.
If you think back to the first year of the pandemic and lockdown, you might remember that people kept saying that we live in crazy times. And in many ways, it continues to feel we’re living in a new normal in our schools, our workplaces, our socializing, and our common worship spaces. Does that mean we are still experiencing craziness? What can we think about that? We turned to Mother Christophora, longtime abbess at Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, for her view, excerpted from a longer post-paschal meditation:
If people see our time… as a crazy time, what do they actually mean?
…Indeed, we have much to grieve,
Much to regret,
St. Macrina was revered in her own time for many reasons. She taught her brothers the virtues and wisdom that helped them, in their turn to become saints, she talked her mother into freeing her slaves and servants allowing them to enter the monastery as her sisters, and she worked hard always to be a source of spiritual support to everyone around her. She trusted in Christ so deeply that this was her final prayer: