As the COVID-19 virus reaches most of our cities and towns, it’s important to step back and recognize the impact this ordeal has on our mental and spiritual health. As an educator, presvytera and also someone who is immune compromised due to recently completing chemotherapy for Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, I’m acutely aware of the anxiety, stress and worry a pandemic of this proportion has wrought on many individuals and families. When things feel unsure or when we don’t generally feel safe, ... [Read more]
Miscellaneous
This category contains 23 article(s).
Miscellaneous Articles
Saturday of the Souls – Memorial Day
Every Saturday is a Memorial Day for the Souls. Our Church remembers and commemorates all the “fallen asleep in the Lord.” We pray for all our beloved who have died and await the General resurrection at the Second Glorious Coming of our Lord. All the departed would be resurrected and would then receive their reward for their benevolent deeds on earth. Since the final Judgment has not yet taken place, our beloved ones experience much consolation from our prayers, as a vision of a monk tells us. ... [Read more]
How Do We Charge Our Spiritual Batteries?
How do we Charge our batteries, physical and spiritual? The strength of the batteries is the electric charge that they carry within their cells. In our everyday life, we strive to have the batteries charged so that they can do the job when we try to start the car, for example, or to give us light at night when we need it. We also have biological batteries in ourselves. We charge our bodily batteries with the energy we gather from food we eat and the liquids we consume ... [Read more]
Horizontal and Cyclical – Our Life on Earth
Icon of the Publican and Pharisee Our life on earth is horizontal and cyclical. We are born, grow up, and then we join eternity. The seasons of the year are also cyclical: spring, summer, fall, winter. Our life becomes history and nature bears seeds to prolong its life. Our church calendar with its Feasts is cyclical and it helps us grow spiritually to look forward to our eternal existence. The parable of the Publican and Pharisee opens the season of ... [Read more]
Life After Divorce
Having a life after divorce may seem difficult to imagine during the early stages. You may feel a combination of emotions such as sadness, depression, and anxiety as well as anger and loneliness. Some days may seem better. Other times, life may feel overwhelming. Those feelings are normal when recovering from divorce. Just as a train passes through a tunnel to get to the other side of a mountain, those difficult emotions we experience are part of the healing process and are necessary in ... [Read more]
A Father, Son Walk
I’m often reminded of my priest’s words to me after my son entered my life. “All children come with a PhD,” he said, “a Parental Healing Doctorate. Your son will be your teacher.” I was reminded again of this while waiting with my son for my car to be fixed. I misjudged the time, and we had several hours to wait rather than just one. I decided we’d go for a walk and run some errands to fill the time. Walking hand in hand with my five year old son brought me reflections on my walk with my ... [Read more]
Where Are You?
Good therapy helps a person to get clearer on who they are. Where we are with ourselves, where we are with our relationships, where we are with our personal habits and ultimately where we are with our connection with God. Self reflection is a courageous choice of those who seek a healthy life. Socrates is known for saying, “The unexamined life is not worth living." Viktor Frankl, a famous Austrian psychiatrist and holocaust survivor wrote: “When we are no longer able to ... [Read more]
Bird’s Nests and Healing Hearts
There is a story from the early Christian monastics that tells of a student approaching his spiritual father and saying something like, “Father, I am continually struggling with these wandering thoughts. What should I do?” The father replies, “Can you stop those birds from flying over our heads?” “No, father “Can you stop them from swooping down and building a nest on your ... [Read more]
Lenten Reflection: “Everything To Me”
A few nights ago, my son was falling asleep on my shoulder as I was reading Galatians 4:4-7. In brief, it says that God sent forth His son to redeem us so that we might receive adoption from God. Since we are now His children, God sent forth the Spirit into our hearts to cry ‘Abba Father’. We are not slaves, but heirs of God through Christ. Time and time again, I am struck by the fact that God wants us for his children. It hit me especially that night because my son was so near, and ... [Read more]
Come and See: Christ transfigures darkness into light through Song
There’s an old story that may not be true about a monk that trapped a demon in his cell. The demon begged release, and the monk said that he would release him only if the demon sang the songs of the angels, which the demon had sung prior to the fall. The demon protests but finally gives in. As the demon sings, he is transfigured back into his original angelic being and is saved from hell. That is a very brief rendition of the story, and I have no way of knowing if it is true or not; however, I ... [Read more]
