Our featured person this week was a murderer, adulterer, and robber. Wait a minute. Aren’t we supposed to be writing about saints in the Orthodox Christian Church? I am – keep reading! St. Moses lived in Egypt during the fourth century. While still a slave, he committed murder and his master banished him. He soon […]

Kontakion (Tone 4)Today the universe dances with joy at your glorious memorial,And cries out to you, O Mother of God:“Rejoice, O Virgin, pride of Christians!” About the Icon The Theotokos is depicted upon the funeral bier. Christ, standing behind the Theotokos, is her Son, who has come to receive His Mother’s soul into heaven; He holds […]

The origin of this Feast is explained in the Greek Horologion of 1897: “Because of the illnesses which occur during the month of August, it was customary at Constantinople to carry the Precious Wood of the Cross in procession throughout the city for its sanctification, and to deliver it from sickness.” On the eve (July 31), the […]

Originally published Monday, July 20, 2020 by Axiawomen.org Mother Katherine Weston is our Woman of the Week. She was nominated for her work in racial reconciliation, her leadership of her monastery and of the Fellowship of St. Moses the Black, her iconography and writing, and her work as a psychotherapist. You can see her here […]

“I was my mother’s first heart attack.” So began our interview. Her mother Shirley, nine months pregnant and due at any time had a heart attack. An hour later she went into labor. No one remembers how long it lasted – the focus was on the issue at hand – would she live? This was […]

The contemporary God is much the same as the contemporary diet – we want as much of Him as we want – anytime, anywhere. There is no rhythm to our desire, only the rise and fall of passions. By Archpriest Stephen Freeman  The Orthodox year has a rhythm, much like the tide coming in and […]

The Apostles Fast By Priest Brendan Pelphrey The Fast of the Apostles is probably the least well known, but is among the oldest of Christian traditions. It is mentioned by St. Athanasius in the fourth century, and there are other testimonies to its existence very early in the history of the Church. For faithful Orthodox, […]

The Saints: Our Living Helpers and Friends By Abbot Tryphon According to St. Symeon the New Theologian, vigil lights are placed before the icons of the saints as a way of showing that without the light, who is Christ, the saints are nothing. It is only as the Light of Christ shines upon them that […]

by Mother Macaria I know why the Saint gave “Christ is Risen!” To every soul who came to him. I know the hidden need to give joy Or be flooded with all the world’s grief. In those deep nights of his prayer,              his Gethsemane, Kneeling on the rock hard heart of the world With […]