Not long ago I wrote two blog posts on the intercession of the saints. It was important to do this before turning our attention to the premier saint, the Virgin Mary, because if we haven’t yet embraced the concept of One Church, with the dead and the living alive together in Christ and united in Him, then we are still functioning mentally and spiritually in the lower level of a two-storey universe,…
[A few weeks ago we considered the physicality of Orthodoxy and the necessity of in-person services, so I thought this would be a good time to consider more deeply the beauty and symbolism of incense in worship. This post is an expanded version of one I published in September of 2019. Why another retread? Well, for one thing, it fits. But more importantly, in our intermittent series “Stumbling Stones on the Orthodox…
[The original version of this post was published in November 2018. Since I began podcasting in January, I am doing a bit of “recycling” of subjects that new listeners and readers might relate to. — LH] Last Sunday I stood in my church’s fellowship hall with my Styrofoam cup of coffee, rejoicing that Coffee Hour has returned. I was savoring the genuine half-and-half on a non-fasting day and feeling content after another…
For an entire year my Colorado parish had been hosting two Divine Liturgies on Sundays in order to accommodate as many socially distanced parishioners as possible. But the statewide mask mandate was lifted a few weeks ago, and many businesses no longer require masks for those who are fully vaccinated. Social distancing is recommended but not required. We immediately returned to one service: the body of Christ once again united in…
A photo of my late mother holds pride of place in the family room of my childhood home. In the photo, the year is forever 1952, and Second Lieutenant Eleanor Meck, about age 26, smiles at the camera in her Women of the Air Force uniform, a military cap set at a jaunty angle atop her brunette curls. After Mom died in 2013, my husband Rob, whose photos often grace…
I sat on the front pew of the small Orthodox church, a converted Baptist structure with a tall angled roof, a steeple and no dome, gazing at the icon of Jesus above the altar and thinking about the icons of the saints surrounding me. I was contemplating the intercession of the saints, trying to reconcile a lifetime of religious experience with the unchanging teaching of the Church. Were the saints really,…
[An earlier version of this article was posted in August of 2019.] Christ is risen! Truly He is risen! I hope your Paschal season is joyous and that you are celebrating with the consumption of “fleshmeats,” as some of the old service books say. In our house, barbecue is definitely on the menu within 48 hours of the midnight Pascha service. As we reflect on Christ’s victory over death, it’s a good…
I hope you are having a blessed Holy Week! One vital part of this week has meant a lot to me over the last decade since I joined the Orthodox Church. Tucked into Holy Weekend, between Jesus’ Crucifixion on Friday and His glorious Resurrection on Sunday, the Church celebrates Jesus’ triumphant Harrowing of Hades—something that was once proclaimed in Protestant theology but has essentially been dropped. If you speak of the…
A blessed Easter week to all of you in the Western tradition, whether you are Protestant or Roman Catholic. Christ is risen! This year on the Eastern Christian calendar, Pascha (Easter) is an entire four weeks later than in the West. Some years we celebrate on the same day, and other times our calendars diverge by a week or two. I can never remember the reasons for the variations, but no matter…
In my previous blog post, “Cautious about Confession,” I ended with the personal questions that many of us wonder: Can I really be honest with my priest? What will he think of me? What about the habits and sins—the passions—that I just can’t seem to get past? I thought it would be a good idea to go directly to an experienced priest and father confessor to see what he has to say.…
When I was inquiring into the Orthodox Faith, the Sacrament of Confession wasn’t just a stumbling stone for me —it was more like a massive boulder blocking the road to Orthodoxy. My whole life I had been taught the importance of confessing my sins to God and repenting of them—turning away from my wayward path and back to Him. I was even encouraged to review the day before going to bed…
[An earlier version of this post was first published in February of 2020, and I’m reusing the content for the Walking an Ancient Path podcast as well as here. Because preparation for Lent. — LH] Every act of physical hardship requires preparation. Nobody of right mind sets out to run the New York Marathon without serious endurance training. Even for a shorter race, to qualify for one of the early waves in…
