Why Do the Three Holy Youths Keep Appearing in Orthodox Services?

· Lynnette Horner 4 Leave a Comment on %s
It happens numerous times throughout the year. At a worship service Iā€™ll be listening and trying to sing along with the text, and suddenly a hymn about the three Holy Youths appearsā€”the friends of Daniel who were thrown into a fiery furnace for refusing to worship King Nebuchadnezzar. The service continues, and we return to our regularly scheduled programming. To this gal in the pews, the insertion feels like an interruptionā€”a lovelyā€¦

Christ Is Risen! Now What?

· Lynnette Horner 4 Leave a Comment on %s
This post was first published almost four years ago, and because of its relevance for the post-Pascha season, I’m revamping it for new readers and also for podcast listeners. Christ is risen! ā€”LH The midnight Pascha service ends, and the joyful but sleepy parishioners break out platters and crockpots for a parish feast featuring meats, cheeses, wines, homemade beers, vodka in OCA churches, and perhaps a bit of traditional dancing to bouzoukiā€¦

The Spiritual Journey Embodied: Prostrations

· Lynnette Horner
Todayā€™s blog post was originally published in March of 2019, but it seems appropriate to revisit the topic of prostrations during Great Lent. ā€” LH The Orthodox culture shock had been manageable so far. About 13 years ago my husband and I finally put down our introductory books on Eastern Christianity and approached the living, parish reality of Orthodoxy during something called the Triodion period before Great Lent. Because we had preparedā€¦

Whatā€™s with All the Standing for the Akathist Hymn?

· Lynnette Horner 1 Leave a Comment on %s
When you think of great military leaders throughout the world, do certain names spring to mind? If you know World War II history, you might think of Earl Mountbatten of Burma or American generals like Douglas MacArthur and Dwight D. Eisenhower. If you go further back in time, you might recall Alexander the Great or Attila the Hun.   But did the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, make your list ofā€¦

Too Many Words: Our Noisy Hearts

· Lynnette Horner 2 Leave a Comment on %s
Good strength to you during this second week of Great Lent. I hope you have consulted with your spiritual father regarding your Lenten journey and the disciplines you are practicing. All together now: Prayer, fasting, almsgiving! Youā€™ve probably noticed that the lectionary includes much longer Bible passages than the rest of the year, and we begin the fast with Old Testament readings in Genesis, Proverbs, and Isaiah. You may also be tryingā€¦

Too Many Words: What We Say

· Lynnette Horner 3 Leave a Comment on %s
Iā€™ve been thinking a lot about words lately. Not specific words, but just the excess quantity of them.   Weā€™re surrounded: in addition to our own talk, weā€™re inundated with the internet, social media, the 24-hour news cycle, and on and on. You know all this. It sometimes feels like weā€™re waging a losing battle against all the noise.Ā There are two different categories of words to consider: those we speak, and thoseā€¦

Why Bother with Church When I Canā€™t Focus?

· Lynnette Horner 14 Leave a Comment on %s
Itā€™s happened more than once. Way more than once. I will be standing in church during the Divine Liturgy, singing the responses, crossing myself, and literally going through the motions, but my mind is a million miles away. Iā€™m filled with worry, with grief, with stress over my to-do list.Ā  My heart might be heavy, or simply numb. Or, I just canā€™t focus. Iā€™m sure youā€™ve been there too. The list ofā€¦

Rethinking Repentance

· Lynnette Horner 3 Leave a Comment on %s
Itā€™s been a long hiatus, about four months, and in that time my daughter Caitlin married a wonderful young man, John, whom we love very much, and I have recovered from all the wedding stress and holiday busyness.   And here we are, past mid-January. This is the traditional time for people to give up on their new yearā€™s resolutions, in a sort of collective domino effect, where the act of surrenderā€¦

Recurring Miracles (& Hiatus)

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I grew up in a miracle-believing town. Tulsa, Oklahoma, was and still is a center of charismatic Christianity, which Merriam-Webster defines succinctly and accurately as ā€œthe religious movement that emphasizes the seeking of direct divine inspiration and extraordinary power (as of healing) given a Christian by the Holy Spirit.ā€ Tulsa is the home of Oral Roberts University, Rhema Bible Institute, and many churches that actually schedule and promote healing services and expectā€¦

More Scriptures I Never Memorized

· Lynnette Horner 6 Leave a Comment on %s
In our last post I discussed the omission of the Church as a topic in Protestant Scripture memory systems. Before I became Orthodox, I never identified the lack of attention given to the Church as a problem. I didnā€™t think about the Church much at all except in personal termsā€”being connected to a local congregation and serving thereā€”and in eschatological termsā€”someday every tribe, tongue, and nation will be worshiping before Godā€™s throneā€¦

The Scriptures I Never Memorized

· Lynnette Horner 7 Leave a Comment on %s
I still remember the circle of padded chairs and the industrial carpetingĀ  where our Wednesday night group met weekly for Scripture memory. I was a high school sophomore at the time, and our small gathering of teens met after Bible study. In our purses or backpacks we carried stacks of little 2×3ā€ cards in protective blue vinyl holdersā€”cards that helped us to ā€œhide the word in our hearts,ā€ as Psalm 119:11 instructedā€¦

Behind the Icon Screen: The Journey of the Bread & the Wine

· Lynnette Horner 8 Leave a Comment on %s
My husband Rob played guitar in a worship band for a small church plant that we had been attending. The little church, which focused on ministry to immigrants, was part of the charismatic Foursquare denomination, and we met on Sunday evenings in the sanctuary of a large, established church that was Evangelical Presbyterian. Soon Rob and I would discover Orthodoxy, but at the time we were all over the religious map inā€¦